Opinion A little flexibility

L K Advani’s colleagues in the NDA were taken aback when in the middle of an NDA press conference at Sharad Yadav’s house to discuss the 2-G scam,he started talking about Article 370. Leader of the Opposition,Sushma Swaraj,had to steer him back to the topic for which journalists had been invited. Advani has also embarrassed his party by once again raising the issue of admitting Uma Bharti back into the BJP in his blog,although the BJP parliamentary board has kept the issue on hold. Conscious of the resistance in the BJP to her entry,Bharti stalled for time by voluntarily announcing that she needed another three months before taking a call. Advani’s blog,which gets noticed in newspapers on Mondays,is proving to be a headache for his party. Readers assume that his musings are the official BJP line.

Baraat curtailed

The impact of the Niira Radia tapes was evident at the wedding reception on Monday of JD(U) MP N K Singh’s son at a five-star hotel. While prominent personalities from many walks of life,including the Prime Minister’s wife Gursharan Kaur and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were present,several senior politicians,including N K Singh’s own leader,Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,were conspicuous by their absence. The suave former bureaucrat had spoken more than a trifle indiscreetly about fellow politicians to Radia over the phone and even suggested that the Congress was waiting for the JD(U) to join it.

Incidentally,while some are furious at catty references to them in the Radia tapes,other have decided to accept aspersions cast on them by their so-called friends with good humour. Adman Suhel Seth,for instance,while noting that Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya had called him an idiot,conceded in a tweet that he himself had said much worse things on TV. “Come back Ranjan. All is forgiven,” he tweeted.

Tamil Radia talk

There is a blackout of the Radia tapes in the Tamil Nadu print media,but Jaya TV has compensated by going to town on the 2G scandal and the contents of the tapes. So that the exact meaning of the conversations on the tapes is not lost on viewers,there are Tamil subtitles and even voiceovers in Tamil. Jaya TV has also done a series of interviews to explain what the 2-G scam is all about,with Cho Ramaswamy,Subramanian Swamy and Nirmala Sitharaman as guests on the show.

Watching weathervanes

The DMK is on the defensive not just over the spectrum scam,but also because of its failure to protect the interests of the Sri Lankan Tamils. The Manmohan Singh government did not even protest when the Tamil version of the Sri Lankan national anthem was dropped recently. While the Congress high command believes that it has no option but to align with its longstanding ally,the DMK,for the assembly elections next year,the party cadres are unhappy to be associated with a party that has become a byword for corruption,particularly when the DMK has not shared the spoils with its ally. Political observers are waiting to see which way the ever flip-flopping DMK goes. Despite aligning with the DMK,Anbumani Ramadoss was not given a Rajya Sabha nomination. Popular actor Vijayakanth is unlikely to have anything to do with the DMK. He has incurred major financial losses because of the state government,which even appropriated his wedding hall in Chennai,which he used to hire out daily for a fat fee.

Minister away from home

Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri has not been seen in the Capital ever since he came to Delhi to distribute cards for his son’s wedding. Alagiri’s last appearance at a Cabinet meeting was several months ago,when the Bhopal gas tragedy follow-up prosecution was discussed. Alagiri’s prolonged absence does not seem to have affected the functioning of his ministries. Files are sent to Madurai every week with an attendant and Alagiri signs them promptly and sends them back immediately. A hike in fertiliser prices has been kept on hold till after the assembly election.