VRS bait for Vajpayee

The latest name being circulated for the post of president of India is that of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The sangh parivar and hardliners in the BJP see this as the ideal solution to pave the way for L K Advani to take over as leader of the BJP and NDA and ensure that the BJP’s own agenda is finally implemented. They don’t seem to have grasped the stark reality that the question is not after Vajpayee, who, but rather after Gujarat, how much longer can Vajpayee himself hold out. Vajpayee, however, refused to bite the retirement bait when the suggestion was put to him by a retired elder statesman.

Incidentally, aspirants for the posts of president and vice president are keeping an eagle eye on President K R Narayanan’s health chart to see whether the 82-year-old incumbent will stymie their chances by offering himself for a second term. The fact that a delegation of opposition leaders who called on Narayanan recently had to walk up to his residential quarters since he was too frail to meet them in his office and that Narayanan delivered his address at the start of the Parliament session sitting down, was duly noted.

One cap that fits

At informal functions, CBI director P C Sharma is often seen sporting a round hat which looks similar to the old fashioned cloth peak cap of the legendary fictitious sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Since Sharma has the same tall, gangly frame as the Holmes stereotype, most people assume that the cap is part of the sleuth’s attempt to identify with Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero. In fact, the resemblance is purely coincidental. Sharma is from the North-east IPS cadre and while he was posted in Mizoram, he took a fancy to the traditional tribal cane hat, which he has been wearing ever since.

Untraced leak

The CBI has taken nearly four years to file a chargesheet under the Official Secrets Act against three officials from the Reliance group. Since there has been no progress in investigations after the Delhi police registered the case in 1998 and handed it over to the CBI, the delay is curious. After all these years the CBI has even failed to discover who from the government’s side leaked 37 secret government documents to the company officials, though it suspects that the documents were faxed from the communication ministry and the finance ministry’s revenue department. Part of the blame for the delay in registering the case lay with the law ministry which took over a year to vet the file and give its approval.

Socialist socialite

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav was so anxious for the parliamentary debate on POTO to be concluded that he got the joint session of Parliament to agree to cancel the last eight listed speakers so that he and his fellow MPs could make it in time for Amar Singh’s mammoth birthday party for his twin daughters. The party was the last word in opulence and vulgarity, with photo blow-ups of the babies placed on the Taj Palace driveway and the hotel’s four convention halls and two lawns brimming with 4,000 odd guests. If Singh’s extravaganza last year was considered insensitive since it was held just after the Gujarat earthquake, this year’s celebrations seems equally ill-timed coming in the wake of Gujarat’s communal carnage.

Still, if Mulayam’s lieutenant’s flashy lifestyle is a handicap for a party which advertises samajwadi in its name, the SP leader can at least take comfort from his 28-year-old MP son Akhilesh’s modest mannerisms and grassroot concerns. Akhilesh has the statistics of the UP assembly poll results at his fingertips. He notes that though the BSP put up more Muslim candidates — 84 as opposed to 54 — the SP has more Muslim MLAs, 24 to BSP’s 12. He is quick to point out that the party has broadened its base in this election. Of SP’s 142 MLAs, only 21 are Yadavs, 50 are from upper castes and eight are women.

George to the rescue

Perhaps the softening of the Congress MPs in the Rajya Sabha towards Defence Minister George Fernandes by lifting the boycotting of him during question hour is linked to the recent communal violence in Gujarat. Opposition MPs found the Samata Party leaders far more helpful during the crisis than the Advani-led home ministry. Gujarat Congress MP Ahmed Patel was with Digvijay Singh, Minister of State (Railways), for several hours at the start of the disturbances. Many an SOS from Gujarat received by Ahmed were forwarded by Singh to Fernandes who was monitoring troop movements in the state.

Wrong target

Narendra Modi has lambasted English newspapers and satellite television channels for faithfully reporting the violence in Gujarat and highlighting the administration’s dubious role. Curiously, neither he nor the Press Council has taken objection to some of the inflammatory headlines and false reports put out by the Gujarati language press. A lead story in a Gujarati newspaper built up Hindu hysteria by quoting an unnamed IB source asserting that that hajis returning to Gujarat had hatched a conspiracy to retaliate. An article on Godhra claimed falsely that provocative slogans were raised in a Godhra mosque.

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