Still in exile

The Hinduja brothers had petitioned the judge for the Bofors case that they be allowed to leave India on bail since their multi-million dollar business headquartered in London was suffering because of their long absence. But since their departure from India, the two Hinduja brothers, GP and SP, have avoided England and preferred to stay in Europe. It seems Tony Blair’s Labour Party, confident of winning the general elections, did not want any last minute bad publicity. It was feared that if the controversial brothers returned to London during this critical period the British media would have pursued them and focussed yet again on their embarrassing proximity to the powers that be in the Labour Party.

Incidentally, Ram Jethmalani’s indignant letter to the prime minister pleading for the Hindujas to be allowed to go abroad and giving them a legal clean chit in Bofors is indeed curious. It was Jethmalani after all who made a big issue of the mere fact that Solicitor General Soli Sorabjee happened to have given his legal opinion in a dispute between the Hindujas and the government over a power plant project.

His master’s choice

The strength of the PM’s media cell has halved with the departure of H K Dua and Kanchan Gupta. Consequently, the division of work is clearly defined and there is no heartburn over duplication. Ashok Tandon, the additional secretary in the PMO handles the media while Sudheendra Kulkarni looks after messages and speeches. It has been made clear to job seekers from the Sangh Parivar publications Panchajanya and the Organiser that there are really no vacancies in the PMO’s media cell.

The rise and rise of Kulkarni is noteworthy. An IIT graduate who started his career as a leftist ideologue writing for rabidly anti-BJP publications like Blitz, Kulkarni initially joined the PMO as a director level appointee in charge of research and telecommunication. He was recently promoted as an OSD with the joint secretary rank. Kulkarni writes most of the PM’s speeches and messages and some times doubles as the PM’s political emissary. Whether Vajpayee goes on holiday, an official trip or to the Breach Candy hospital, Kulkarni is usually by his side.

New look SP

Although Mulayam Singh Yadav’s lieutenant Amar Singh was vacationing in Spain with Amitabh Bachchan and Anil Ambani, his influence was unmistakable in the filmi and corporate touches at the People’s Front press conference to release the front’s common minimum programme. The huge white shamiana pitched on Mulayam’s lawn looked like a wedding marquee, the loud speakers blared filmi love songs like yeh reshmi zulfe, yeh sharbati ankhein and the food packets distributed to the media contained westernised goodies like pizzas and cup cakes rather than chivda mix and pakoras. All of which is at odds with the SP’s home spun and rustic image.

Still the anti-BJP, anti-Congress rhetoric was familiar, as it was espoused by the front in its earlier avatars as the National Front and the United Front. But while the minimum programme of the front, which includes the Left, Mulayam, V P Singh and Deve Gowda, reiterated anti-Congressism, a prominent member of the SP has been briefing newsmen that a tie-up with the Congress in the UP Assembly elections is on the cards.

Star struck

Before he left for Breach Candy hospital there was a private screening for Prime Minister Vajpayee of the Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan at the Information and Broadcasting ministry’s auditorium at Mahadev Road, Delhi. The audience was limited to the prime minister’s foster family, members of the PMO, the I&B Minister Sushma Swaraj and her family and a few close friends along with the film’s star cast. A day later, Home Minister L K Advani had a separate screening of the same film.

This time the auditorium was full as the guest list included Delhi’s Lt Governor V K Kapoor, police chief Ajai Sharma, Home Secretary Kamal Pandey as well as several journalists and politicians. Advani is a movie buff who was once the film critic for the Organiser magazine. Even Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha seems star-struck considering that before he left for the US for his operation he hosted a dinner for actors Shah Rukh Khan and Shatrughan Sinha, along with TV anchor Rajeev Shukla and his producer-wife Anuradha.

Still waiting

Whenever the PM is asked by ministerial hopefuls about a Cabinet expansion he smiles and assures the aspirant that he is keeping the person in mind. Naresh Aggarwal of the Loktantrik Congress, for instance, has been promised for the last one year that his party will get a ministerial berth. The LC has a valid claim. After all the Akali Dal with only two Lok Sabha seats has a cabinet minister and a governor, Ram Vilas Paswan’s two MP-strong group boasts of a cabinet minister and a minister of state and half the four-member strong MDMK have been made ministers. By this criteria, the Loktantrik Congress which has two Lok Sabha and two Rajya Sabha seats and keeps the BJP government afloat in UP is surely entitled to some ministerial representation.

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