Meanwhile 8212; The Sonia blitzkrieg

There is a catch, however. The condition for the interviews is that the questions will be sent in advance to 10, Janpath for clearance. 8220;After all, even Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee asks for written questions before each interview,8221; justified one of her aides.

These will be Sonia8217;s first set of interviews. The last time she spoke at length to a media publication was justafter Rajiv became Congress general secretary in 1982. She was interviewed by the Mrs Dharam Bharati for a Hindi women8217;s magazine.

Corporate visit

Even before her campaign to woo the middle classes has begun, Sonia has notched up several points on her scorecard. Her big coup recently was a call on June 15 by a CII delegation led by its saffron-friendly president, Rahul Bajaj.

Neither side is saying who sought the meeting but the fact that it took place is enough to set the political grapevine buzzing. Accompanying Bajaj were other noted industrialists, Arun Bharat Ram, Subodh Bhargava, Jamshed Godrej and CII8217;s secretary general Tarun Das. Congress circles are understandably over the moon for in their book, the mood of Indian industry is an indicator of which way the wind is blowing. Having been shunned by business houses for several years now, they feel a call by the CII, with its very apparent BJP leanings, means they are back in the reckoning.

Mum8217;s the word

No other service protectsits own better than the IAS as an unpleasant incident in Udyog Bhavan last week proved. It happened when a well-connected deputy secretary, the son-in-law of a former Chief Minister of Bihar, in the Industry Ministry returned after lunch in an inebriated state. Not surprisingly, he couldn8217;t find his way to his room on the first floor and ended up in the Commerce Ministry on the second floor.

When he opened the door to what he thought was his room and found a bunch of junior officials sitting there, he lost his cool. Picking up a chair, he started hitting the officers and shouting filthy abuses at them. The women screamed for help but the men hit back. And soon the officer was on the floor, writhing in pain and babbling incoherently.

His shocked seniors revived him with water and quickly sent him home but the aftershocks of the unprecedented incident continued to rock the corridors of Udyog Bhavan. Although his IAS colleagues tried to hush it up, word ultimately reached the ears of the two ministers,Sikander Bakht and Ramakrishna Hegde. But even they seem to be susceptible to IAS pressure. No written report has gone to either minister and they appear to have been persuaded to quietly shift out the concerned officer. Meanwhile, the junior officials have been left nursing their bruises.

Palace coup

Now that his mother, Vijayaraje Scindia, has formally retired from politics, Madhavrao Scindia seems to have decided to seize the opportunity and return to the family constituency, Guna. He had contested from there twice but shifted to Gwalior on Rajiv Gandhi8217;s orders in 1984 in what was almost a schoolboy prank to defeat Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Although no formal announcement has been made, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh gave a broad enough hint about the impending change at a recent rally where the two rivals astonished everyone by sharing a platform. For those tuned into the nuances of royal politics in MP, Singh8217;s remark was an indicator that he had sealed the deal with mother andson.

While Scindia is now assured of an easy victory, for his youngest sister, Yashodhara, it is a case of sour grapes. She returned from the United States, resumed her Indian citizenship and nurtured the constituency fondly in the hope of inheriting her mother8217;s political legacy. With the Rajmata8217;s illness bringing mother and son closer, however, the mantle has been duly passed on to the latter.

A nose for news

THE 19-member strong media team which accompanied Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to Beijing was taken aback by his nose for news. Emerging from his meeting with Chinese prime Minister Zhu Rongji, Singh8217;s briefing focused on the security and strategic aspect of the dialogue rather than economic issues.

His explanation: 8220;All these matters have so much political sex appeal that economic issues get ignored.8221; Even politicians have understood what drives newspapers.