Name dropping bahu

When Home Minister L.K. Advani’s son Jayant married Gauri Sabharwal, a glamourous lawyer and daughter of a journalist, in 1991 it was the wedding of the season. The who’s who of Delhi as well as hundreds of ordinary BJP workers attended the wedding reception at the Talkatora grounds. But the love story has a messy ending. Four years later, Gauri left her husband to settle in London where she practices law. The deserted groom pleaded through intermediaries for several years that she agree to a divorce by mutual consent since they were living apart. Finally, three months back Jayant filed a divorce suit in a Delhi matrimonial court making several serious charges.

Among the numerous documents he is relying on to prove his case is evidence that his estranged wife has been commercially exploiting his surname. Writing to several Government of India ministries and PSUs, Gauri has sought work for her firm in England. In her letters propositioning business, she invariably mentions the fact she is the home minister’s only daughter-in-law, though in fact she has had no contact with her in-laws for over six years.

Incidentally, the deputy high commissioner in London Hardeep Puri has recently filed a libel suit against Gauri in London for defamation. Puri’s contention is that she has falsely accused him of attempting to intimidate her into agreeing to a divorce. As a family friend of the Sabharwals he merely spoke to her on the subject. The Delhi police, meanwhile, has refused to file an FIR on the basis of Gauri’s complaint on the grounds that the alleged incident happened in London, not in Delhi.

Bare portfolio

As communications minister, Sushma Swaraj was an enthusiastic supporter of the convergence bill under which her then ministry was the nodal ministry for the new laws regarding communication technology. But as minister for information and broadcasting, Swaraj probably has a different view. If the bill, which was introduced in Parliament last session is passed, Swaraj will be left with a portfolio consisting of next to nothing. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s powers regarding licensing and granting permissions for channels to up link will pass onto Pramod Mahajan’s Communications Ministry. Besides, the Geethakrishnan expenditure reforms committee has already suggested that the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity and Field Publicity department should be wound up and the Press Information Bureau pared down drastically. This would effectively leave the I&B Ministry with nothing except broadcasting. And under the Prasar Bharati Act, Doordarshan and AIR are supposed to be independent of ministerial inference!

Job shortage

The two-year enhancement of the retirement age for government servants is not an unmixed blessing for the IAS. Senior officials empanelled for promotions in Delhi are feeling the pinch due to the shortage of vacant slots. Thanks to later retirements, those from earlier batches retain their posts for a longer period. The 1964 IAS batch, in which N.K. Singh is the best known face, were the biggest beneficiaries of the new rule. To date, placements for the 34 officers of the 1967 batch, who were empanelled as full secretaries some 18 months ago is still incomplete, even after an additional three special secretary posts have been artificially created. The 1968 batch empanelment from additional secretary to secretary is already a year behind schedule. As things stand those who joined the service after the age of 25 may never make it to full secretary.

Jumping the queue

One 1968 batch officer who is the envy of his contemporaries is Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who resigned from the service and fared much better than if he had remained in the top heavy bureaucracy. Gandhi was appointed a full secretary to President K.R. Narayanan at a time when his batch mates were not even additional secretaries. His present post as high commissioner to Sri Lanka and his next job as high commissioner to London are plum assignments, for which only very senior IFS officials can aspire. Contrary to the popular impression, Gandhi’s patron for the coveted London job, is not Narayanan, but former president R. Venkataraman with whom Gandhi had worked with when the former was vice president. Venkataraman is now close to the BJP government.

Changing equations

Political alliances in Tamil Nadu keep changing. Although P. Chidambaram has formed his own party, the CJP, his candidates will be fighting on the Congress symbol in the forthcoming panchayat poll. The Congress, meanwhile, is set to part company with the AIADMK, even as it’s ally the TMC is planning to hang onto Jayalalithaa’s sari pallu for the upcoming elections. With a split in the TMC-Congress alliance inevitable, nervous Congress leaders from the state are blaming Ghulam Nabi Azad for the mess. Azad, who is in charge of Tamil Nadu, alienated Moopanar’s son, Govindavasan Moopanar by contesting the TMC’s claim to the Rs 350-crore property belonging to the undivided Congress party in the state.

Azad was only acting at Sonia’s behest. The vibes between Jayalalithaa and Sonia have always been cold. Jayalalithaa is willing to support Govindavasan in getting elected to his father’s Rajya Sabha seat and she will put the state government’s might behind the TMC in the party property dispute.

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