Opinion Conciliatory chief

Staying on

Rajesh Prasad,India’s former deputy high commissioner in London,was transferred to Switzerland as Ambassador in June last year. The news was even posted on the MEA’s official website. But after waiting for months to move to Bern,Prasad has finally returned to Delhi since the incumbent ambassador in Bern,Chitra Narayanan,has refused to relinquish charge. Narayanan was due to retire in August last year but remains reluctant to move out. Prasad has now got a fresh posting,to Amsterdam. The MEA is reportedly against the special treatment shown to Narayanan,who has got an unprecedented number of extensions,ostensibly on health grounds,but it is helpless in view of Narayanan’s clout with the powers that be. She is the daughter of former president K R Narayanan.

Isolated in Goa

The main scene of action at the BJP’s National Executive in Goa was the Marriott Hotel,where the convention was held and where most party leaders,including Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi,had rooms. Even Ananth Kumar’s secret parleys,in a last-ditch attempt to stall Modi’s appointment,were held at the Marriott. Sushma Swaraj remained slightly isolated at the Taj Fort Aguada and Nitin Gadkari at the Siddharth Hotel. L K Advani miscalculated in assuming that by failing to show up at Goa he could stall the announcement of Modi’s appointment as chairman of the party’s campaign committee. Advani’s supporters,including Ananth Kumar and Swaraj,tried to delay the formal announcement of Modi’s elevation on the ground that it was not respectful to do so in Advani’s absence,but party president Rajnath Singh did not agree. In fact,some party leaders were so enthusiastic about Modi’s nomination that Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar wondered why the party was going in for half measures and did not simply appoint Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.

Moves,counter moves

It was made out by his supporters that L K Advani’s letter of resignation was partly to protest against the RSS’s sway over the BJP. But in trying to combat the NaMo effect,Advani himself wanted a section of the RSS to bat for him. That’s why he recommended that Nitin Gadkari be made chairperson of a parallel election management panel. This was not out of any great fondness for Gadkari. (Advani had,in fact,played a part in ousting Gadkari as party president.) Advani named him because a powerful group in Nagpur was sympathetic towards Gadkari. Advani’s prime target in the RSS is Suresh Soni,who liaises between the RSS and BJP,and RSS nominee and BJP general secretary Ram Lal. He felt that the two men encouraged Rajnath Singh to remain resolute in installing Modi. But so unrelenting was the RSS high command that BJP leaders visiting Advani to placate him were given strict instructions that no compromise formula was to be offered. Advani took back his resignation letter after his supporters requested RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to speak to him.

Sitting pretty

A K Antony now holds the record for being India’s longest serving Defence Minister. He has held the portfolio for six years and nine months without a break. In comparison,Jagjivan Ram served for six years and eight months with two breaks. V K Krishna Menon,also a Keralite,served as defence minister for four years and seven months. His term was cut short by the 1962 Indo-China debacle.

Curious omission

Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor had dedicated his book Pax Indica,which was released in 2012,to his wife Sunanda. “To my wife Sunanda who is the love of my life and the life of my love”,he wrote in the foreword. But in the paperback edition of the book,set to appear later this year,the dedication has been removed. Tharoor and his wife were once regulars on the Capital’s social scene. But partygoers in Delhi have noticed that for the past few months,the minister appears solo at book release functions and other dos. Sunanda is reportedly away in Dubai.