Opinion PM is no pushover
Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs mild-mannered facade can be deceptive.
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs mild-mannered facade can be deceptive. During the standoff on the nuclear deal,he gave an impromptu interview to The Telegraph newspaper,attacking the Left and threatening to resign if the deal was not cleared. With his remarks,Singh closed the ruling partys options and triggered the Lefts withdrawal from the UPA alliance. When L K Advani dubbed Singh a weak prime minister,Singh won the argument decisively by relentless reminders of the BJP leaders history of backtracking on many counts.
In his interaction with editors on Monday,the PM sent a clear message to those in the Congress who might be conspiring against him that he had no intention of stepping down. Politics is a competitive game,if some people think they want to sit in my place,you cannot blame me for that. To take on his detractors in the party is one thing,but to defend his performance in Kashmir and the public display of disunity in his Cabinet by comparing it favourably to the regimes of PMs from the Gandhi-Nehru family,is heresy for most in the Congress party.
Strange choice of emissary
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi built bridges with BJP Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa by agreeing to a cultural exchange where a statue of a Tamil poet was installed in Bangalore and of a Kannadiga poet in Chennai. Karunanidhis new round of cultural diplomacy is with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. A delegation from Tamil Nadu led by Education and Archaeological Minister Thangam Thennarasu called on Modi at Gandhinagar this week. The minister conveyed his chief ministers greetings and requested Modi to use his good offices to bring home to Tamil Nadu,two 11th century statues of the Chola emperor Rajaraja I and his queen Lokamadevi,which are in the private Calico Museum of Textiles,run by the Sarabhai Foundation of Ahmedabad. The millennium celebrations of the famous Brihadeeswarar mandir of Thanjavur built by Rajaraja I are scheduled on September 25 and 26. Karunanidhis warm greeting to Modi,the Congresss bete noire,is itself curious. But even more intriguing is his choice of Modi as the emissary for reclaiming the statues. Modi has a longstanding,much publicised feud with dancer Mallika Sarabhai,and in the circumstances,is hardly the right choice to intervene on Tamil Nadus behalf with one of Ahmedabads most illustrious families.
Dopey explanation
At Thursdays Cabinet meeting,Sports Minister M S Gill had to field some tough questions from ministerial colleagues on the state of preparedness for the Commonwealth Games. A minister also expressed concern over recent news reports indicating a high incidence of doping among Indian sportspersons. Gill claimed that this was because Indian doping tests were more stringent than elsewhere in the world. Some countries were,in fact,keen to learn from our expertise in this field,he asserted.
Reverse Tourism
Tourism Minister Kumari Selja was amused to find advertisements in Delhi newspapers announcing Commonwealth Tours. The ads,inserted by travel agents,were not offering people a chance to come to Delhi for the Games,but were for residents of the Capital to fly to destinations like Thailand and Indonesia during the Games. It was Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer who set the trend by announcing that he planned to get the hell out of the city before the Commonwealth Games.
Caste aside by party
Gopinath Munde is in danger of losing his position as deputy leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha. With his old rival in Maharashtra,Nitin Gadkari,now BJP president,and his late brother-in-law,Pramod Mahajan,not around to protect him, Munde finds himself on a sticky wicket. Munde has been pulled up by his party for taking part in Lalu Yadavs mock Parliament exercise during the last session and earlier attending Chhagan Bhujbals rally in Maharashtra to demonstrate OBC solidarity cutting across party lines. Munde is in the RSSs bad books for committing BJP support for a caste reservation census without clearing it with them first. Munde,in turn,feels that his OBC friends are more dependable than his own party. He has been staying in Delhi in a guest house for 15 months as he was not allotted a government bungalow,but the BJP leadership in Delhi seemed unconcerned. Mundes Yadav friendsMulayam,Lalu and Sharadhowever,fought on his behalf and secured him a government house on Lodi Road. Sharad Yadav even mentioned the issue in Parliament.
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