The seat of power is shifting from South Block to Race Course Road. After years of debate, RCR is finally being customised as an exclusive high-security residence-cum-office complex for the prime minister. All six bungalows on the street have been integrated into one sprawling compound, in the process of being enclosed by walls of red sandstone and iron grills. Three bungalows are for the prime minister’s use, two for his security and the sixth will remain vacant for the moment. South Block, from which Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi used to operate, has become the principal secretary’s domain. It’s been stripped of the last vestige of prime ministerial presence with the decision to shift the venue of cabinet meetings to RCR. In fact, Atal Behari Vajpayee has not been to South Block for several months now. Even so, for the sake of form, the room occupied by his predecessors, from Nehru on, remains earmarked in brass letters for the prime minister. The impetus for the decision to provide the prime minister with his own Rashtrapati Bhavan style complex is believed to have come from the SPG. It has been demanding Vajpayee travel as little as possible in the city because of increasing threat perceptions. He now emerges only for functions that cannot possibly be held at RCR or to attend Parliament. Gambling on a bus The Congress’ wily election manager, Ghulam Nabi Azad, is keeping his fingers crossed that his 1999 magic formula for Karnataka will work in next year’s assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh. He’s packed chief ministerial aspirant Y. Rajshekhar Reddy into a bus with all his rivals and opponents and sent them on a long yatra through the state. That’s what he did with S.M. Krishna and the various faction leaders in Karnataka before state polls in 1999. After several months together in the bus, Krishna won over dissidents and the Congress went on to sweep Karnataka. Of course, Andhra Pradesh is not quite the same. Unlike the tame Karnataka dissidents, Reddy’s opponents are aggressive faction leaders. They’ve had ugly, violent clashes in the past. Close proximity in a bus could bring togetherness or make the adage about familiarity and contempt come true. It’s Azad’s gamble. The bus has been on the road for a couple of weeks now and reports reaching AICC headquarters in Delhi say the travellers are getting a rousing reception. Overcome with the spirit HIV AIDS has no political colour. So when it was suggested to Health Minister Sushma Swaraj that she sing the left-liberal anthem We shall overcome when she flagged off the Walk for Life on the eve of World Aids Day last weekend, she sportingly agreed. If there’s an irony in a BJP minister singing an old spiritual that’s become a mascot of liberals the world over, Swaraj was obviously not letting it get her down. Those who walked with Swaraj maintain she knew the words. In any case, they sang the song in Hindi and the sentiments certainly fit the cause. Turf war in Jaswant territory The tussle in the Finance Ministry has ended in a stalemate, with Jaswant Singh agreeing to retain Finance Secretary D.C. Gupta but getting his way in the appointment of Dhirendra Swarup as OSD in charge of the expenditure department. According to the bureaucratic grapevine, it took some adroit intervention from both Vajpayee and Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pandey to cool things down. Apart from wanting to ease Gupta out, Singh was keen on appointing Swarup as secretary (expenditure). Unfortunately, Swarup belongs to the Audits and Accounts Service and, although he has been empanelled, he cannot get the rank of secretary till IAS officers a couple of batches junior to him are promoted. Such is the IAS stranglehold over the system. Singh’s move sent a flutter through the bureaucracy. Pandey was apparently up in arms. He insisted convention should be observed and there should be no changes till the budget is complete. Vajpayee apparently asked Singh to hold his horses. In the compromise, Pandey agreed to Swarup becoming OSD pending his promotion. Gupta lost the expenditure department to Swarup but retained the post of finance secretary and got the department of economic affairs.
