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Newsnotes
 Bhopal: Flagged Down
Bhopal: For Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, the
Independence Day proceedings turned out to be
embarrassing as he took the salute at Bhopal's police
grounds. To begin with, the national flag on the jeep in
which he inspected the parade was mounted upside down. Of
course, this wasn't the first time that the state police
had committed such a faux pas. Three years ago, during
former President Shankar Dayal Sharma's visit to Bhopal,
a similar incident at the airport was brought to his
notice by journalists. But for Digvijay, trouble did not
end with the inverted flag. Before he could unfurl the
tricolour, the policeman holding the strings
inadvertently gave it a tug and unfurled the flag. The
glorious moment having slipped out of his hands, all
Digvijay could do was to ask his police chief to fix
responsibility for the goof-ups.
Bhopal: Stickler for
Rules
In the 45 months that he has been in office,
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has mastered
the art of neutralising his detractors. But suddenly he
finds himself having to fend off attacks from the state's
newly appointed Lok Ayukta, Justice Faizanuddin. Irked by
the chief minister's attempts to protect his ministers
and senior officers, Faizanuddin has called for making
the recommendations of the Lok Ayukta binding on the
state Government.
What sparked off the confrontation was Digvijay's
disallowal of the prosecution of Deputy Chief Minister
Pyarelal Kanwar and Cooperatives and Agriculture Minister
Bisahu Ram Yadav after the Lok Ayukta held them guilty of
allotment of 23 lakh sq ft of residential and commercial
land to a private party for only Rs 16 lakh.The BJP, the
principal opposition party, has backed the Lok Ayukta in
his battle against the executive. But Faizanuddin is
likely to ruffle a few more feathers with his
pronouncement that he would tour the entire state to gear
up the Lok Ayukta machinery. "I want the Lok Ayukta
to gain credibility among the people as an effective and
cheap way of controlling corruption," he says. If he
sticks to his word, the "corrupt" politicians
and bureaucrats can no more afford to be complacent about
their activities.
Bangalore: Nailing a
Loyalist
The shadow of Ramakrishna Hegde continues to haunt the
Janata Dal in Karnataka. The latest casualty is Higher
Education Minister B. Somashekar, 46 -- considered a
Hegde loyalist -- who offered his resignation last week
after Chief Minister J.H. Patel ordered a judicial probe
into a case of copying against him. Four months ago,
Somashekar's detractors claimed he was caught copying in
the ll.b exam held by the Bangalore University in 1978.
Though the charge was upheld by Vice-Chancellor N.R.
Shetty, an inquiry by Principal Secretary, Education, H.
Nagaraja Shetty, absolved Somashekar, who was
horticulture minister in the Hegde ministry in 1985.
"I've been made a scapegoat in this game of
politics. The document nailing me is fabricated,"
says Somashekar, a crowd-puller in his Malavalli reserved
seat, which falls under the Kanakapura Lok Sabha
constituency, represented by former prime minister H.D.
Deve Gowda's son H.D. Kumaraswamy. It may get trickier
for Patel if an Upper House report, to be submitted on
August 25, also exonerates Somashekar.
Chandigarh: Nosy Neighbour
The problems of a large ministry continue to dog
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal even a month
after the cabinet expansion. At the end of a virtual
scramble among the 23 new entrants for official
accommodation, eight ministers -- three of cabinet rank
and five ministers of state -- still find themselves
"homeless". Nothing perhaps illustrates the
shortage of official accommodation as former chief
minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal's refusal to move out of
the house adjacent to Badal's own. That Badal wants one
of his senior ministers to reside next to him is only
understandable. The chief minister is also piqued that
his political bete noire, staying next door, gets ample
opportunity to snoop around and find out the goings on in
his own house. As a Badal aide says, Bhattal has begun
"poaching" on visitors waiting for an audience
with the chief minister at his residence. Some time ago,
Badal had asked Bhattal to look for a private house and
even said that the Government was willing to pay up to Rs
30,000 as rent for any private premises of her liking.
But the tough customer that she is, Bhattal is unlikely
to budge, especially when it comes to the elusive
official accommodation in Chandigarh.
Chandigarh: Goodwill Drive
Once so generous with their pounds and dollars,
nri Sikhs have of late been turning their backs on the
Akalis in Punjab. Some are even openly hostile. Last
month, for instance, pro-Khalistan supporters booed three
visiting senior Akali Dal leaders -- Cabinet Ministers
Captain Kanwaljit Singh and Ranjit Singh Brahampura and
Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal -- out of a gurudwara in
Southall, UK. Stunned by the hostility, the Akalis are
now initiating steps to placate foreign-based Sikhs and
isolate inimical extremist groups by amendingthe Tenancy
Act. Grabbing of the NRIs' land has always been a
thriving racket in the state. The proposed amendment, to
be passed in the next session of the Assembly, would
treat the nris at par with ex-servicemen in providing
legal protection to their properties. The Akalis know
that to counter the growing extremist ideology in foreign
lands -- and revive the cash flow -- they'll have to
humour the non-residents in every way they can.
Guwahati: Shot in the Dark
The Army's propaganda machine in Assam often
shows a lot of imagination but very little common sense.
Recently a poster appeared at the Guwahati railway
station carrying photographs of ULFA leaders making merry
in foreign countries using the money their cadres had
collected. The text, however, was a giveaway. One
Assamese daily pointed out that in the 13 lines there
were 12 spelling and grammatical errors which only a
non-Assamese could have made. To make matters worse, one
jawan was reportedly overheard telling another that
whoever tried to remove the poster would be taken to
task.
