When frisking is a prestige issue

These are not easy days for the country8217;s security establishment with terrorism and Naxal attacks relentlessly firing from all sides, but is the Government going to see security threats even in infrastructure-building collaborations? When the Cabinet met this week to clear the way for the Sixth Pay Commission, one matter got deferred because of security concerns8212;whether Hutchinson Port Holdings should be allowed to bid for Indian ports. The company has a considerable Chinese stake in it and the matter was, therefore, brought before the Cabinet. But with no unanimity on the matter of security in the current scenario, the decision was put off for another day. Perhaps the government is hoping the nightmare of terrorism will soon fade.

Nail in own foot

You could charitably call it self-introspection. 8216;8216;Our geriatric leadership is fit for admission to a psychiatric ward,8217;8217; is how a BJP leader described the state of his party8217;s top echelons. Case in point, he said, Jaswant Singh, who derailed the entire post-Mumbai blasts BJP campaign on national security with his thoughts about Kandahar. Even as the party was trying to live that down, there was Murli Manohar Joshi ready with his own debate on the death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Party president Rajnath Singh gently discouraged Joshi from addressing a press conference on Bose at the party headquarters. The former HRD minister ran to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to complain that Singh was not allowing him to address the media. To Singh8217;s chagrin, Vajpayee agreed that Joshi should be allowed to brief the media. The whole episode left a party general secretary lamenting, 8216;8216;The Congress need not bother its head about us. Our own Zinedine Zidanes will ensure plenty of self goals.8217;8217; There8217;s a thin line between introspection and frustration.

A call to humour?

The byte-hungry news television journalists were bitten by blood-thirsty mosquitoes and drenched by the relentless rain, but were fully rewarded when Jaswant Singh came out to meet them at his gate. To the mediapeople waiting there for his response to the Congress attack on him over his just released book, A Call to Honour, Singh proved a veritable Prince Salim of Mughal-e-Azam. To their astonishment, the normally ponderous Singh glided across holding a fragrant champa flower to his nose, and every time a reporter shot a question, the BJP stalwart closed his eyes, smelt deeply of the floral fragrance and then only deigned to give an answer. Now the hacks are wondering: if not the sun, what came over the poor former external affairs minister?

Going to the doc

No one in London believes that Big B, now Dr B, and his honorary doctorate has anything to do with scholarship and higher learning. It8217;s simply the Indian Vote Catching Trick, many chortle. The De Montfort University, in Leicester, which conferred this honour on the serial superstar, was an unremarkable polytechnic only a decade ago and is barely known beyond the county boundaries. So as things go, the university has more to gain. AB8217;s name will help attract the willing-to-pay foreign Indian students. And no guesses why Keith Vaz, the Goan MP from Leicester, lobbied for the honour for Big B; his constituency is predominantly Asian. So Bachchan, with the ebbulient Amar Singh in tow, was led to cult leader Morari Bapu8217;s katha. Grabbing the eyeballs of the 8,000 Bapu followers was a smart ploy by the Leicester politician. But Vaz was not alone, Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons8212;whose constituency of Blackburn has 20,000 Asians8212;not only met the Superstar, but also praised him on the floor of the House and invited Bachchan to visit his constituency. So, will we see Big B flying from Bulandshahar to Birmingham more frequently with elections on both sides looming ahead?

Dream run

While Mumbaikars would avoid local trains if they could, yesteryear8217;s Dream Girl, Rajya Sabha MP Hema Malini, wants just the opposite. The other day, she marched up to Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to request him to run special VIP trains from Juhu and Churchgate for people like her8212;politicians, Page-3 personalities and cine stars. The reason: Mumbai8217;s terrible traffic jams are making road travel quite impossible, she said.

Curious timing

Is it just a coincidence? The Rajya Sabha will take up the controversial OoPs Bill sent back by President APJ Kalam on July 25, the second day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament. A year from now, exactly on July 25, 2007, Kalam will be demitting office. Sometimes destiny amuses itself.

Babu8217;s day out

Bureaucrats are seldom given to acknowledging the gifts that come their way, but some senior IAS officers condescended to agree that July 20 could be declared Babu8217;s Day. It was on the fateful Thursday that the Union Cabinet caved in to the demands of the bureaucracy on curtailing the aam aadmi8217;s right to information with amendments on what could be accessed by the public. At the same cabinet meeting it was also agreed that a new Pay Commission would be appointed for revising the perks of Central government employees. Even politicians wilt in the face of this kind of pushy behaviour.

15-year itch

The dial-a-quote industrialist, Rahul Bajaj, now Rajya Sabha MP, is effusive in sharing his views. But last week, Bajaj8217;s telegenic eloquence got a knock from none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself. During the discussion on Free Trade Agreements at the trade and industry meeting, Bajaj began his sermon on why he disagreed with the FTAs. Manmohan gently reminded the industrialist that in his finance minister years in the early 8217;90s, Bajaj had opposed the opening up of Indian markets fearing a takeover from rampaging MNCs. The Prime Minister reminded Bajaj that 15 years down the line, he had been proved wrong as Indian industry is stronger than ever before and has a global presence today. Therefore, the gentle doctor argued, he would be proved wrong again on the matter of FTAs another 15 years hence. It certainly got a loud guffaw from the entire gathering.

Tailpiece

One doesn8217;t know whether it8217;s because Mulayam Singh Yadav is a former wrestler or because Rahul Gandhi thinks muscle power must fight muscle power. After Mulayam cut off hours of power supply to Rahul8217;s Amethi constituency, the Gandhi scion, it seems, has decided to help the youth there put on some muscle. So, 10 gym-cum-fitness centres are to scheduled be launched in the Gandhi boonies.