Sonia: The road ahead

Interestingly, security concerns have taken a backseat to the anxiety that’s gripped the Congress after its dismal 1-3 showing in the recent Assembly polls. According to party sources, the thinking in 10 Janpath is that the threat to Sonia has receded because of two reasons. One, militancy in Punjab is dead. Two, the pre-election pact between the Congress and the DMK-MDMK combine should keep the LTTE at bay.

PM’s New Year bonanza

Now that it’s election time, A.B. Vajpayee has taken the reins into his own hands. The slew of financial sops the Government announced last week was wholly a PMO show. Officials in the Finance Ministry hadn’t a clue about the plans being drawn up across the road in South Block.

Apparently, both the packages were the handiwork of the PM’s advisors on economic affairs, under instructions from Vajpayee. Jaswant Singh of course approved them. His ministry, however, came into the picture only after the green signal was given. And it’s role was limited to doing the sums to calculate the cost to the exchequer.

More sops for babus soon

The Government seems to have forgotten one section of important voters in the New Year gifts it handed out to the electorate — its own employees. But babus need not worry. Their bosses are scratching their heads for ways to please them too.

One suggestion that’s been trotted out by the BJP is to set up a Sixth Pay Commission to revise government salaries. The argument is that it’s due anyway because it’s been ten years since the last one was constituted. However, Jaswant Singh is believed to be reluctant because of the huge financial burden involved. The Fifth Pay Commission cost the central government an additional Rs 4,000 crores annually and pushed several states dangerously close to bankruptcy.

A more immediate sop that’s easily implemented is to dovetail dearness allowance into the basic pay. There’s a hidden advantage in this. House rent, city allowance and other benefits that are calculated as a percentage of the basic will go up. It means an automatic hike for government employees. And the cost to the exchequer? It’s estimated to be in the region of Rs 1,000 crores and Rs 1,200 crores a year. The powers-that-be feel that this is more affordable.

Leadership games in the BJP

Members of the BJP’s National Executive were surprised by Vajpayee’s open assurance to Venkaiah Naidu of another term as party president. Not many know that it was the result of intensive lobbying by Venkaiah who was anxious to clear the prevailing uncertainty about his future.

It so happened that he managed to get Vajpayee alone on at least three different occasions during the party jamboree in Hyderabad. And each time, he nudged the PM about his plight, using the plea that he wanted to be relieved now that the Assembly elections were over. Vajpayee kept him on tenterhooks till the very end, in fact, till the last few sentences of his closing address. But it must have been worth the wait because for once, the PM was unambiguous. I’m not tired and I won’t let Venkaiah escape on the excuse of being tired, he declared, taking a good humoured swipe at Venkaiah’s transparent ploy.

Being Hyderabad, the Naidu factor was predominant. Although Vajpayee was wearing his BJP hat, Chandrababu too sought a private word with him. They met for half-an-hour at Raj Bhavan, minus aides, to discuss the emerging electoral scenario.