Mind your language

With the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) pulling out of the UPA, the Government is concerned that others might follow suit. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted a dinner last week for leaders from parties that had sent letters of support at the time of the UPA Government formation. The PM wanted to make it clear that he is grateful for support from any quarter. The invitees included BSP and Samajwadi Party MPs. The Samajwadi Party’s Amar Singh was the cynosure of many eyes when he drove in in his shining Bentley limousine. For Amar Singh, it was a vindication of sorts. He had been one of the first to announce that the SP would back the Government during the 2004 vote of confidence, but the Congress had responded cavalierly to his hand of friendship. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s lieutenant was humiliated and made to wait in the ante-room when he accompanied CPI(M) leader Harkishen Singh Surjeet to the lunch at 10 Janpath hosted by Sonia Gandhi.

On par with Big B

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s security has been put on par with that of the Big B. Amitabh Bachchan has been in the very high Y category for the last two decades. Now Khan has been put in the same category and will have nine cops assigned to protect him. The Mumbai Police Commissioner responded positively to a request by Congress MP Rajeev Shukla that Khan’s security be stepped up following a recent incident at Khan’s Mumbai residence when a private security guard shot another security guard. The star has also received some death threats.

Escape scapegoat

The TRS’s decision to walk out of the UPA was just a matter of time since the Government was in no position to meet the regional party’s demand for a separate state of Telangana. Some Congresspersons, however, blame Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee for triggering the final exit last week. Mukherjee had been asked by his party to talk to the five TRS MPs and mollify them. But Mukherjee, instead of pacifying the TRS MPs, lost his cool and lectured them like schoolboys. He warned the delegation that Telangana could not be created in a day and asked them not to overreach themselves and to be patient. A few hours later, the TRS announced that it was pulling out of the UPA. Actually, TRS leader K Chandrasekhara Rao may also have been in a hurry to quit fearing that the Congress might try to split his party. Mukherjee’s behaviour came as a convenient excuse.

A sugarcoated pill

Environmentalist Sunita Narain has accused the Health Ministry of covering up for the cola companies by giving a clean chit to Pepsi and Coca-Cola on their pesticide content. But cynics suggest that more than the cola lobby, the Government is anxious to protect the powerful sugar lobby. The soft drink manufacturers have been privately blaming the pesticide levels in their drinks not on the water used in making the beverage—since the water can be purified—but on the sugar content. Indian sugarcane is heavily sprayed with pesticides and the cola manufacturers feel that some standards should also be fixed for pesticide levels in Indian sugar. A soft drink manufacturer claimed that if his company was allowed to import beet sugar, instead of using cane sugar, the pesticide levels would drop substantially.

Significantly, a joint parliamentary committee headed by Sharad Pawar set up in 2003 to look into the safety standards of cola drinks had emphatically turned down a proposal to investigate the pesticide content in Indian sugar. To do so would open the Pandora’s box. So far no one has questioned the pesticide levels in our tea and coffee.

Natural or unnatural ally

The BJP’s most loyal ally, the Akali Dal, is in a dilemma after a recent poll survey in preparation for next year’s Assembly elections in Punjab suggested that the Akalis would be better off without an alliance with the BJP. The pollster’s logic was that the Akali Dal appeals to Sikh farmers in rural Punjab and the BJP support is drawn from Hindus in urban areas. The two very different votebanks are not compatible. The alliance would only consolidate the urban voter behind the Congress, whereas if the BJP fought the elections separately it would cut into the Congress vote share in the cities.

Those who want to retain the party’s ties with the BJP point out that the Telegu Desam Party lost out by breaking up with the BJP in Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, the CPI(M)’s Harkishen Singh Surjeet has been dangling the carrot to the Akalis that they should join forces with the Left for the forthcoming polls.