Mr Sharma, we presume

Crash landing

The Left, the airport unions and the Civil Aviation Minister were trying hard to find some way of ensuring that the airports strike could be called off without anyone losing face. It wasn8217;t easy. The government, right from the prime minister down, was determined not to concede an inch on the modernisation process. The PM8217;s opening line at the meeting with Union leaders last Friday was that he would discuss anything outside the decision taken on Delhi and Mumbai airports. With the unions on the backfoot and the government dangling the threat of a harsh law to ensure work, the Left leaders began to work on the endgame. The PM-unions meeting was part of that script, but it didn8217;t lead to the strike being called off. Apparently CITU president M K Pandhe and CPIM leader Gurudas Dasgupta were loathe to do so.

A disappointed Praful Patel spoke to the general secretaries of the two communist parties. Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan assured him they were working to have the strike called off but said the workers were proving difficult. The duo then held a late night meeting at the CITU office where it was decided to call off the strike on Saturday. Union leader M K Ghoshal was sent out to face the brickbats of disgruntled protestors and sell them the idea of a written assurance. He got that but lost much ground in terms of support.

Old time8217;s sake

Page Three regular T Subbirami Reddy wanted to become Minister of State with independent charge of an economic ministry. While he got the economic portfolio of mines, he had to be content with a simple MoS berth. And having achieved one thing, the flamboyant Reddy did in his first foray into government? He came to Nirman Bhavan to meet Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy, an old friend from school and college days. The new minister8217;s personal secretary commented how after sharing a hostel room earlier, the two would now be ministerial colleagues. The PS8217;s equanimity was shattered when it was mischievously suggested that the meeting might actually have been about a little help from an old pal for a better makaan house for someone with a new dukan.

Epic allusion

After shouldering the 8216;8216;historic task8217;8217; of moving a resolution by presiding officers in support of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee8217;s decision not to reply to the court order8217;s on the expulsion of MPs, Jharkhand Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari seemed to have got rather carried away. He not only compared Chatterjee to Bhishma Pitamah, but also went on to add that Chatterjee was bigger than the godfather of the epic. In the Mahabharata, Namdhari explained, Bhishma remained a spectator when Draupadi was disrobed but the Adhunik Bhishma had stood up to protect the dignity of democracy8217;s Draupadi Parliament.

Left Write

He is everywhere, on TV, in debates that embarrass the government, at meetings on Iran or on disinvestment. Yet the CPIM8217;s quote-a-day MP Sitaram Yechuri seems to have time enough on his hand to write a book. His Ghrina ka Rajniti Politics of Hatred was released by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya at Kolkata Book Fair last week.

Dual personality

Jairam Ramesh just could not hide his excitement at finally being back in government after close to seven years. The elections of 2004 brought his party into power, but he was inducted into Sonia Gandhi8217;s National Advisory Council NAC, not the government. After assuming office as minister of state for commerce last week, Ramesh had his first taste of what the new role would require. When he met the press, the tech savvy Ramesh had two laptops8212;positioned on his left and another on his right. Just as he was explaining what his role as minister of state would entail and how he would strive to ensure that benefits of trade reached the aam aadmi, a hand shot up. The questioner8217;s query: 8216;8216;Is one laptop for the NAC and the other for the government?8217;8217;

Deja Vu

Renuka Chowdhury8217;s cheek-by-jowl photographs with Ambika Soni splashed in the newspapers was in all probability a cosmetic exercise; she just hasn8217;t been able to come to terms with the loss of the tourism portfolio. Last week she was at Surajkund in Haryana for the inauguration of the annual handicrafts fair. After lunch with Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vilasrao Deshmukh, CM of Maharashtra, the theme state at the fair, Chowdhury disappeared into her room at the resthouse there. Shortly after, new Tourism Minister Soni arrived and she waited with the two chief ministers for Chowdhury to arrive to proceed to the function. The former tourism minister finally appeared, saw Soni and exclaimed, 8216;8216;Oh, what a surprise!8217;8217; Soni was not amused. At the function, she half-heartedly spoke for a couple of minutes and then excused herself, with 8216;8216;Renukaji will speak on my behalf later.8217;8217; If that wasn8217;t enough, Deshmukh addressed Chowdhury as Kiran Chaudhry, the Haryana minister of state for tourism, also present. The former tourism minister was prompt with her indignation: 8216;8216;Hello, I am Renuka, not Kiran.8217;8217;

On the ball

IAF vice chief Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani proved last week that his fighter pilot skills were still intact. Arriving at the Capital8217;s DefExpo military fair, he took a spin on Boeing8217;s Super Hornet F-18 simulator. Quickly adapting to the advanced cockpit, he was thrust into air combat mode by chief test pilot Ricardo Travel. And with the minimum of guidance, Bhavnani engaged two incoming enemy aircraft and scored two clean kills with a perfectly deployed pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. After the 8216;8216;mission8217;8217;, he said, 8216;8216;We are used to this. This is nothing new for us.8217;8217; USAF, take note before the next Cope India.

Friends in need?

The Left has remained close to the Samajwadi Party but never pursued the idea of forming a Third Front with them since it feels that alliances such as these must be based on agreement on key Left concerns. However, a senior Left leader was recently heard singing praises of UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and hinted it may be beneficial to have a 8216;8216;political understanding8217;8217; with him. He had had breakfast with Mulayam and reportedly asked him about 8216;8216;tainted8217;8217; partymen8212;an issue with the Left8212;to be told that none of them were original recruits, only late entrants from other parties. The Left leader was also led to believe that the Samajwadi Party would be difficult to oust from power in Uttar Pradesh with Mulayam himself doing the rounds of each constituency. Perhaps the leftist hasn8217;t yet heard of Mayawati retrieving lost ground for the BSP. Which might actually be why Mulayam is so keen to lead the party8217;s campaign himself.

Tailpiece

If L K Advani had his Sudheendra Kulkarni, can Rajnath Singh be far behind? The new BJP president8217;s man Friday is Sudanshu Trivedi not to be confused with Pramod Mahajan8217;s friend Sudanshu Mittal, a lecturer from UP who advises the newly anointed leader on politics. Senior party leaders are thanking god that Trivedi is still to form an opinion on Iran8217;s nuclear programme and the Indo-US nuclear deal.