Opinion Anniversary blues

Many are puzzled as to what exactly are the services Shashi Tharoor rendered to his home state by backing the Kochi IPL consortium,particularly as most of the shareholders are Gujaratis. The consortium hoping to bag the Kochi franchise turned to Tharoor to protect them against the bullying tactics of Lalit Modi and other powerful interests in the BCCI,who were backing the bids of two leading industrialists. The Kochi franchise’s CEO Shailendra Gaikwad tried to drag Narendra Modi into the picture. In fact,Lalit Modi’s clout in the present scenario stems not from his namesake,but from his proximity to two ministers in the UPA Government. The Government will have a tough job cleaning up the mess without treading on the toes of some political heavyweights.

Past history

The IPL Kochi fallout is not the first time that the suave and handsome Shashi Tharoor finds himself at the centre of a controversy involving the fair sex. Some years ago,a UN gossip website accused Tharoor of showing special favours to his second wife,Christa Giles,long before he married her: “When Shashi was made head of the Department of Public Information and while still officially married,he moved Christa with him to that department,installing her with a promotion on the same tenth floor,” the website observed,adding,“No rules had been broken because technically they were not married,but it smacked of nepotism.” The argument sounds a bit familiar in the present context.

Mistaken identity

Last week,a deputy secretary was overseeing arrangements in the Cabinet room when an elderly senior Cabinet minister from north India walked into the room ahead of schedule. The minister assumed the deputy secretary was Minister for Chemicals M K Alagiri and he greeted him effusively saying that he was delighted to finally meet him,since Alagiri does not generally attend Cabinet meetings. The official explained that he was not Alagiri. The minister,embarrassed by his mistake,vented his anger on the bureaucrat.

Please all,please no one

BJP President Nitin Gadkari’s problem is that he tries to please everyone and sometimes ends up alienating all sides. Prompted by a senior party intellectual and some others,Gadkari agreed to admit controversial sanyasin Uma Bharati back into the fold. To pacify the BJP Madhya Pradesh unit,Gadkari assured that Uma’s activities would be restricted to UP,where an Assembly election was coming up. But Bharati’s followers wasted no time to spread word in her home state that she was coming back with a bang. Both Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the RSS functionary in charge of the BJP,Suresh Soni,were furious. The latter complained to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat,protesting that it was he,not Gadkari,who should take a call on Bharati’s return. With Gadkari appearing to retract,her camp is annoyed. Her good friend Govindacharya took a potshot at the BJP recently and made it clear that he,for one,had no plans to return to the party.

Passport to trouble

Complaints about the Delhi Passport Office are legendary. Last week,officers in the department were severely reprimanded and a decision taken to transfer the Regional Passport Officer (RPO). The authorities took action,not in response to numerous complaints from the aam admi,but because even NSA Shiv Shankar Menon’s elderly mother was given the run-around. She had to wait several months to get her passport renewed.