Governing policy

POLITICIANS, accustomed to considering appointments as governors part of the perks of their profession in later years, are disturbed to find that retired bureaucrats and policemen have muscled into their preserve. Today the majority of 28 governors is from outside the political fraternity. After the recent appointment of the governors of Tamil Nadu and Nagaland, there are now six IPS officers as governor, seven former officials, including five from the IAS, three retired generals and two former judges. In contrast there are only 10 politician governors.

The central government alone cannot be blamed for the changing trend. Even the majority of state governments feel more comfortable with non-politicians. Thus when Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa was given the choice of Surjit Singh Barnala or former Andhra Pradesh director general of police Ramamohan Rao, she plumped for the latter even though his career record is distinctly uninspiring. Actually, IPS officers are as upset as the politicians over the latest gubernatorial appointments, particularly a high profile retired home ministry official who thought he was eminently qualified for a governor’s job.

Back in the picture

AT the Agra summit Brajesh Mishra remained in the background, but at Kathmandu he re-emerged as a major player. The Prime Minister’s principal secretary was seen talking at length to Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar in one corner during the SAARC proceedings and was even captured by a photographer handing over some documents to Sattar. Mishra’s major contribution was the last minute additions to Vajpayee’s speech in which the Prime Minister responded stiffly to General Musharraf’s offer of a handshake. Copies of Vajpayee’s speech at the SAARC opening were made available to the media a day earlier. The prepared text was drafted by the Ministry of External Affairs and reflected foreign minister Jaswant Singh’s diplomatic style: cautious and with only oblique references to Pakistan’s perfidy.

Musharraf was not mentioned by name but referred to simply as a colleague from South Asia. In contrast, Mishra’s handwritten last minute additions in response to Musharraf’s theatrical gesture were blunt and hard hitting. It was Mishra’s additions rather than the main speech which were reported at length in the newspapers.

Outlawing in-laws

THE legal notice in newspapers disassociating himself from his father Rajinder and his brother Richard is not the first time that Robert Vadra has used the media to proclaim his domestic dilemma. Over a year ago Priyanka Gandhi’s husband disclosed to the newspapers that a consignment of his goods which had been exported to Italy had been stolen while on the road by armed thieves.

Many in the Congress are puzzled by Vadra’s public denouncement of his family since a slap on their wrists would have been enough to set them right, if indeed they were really at fault. After all, others such as Ottavio Quattrocchi, Satish Sharma, R K Dhawan and Vincent George have milked the Gandhi connection to their own financial advantage and no one censured them publicly. Incidentally, Rahul Gandhi, minus his attractive Columbian girl friend, is back in Delhi.

Mind your manners

IN an age when openness and cordiality is the norm in press relations, the Ministry of External Affairs continues to dissemble and adopt an unnecessarily strident tone. When CNN first reported that the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers had met in private, the Indian media handlers were quick to rubbish the news and describe it as ‘‘bakwaas’’ and ‘‘a plant by the Pakistanis.’’ But soon afterwards the truth of the meeting was corroborated by independent sources. The Indian spokespersons, however, refused to withdraw the denial but simply altered their statement to claim that ‘‘no serious and substantive talks’’ had taken place.

At a press conference on the eve of the SAARC conference, the MEA spokesperson Nirupama Rao refused to permit a Pakistani journalist to put a question to her, asserting that the Indian news briefings were meant exclusively for the Indian media. However, foreign minister Jaswant Singh had a different view, especially when he found a thin attendance at his first press conference in Kathmandu and discovered that it was because the foreign media had been kept out. Singh instructed that the rule excluding the foreign press be changed immediately. At subsequent press conferences by the Indians, Pakistani journalists were allowed to pose all the questions they wanted.

Not the doctor’s orders

LAST week Prime Minister Vajpayee met a delegation of TDP ministers at his residence. The bearer served fried pakoras, idlis and vadas to the guests in the conference room, but did not offer any refreshments to the Prime Minister since he had obviously been instructed by the PM’s doctor that he should not tempt Vajpayee with fattening food. The PM did not take kindly to the omission and ordered the waiter to serve him as well. ‘‘Aare bhai mehman ke samne mera apman karte ho.’’ (‘‘You insult me in front of my guests.’’) And the PM helped himself to three pakoras and two idlis unmindful of the doctors’s orders.

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