Opinion No robbing Peter to pay Paul

ONE of Sports Minister M S Gill’s many grievances against Suresh Kalmadi relates to the Commonwealth Wealth Games anthem composed by A R Rahman. Gill makes no secret of his dislike for the song,for which Rahman was paid Rs 5 crore. Gill had proposed the name of singer Hariharan but he was overruled. He feels that just because a person gets an Oscar from the West,it does not automatically make him the most suitable choice and that even the last minute changes in the Rahman song have not really helped.

No modifiying issues

AT a recent joint party meet,several Congress leaders appreciated BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s assertion that the BJP did not want to get mileage on issues like Kashmir and Ayodhya,which ought to be above politics. The test case for the BJP president will be whether he can ensure that none of the separate sangh outfits behave provocatively in response to the Ayodhya court verdict.

While the BJP’s public position is that it is free to send any party leader it chooses to Bihar to campaign in the forthcoming elections,privately,the BJP has decided that Narendra Modi will not be sent to Bihar. The BJP reckons there are two key issues in Bihar: whether Lalu Yadav remains relevant and the development work ushered by the Nitish government. It does not want to muddy the waters by bringing in a fresh factor,like the Gujarat riots,into the debate.

Personal supervision

BJP PRESIDENT Nitin Gadkari hopes to prove the sceptics wrong by personally monitoring the Arjun Munda government in Jharkhand in order to ensure that it continues in the saddle for the next four years. It was not money,but inducements of ministerial berths and chairpersonships of various state bodies,which cemented the recent re-union between the BJP and the JMM. To weed out corruption,Gadkari insists that the Minister for Mines will be from the BJP quota and that tendering for mines will be completely transparent,since e-tendering is to be introduced in the state. Gadkari differed with L K Advani on the choice of chief minister,opting for tribal leader Arjun Munda rather than Yashwant Sinha. The practical Gadkari’s argument is that since not a single legislator from the BJP or the JMM,backed Sinha,it was not viable to make him chief minister,no matter how qualified he was for the job.

Sending a signal

AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa has sent signals to the Congress that she no longer has any reservation about the leadership of Sonia Gandhi,whom she used to refer to disparagingly as Antonia Maino not long ago. Jayalalithaa’s lieutenants in Delhi recently met Ahmed Patel,Jairam Ramesh and Ghulam Nabi Azad. Jayalalithaa,if she gets the nod,is prepared to fly down to the Capital on December 9 to greet Sonia on her birthday. Azad,the Congress observer for Tamil Nadu,announced last week that membership of the party had shot up dramatically thanks to Rahul Gandhi. He warned that for the state assembly polls early next year,the Congress would insist on an equitable seat-sharing arrangement with its pre-poll ally. That is a message to the DMK,which in the past,has never conceded more than 20 per cent of seats to its electoral partner.

Staying Away

THE BCCI offered all its state cricket boards a free ticket and a five-day sojourn to South Africa during the ongoing Champions League tournament. Only the heads of the cricket boards of Goa and Jammu and Kashmir availed of the junket. Farooq Abdullah,who represents his state cricket board,was away from Kashmir while the state was in turmoil. Abdullah is in an awkward position. He is criticised if he is not in Kashmir,but if he stays there,it looks as if he is trying to undermine Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s authority—particularly as the majority of National Conference members are keen for the father replace the unpopular son as chief minister.