Termination Mission

Foot-in-mouth disease caught up with BJP President Venkaiah Naidu even in San Francisco where he was attending a Telegu NRI get-together. He...

Foot-in-mouth disease caught up with BJP President Venkaiah Naidu even in San Francisco where he was attending a Telegu NRI get-together. He sent a press statement to the Indian press patting himself on the back for completing a year in office.

His bombastic language explaining that his mission would be complete after 2004, though he had a vision till 2020, was interpreted by his enemies to imply that he would be stepping down by the year end. Naidu8217;s followers in Delhi had hastily to clarify that he meant no such thing. Naidu is keen for a new term as president next year. At present he is officiating on the left-overs of Bangaru Laxman8217;s tenure.

Shanta Kumar who lost his ministership for speaking out-of-turn about infighting in the BJP in Himachal holds Naidu responsible. He is keen to settle scores and has leaked documents attempting to tarnish Naidu8217;s track record as rural development minister. Murli Manohar Joshi has come out openly against Naidu whom he considers Advani8217;s man. Pramod Mahajan, who grumbles that he has little work allotted to him in the party office, has a more subtle approach. Those behind the move to terminate Naidu8217;s tenure know they have to act fast. In case the BJP fares well in the November assembly polls, it will be difficult to dislodge Naidu.
Some detour this

A parliamentary delegation led by Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi left Delhi for a conference in Panama in South America. But they arrived first in New York, USA, which is more than 3000 kilometres out of the way. The four-day detour at tax payers expense enabled the 20-member delegation, which included half-a-dozen wives, to catch up on sight seeing, shopping and attending a conference of NRIs from Maharashtra.

Spare required

In her Sankalp Yatra through Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharati relies on two raths, one borrowed from Narendra Modi in Gujarat and the other from Gopinath Munde in Maharashtra. Bharati needs two sturdy vehicles since one or the other keeps breaking down because of the pathetic state of the roads. It takes the BJP chief ministerial candidate an hour to travel a distance of some 20 kilometres on the road in the interior. Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who has a helicopter at his disposal has a decided advantage on the campaign trail.

Keeping his distance

The Hinduja brothers are always keen to demonstrate their proximity to any important visitor from India. Conscious of this, Law Minister Arun Jaitley during a visit to London last week made every effort to keep them at arm8217;s length.

Jaitley8217;s hotel was given instructions not to forward calls from the controversial NRI businessmen. The minister turned down the request of a retired foreign diplomat hired by the Hindujas to set-up a meeting. Jaitley, who had been invited to deliver the Clement Atlee memorial lecture by the Labour party, was relieved when the Hindujas were not placed at the head table close to him at the dinner following the speech. And when, whether by accident or design, Jaitley bumped into one of the family members near the toilet he beat a hasty retreat.

Story continues below this ad

Despite his efforts to avoid any association, Jaitley returned to Delhi only to discover that a news agency report covering his London speech had taken great pains to mention the fact that the Hinduja brothers happened to be in the audience.

Indefensible intelligence

The Defence Intelligence Agency DIA was constituted over a year back to act as the nodal agency for intelligence gathering. The inquiry on Kargil had highlighted the need for a central agency to coordinate with the numerous intelligence agencies.

In spite of the new set-up, civilian outfits like IB and RAW refuse to share their data and even the army, air force and naval intelligence units continue to guard their turf. Rather than improving matters, the DIA has become yet another player in an already overcrowded field.

Recently at a meeting of the Joint Intelligence Committee JICthe DIA produced a paper on threat perception, which representatives from other intelligence agencies were quick to pull to pieces since the presentation was muddled and the English so atrocious that it was felt that even a 10th grade student could have written better. In the light of the criticism, the DIA has decided to hire a firm of consultants to brush up the English in its reports!

Social Niceties

Story continues below this ad

Prime Minister Vajpayee wished Narasimha Rao on his 82nd birthday last week. So did Congress parliamentary leaders Manmohan Singh and Shivraj Patil who paid him a visit. But Sonia Gandhi did not even bother to pick up the telephone to say 8216;happy birthday.8217; When a newspaper highlighted the royal snub, Gandhi sought to made amends by writing to Rao inviting him rather belatedly to the forthcoming Congress strategy session in Shimla.

Perhaps Sonia Gandhi needs a new social secretary to remind her of social niceties in India. Earlier when Prime Minister Vajpayee was in hospital for his first knee replacement operation Gandhi was one of the very few prominent politician who forgot to send good wishes.