Tight-Lip Policy

Captain’s Oil Slip

Speculation that Mani Shankar Aiyar is keeping the Petroleum Minister’s seat warm for Satish Sharma has dogged Aiyar from the day he was sworn in. Captain Sharma himself confided to some in the oil business that once he was elected a Rajya Sabha member, he would be taking over the portfolio. Those who wondered whether Sharma’s checkered record as Petroleum Minister with Narasimha Rao would not provide ammunition to the Opposition’s campaign against tainted ministers were assured that the Supreme Court had acquitted Sharma in the petrol pump allocation scam.

But the petrol pump case is only one of several charges against Sharma. At the time the new government took over, there were 16 cases pending against him with offences ranging from money laundering and disproportionate assets to Income-Tax and FERA violations. Most of the chargesheets stem from the allegation that Sharma received huge payments from abroad in the nineties. Sharma claims the money was gifted by a relative in the US.

Either the Congress has second thoughts about Sharma despite his undoubted closeness to the party’s first family or else is waiting for the old cases against him to be first buried before he can take charge.

No Introduction Necessary

Congress general secretary Ambica Soni has not taken kindly to a slight whittling down of her duties by being obliged to hand over her post as chairperson of the media cell to Girija Vyas. Unlike her predecessor, Vyas generally sits in on the press briefings and often introduces the spokespersons first to make clear that she is in charge. Last week, when Ghulam Nabi Azad was to address the media, he was accompanied by several Independent MLAs from J&K who were joining the Congress. Soni, who happened to be at the party office, also came along. Vyas graciously welcomed all of them by name.

This was too much for Soni to swallow, ‘‘Ajeeb baat hai mera bhi swagat hota hai (This is amazing, even I have to be introduced),’’ she remarked loudly to the assembled gathering.

Spitting Image

In contrast to the lovable rustic image that Laloo projects with the Delhi media, he presents a different side to his officials in the Railway Ministry. Laloo bawls out and orders the transfer of ministry officials at the drop of a hat without bothering to first check who is responsible for the fault. His office is overrun with supporters from back home who feel that they too have the right to throw their weight around. Unconcerned about social niceties, Laloo frequently spits out paan during his conversations with his staff. But since the spittoon is placed at a slight distance from the sofa, the paan residue often lands on the carpet and, on one occasion, even stained the trouser of a senior railway officer. Officials are so intimidated by Laloo that a visitor noticed that the Chairman of the Railway Board stood meekly with a bent neck in Laloo’s presence and straightened up only after he had left the minister’s office.

No Hurry Here

To compensate for being a minister without a portfolio, TRS leader Chandra Shekhar Rao was allotted a ministerial bungalow on Tughlaq Road ahead of most of his Cabinet colleagues. But the Centre seems to be in no hurry to meet his demand for a separate Telangana State. The Budget speech, the President’s Address to Parliament and the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme refer in passing to the aspirations of the people of Telangana, but the Home Ministry has yet to come out with the draft bill and has not even begun consultations with the Law Ministry.

Last week, Rao and eight minister in the Y S R Reddy’s Cabinet in Andhra called on Sonia Gandhi to remind her about forming a separate State. Sonia diverted the conversation to the importance of working in their constituencies so that Chandrababu Naidu does not get an opportunity to stage a comeback.

Seating Position

The BJP’s somersault on hiking FDI caps in certain sectors of the economy was justified by a senior saffron leader with the quip, ‘‘Where you stand is related to where you sit.’’