There are historical reasons why Indian-Americans are rooting overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton and not for Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries. Obama, after all, moved the amendment named after him which has been incorporated in the much-reviled Hyde Act restricting the fuel guarantee the US can supply to India. On the other hand, the public sector Bank of India, has indirectly helped in funding Hillary Clinton’s campaign. One of Hillary’s major fund raisers and trustee of the Clinton foundation, millionaire hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal is accused of defrauding the Bank of India’s New York branch of $ 9 million. Although the CBI filed two cases of cheating and conspiracy against the hotelier in 2000 it has gone out of its way to ensure that the law does not catch up with him, even though Chatwal was for a while a wanted man in India. The lower court has acquitted Chatwal in one case and the CBI has not gone in appeal. The second case drags on with the CBI playing a very passive role. The next CEC Union Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj’s threat of a constitutional amendment to ensure that the chief election commissioner is put on par with the other two election commissioners is unlikely to work, since the UPA lacks a two-thirds majority in the Rajya Sabha. Bhardwaj is apprehensive that CEC N. Gopalaswami might put an adverse noting about Naveen Chawla on the basis of the BJP’s charges against him, which could make it embarrassing for the government to appoint Chawla as Gopalaswami’s successor. Gopalaswami retires as CEC only in April next year. Since the general election has to be completed by May 2009, Gopalaswami will in any case be in charge during most of the electoral exercise.Arson and an old hand Intelligence agencies have concluded that a fire in the Income Tax office in Mayur Bhawan in September last year was deliberate. It was started so as to destroy the tax returns of a real estate company. The IT office is now trying to reconstruct the missing file. Inquiries indicate that the benami owner of the firm, which controls vast acres of land in all the major metropolitan cities, could well be Dawood Ibrahim. Selecting his successor India's ambassador to the US Ronen Sen has confided to friends that he will not stay on a day after his term expires on March 31. Sen, one of the architects of the Indo-US nuclear deal feels let down at the way the deal seems to be falling apart. Even the negotiations with the IAEA are taking much longer than was initially anticipated.A decision on Sen’s successor is still awaited. Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee are keen on our envoy to Pakistan, Satyabrata Pal, replacing Sen. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, is pushing for his old favourite, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, who lost the chance to be secretary general of the Commonwealth. Sen is said to favour Shiv Shankar or Meera Shankar. The first is slated to become our high commissioner in London and the second is hopeful of being made India’s permanent representative to the UN. If 10 Janpath has a candidate in mind that nominee will obviously prevail. Verappa Moily, meanwhile, is pushing for S.M. Krishna, former governor of Maharashtra, since he wants to keep him out of Karnataka politics. Wind out of sails After a series of reverses in the state assembly elections, Congresspersons are not quite as reverential as before towards the party’s first family. Privately they complain that Rahul Gandhi, on whom they are pinning their hopes, is not focused enough on his political career. For instance, the good impression he made by spending the night at a dalit village in Amethi was lost by leaving immediately afterwards for a paragliding camp near Pune. A trip to Japan sponsored by the CII is to be followed up by organising a cricket tournament for dalits in Amethi. Rahul’s paragliding attempts were aborted because there was no wind. His well-wishers are concerned that his promising political career should not be similarly grounded.
