Wily Gatekeeper

Cynics attribute Tandon’s proximity to Vajpayee to the fact that he regularly supplies Lucknow’s famed chowk ki chaat to Race Course Road along with a liberal dose of flattery.

Bhakta, incidentally, is no ordinary party dissident. He is one of the founders of the Jana Sangh co-opted by the late Deen Dayal Uphadyay into the party in 1951 and he was considered close to Vajpayee.

Among Bhakta’s complaints against Tandon is the fact that all three Khatri BJP MLAs in the party have been made ministers in the Mayawati Cabinet, totally violating the principle of proportionate representation. The strength of Tandon’s khatri biradiri in UP is totally negligible.

Simian Brief

Since the government declined to update the antiquated Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, some animal lovers felt that the smartest way to get action on that front was to move the courts with a PIL.

But just days before the case was to be heard in the Supreme Court, a monkey entered a judge’s house, created havoc and ran away with the mouse of his personal computer. The irate judges lashed out at the government for not doing anything constructive to control the monkey menace in Delhi. The central government was ordered to come up with a concrete action plan.

The Environment Ministry’s Animal Welfare Department located a zoologist who was thought to be more effective in catching monkeys than the prevailing practice of employing langoors as monkey chasers. (While the langoors simply emptied the monkeys from one building and pushed them into another, the NGO succeeded in trapping the monkeys into cages).

But there is a hitch in executing Part two of the Central Government’s plan. The Delhi Government was instructed to vaccinate and sterilise the monkeys and release them in nearby forests. But at a meeting last week, Delhi Government officials protested that they had problems enlisting vets bold enough to inoculate the potentially violent female of the species.

At present, all the Delhi Government’s existing 200 cages are filled with monkeys and they cannot catch the rest of the city’s 5,000 strong primate population unless more cages are provided. Besides, Haryana has declined to take over Delhi’s unwanted monkey population, while Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are still negotiating terms and conditions with Delhi.

Filmy Precedent

With Amitabh Bachchan walking out of the film Police Force, the Bollywood grapevine is that Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha has been offered his role. The Health ministry is busy speculating whether the PM will grant permission to their unconventional minister to don grease paint. Inquiries are being made to find out if Vinod Khanna signed his contract for a role in the film Leela, co-starring Dimple Kapadia, before or after he joined the tourism and culture ministry.

Poor Timing

AS a hardboiled politician, former Delhi strongman Madan Lal Khurana knows that a politician cannot afford to bite the hand that feeds him. Khurana had been urging Finance Minister Jaswant Singh to announce a DA increase for Central Government employees for the last month, but Singh kept resisting.

The Finance ministry objected to the raise since the state finance ministers at their recent conference in Delhi had requested the Centre to set an example by cutting back on allowances and perks to their employees so that the cash-strapped states could follow suit.

Khurana decided to give Singh a lesson in realpolitik. He pointed out that almost all the state governments Singh was so keen to assist were ruled by the Congress and it was not the BJP’s duty to bail them out.

More importantly, the real backbone of BJP support in Delhi were the traders and the government employees. If the interests of those who voted for the party were not looked after, then the BJP would be thrown into the dustbin at the next poll, Khurana warned.

Though Khurana finally brought the Government around, his victory was blunted by the fact that thanks to the delay in the announcement about increased DA, government employees will get their DA arrears only after the festive season.

Unfriendly Environment

Justice Guman Mal Lodha protested to the PMO when he learnt that the Animal Welfare Department, which comes under the Environment ministry, had ordered a special audit into the Animal Welfare Board he heads. (The board’s annual budget is Rs 5.60 crore.)

The judge felt it was a reflection on him, while the department maintains the audit was necessary because animal welfare NGOs have been slack in producing proof of funds utilised. Both Maneka Gandhi and Lodha are baying for the blood of the concerned joint secretary who they feel is being obstreperous and acting against animal interests.