Threat perception

PRIME Minister Vajpayee’s threat of resignation was not a spur of the moment offer. It has been at the back of his mind for some time and he expressed his desire to home minister L K Advani and foreign minister Jaswant Singh.

The immediate provocation may have been MPs’ criticism of the NDA government at the BJP parliamentary party and Sanjay Nirupam’s allegations about UTI. But what has pained the PM most is the knowledge that close associates of three BJP cabinet ministers have been frequently badmouthing him privately remarking that he was too old and too ill to function effectively and should step down.

The private secretary of a senior minister, the husband of a woman minister and a minister from the south who is gunning for Yashwant Sinha have been rubbishing the PM. So have some office bearers of the BJP and the RSS. The derogatory remarks about his age and health have travelled back to the Prime Minister. Vajpayee’s threat to step down was not an empty one meant merely to deflect criticism, but a cry from the heart. The next time the PM throws up his hands he probably will not take back his decision, those who know him well believe.

Border dispute

MOTILAL Vohra recently complained to the urban development minister Jagmohan on behalf of Sonia Gandhi that a section of the compound wall at 10 Janpath had collapsed. He pointed out that the Congress president’s next door neighbour was building unauthorised structures using the boundary wall for support. The CPWD sent a team to investigate and found the complaint valid. In the bargain they discovered that apart form the additions along the wall there were many other unauthorised structures. Demolition, however, may pose a problem, considering that the building is occupied by Jagmohan’s ministerial colleague, Ram Vilas Paswan, who will not take kindly to government action in his domain.

Making hay

WITH the government on a sticky wicket, the Janata Dal parivar is flexing its muscles. Recent advertisements issued by the ministries of railway, civil aviation and communications ministry display only the photographs of the respective ministers; Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. The customary photograph of the prime minister is usually missing. Taking advantage of the government’s weakness, the Samata’s Digvijay Singh sulked and threatened until he was given back his old railway portfolio. The media, while focussing on the Shiv Sena’s absence at the emergency NDA meet last week, failed to notice that the newest minister in the government Ajit Singh was not present.

Change of guard

FOLLOWING Sonia Gandhi’s recent visit to the USA there has been a major overhaul of the Congress’s NRI set-up. Kamal Dandona, an old friend of Rajiv Gandhi and Satish Sharma thanks to a common background in the airlines, who was in control of the Congress’s US chapter for nearly two decades has finally been removed. Dandona’s organisation the Indian National Congress of America has been replaced by the Indian National Overseas Congress whose president is Dr Surendra Malhotra. One of the secretaries is Thomas Zachariah, a nephew of Vincent George, who incidentally is accused by the CBI of utilising the services of his relatives abroad to justify his disproportionate assets in India.

Celebrity queue

SHABANA Azmi jumped the queue and was allotted a ministerial bungalow almost immediately after her nomination to the Rajya Sabha. But two others from Bollywood, Dilip Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar, have not been so fortunate and have been waiting for over a year for a house in New Delhi. A complaint of many Rajya Sabha MPs is that their housing committee chairman BJP MP Ved Prakash Goel spends most of his time in Mumbai and does not pursue their cases for government house vigorously. Another powerful MP who has been waiting for long is the Lok Tantrik Congress’s Rajiv Shukla.

PS from Tashkent

IN the hype over the Agra summit, a postscript from the Tashkent summit which came to light recently has been ignored. In an interview to journalist Sheela Bhatt, Lal Bahadur Shastri’s son Anil disclosed a well kept family secret. When the family received Shastri’s personal effects they found inside his spectacle case a note to his wife in Hindi saying, ‘‘Lalita they have betrayed me.’’ In the interests of national harmony, Shastri’s widow had decided at that time to keep his last missive secret.Passing on the load
YASHWANT Sinha announced in his budget speech that there was to be a five per cent service tax on television channels, but Prasar Bharati had blithely assumed that as a public broadcasting channel it would be exempt. But when a clarification was sought, the finance ministry made it clear that Doordarshan too was included. Still hoping for a reprieve, the public broadcaster asked for an opinion from the law ministry. Unfortunately, the latter did not come to its rescue. Left with no alternative, DD has decided to meet the additional burden by passing on the cess to its private producers, who are naturally fuming. After all DD’s rates for sponsored programmes were hiked only recently.

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