Meanwhile

When he was a fiery trade unionist, this inverted snobbery passed off as socialist zeal. Today, as Cabinet Minister, it seems plain rude. Maybe Fernandes needs to step out of his time machine.

All dressed up

At the other end of the scale is Information and Broadcasting Minister, PramodMahajan, who appears to be bidding for the best-dressed minister label. Almost overnight, after being anointed official spokesman for the Vajpayee Government, Mahajan produced an entirely new wardrobe of `bandgala’ suits in shades ranging from electric blue to sobre charcoal grey.

Eyebrows went up in BJP circles, of course, but the I & B Minister is very camera conscious. Wardrobe done, he now wants to overhaul the conference hall in the Press Information Bureau where he holds his briefings. A savvy spokesman needs the right setting, according to him. The million-dollar question is: will all this help to refurbish the sagging image of the Government?

Home alone

The ding-dong battle between the Left Front government in West Bengal and the Centre over the former’s Republic Day tableau gave the Joint Secretary concerned in the Ministry of Defence many a sleepless night. Being a West Bengal cadre officer due to go back to his parent state next month, the JS was in a real tizzy over the Marxists’determination to blast the Vajpayee Government’s nuclear tests.

First, he battled to get the mushroom cloud displays okayed. When he failed, he tried to get a critical reference included in the parade commentary. Even that didn’t succeed because the text had already been prepared and printed. Finally, the desperate officer resorted to writing out a line by hand in the Hindi version to please his future bosses. Of course, that sentence was never read out but at least the officer managed to have his tireless efforts placed on record for posterity.

Power party

Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh’s eclectic guest list for his birthday bash was the talk of political circles last week. From film stars to political leaders of every hue to top bureaucrats, everyone Singh perceives to be a mover and shaker was invited except from the saffron brigade. The only exception was Pramod Mahajan who was the solitary representative of the present rulers.

A curious omission was SP MP Beni Prasad Verma,once considered Mulayam Singh Yadav’s righthand man. After Singh displaced Verma, the two were daggers drawn but recently, they seemed to have buried the hatchet. Obviously, the truce has been broken.

Return of class

The kitchen at Hyderabad House is finally looking up again. After years of eating tasteless, uninspiring meals, regulars at recent state banquets were pleasantly surprised to find a remarkable improvement in the food. And the change was not just in the taste but in the menu as well. The Prime Minister’s lunch for the visiting Nepal King, for instance, was an interesting mix of Indian and continental cuisine. And what’s more, it was all beautifully presented, somewhat in the style of the old brown sahib days. The tiny gulab jamuns for desert, for instance, were served in the shape of a tree.

The man behind this is the Chief of Protocol in the Ministry of External Affairs who takes care of all foreign VVIP visits. He seems to have made it his mission to take Hyderabad House in hand andgive it back the class and sophistication it had during Rajiv Gandhi’s era. One of the first things he did was to get the priceless carpet in the main banquet hall on the first floor, said to be the longest carpet in Asia, washed and cleaned.

Flying ministers

The Prime Minister is having a hard time getting his ministers to cut down on their foreign jaunts. The requests keep coming, despite his verbal and written reminders to economise. The most recent plea was Petroleum Minister Vazhappadi Ramamurthi’s who wanted to use the Government’s decision to invite foreign investors for oil exploration to travel around Europe and the United States for 15 days.

Vajpayee’s answer was predictably in the negative. But Ramamurthi remained unfazed. He met the PM personally to beg for permission to go to London at least as he had unfinished private business in the British capital. Ultimately, Vajpayee relented and the tax payer subsidised yet another official trip for personal work.