Poet and Poes Garden lady

Last week DMK leader M Karunanidhi composed a sonnet to his arch-rival Jayalalithaa in the DMK daily Murasoli.

Last week DMK leader M Karunanidhi composed a sonnet to his arch-rival Jayalalithaa in the DMK daily Murasoli. Karunanidhi praised Jaya’s swan-like gait. He waxed lyrical on the AIADMK leader’s recent visit to her party office in Rayapetta. She was accorded a red carpet welcome, her soft feet trod on rose petals and all those hovering around her made sure that the air was fragrant and nothing unsightly was placed in her line of vision.

Reading the first part of the poem one would have assumed it was written by a smitten admirer. The sting was in the tail. Karunanidhi pointed out that Jaya comes to her party office barely once a year. He, on the other hand, spends his days and nights at the DMK headquarters and no special arrangements are made for him. Instead of a red carpet and a petal-strewn path, he has had to face the rough and tumble of politics—blows on his head by the police and incarceration in jail during the Emergency. The poet leaves his readers to draw their own conclusion.

Delay at the top

The delay in filling vacancies in various Raj Bhavans is reportedly because President A P J Abdul Kalam is taking his own time clearing names of governors since he is carefully scrutinising the antecedents of those nominated by the Government. Kalam does not want to take the risk of any scandal cropping up after he has signed the appointment letter for an important office, as has happened in the past.

Behind the surprise appointment of S Y Qureshi as Election Commissioner is reportedly a similar reason. The President apparently had reservations about the Government’s first choice, a bureaucrat against whom a Vigilance case had once been instituted. Now a senior serving officer tipped to become the Lt Governor of Delhi may not make it.

Gainfully employed

Congresspersons are still waiting expectantly for Rahul Gandhi to take charge of the party’s demoralised UP unit and breathe new life into the party before the Assembly polls next year. But their vigil may be in vain. Rahul reportedly has another mission on mind. His priority is spearheading a programme to generate jobs for unemployed youth all over India. Sam Pitroda, an old friend of the family, is to be one of the advisers for the scheme. The Congress brains trust believes that employment is the main concern of the younger generation and if the programme to provide jobs for youth is successful, Rahul will emerge as a youth icon and give a major fillip to his party’s campaign in the next general election.

Clear dividing line

The line between the Congress and government is getting sharper after recent controversies over OBC reservations, disinvestment of PSUs and price hikes. Many in the party are veering around to the view that a general election will take place long before this Parliament completes its full five-year term.

The Congress has already made an initial survey of its prospects in case of a parliamentary poll. An in-house analysis has pointed out that the BJP won nearly 90 per cent of its seats in the 2004 polls from the six states of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. And it is felt the Congress should target those areas where the BJP peaked in its performance in the last election. The Congress is hoping to wrest some 30 to 40 seats from the BJP in these states.

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Sonia’s recent visits to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are in keeping with this strategy. Significantly, during her visit to Rajasthan the Congress leader called on a prominent Jat leader, Paras Ram Manderna. In the last elections, the Jats, traditionally Congress voters in Rajasthan, had switched to the BJP.

PMK spaced out

The Congress high command has been inquiring anxiously from its Tamil Nadu MLAs just what its UPA ally Dr Ramadoss and his son Anbumani Ramadoss are up to. In north India, the PMK leader has been hobnobbing openly with the opponents of the party. Ramadoss invited both Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Yadav to take part in his pro-OBC reservation conference in Delhi. Last month, he visited Lucknow and spoke from the same platform as the UP Chief Minister. Three days later he was in Patna breaking bread with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. His son Anbumani is the only Central minister from Tamil Nadu to have visited every state in India.

A disgruntled Congress MLA picked on a headline last week in Ramadoss’s newly launched newspaper Tamil Osai to buttress his view that the PMK was up to no good. While all newspapers reported on Tuesday about the failure of the Insat 4C with the rocket nosediving and exploding in flames, Osai carried the news that the satellite had been successfully launched into space.

Stealing their thunder

The country’s Urban Renewal Mission was launched last month from Bhopal with Sonia Gandhi as the chief guest. Keen to take credit for the scheme, the Congress put up posters all over the city thanking Sonia and claiming that the Central Government would be providing Rs 2,331 crore to Madhya Pradesh. Since it was the launch of a government programme, the organisers had per force to invite Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to the function, but they assumed that he would decline as it was a Congress show.

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Chauhan, much to their chagrin, insisted on attending the function. In the bargain, he stole some of the Congress thunder by pointing out that only Rs 11 crore had been received so far of the Rs 2,331 crore promised over seven years. He added that credit for the Rs 11 crore had to be shared equally between the Centre and the state.