Opinion Nitish’s smart card

Having studied at St Patrick’s School,Karachi,L.K. Advani is familiar with Catholicism,which is unusual for members of the sangh parivar. Advani,who had been invited to speak at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Delhi archdiocese last week,pointed out that the BJP and Jesus Christ share two anniversaries. Former Jana Sangh members of the Janata Party were expelled on the dual membership issue in April 1979 on Good Friday,the day that commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion. Coincidently,the BJP came into being on April 6,1980,on Easter Sunday,the day that celebrates the resurrection of Christ. But one of Advani’s comments at the function appears to have ruffled feathers. He referred briefly to the proposal of producer Ken Walwin to make a film on the life of Jesus in India. Advani noted that Jesus’s life between the ages of 13 and 20 was undocumented and many believed that he could have spent these formative years in India. In his speech,the archbishop warned that the Christian community would protest any attempt to depict the life of Jesus in a way that has not been mentioned in the Scriptures.

Gender bender

The foreign secretary’s spouse chairs the Object d’Art committee which decides on the purchase of art works for Indian embassies abroad. The spouse also gets to head the External Affairs Spouses Association. Some assume that these are feminine duties,but this is not necessarily so. In fact,at present there is a male who is in charge. Suddhakar Rao,an outstanding IAS officer and a former chief secretary of Karnataka,happens to be the husband of the new foreign secretary,Nirupama Rao. The gender barrier was originally broken by the husband of the first woman foreign secretary Chokila Aiyer. As a result,the nomenclature of the External Affairs Wives Association had to be suitably amended.

Prodigal children

With the RSS taking a more proactive role,it remains to be seen whether the Advani faction can stave off mounting pressure for the re-admission of the party’s prodigals,Uma Bharati and Kalyan Singh. Another prodigal,whose application has been pending for some time is Subramaniam Swamy,whom the VHP wants admitted. Unlike the other two,Swamy’s association is not with the BJP,but goes back to the Jana Sangh days.

Delayed in translation

Home Minister P Chidambaram’s reason for delaying submitting the Liberhan Commission report in Parliament for nearly six months was apparently because of the problem of getting it translated into Hindi. This may sound like a weak excuse,but there were genuine fears of a security leak in the exercise of getting the commission’s 17,000 pages translated. During the budget exercise,the Hindi translators are,in fact,locked up in a quarantine room in North Block for almost a week,while they complete their secret work.

Minority Target

Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh physically assaulted BJP MP S S Ahluwalia in the Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the Liberhan Commission saying he was upset by the shouting of the slogan,“Jai Shri Ram”. But Ahluwalia,who happens to be the party’s only representative from the minorities in the Upper House,was not one of those raising the Hindutva cry. Singh picked on him because he needed a well known face to garner publicity and reclaim the secular space for the SP. Actually,Singh and Ahluwalia are old friends—they studied in Calcutta university at the same time and were both members of the Congress’s Chhatra Parishad.