Moving out

Singapore is fast becoming a temporary home to several Indians who hold clear cut pro or anti nuclear deal positions. Both Rajiv Sikri and S.D. Muni, who have strong reservations to the deal, are moving to Singapore. The Indian High Commissioner S. Jaishankar was a key member of the negotiating team for the deal. And now the PM's media adviser Sanjaya Baru, obviously a pro-deal man, is leaving in August to take up a two-year teaching and research assignment at the Lee Yuan Kew School of Public Policy in Singapore. Meanwhile, B.V.R. Subramaniam, the prime minister's personal secretary, is joining the World Bank.

During Vajpayee's regime as well, some of his personal staff relocated towards the end of his regime. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was once an economic adviser to Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, had himself joined the UGC after the fall of the government.

Secret disapproval

There are muffled murmurs of disapproval in the Sangh Parivar over L.K. Advani's six-year-old secret of having been in regular touch with the Pakistani ambassador when he was home minister. Advani let the cat half out of the bag by taking credit in his autobiography for suggesting that Pervez Musharraf be called to India. He explained that he had been in close touch with a Pakistani diplomat using the well-known media personality Karan Thapar as the intermediary. This encouraged Thapar to tell the complete story. He wrote an article recalling how he had accompanied former Pakistani ambassador Ashraf Qazi on clandestine visits to Advani's residence more than 20 times. (The MEA does not seem to have been kept in the loop, though Vajpayee and Brajesh Mishra were perhaps aware of the meetings.) Thapar recalls that Advani had tears in his eyes when bidding farewell to Ashraf, who was asked to leave the country after the attack on the Indian Parliament. Some in the BJP feel Advani should have reserved his tears for those gunned down in Parliament. BJP president Rajnath Singh, who is riled by Advani's attempts to undermine his authority, is looking for Advani's Achilles heel. Recently, Singh was affronted when Advani presided over a key meeting at the party headquarters without the party president, even though Singh had sent word to wait for him as his flight back to Delhi had got slightly delayed.

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