Magnetic pull

Trapeze artiste

In the BJP, the thumb rule is that you are closely associated with either Atal Behari Vajpayee or Lal Krishna Advani, but you can’t have one foot in both camps. Pramod Mahajan switched from Advani to Vajpayee, and the former has never quite forgiven him.

Sudheendra Kulkarni seems to be the one exception who has changed sides twice without any noticeable bad vibes. Originally inducted into the party by Advani, the former Communist moved to the PMO in 1998 and became Vajpayee’s favourite speechwriter. With Vajpayee now out of office, Kulkarni is back in the BJP and designated as secretary to party president M Venkaiah Naidu, which puts him squarely in the Advani camp. Kulkarni’s strength is that he is a workaholic, efficient and does not speak too much.

Meanwhile, Ashok Tandon, the media in-charge in the PMO in the last government, has been accommodated by the Madhya Pradesh government.

Kyon kiya, kyon kiya

Congress party spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi’s recent claim to fame is that he has written a long poem outlining why the loaves and fishes of office did not tempt Sonia Gandhi. Titled Kyon kiya, kyon kiya, the dialogue in verse gives artistic expression to Sonia’s decision to renounce prime ministership. (Sample stanza: ‘Why did you do it? Why did you do it? I wanted to be free as a kite left loose. Wafted by the winds of destiny and not pulled and pushed in different directions by cruel hands.’.)

At a lunch hosted by Jaipal Reddy for the media, Ambika Sonia requested Chaturvedi to read his poem aloud, which was greeted with applause by the Congressmen present but heard in stony silence by the media. Wanting to ensure that her own gesture in renouncing a ministry did not go unappreciated, Soni pointedly remarked: ‘‘Actually if you look at it, these lines could apply to me as well. Can I have the copyright?’’

In wrong company

When Maneka Gandhi was about to join the BJP, she was given to understand that after the election, she would be appointed to a senior position in the party. But when the party’s new list of office-bearers was announced, Maneka’s name did not figure. A senior BJP leader protested against her inclusion as general secretary on the grounds that she was seen in hoardings advertising Rajat Sharma’s India TV channel alongside the NDA’s bete noire Tarun Tejpal. Maneka was not given a chance to explain that she has met Tejpal only once and restricts herself to programmes on environment for the channel.

Strangely, no one from the Congress camp seems to have questioned the company Tejpal was keeping.

Bachchas’ reality bites

The inaugural session of the three-day workshop for first-time Congress MPs drew a big response. It was not only the newcomers who showed up but also many veterans such as Tourism Minister Renuka Choudhary and AICC coordinator Santosh Bagrodia. Attendance dropped noticeably after the first session. Many had come simply to show their faces to party supremo Sonia Gandhi.

The bachcha brigade—including Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Kuldip Bishnoi and Madhu Goud Yaskhi—were the star pupils of the interactive sessions, earnestly posing questions to party veterans, unaware that some of their elders took the orientation exercise a trifle more cynically. The difference between practice and reality was apparent during the actual session in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, when the newcomers found during zero hour that the Opposition MPs were flouting every norm of parliamentary etiquette that they had been taught that morning.

FM’s new avatar

Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s behaviour towards the media has changed dramatically. During the UF government, he was often nicknamed ‘Mr Arrogant’ for being inaccessible and deigning to meet only a few top editors. Now the Finance Minister is keen to be perceived as ‘Mr Congeniality’ and has become far more friendly and approachable. He greets correspondents with a warm smile and at times even waves to familiar faces in the press gallery from his seat in the Lok Sabha.

Apart from a pre-Budget briefing for newspersons, which was a departure from tradition, the Finance Minister held a post-Budget supper where he stayed on for three hours, mingling with the guests and exchanging pleasantries with all and sundry. To reinforce his informality, he shed his usual dress of a white veshti and shirt for a blue-and-white checked shirt and blue trousers. Chidambaram joked: ‘‘Whatever I say when I wear trousers is off the record.’’