The Bihari in Bangladesh

After making waves in Pakistan during the SAFMA parliamentarians meet in August, Laloo Prasad Yadav is raring for a repeat performance in Ba...

After making waves in Pakistan during the SAFMA parliamentarians meet in August, Laloo Prasad Yadav is raring for a repeat performance in Bangladesh. Apparently, he’s received feelers from Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, inviting him for a visit.

Laloo is willing but he’s unsure of the modalities. For instance, can he accept an official invitation from the Bangladesh government? Or should it be party-to-party contact? His supporters are believed to have talked to office-bearers of his host in Pakistan, SAFMA, wondering whether a similar visit to Dhaka could be arranged.

With various ‘‘third front’’ leaders, from Jayalalithaa to Mulayam Singh Yadav, positioning themselves for the post-election power game next year, another successful foreign trip will add to Laloo’s CV for the country’s top job. If he could bowl over Pakistanis with his famous wit, Bangladeshis, a chunk of whom migrated from Bihar, are sitting ducks surely.

Peacemaking, socialist style

There’s a relatively unknown Indian connection in the Norway-brokered peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. Rajya Sabha MP Swaraj Kaushal, who earlier led the Naga peace talks on behalf of the government of India, has been unofficially associated on an ad hoc basis with the discussions in Sri Lanka. Now all three parties are believed to have expressed a desire for more regular consultations with Kaushal, although his role will remain informal.

The talks have hit a rough patch at the moment because of the face-off between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickeramasinghe. But the Norwegians haven’t given up hope. Chief negotiator Eric Solheim hinted at a more active role for Kaushal when he urged more Indian involvement in the peace talks.

Interestingly Solheim is a socialist, like Kaushal. That may explain the link, which Kaushal underlined by roping in another old socialist, Defence Minister George Fernandes, at a lunch he hosted in Solheim’s honour this week. The brotherhood apart, Sri Lankan government leaders are also believed to have sought out Kaushal.

Small Bachchan’s big godfather

The word’s out in Bollywood that the Bachchans are big business, at least in Uttar Pradesh. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav recently announced tax breaks for two films with Bachchan heroes. One is Abhishek starrer Zameen. The other, Baaghban, has Amitabh in it. In fact, Mulayam took time off to see Amitabh’s latest film in a hall in Lucknow’s Hazratganj area. He has yet to see the younger Bachchan’s movie, however.

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Curiously, neither film deals with topics like nationalism and terrorism, which usually get the benefit of an entertainment tax waiver. Both are the usual Bollywood potboilers. Uttar Pradesh being the giant market that it is, no film distributor is likely to pass up an opportunity to make a quick buck. Political circles are wondering whether Mulayam may succeed in putting fading Junior Bachchan back in business.

Wooing Pakistan on the telly

The Ministry of External Affairs is finally learning a thing or two from its media-savvy counterpart in Pakistan. After shunning the Pakistani media for as long as one can remember, it’s decided to open its doors for interviews a la Pervez Musharraf. Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha has already given one to a news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan, and another to a leading newspaper, The News.

However, the boldest move so far is the decision to put Sinha on television. This week, a team from a private TV channel, Geo TV, widely referred to as Pakistan’s Aaj Tak, was in Delhi to interview Sinha. It lasted half an hour and the questions and answers were apparently off-the-cuff.

Interestingly, Geo TV has signed an MOU with a private television channel in India and so the Pakistani interviewer used the latter’s cameramen.