Who’s in charge?

NEITHER Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra nor Cabinet Secretary T R Prasad held the customary pre-summit co-ordination meeting to oversee the preparations for Musharraf’s visit. Obviously both senior officials were unclear about their roles. For this summit Prime Minister Vajpayee has entrusted most of the responsibility to Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and Home Minister L K Advani, which is a rather shrewd move because if the summit succeeds Vajpayee will get the credit, if it fails Advani cannot point an accusing finger.

The normally very visible George Fernandes, Pramod Mahajan and Farooq Abdullah are out of the summit loop. Farooq, who has just returned from a holiday in England, is busy explaining that he is deliberately keeping in the background since if the talks do not progress smoothly he will be accused of putting a spanner in the works. Actually Farooq is keen to move out of the problematic valley and pass on the mantle to his son Omar, which is why he is lobbying hard to be made vice president of India, even though Najma Heptullah, Karan Singh and P C Alexander are also contenders.

Wedding blues

BEFORE his dismissal as UTI chairman, P S Subramanyam was heard saying that if he went down so would many others in high places. After all many of the dud share purchases made by UTI were at the behest of some senior persons in government or those close to them who contacted Subramanyam on his cell phone. But after Subramanyam’s exit, he has maintained a discreet silence. Perhaps it is because a government agency has been inquiring about the glittering wedding of Subramanyam’s daughter in Mumbai this April. Share scamster Ketan Parekh and the heads of numerous corporate houses, whose company shares were bought in bulk by UTI, attended the lavish wedding gifts included two diamond necklaces.

Neighbourly nudge

THOUGH DD officials would now like to pin the blame on the MEA, Doordarshan lost the opportunity to telecast Dileep Padgaonkar’s interview with Musharraf simply because it could not take a decision whether or not it wanted to carry it. Zee, which already had the Urdu rights, took advantage of DD’s confusion to acquire the main interview in English as well. DD woke up from its slumber only after its own would-be-interviewer Mrinal Pande was denied permission to go to Pakistan. Even the DD crew was granted visas at the last moment after every other TV channel, including its sister organisation AIR, had left. Pakistani high commissioner Ashraf Qazi was irritated with DD since he had presumed that Padgaonkar’s interview was meant for the national channel and was irked that it was sold instead to Zee which is considered not too friendly to Pakistan.

Miffed by the preferential treatment to AIR, DD instigated the MEA to pull up the DG AIR, Harish Awasthi by making out a case that it was soft on Pakistan. (Actually AIR correspondents were merely doing a professional job by getting quotes from Pakistan’s official spokesman, while DD lazily relied on wire news). It helps that the ADG DD Deepak Sandhu and the MEA spokesman, Nirupama Rao happen to be neighbours in Ravindra Nagar.

Virtual launches

WHY was Doordarshan’s website inaugurated for the fifth time last week? It was officially declared open the day before the budget, then on budget day DD flashed the news that the portal had opened with hundreds of hits. At the beginning of June the additional director general DD Deepak Sandhu declared the soft launch of the portal and distributed ladoos. A week later CEO Anil Baijal presided over yet another inauguration. Last week the media was invited to witness the president of e-business Satyam Infoways launch the portal. Significantly both the minister Sushma Swaraj and the CEO Baijal were missing.

The launch in the glare of publicity appears to have done with an eye on ensuring that Satyam is reimbursed Rs 2.5 crore for setting up the portal. The CEO has been reluctant to clear the bill since he felt, with justification, that the web site was not properly functional.

Punishment or reward

A SEARCH is on to find successors to the UP DG of police M C Dwivedi and the DG of the NSG Nikhil Kumar, who are due to retire at the end of the month. Dwivedi’s replacement is of special concern to the government with the crucial UP assembly elections around the corner. The problem is that the two UP cadre police officers next in line, Trinath Mishra head of the CRPF and Ajai Raj Sharma Delhi police commissioner are anxious to remain where they are. However, the four contenders for Sharma’s job in Delhi are lobbying hard that he be rewarded for his good work in the Capital and dispatched to Lucknow.

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