Not tired, or retired

Whether it is the decision regarding the timing for the next general elections, the detente with Pakistan or keeping the government’s economic policies on course Vajpayee looks like a man totally in charge.

Most attribute the PM’s new-found confidence and alertness of the last two-and-a-half months to the fact that with the general elections just a year away the PM can afford to act decisively. But perhaps the bottle of home-made olive oil presented by western music conductor Zubin Mehta (the olives are grown on Mehta’s villa in Tuscany) during Vajpayee’s stop over in Munich may have contributed to the PM’s new mood.

Perverse Outlook

Nizamuddin East is one of Delhi’s more congenial residential colonies with shady avenues, a large number of parks, a magnificent view of the adjacent Humayun’s tomb and a wide mix of well-known residents, from politicians like Sheila Dikshit, H K L Bhagat and Subramaniam Swamy to artistes like the Dagar brothers and Anjali Ela Menon.

Outlook Editor Vinod Mehta once wrote that the only off putting thing about the area he lives in was that the residents, in order to save money, had authorised the rival magazine, India Today, to put up garish yellow and orange boards on the entry gate of the road leading to his house. Apparently, unsuccessful in his attempts to remove the eyesore, Mehta has now decided to make his own jarring contribution. Large red and white billboards announcing that Outlook ‘Welcomes visitors to Nizamuddin’ have been hung on the adjoining gate. So what happened to the rival publications’ much-vaunted environmental concerns!

Hawking peace

The success of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami leader Fazal-ur Rehman’s recent trip to India, has demonstrated to the Pakistanis the advantage of sending hawks instead of doves to explore peace prospects. They want to emulate the Indian strategy. For the forthcoming South Asia Free Media Association (SOFMA) trip across the border, the Pakistanis sent frantic messages to the organisers in India to include some representatives of the RSS and insisted that others in the team could be dropped if necessary to accommodate the khakhi brigade.

Pakistan’s preference for hardliners has disconcerted some of the peacenicks who are constants on such fence-mending exercises and feel hurt that they are being sidelined on their own home turf.

Incidentally, N K Sharma, the astrologer who was very visible during Fazal-ur Rehman’s recent visit to India, was brought into the picture by journalist-cum-politician R K Mishra, who is part of PM’s Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra’s Track Two diplomacy. Why a Hindu pundit should be influential with the visiting Maulana remains a mystery, but even former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao had used his services to mollify Muslim organisations in the wake of the Babri masjid demolition.

Charm personified

They may be in opposing parties but the BJP’s Arun Jaitley and the RJD’s Laloo Prasad Yadav share an old friendship which goes back over a quarter of a century when they were together in the JP movement. The law minister’s servants are accustomed to serving the high and the mighty for dinner and are not particularly impressed by VIPs.

But Laloo has captured their hearts with his home-spun charm and personalised touch and remains their favourite. Realising that the domestics were Biharis, Laloo insisted on knowing their names and their home districts. They, in turn, begged to have their photograph taken with the former Bihar CM to send it to the folks back home, a request they had not made for any other guest, including superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Seeing the impact of Laloo’s charm at close quarters, must have made Jaitley more aware of why the RJD supremo still reigns supreme, even if the state administration has gone to the dogs.

Internal friction

A week back, the Opposition had agreed to lift the longstanding boycott against Defence Minister George Fernandes in Parliament on the understanding that the Government would agree to a debate first on the Tehelka affair in the Rajya Sabha. But the agreement fell through because none other that Fernandes’s party colleague Nitish Kumar put a spanner in the works. Kumar whispered to RJD leader Laloo Prasad, with whom he is remarkably chummy of late, not to give in so easily. Laloo in turn passed on the message to Nilotpal Basu, CPI(M) leader in the Rajya Sabha. Nitish also dropped a hint to Congress members on the parliamentary consultative committee for Railways. Thus when the issue came before the Business Advisory Committee in Parliament, Opposition MPs changed their tune and insisted that a debate in the Rajya Sabha was not good enough, there had to be a discussion in the Lok Sabha as well, although they knew full well the Government had earlier rejected the suggestion.