Reading it so wrong

Vasundhara Raje Scindia blames the generally negative assessment of her chances in the assembly polls on the media and says that towards th...

Vasundhara Raje Scindia blames the generally negative assessment of her chances in the assembly polls on the media and says that towards the end of the campaign she had stopped reading newspaper reports or watching TV so as not to get upset by their bias. 8216;8216;Obviously Gehlot did something very good in his last life to merit such kudos for his non-performance, since he has certainly not done anything in this one,8217;8217; she remarked sarcastically. Scindia maintains there was no last-minute shift in her favour and she was confident of victory since December 2002 when the BJP won the assembly bye-election. The strong anti-incumbency mood in Rajasthan seems to have escaped not just the media but also the pollsters. A poll survey commissioned by the party a fortnight before the election predicted that Scindia would lose and advised that her best strategy was to concentrate during the last lap on 35 marginal constituencies.

The pollsters would like to attribute her success to her last minute strategy and claim that is the cause for being way off the mark in their forecasts. But another possibility is that Rajasthani women accustomed to a male dominated society did not want to give an honest answer to the pollsters in cases where their preferences differed from their men folk.

Noblesse oblige

Contrary to the media depiction of a delicate, chiffon-draped princess out of her depth, Vasundhara Raje Scindia8217;s campaign schedule was hectic and very demanding. As she confided to Chandrashekhar in Parliament, where she dropped by on the day before the counting, 8216;8216;If I had been a man my hair would have fallen out by now.8217;8217; Despite the grueling pace Scindia acknowledges that she has gained a few pounds. She was brought up never to refuse when someone offers refreshments, so she ended up drinking endless cups of tea and eating puris, aloos and other friend food on the campaign trail.

Storm over Gail order

Executive Director of the Gas Authority of India Limited GAIL Santosh Kumar thought he was merely showing market savvy in an open economy when he issued orders to all GAIL offices that they should delete from letterheads and visiting cards the line declaring that the PSU is 8216;8216;a Government of India undertaking.8217;8217; After all, PSUs do not exactly have the right image for instilling confidence in customers and share holders. The GAIL employees8217; union was quick to protest to the petroleum ministry. The ministry is reportedly furious at the executive director8217;s unilateral decision to try and cut the umbilical cord considering that government owns nearly 68 per cent of GAIL. So far there has been only verbal disapproval, no written note asking for an explanation.

Doon demolition squad

There has long been a certain amount of rivalry between two of north India8217;s premier boarding schools, Doon in Dehra Doon and Lawrence at Sanawar. Doon, which considers itself the Eton of India, prides itself on turning out movers and shakers and looks down upon Sanawarians as sporty types who are clueless about the affairs of state. After all Doon was the cradle for many upper-class politicians from Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi to Kamal Nath and Akbar Dumpy Ahmed.

But in the Vajpayee government the roles were reversed in the political world and at one time three alumni from Lawrence school, Maneka Gandhi, Omar Abdullah and Sukhdev Singh Badal appointed ministers, while there was no representation from Doon. Unfortunately, none of the three Sanawarain ministers lasted for very long. Gandhi talked her way out of two ministries with her unyielding stance on issues she felt strongly. Omar8217;s party lost the assembly poll and bowed out of the government. The junior Badal had to yield his ministership when he lost his Lok Sabha seat. Now a Doon alumnus Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh seems determined to hound Badal further by putting him and his father in jail. This has upset not just Akali Dal supporters but also Sanawarians who feel the case of disproportionate assets made out against Badal is extremely weak and smacks of vendetta. They blame Amarinder8217;s school upbringing for not instilling in him a proper code of honour.

In Husain8217;s footsteps

There may be no definite dress code for parliamentarians, but some standards are expected. When artist M F Husain insisted on walking into the Lok Sabha barefoot there were raised eye-brows but he got away with his eccentricity as it was looked upon as artistic licence. Last week the new AIADMK MP to the Rajya Sabha Selvaganapathy followed literally in Husain8217;s footsteps and turned up with his feet unshod at Parliament House to take his oath.

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The marshals in the House looked slightly unhappy but did not try and stop the pious Ganapathy who has taken a vow at Sabarimala temple for fasting and penance for 41 days. And the strict regime he follows during this period includes not wearing any type of footwear, not even socks. Ganapathy has been faithfully observing his penance from December 1 to January 14 for the last 10 years. However, he had not bargained for the Delhi cold. After his swearing-in last week, he is not planning to return to the Capital till his 41 days of renunciation are over, the tarmac at Palam airport being even colder than the Parliamentary floor.