Sunday, September 6, 1998
"I have complete evidence of the conspiracy against me"
If Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee thought giving a staid portfolio would keep Ram Jethmalani out of controversies, he was soon proved wrong. Within days, the high-profile lawyer was changing housing policy, taking decisions on issues grounded for decades and crept back to his natural habitat: in the eye of the storm. It was only a matter of time till the roller-coaster ride with the new Urban Affairs Minister got too rough for the bureaucrats working with him. In a conversation with Ritu Sarin, Jethmalani reveals how he managed to raise the hackles in babudom.
Party in waiting
Sonia Gandhi should have known better than to ask Congressmen to strengthen their ethical and moral foundation and to wait until the ruling coalition collapses "under the weight of its own contradictions'' before sniffing the political air in expectation. What does she want to do? Destroy the party? I mean, what has ethics and morality got to do with Congress politics anyway?
With help from the Gita
If Nagarajan Vittal were to have his portrait done, it would show him holding the Gita in one hand and Alvin Toffler in the other. His face would be impassive -- as every good bureaucrat's face must be -- but his eyes may hold a certain sparkle. The future has always excited him.
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