Utterly butterly Baramati

Verghese Kurien, founder chairman of Amul and the National Dairy Development Board, has a bone to pick, not just with his successor Amrita P...

Verghese Kurien, founder chairman of Amul and the National Dairy Development Board, has a bone to pick, not just with his successor Amrita Patel, but also with Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Amul was promoted to aid the cooperative movement and to combat big business and multinationals, but at the prodding of the agriculture ministry, Mother Dairy, a subsidiary of the NDDB, has started selling the cheeses of the American multinational, Schreiber Foods.

The special deal for Schreiber is presumably because it has bought a 49 per cent stake in Dynamix dairy, based in Pawar8217;s parliamentary constituency Baramati. The dairy owned by a Bombay industrialist has a daily output of 10 lakh litres. The ministry8217;s justification for promoting the US multinational is that it benefits our indigenous cooperatives since Dynamix buys its milk from Baramati8217;s milk unions. Any takers for that glib explanation?

NGOs order GOs

With Sonia Gandhi as chairperson, it is small wonder that the National Advisory Council exerts far more clout than it is officially entitled to. It is one thing for senior Secretaries to the Government of India to be summoned to the NAC8217;s Secretariat at Motilal Nehru Marg to explain the various programmes and policies of their ministries. But what has disturbed many of the senior officials is that NGOs of all hues are invited to the briefings and they harangue and chide the Secretaries over their policies and demand changes as if they were the ones calling the shots.

A bureaucrat who was humiliated and harassed at the hands of the raucous NGO tribe has even composed a little ditty to explain his plight.

Every NGO in this land
Has 10 Janpath in its hand,
Race Course Road at its feet,
All this is true without deceit.

Proportionate representation

The Cabinet reshuffle has been in the offing for nearly two months. The hold-up is largely because the Congress high command has a tough time trying to reconcile the claims of so many heavyweight aspirants. Besides, the UPA allies are also making demands. Laloo Prasad Yadav, for instance, has demanded that portfolio allotment should be based on the number of MPs. His point is that the RJD with 23 MPs is grossly under-represented in the Cabinet and lacks heavyweight portfolios, compared to the NCP with eight MPs and the DMK with 16 MPs. Laloo is gunning in particular for Ram Vilas Paswan who, he points out, has control of the chemicals and fertilisers and steel ministries when he has only four MPs.

Young India, without banyan

When he was appointed president of the Youth Congress some months back, Ashok Tanwar put up a huge hoarding of himself outside the Youth Congress headquarters at Raisina Road. But the young Tanwar was soon shown his place. The billboard has been removed and replaced by another with the picture of the real youth icon in the Congress, Rahul Gandhi. Tanwar has been reduced to a postcard size mug-shot in one corner of the hoarding.

Two hoardings outside the Youth Congress office announce the celebration of Young India Day on June 19. The day happens to be Rahul Gandhi8217;s birthday. If his great grandfather Pandit Nehru8217;s birthday can be celebrated as Children8217;s Day and his late uncle Sanjay Gandhi8217;s birthday observed as a day for tree planting and blood donation camp why shouldn8217;t Rahul Gandhi8217;s birthday be given a special title as well.

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Rahul himself seems still a tad hesitant about taking over as as the standard bearer of Gen Next in the party. On his birthday when hoards of favour seekers wanted to greet him and offer bouquets, they were told firmly that he wanted to celebrate his birthday in private.

Kulkarni hangs onto perch

The BJP8217;s besieged party president, L K Advani, has not totally abandoned his key adviser Sudheendra Kulkarni. Advani8217;s aide may have lost his official party position and his lodging quarters in the party headquarters, but he still retains the cubbyhole next to the BJP president8217;s office. Instructions have been issued not to ask him to vacate.

Charged with sleeping with enemy

After the notorious kidnapper and smuggler Veerappan was killed, Vijay Kumar, Additional DGP in Tamil Nadu who headed the team which nabbed Veerappan, was hailed as a hero throughout the State. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa praised him effusively and even recommended his name for an out-of-turn promotion as DGP. But shortly afterwards, Vijay Kumar blotted his copybooks through no fault of his own. Jayalalithaa8217;s rival, M Karunanidhi, keen to show that he too was in the loop, held a press conference where he announced that Kumar had telephoned him to inform of Veerapan8217;s capture. Jayalalithaa was so infuriated at the DMK leader trying to steal her thunder that she ordered a probe to find out why Kumar had thought it necessary to call the Opposition leader. The inquiry established that it was not Vijay Kumar who had phoned Karunanidhi but the latter who had telephoned to inquire about Veerapan. But this has not mollified Jayalithaa who is no longer interested in pushing for the police officer8217;s promotion.