The soundbyte chase in Manali

Look out, Mr Prime Minister, there8217;s a TV camera in your soup. With six television crews on his trail in Manali this time, Vajpayee got...

Look out, Mr Prime Minister, there8217;s a TV camera in your soup. With six television crews on his trail in Manali this time, Vajpayee got his first taste of the cut-throat competition that has gripped the electronic media ever since 24-hour news channels mushroomed. If cameramen and correspondents barely slept in the frenetic hunt for soundbytes, scoops or whatever from the PM8217;s summer retreat, they didn8217;t let PMO officials rest either. The holiday became fend-off-the-media time. Cellphones rang incessantly with television crews badgering the officials every few minutes, either to grumble and complain about something their rivals had that they didn8217;t or to plead for an 8216;8216;exclusive8217;8217;. When one enterprising crew decided to station its cameras on the roof of the hotel adjoining Vajpayee8217;s house, the SPG was flooded with irate calls from other television teams about the 8216;8216;security threat8217;8217; to the PM!

Competition was so fierce that even channel bosses from Mumbai and Delhi were phoning the makeshift PMO in Manali regularly to put in a word on behalf of their correspondents. Obviously, these are tough times for television journalists. PMO officials were left hankering for the old days when they had to deal with just one or two crews. Vajpayee seemed rather amused by the frantic activity around him. During one of his last sessions in front of the cameras in Manali, he joked, 8216;8216;I don8217;t think you have any questions left to ask, do you!8217;8217;

From Raj Bhavan to Ashok Road

It8217;s back to the chummery for Sunder Singh Bhandari, recently retired as Governor of Gujarat. After two gubernatorial assignments, Bhandari will be exchanging the grand trappings of the Raj Bhavan for a single room in the BJP8217;s barracks for elderly bachelor boys, next door to the party headquarters on Ashok Road. He trades places with Kailashpati Mishra, who has moved from the spartan quarters to the Governor8217;s House in Gujarat. Mishra8217;s room is being spruced up for Bhandari. It8217;s quite a comedown for a former Governor but like many other ex-generation Sangh pracharaks, Bhandari has no place to go. He8217;s spent forty-odd years in loyal service of the RSS, then the Jan Sangh and finally the BJP. Now he faces the prospect of being consigned to one room in a bungalow he will share with another long-time party soldier put out to grass, J.P. Mathur. Old friends have started lobbying for a Rajya Sabha nomination for Bhandari. At least that will get him a house and other perks. Not quite the lavish lifestyle of a Governor but better than nothing.

Incidentally, the Ashok Road bungalow is allotted in Law Minister Arun Jaitley8217;s name. He has loaned it to the party for the benefit of homeless old-timers.

When 8216;Munna8217; did the vanishing act

The Congress party8217;s Uttar Pradesh chief, Arun Singh 8216;Munna8217;, obviously doesn8217;t know what8217;s good for him. He confounded party circles by not turning up at Lucknow airport to receive Sonia Gandhi on her way to Amethi last week. His excuse was that he was busy with the Assembly bypoll in the Chiraigaon constituency of Varanasi district. But reports reaching headquarters say he was missing from the poll campaign for the first ten days. Munna also didn8217;t show up for the press conference in New Delhi when prominent Gujjar leader Surendra Nagar joined the Congress recently, despite express orders from AICC general secretary in charge of UP, Motilal Vora. Are his days numbered then?

Unless he pulls up his socks, they may well be. Certainly, his rivals are lobbying hard. The most eager to replace him, former Chief Minister Jagdambika Pal, received Sonia with full fanfare at Lucknow airport. He ensured that Munna8217;s absence was noticed by the leadership. In any case, there is a strong feeling that Munna has been a washout in UP. Despite being a Thakur, he8217;s even failed to keep the Congress flag flying in the Amethi-Rae Bareli belt. As a result, both Sonia and Priyanka Vadra are said to have decided to spend more time in the family fiefdom. Congress sources said Priyanka is planning another trip to Amethi soon although she was there barely a month ago.