Opinion Pundit’s prediction

Lalit Modi inserted a clause in the contract with both the IPL franchisees and the company with exclusive television rights,stipulating that the TV cameras have to focus on the owners of the cricket teams for a certain amount of time. The clause was introduced ostensibly to help build the IPL’s brand image. Which explains why we saw few visuals of the aam janata at the IPL matches,but plenty of close-ups of Preity Zinta,Shilpa Shetty,Shah Rukh Khan and Vijay Mallya. A Gujarati businessman who is part of the Kochi franchise was reportedly persuaded to bid by his wife,who wanted to appear on TV. Executives from one of the companies that owned a team even complained to the IPL that the camera was focusing only on the filmstars rather than on their bosses.

Big brother’s arrival

The Indian delegation arrived for the SAARC conference in Thimpu in three separate aircraft,putting off representatives from some of the smaller SAARC countries who had travelled by commercial flights. There was one IAF aircraft for the Indian prime minister,another for our foreign minister and a third plane was requisitioned for the extra Indian delegates and as a standby in case of a snag in the other two.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki hit it off extremely well with our Foreign Minister S M Krishna. The Iranian minister had studied in Bangalore many years ago and was nostalgic over the south Indian fare he ate as a university student. Krishna,former chief minister of Karnataka,promptly sent a dish of dosas and idlis to the Iranian delegation.

Crossing the line

Digvijay Singh has positioned himself as the party’s new Arjun Singh,the rallying point for those espousing left and secular causes. Singh’s clout in the party stems from his reported closeness to both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. But in writing an article questioning the government’s policy on Naxalites and terming the home minister “intellectually arrogant”,Singh may have overstepped the mark. More than a week after the article was published,Singh is still waiting for an audience with Sonia Gandhi. In contrast,Singh met Sonia soon after his visit to Azamgarh,where he similarly took an anti-government line on the Batla House encounter.

Why blame understudy

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is unfairly blamed for the frequent hiccups in liaising with Opposition parties in Parliament. Bansal is not always kept in the loop by his party. His own party MPs compare him unfavourably with his predecessors,Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Ghulam Nabi Azad. Bansal has not been given the mandate to talk to Opposition leaders independently. He is expected to act as understudy to Pranab Mukherjee,who,in moments of crisis,takes charge in Parliament. In mustering support for the Finance Bill,it was Mukherjee,along with Ahmed Patel and P Chidambaram,who managed the votes.

It was noticeable that on both the Women’s Bill and the Finance Bill,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared disconnected from the proceedings. His primary concern in Parliament is foreign policy and strategic affairs.

Behenji’s new brothers

The Congress liaised with two recent BSP Rajya Sabha MPs,Naresh Agarwal and Akhilesh Gupta,while seeking Mayawati’s support for the Finance Bill. Agarwal has been associated with every major political party in UP. He was minister in both the Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh cabinets and was once a Congress MLA. Gupta was an MoS for steel at the Centre till he switched to the BSP two years back. With the decline in importance of Mayawati’s Brahmin adviser,Satish Mishra,some wonder whether behenji now plans to shift focus to the bania community. The trading classes are traditionally BJP voters.