This isn't the first time the Army has misfired. A few
months ago, it claimed to have discovered the diary of a
"notorious ISI operative" Rasool. Some of the
entries in the diary, however, made hilarious reading.
Rasool's "hit-list", for instance, had names
with the suffix "saheb" -- which the Army's
rank and file usually reserve for their superiors. Chief
Minister P.K. Mahanta did not get to see the Rasool diary
in the original, after asking for it. As for the Army, it
would now rather not have publicised the seizure.
Lucknow: A Vote for Rabri
Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi seems to have
found an unlikely ally in Samajwadi Party (SP) chief
Mulayam Singh Yadav, the man who can't see eye-to-eye
with her husband Laloo Prasad Yadav. Speaking to the
media in Lucknow recently, the Union defence minister
went to great lengths to defend the anpadh (illiterate)
woman chief minister. I like rural women because they
know the value of water; it is they who bear the brunt of
price rise and inflation, lectured the
schoolteacher-turned-politician, adding that there was a
need to educate "illiterate politicians". And
to further illustrate his point, the sp chief said that
whenever he called a meeting of women party workers and
office-bearers in the districts, invariably it was their
husbands who turned up. Mulayam's concern for the rural
Rabris may be politically correct, but given his
involvement in controversies like the Ayurveda scam and
the infamous state guest house episode, media circles in
Lucknow are speculating whether the SP chief is preparing
the ground for doing a Rabri Devi in Uttar Pradesh.
Lucknow: Double Rebuff
Twice bitten, but still not shy. Samajwadi Party (SP)
chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is not giving up yet on his
campaign against the BSP-BJP combine in Uttar Pradesh --
despite two rebuffs in just one week. One of them came
from none other than his party workers. The indefinite
statewide 'jail bharo' agitation Mulayam launched on
August 13 -- to draw the attention of the Centre to the
"misuse of the Harijan Act against SP workers and
repression of his supporters" -- has flopped
miserably. In the last five months, Mulayam has
repeatedly charged Chief Minister Mayawati with
"organised persecution" of his party workers.
He claims more than 200 of his partymen have been killed
and 90,000 arrested on fabricated charges. On the first
day of the agitation, hardly 3,000 SP workers courted
arrest in the entire state. In Lucknow the figure was 68,
and in Etawah, Mulayam's hometown, less than 100.
The other snub, too, was no less severe, with former
prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda withdrawing his call for
launching a hunger strike in Lucknow in support of the SP
agitation. The volte face came soon after Mayawati
explained to him that she was helpless because most of
the arrested criminals belonged to the SP. "Now the
agitation will be launched full steam after September
1," said a visibly upset Mulayam in Lucknow.
"All the 20 party MPs will lead the agitation in
different parts of the state." Desperation, it would
appear, also teaches fortitude.
New Delhi: A Full House
The grand occasion of the midnight session of
Parliament on August 14-15, infused MPs with an
enthusiasm hitherto unseen. Even those used to strolling
into the House well after Question Hour begins, were
rooted to their seats much before the show began. While
invitations were meant strictly for MPs and ex-MPs, many
of them trooped in with family and friends, leading to a
shortage of chairs. Yet, a packed Central Hall was
decorum personified. And when celebrity invitees Lata
Mangeshkar and Bhimsen Joshi entered, the MPs behaved
like schoolchildren, pointing out their idols to those
with them. The heady proceedings and Lata's Saare jahan
se achcha had the audience transfixed. So much so that
when Bhimsen Joshi started his inspiring Vande Mataram,
the awe-struck MPs had to be alerted by Leader of the
Opposition Atal Bihari Vajpayee to stand up.
New Delhi: Tiger's Stripes
Old habits die hard. Especially when it comes to
'Tiger' Joginder Singh. Even after being shunted out of
the high-profile job of CBI director, the man's penchant
for publicity and affinity for politicians, especially
former prime ministers, remains undiminished. At a tea
party hosted by the President recently, Joginder was
spotted with hands folded and almost crouching in front
of V.P. Singh. And instead of the usual pleasantries
about his health and well-being, the former CBI chief
tried to remind the Raja of Manda that he used to be in
the Commerce Ministry when Singh was prime minister and
that he had sent him notes on how to end corruption.
"Do you remember me," is what the Tiger
apparently wanted to know. Singh's reply was cool and
typical. With a shrug of his shoulders he quipped that
there were few who didn't know Tiger. Especially the one
who hasn't changed his stripes, one might add.
 New Delhi: Train to Power
Sitaram Kesri seems to have found the ideal
vehicle for reviving the Congress. After his train ride
to Calcutta for the party's plenary session, the old man
in a hurry now wants to weave through other parts of the
country. The special train will have six to eight bogies,
take Kesri wherever he wants to go and allow him to
interact with grassroots workers and the public at
wayside stations. And since the journey would entail a
retinue of cheerleaders and TV crews on board, the
treasurer in Kesri has done some quick calculations to
conclude that hiring a train is cheaper than flying, and
definitely more comfortable than driving by road.
Besides, the cheerleaders would be assuring company at
stations where the turnout is poor. Whatever the
arithmetic, Kesri's brainwave stems from the fact that a
team of visiting doctors from Houston recently advised
him to minimise air travel.
--HARINDER BAWEJA, JAVED
M ANSARI, BHARAT DESAI, SUBHASH MISHRA, RAMESH VINAYAK,
MANOJ JOSHI, STEPHEN DAVID, AVIROOK SEN and M G
RADHAKRISHNAN
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