Blow hot, blow cold

A DAY after the Prime Minister made a pitch for peace in his Musings-Part II on New Year’s eve, Home minister L K Advani took a diametrically opposite line at a dinner for editors and senior mediapersons hosted by Sushma Swaraj on January 1. The New Year’s day party was a last-minute affair. Swaraj played hostess urging her guests to sample the menu, while Advani did most of the talking. He indicated that though he had gone along with a call for restraint he would personally like to see a proactive policy on terrorism.

Did this mean a division in the Cabinet, particularly as only Advani, George Fernandes and Swaraj were present at the dinner and foreign minister Jaswant Singh, who is seen as toeing the American line, conspicuously staying away?

According to party seniors, Advani was simply following Vajpayee’s instructions. A few days earlier when the PM met the Opposition some of them felt the government’s handling of the media on the issue of terrorism was inadequate. Vajpayee suggested to his brains trust of Advani, Fernandes and Jaswant that they meet to decide how to tackle the media. The dinner was the outcome. But did the PM bargain that the message conveyed at the dinner party was very different from his musings? Or did he have second thoughts about his own musings penned by his speech writer, Sudheendra Kulkarni?

Not so friendly

THERE are major misgivings among the NDA allies over the BJP hogging more than its fair share of seats in the coming UP assembly election. Already Maneka Gandhi has registered her own party, the Shakti Dal, and plans to contest around a dozen seats in the Terai belt, since the BJP has offered her a mere two seats from her Pilibhit parliamentary constituency. The so-called friendly contests with its allies are likely to dog the BJP in other parts of the state as well since Ajit Singh, Om Prakash Chautala, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav and the Lok Tantric Dal all believe that the BJP is grabbing the lion’s share of seats.

The uncharacteristically tough and belligerent tone adopted by
the state BJP chief Kalraj Mishra has ruffled many feathers in the UP NDA leadership. Either Mishra has got carried away by the notoriously unreliable UP local intelligence units painting a rosy picture or else he is going out of his way to create trouble for his party rival, chief minister Rajnath Singh.

FM’s proposals disposed

IT was a minor request, but Finance minister Yashwant Sinha refused to sign the file permitting retiring chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, O P Srivastava to retain his official car for an extra week. It wasn’t that Sinha didn’t want to oblige, but he expressed his misgivings that every time he makes a proposal on a file the Prime Minister’s Office rebuffs it and humiliates him. Sinha was peeved because he had requested a three-month extension for Srivastava till after the budget but the PMO turned it down.

Earlier, Sinha wanted revenue secretary, S Narayanan, transferred from his ministry, but he continues at the PMO’s insistence.

Since Sinha’s order about providing Srivastava a car was given orally no additional vehicle could be requisitioned and the new chairman, K P Sarma, had to use his private car to come to work.

Favoured candidate

WITH V K Shunglu due to retire in February, the race is on for the powerful post of Comptroller and Auditor General of India. A short list of some 25 IAS and IAAS officers has been prepared. Civil Aviation secretary A H Jung seems to have special clout. The President K R Narayanan has specifically recommended his case while suggesting that the CAG should be selected from the audits and accounts cadre (IAAS) and not from the IAS. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu also seems to have a soft corner for Jung, whose ministry cleared the proposal to set up an international airport at Hyderabad.

A group of secretaries headed by Jung even mooted the suggestion that the cost of the airport be defrayed with a surcharge levy of Rs 200 for all Indian passengers and Rs 675 for all foreign passengers who are flying out of Hyderabad.

The finance ministry has, however, rejected the suggestion, ruling that a uniform policy has to be applied and no one state could be thus favoured.

Birthday blues

SHIV Sena chief Bal Thackeray wrote to Prime Minister Vajpayee requesting him not to attend the birthday celebrations of rival NCP leader Sharad Pawar in Mumbai as it would send the wrong signal. Vajpayee went anyway and an infuriated Thackeray ordered his MPs to stay away from Parliament in protest.

Meanwhile, Ramakrishna Hegde has registered his protest by resigning as chairman of the Indo-French joint commission. Hegde was made chairman with Cabinet rank to compensate for his non-inclusion in the Cabinet. Despite reminders he was not provided any staff or office space. The last straw was the PM attending Pawar’s bash while staying away along with the rest of the BJP from Hegde’s own birthday celebration in Bangalore a few months earlier.

Earlier Columns