Pragmatism wins

From next year8217;s budget session, Members of Parliament may be spared the boredom of a double presidential address. Vice-President Bhair...

From next year8217;s budget session, Members of Parliament may be spared the boredom of a double presidential address. Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat8217;s near collapse while reading the Hindi translation this time has got the Government reconsidering the obsolete practice of getting two speeches delivered, one in the national language and the other in the link language. Did someone mention simultaneous interpretation? Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani8217;s was the lone voice pleading to scrap this archaic tradition this year itself. At the Cabinet meeting which approved the speech for the President, he was silenced by the vociferous Hindi lobby in the BJP. Since the South Indian President would undoubtedly speak in English, they argued, it would harm the party8217;s image in a crucial election year to appear to have dispensed with the Hindi version. A proposal is being drafted to get Cabinet permission for simultaneous interpretation of the presidential address. Finally, pragmatism has triumphed over tokenism.

No pre-budget meetings for Jaswant

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, known for his unorthodox style of functioning, did away with the practice of meeting with representatives from various sectors in the run-up to the budget this time. His argument was that these people had already pleaded their case for tax concessions with his advisor, Vijay Kelkar, when the latter8217;s controversial report was put to public debate some months ago. So why waste time? Singh8217;s predecessors used to meet with eight groups of people including economists, industrialists, farmers, trade union leaders, exporters and so on to get suggestions and inputs for the budget. Chivalrous Singh did, however, grant an audience to a group of women parliamentarians led by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah and MP Shabana Azmi. They met him in his Parliament House office and gave him a memorandum asking for a gender perspective to the budget proposals. But even they got only a few minutes with the busy FM.

Vajpayee bonds with Parivar critics

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee surprised his saffron colleagues by journeying down to the RSS headquarters in Delhi at Jhandewalan recently. He sent both the Parivar and the BJP into a tizzy because it was his first visit to the Keshav Kunj building since he assumed office four years ago. The occasion was a solemn one. Senior pracharak Chamanlal had passed away. But it served to bring Sangh and BJP leaders together under one roof. And once again, the grapevine buzzed with talk about the camaraderie that has eased the troubled relationship between Vajpayee and RSS chief K.S. Sudershan, once his most vociferous critic. Now BJP leaders are waiting for a similar truce between the Prime Minister and another bitter critic, Dattopant Thengdi, who oversees the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. Thengdi shook the Government recently by refusing to accept the Padma Bhushan awarded to him on Republic Day. There is talk of a one-on-one meeting between him and Vajpayee in the near future.

Advani, Joshi do some talking too

Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi too scored a first when he was invited to Advani8217;s residence for a meeting on the BJP-BSP crisis in Uttar Pradesh some days ago. He8217;s never been to the DPM8217;s new house on Prithviraj Road. Vajpayee as well as UP Chief Minister Mayawati may have had a hand in the Advani-Joshi thaw. Apparently Mayawati insisted that Joshi be included in the UP discussions because only he could control State BJP chief Vinay Katiyar. The PM passed on the message to BJP president Venkaiah Naidu. Interestingly, before the others joined them for the talks, Advani and Joshi met separately for quite some time.

JDU splits again, Mallya dumps Sharad

The Janata Dal, which splits faster than an amoeba, has split again. Recently appointed JD U vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Mallya has dumped Sharad Yadav and formed the All India Janata Dal with old timers R.K. Hegde and S.R. Bommai. The impetus for the split lies in Karnataka politics where the JD unit wants to tie up with the Congress to marginalise the BJP. The unkindest cut was exchanging Sharad for another Yadav, that too his arch rival, Laloo Yadav. Laloo was the star invitee to the AIJD8217;s launch in Gulbarga last weekend. And Mallya made it a point to fly the Bihar chieftain out in his new private plane.