Opinion Outsider with insider info
L K Advanis aide Sudheendra Kulkarnis article hitting out at the RSS and suggesting the BJP tone down its Hindutva stance....
L K Advanis aide Sudheendra Kulkarnis article hitting out at the RSS and suggesting the BJP tone down its Hindutva stance has set the cat among the pigeons. The party leadership was not in a mood to introspect on its defeat. Kulkarnis choice of Tehelka magazine to air his views was additionally upsetting,since the BJP regards Tehelka as antagonistic.
There was an overwhelming demand in the party to take disciplinary action against Kulkarni. But Kulkarni cannot be punished since he has,in fact,no official position in the party. He was stripped of his membership of the national executive four years ago,after he whipped up a similar furore with his article on the Jinnah controversy. Now Advanis detractors want to know how a man who had no official position in the party could have been privy to top level meetings,strategy sessions and interactions between the party top brass and the RSS.
Royal participation
Probably not since the 1960s,when the Swantantra Party was formed,have there been quite as many royals elected to the Lok Sabha. Bhanu Prakash Singh,former Maharaja of Narsinghgarh,lists at least 16 scions of royal families in the 15th Lok Sabha,though he concedes not all of them were entitled to a gun salute. The new MPs are from the royal houses of Patiala,Bushre Rampur,Amethi,Kalkankar,Patrona,Girdhaur,Bolangir,Jashpur,Dholpur,Alwar,Kota,Jodhpur,Satara and Kurrupam. Added to this there are 66 Thakurs elected to the Lok Sabha,most of them from landed families. In fact,three of Lalu Yadavs four MPs from the RJD are Thakurs. Lalu is the lone Yadav.
A new beginning
Goolam E. Vahanvati,who has been appointed Attorney General will hopefully have far more legal responsibility in the new government than he did in the last one. Although he was earlier Solicitor General,he was not given his due because Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj was opposed to him. The two men were barely on speaking terms. Since former Attorney General Milon Bannerjee,who was close to Bhardwaj,hardly argued a case for the government in court,it should have been Vahanvati,a distinguished lawyer in his own right,who appeared on behalf of the government in important cases. But Bhardwaj made sure that the cases went instead to Vahanvatis juniors,the additional solicitor generals. In fact,Bhardwaj had even instructed public sector undertakings and other government bodies that if they wanted legal opinion they should not approach the government legal representatives directly but contact him and he would decide who the brief should be handed to.
No vacancy
Sanjaya Baru,the former media adviser to Manmohan Singh,who left a year ago to take up an assignment as visiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore,will be back in the Capital in August. In all likelihood,Baru will be appointed adviser,policy planning. Two senior editors whose names are being mentioned for the media advisers job may be disappointed. The post has been handled so effectively by Deepak Sandhu,former principal information officer,that it is unlikely the PM would want to replace her. Sandhus low- profile temperament suits Singh and she is credited with the success of Singhs impressive media campaign during the polls when he took on L.K. Advani.
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