Opinion Ministerial tussle

The MEA is concerned that with the next foreign secretary level talks scheduled in India,there should be no glitch.

Coomi Kapoor

February 19, 2012 03:31 AM IST First published on: Feb 19, 2012 at 03:31 AM IST

Ministerial tussle

There is an ongoing tussle between the Home Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs over an FIR filed in 2003 at the Chanakyapuri police station against Pakistans Foreign Secretary designate,Jalil Abbas Jilani,for funding Kashmiri separatists. After the FIR,Jilani,then deputy high commissioner in New Delhi,had to leave the country. Since then Gilani has been back on two official visits to India and made several private trips as well. Each time the MEA has been on tenterhooks fearing that the police might try to interrogate him and issue an arrest warrant. The Home Ministry insists that since the issue concerns terrorism,the FIR cannot be quashed. The MEA is concerned that with the next foreign secretary level talks scheduled in India,there should be no glitch.

In-house psephologist

BJP President Nitin Gadkari admits proudly that he allowed party leaders no say in the allotment of party tickets in 276 out of a total of 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh. The decision was left not to the heavyweights in the party but an amateur psephologist Arun Narendranath. Gadkaris in-house psephologist has studied the caste composition of the constituencies and then reached his own conclusion about the most likely winners. Gadkari,is a great believer in Narendranaths methods,even though his calculations have flopped in the past. An engineer by training,Narendranath has worked for Sudheendra Kulkarni and for Gadkaris Purti group earlier. If things go wrong in UP, then Narendranath may have to face a lot of flak from the BJP elders,including Murli Manohar Joshi,who scoff at his methods.

Not the correct answer

Lawyer Gaurav Bhatia is one of the smart young professionals Akhilesh Yadav has recruited recently to the Samajwadi Party. Bhatia was called to a TV talk show to represent the SPs point of view. The anchor asked Bhatia who would be the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in case the SP won a majority. Would it be Mulayam Singh or his son Akhilesh? Bhatia,new to the party,gave the politically correct response that the decision would be taken by the MLAs. His reply infuriated Ram Gopal Yadav,Mulayam Singhs brother and official party spokesman,who gave Bhatia a public dressing down calling him an upstart. Yadav warned Bhatia never to appear on TV again because he was ignorant of the culture and traditions of the SP.

Dynastic politics

Amita Modi,the Congress candidate for the Amethi Assembly constituency,is called rani in the region since she is married to Sanjay Singh,a descendant of the former rulers of Amethi. Priyanka Vadra,who has a more illustrious lineage,is known in these parts simply as bhaiyyaji,to differentiate her from her brother Rahul Gandhi,who is known as bhaiyya. The pet name bhaiyyaji has stuck to Priyanka since her childhood when she visited the constituency with cropped hair and a kurta. Both Amita and Priyanka share a common goal of winning the Amethi seat for the Congress,but the vibes between them are distinctly cool. Amita accompanied Priyanka on her tour of the constituency but was seldom permitted to speak,even though she is the candidate. The rajas people dismiss suggestions that Priyanka is bailing them out in a tough contest. They insist the position is reversed; the royal family of Amethi has a 1,500 year history and it is Singh who is helping to ensure Rahul Gandhi retains his grip over his parliamentary constituency. Such sniping suggests that Singh is unhappy not just over the ticket distribution in the area,but the fact that he has not been made a central minister.