Return of the Prodigal

Sudarshan’s recent remarks questioning Brajesh Mishra’s loyalty and suggesting that he had kept in touch with Sonia Gandhi during Vajpayee’s tenure as PM are suspected to have been inspired by Swamy. Interestingly, both Murli Manohar Joshi and George Fernandes were invited by Swamy to speak at a conference he has organised on the threat to national integrity in Delhi.

Fare Game

A spectator at the India-Pakistan cricket match at Kotla was struck by the special treatment accorded to a group sitting in the adjacent enclosure.

While even the VIP pass-holders, those with tickets priced at Rs 11,000 and the media had to make do with either food boxes or an over-stretched buffet service, this pampered group was offered hand-and-foot service by four liveried attendants who even provided bone china and damask napkins. Snacks such as flavoured foreign yoghurt, cup cakes and marshmallows were served along with tea and coffee. The main course was pita bread with various fillings.

The Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) maintains that the only authorised caterers for the match were: the Grand, the ITDC, Habitat India and the Taj. No outside food was permitted. So the question that begs an answer is which of the four hotels produced the classy picnic hamper for Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka and Robert Vadra along with their children and guests. The Vadra party included Congress MP Rajiv Shukla and his wife Anuradha Prasad of BAG films as well as National Conference president Omar Abdullah and his children.

Defensive Tactics

It is open war between Law Minister H R Bhardwaj and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Bhardwaj, who projects himself as Sonia Gandhi’s most loyal minister, has accused Mukherjee of shielding Fernandes charging that the defence ministry was responsible for the affidavit in court which gave Fernandes a clean chit. Bhardwaj even remarked to journalists that there seems to be an association of defence ministers, since incumbent defence ministers are reluctant to hold inquiries into the arms purchases of their predecessors.

Mukherjee is considered the most efficient minister in the Cabinet and the Prime Minister relies upon him to such an extent that he heads 17 group of minister committees on a wide variety of issues. He was understandably hurt when he was snubbed by Sonia Gandhi at a meeting attended by UPA members on the affidavit matter. Keen to establish that he was not protecting Fernandes, Mukherjee has given orders to his staff to scour all defence deals signed by his predecessor in search of possible scandals.

Mukherjee is convinced that Bhardwaj is simply adopting the strategy that attack is the best form of defence and he is being made the scapegoat. The law minister has to cover up for Attorney General Milon Bannerjee whose department is responsible for approving important government affidavits before they are filed in the court.

Quoting the Quota

At the Rashtrapati Bhavan lunch for General Parvez Musharraf, Congress general secretary Ambica Soni rushed up to the Pakistani President to congratulate him. She had just learnt from one of the Pakistani delegates that Pakistan had 17 per cent reservation for women in its Parliament. She hoped that the General would use his good offices to persuade India to follow its example. Musharraf beamed and pointed out that in fact the women representation worked out to more than 17 per cent since there were some five to seven per cent women in the general quota as well. It is a different matter that Pakistani parliamentarians are hardly as empowered as ours or their women as liberated.

No Flatfooted Cop

National Security Adviser M K Narayanan may not be as high profile as his predecessors, Mani Dixit and Brajesh Mishra, but media pandits who had dismissed him as a retired police officer out of his depth in foreign policy were taken aback by the active role he played behind the scenes during the recent parleys with General Musharraf. Narayanan, assisted by N N Vohra and Sati Lamba, paid detailed attention to the drafting of the joint agreement and was insistent that Pakistan could not remove reference to the earlier January 6 agreement with the Vajpayee government which called for fighting terrorism and stipulated only bilateral negotiations.

On the day before Musharraf arrived, Narayanan held a briefing for some 50 journalists who cover the MEA. Correspondents were struck both by the openness of the exchanges and the lucidity with which issues were explained. Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran was also present.

Freebie Culture

Delhi is a city where the super-rich expect complimentary tickets. The DDCA was flooded with several thousand letters demanding passes for the India-Pakistan match at Kotla. The worst offenders were the PAs and special assistants of ministers, judges and senior officials who unabashedly wrote asking for a large number of passes, often without the knowledge of their bosses. The result was that some of the high-priced tickets for the match remained unsold.