Opinion Not a sisterly act
Mayawati has ditched the three Samajwadi Party MPsAtiq Ahmed,Afzal Ansari and Raj Narain Bhaduliawho defied their party whip to vote along with the BSP
Mayawati has ditched the three Samajwadi Party MPsAtiq Ahmed,Afzal Ansari and Raj Narain Bhaduliawho defied their party whip to vote along with the BSP in the trust vote in Parliament and forfeited their parliamentary seats in the bargain. The BSP president has not allotted them party tickets for the forthcoming parliamentary polls. There are,in fact,many complaints over Mayawatis erratic and arbitrary distribution of BSP tickets. Mayawati has denied tickets to three of the four sitting Muslim MPs from UPAkbar Ahmed (Dumpy) from Azamgarh,Ilyas Azmi from Lakhimpur Kheri and Tahir Khan from Sultanpur. Some are pointing accusing fingers at her two lieutenants,Satish Mishra and Naseemuddin Siddiqui,for the double-dealing. Because of Mishra,there are 35 Brahmins of the BSPs list of 80 in UP and that has infuriated Dalits.
No longer so secure
In the run-up to the signing of the nuclear deal,National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan was a key player. The NSA made several trips to the US and even to Vienna. Some in the Ministry of External Affairs felt that he had poached on their territory,especially as he often briefed the media on the nuclear deal. Of late,however,it seems as if the boot is on the other leg. Terrorism is the main issue on the national agenda and although this comes under the purview of national security,it is the Home Ministry which is fully in charge. At times,Narayanan gets to hear of new inputs from intelligence agencies at the ministry meeting,rather than being informed in advance,as was the practice earlier.
Mind your language
Several governors are unable to speak the language of the state in which they are the titular heads. So they address the state assembly in English and the translation is then read out in the local language. For instance,Tamil Nadu Governor Surjeet Singh Barnala continues to speak in English,not Tamil,despite M. Karunanidhis urging. Only a few governors have made a genuine effort to learn the state language. UP governor T.V. Rajeshwar delivers his address in Hindi. Chhattisgarh governor E.A.S. Narasimhan rehearses his Hindi speech for several days before he addresses the assembly. And Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi is to be commended for learning Bengali during his tenurehe now reads out his speech in Bengali.
Low key adviser
Deepak Sandhu stepped so unobtrusively into the post of media adviser to the Prime Minister last month that no one noticed that yet another gender barrier had been broken. Sandhu is the first woman media adviser in the PMO. Her predecessors include Sharda Prasad,who worked for both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi; Prem Shankar Jha,who was adviser to V.P. Singh; and H.K. Dua,who served Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sandhu,who was earlier the Principal Information Officer,takes over from Sanjaya Baru,who left the PMO last August. The lack of a media adviser was apparent during the Mumbai terror attacks when government agencies were speaking in different voices. Sandhu recently quietly introduced the practice of weekly briefings.
In-law trouble
The stakes are so high for the DMK that it has ordered every DMK minister,whether from the Centre or the state,to help out in the Thirumangalam by-election in Madurai. There were 39 ministers in the field during the campaign and each minister was allotted three villages. The 1,35,000 voters of the region have never been wooed so ardently before and are having a gala time. The DMK may have an edge because it is the ruling party but Jayalalithaa also has a card or two up her sleeve. A fortnight before the polls,she persuaded DMK candidate Lathas husband and her in-laws to join the AIADMK. Eight companies of central forces have been moved to the area. With a reported Rs 50 crore spent on electioneering,EC sources admit in private that when it comes to money power during elections,the south is way ahead of the north.
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