Vajpayee separates warring Ministers

Not surprisingly, matters took a turn for the worse soon. Within weeks, Bharati started complaining that files sent by her to the Cabinet minister were eitherbeing returned or not being approved at all. She even went to the extent of threatening to resign if her grievances were not redressed.Having failed to elicit any response, she ultimately stopped attending her ministerial work. For over four months now, officers in the HRD Ministry say, she has not attended office.

Bharati is also learnt to have incurred Vajpayee’s wrath with her views on the Patents and Insurance Regulatory Authority bills. In the course of a BJP parliamentary party meeting during the winter session of Parliament, she had even lashed out at the Prime Minister for pushing forward the two Bills and going back on the `swadeshi’ agenda.

After the session, it was rumoured that she would be moved from the HRD Ministry soon in order to put an end to the embarrassment suffered by the Government. But with the Cabinet expansion put off indefinitely, there was perhaps no way out for the Government but to put her under independent charge of the departments she held.