Bhikhiwind Live
With an eye on popularity ratings and media coverage,the Punjab government and Centre tried to outdo each other in honouring death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh who was brutally murdered in a Pakistani jail. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal declared a funeral with full state honours and announced a three-day state mourning,while his government gave Rs 1 crore to the bereaved family. Manmohan Singh immediately announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 25 lakh from the Prime Ministers Relief Fund. So that Sarabjits sister Dalbir Kaur could reach Amritsar in time from Delhi to receive her brothers body,the Punjab CM put his aircraft at Kaurs disposal. However,a Congress loyalist persuaded Kaur to travel in the aircraft provided by his party. When Sarabjits body arrived at Amritsar,there were two ambulances waiting to transport the body to his village,Bhikhiwind; one was a Punjab state government ambulance with a poster of Badal,the other was brought by the Congress.
Wedding march
Guests from India at the extravagant wedding hosted by the billionaire Gupta brothers in Sun City,South Africa,are still dining out on stories of the lavishness of the hosts. There was not one but two planeloads of Indians transported to South Africa for the wedding. There were 200 passengers,including politicians and Bollywood stars,aboard one of the planes which ran into a controversy after it was allowed to land at the Waterkloof airbase,Pretoria,without permission. Over a 100 limousines transported the guests from the airbase to Sun City. There was a police escort and policemen lined the route. (The police commissioner lost his job subsequently because of the misuse of his force.) The other plane,which did not land at the airbase,transported cooks,bearers,caterers,halwais,musicians and other service staff from India.
The takeaway gifts for the guests included silver-encrusted Bhagavad Gitas and other silver bric-a-brac. The Gupta brothers had made arrangements for all the men to get bandhgala coats with velvet collars stitched by a leading tailor at Delhis South Extension for free. So many similarly dressed guests confused some South Africans,who assumed members of the Indian contingent were part of a five-star hotel staff.
An embarrassed govt
An SMS making the rounds is that the Congress is run by CPAPVP. The CP stands for Congress president Sonia Gandhi,the AP for her political secretary Ahmed Patel and the VP for Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. The Prime Minister is omitted from the power list. In fact,neither Sonia nor Rahul had anything to do with the appointments that are currently proving an embarrassment to the party. Both Harin Raval,who recently quit as additional solicitor general,and Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati were selected by Patel. Ashwani Kumar was Manmohan Singhs nominee and the buzz in the Congress is that Gursharan Kaur,the PMs wife,was also rooting for him. The PM has a soft corner for Pawan Bansal as well,who aside from being a fellow Punjabi is generally well liked in the party for his polite demeanour.
Home truths
BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar is blamed by the party for its crushing defeat in Karnataka. Kumar had spearheaded the move to oust B S Yeddyurappa and convinced L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj that the BJPs prospects would not be affected if the popular Lingayat leader quit. Kumar had an eye on the chief ministers chair. Which way the electoral wind was blowing was clear even during the campaign when Kumar was booed in his South Bangalore constituency. BJP supporters demanded that only Narendra Modi address the gathering. Modi,who belongs to the faction rival to Kumar,pacified the audience and insisted that Kumar speak first. However,TV channels frequently replayed the hostile reception which Kumar received in his home territory. Kumar is now in a quandary as to whether he should risk standing from South Bangalore in the parliamentary election.
