Opinion Keeping them guessing

Lips are sealed

Unlike her predecessor Jairam Ramesh,Jayanthi Natarajan,the new Minister for Environment,does not believe in shooting off her mouth. “My policy is to keep my lips shut,” she observes. In fact,Natarajan has issued only one press release so far. Silence does not mean that Natarajan is not active behind the scenes. A major policy initiative contemplated is that henceforth clearances from the environment and forest departments can be applied for simultaneously. Each authority will give its own assessment independent of the other.

Sibling rivalry

There were two major events in BJP leader

L K Advani’s family recently. A tea party was hosted by Advani and wife Kamala to celebrate the arrival of a daughter to Advani’s son Jayant and daughter-in-law Geetika. Guests were surprised to find the festivities fairly subdued. On the other hand,celebrations to mark the preview of daughter Pratibha’s latest movie Tiranga were on a grander scale with a series of screenings and parties for the cut-and-paste film. Those BJP leaders,like Nitin Gadkari,who missed the screening the first time,were given a second opportunity to see the film at the Independence Day function at the Advani residence.

De facto party president

It is the second time Motilal Vora has hoisted the flag at the AICC headquarters on Independence Day. He did the honours once earlier when Sonia Gandhi was not in Delhi on August 15. The 82-year-old Vora is chosen not just because he is one of the oldest members of the AICC but because he’s also the party treasurer. Congresspersons had hoped that Rahul Gandhi who had flown back to New Delhi from New York the night before,would hoist the flag as this would have signalled his official takeover as acting party president in his mother’s absence. He may not have formally taken charge,but there is no doubt that the Gandhi scion has effectively assumed his mother’s role. In the space of three days,Gandhi had two lengthy sessions with the Prime Minister and he also interacted with other top Congress leaders. It was Gandhi who advised his party to refrain from personal attacks on Hazare and it was at his instance that the government softened its line on Hazare’s arrest. Ministers waiting for an audience with Rahul with files in their hand is not an uncommon sight.

Appearances are important

Mamata Banerjee is always keen to reinforce her secular credentials. On Independence Day,she wore her sari wrapped around her head,so that her hair was completely covered and her pallu pulled tightly behind her ears as is common among Muslim women. In politics,after all,appearances are all important. For instance,one of Anna Hazare’s plus points is that his diminutive figure and earnest face exude old fashioned

Gandhism and earnestness. Which is why the Congress’s attempt to dub Hazare corrupt backfired badly.

The ABCD jokes

Several jokes about the Congress bungling over the handling of the Hazare protest are making the rounds. Ironically,most originate from within the Congress Party. One SMS says,“Two Harvard men and one Oxford man take the country backwards and make the nation awkward.” Harvard is the alma mater of Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram and Oxford of Salman Khursheed. Another joke is how the ABCD of Congress has bungled. The reference is to Ambika Soni,Pawan Kumar Bansal,

P Chidambaram and Janardhan Dwivedi. Seasoned veterans in crisis management like Pranab Mukherjee and Digvijaya Singh were kept out. The new troubleshooters in the party are less experienced and not so familiar with ground reality.