Newsnotes
Chandigarh: Cash and Carry
How much does Rs 51 lakh in currency notes weigh? The comeback bid of former Punjab
chief minister Harcharan Singh Brar -- expelled from the Congress after his last minute
refusal to fight the assembly elections earlier this year -- could rest on this slim fact.
The party wants him to explain what happened to a Rs 51 lakh thailli (purse) presented to
him in 1995 by leaders of the Doaba region in gratitude for declaring Nawanshahar a new
district. Brar has admitted to receiving the purse but contends that it contained only Rs
1.5 lakh. The weight of the thailli could clinch the dispute either way. The agitated
contributors insist the thailli was so heavy -- which it would be if it contained more
than half a crore of rupees -- that it had to be carried in a gunny bag by three men. Brar
is hard pressed to present counter evidence. No wonder, rival and PCC chief Rajinder Kaur
Bhattal is elated: "Unless Brar accounts for the thailli, his return to the Congress
is out of the question."
Chandigarh: Seven-month Itch
Despite their made-for-each-other posturings, the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance in
Punjab is experiencing a seven month itch. One major irritant for the BJP is the Akalis'
efforts to please Prime Minister I.K. Gujral after he promised to waive Punjab's Rs 4,900
crore debt to the Centre. Jittery over the Union Finance Ministry's delay in issuing a
formal waiver order, the Parkash Singh Badal Government is shrewdly trying to ensure
Gujral's commitment to his decision.
The Akalis are organising a grand public function to honour Gujral on October 17 at
Jalandhar, his home town. They have also offered to vacate the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat to
ensure that Gujral continues in South Block after his Rajya Sabha term expires early next
year. Though it was an off-the-cuff offer by an exuberant Akali Dal spokesman, it was
enough to raise the BJP's hackles. "Honouring Gujral is okay, but to bail him out
politically will go against the spirit of the Akali Dal-BJP alliance," says a state
BJP leader.
Madan Lal Khurana, BJP leader in charge of Punjab affairs, was quick to buzz Badal and
later scoff at the reports, saying it was not a formal decision of the Akali Dal. But even
the Akalis were amused at Khurana for styling himself as their spokesman. With a section
of the Akalis led by Surjit Singh Barnala still not averse to joining the United Front,
Badal's cosying up to Gujral does not augur well for the alliance.
Patna: Friends in Need
Their ideologies may be poles apart but the two scam-tainted former chief ministers of
Bihar -- Laloo Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra -- have one thing in common: neither
trusts anybody other than his wife. Laloo left the administration of the state in Rabri
Devi's hands before retiring to an undertrial's life in the wards of the Indira Gandhi
Institute of Medical Sciences hospital. And last week, just before he surrendered to the
CBI court, Mishra handed over the reins of his newly floated Bihar Congress Bachao Morcha
to his media-shy wife Veena. Rabri Devi ensured that Mishra was shifted from the Beur
Central Jail to the Bihar Military Police Guest House, converted earlier into a cosy
prison to house Laloo. Just goes to show how even political rivals must learn to swim or
sink together.
Ahmedabad: Piqued Palette
Eminent artist M.F. Husain is making a habit of erasing his creations. He announced
last week that he was gifting the Husain-Doshi Gufa Gallery in Ahmedabad to the people of
the city. "Making the Gufa was one of my most beautiful experiences," he wrote
to the Ahmedabad Education Society, on whose land the Gufa is located. But he no longer
wants his name to be associated with the Gufa. Last year, after it was ransacked by
Bajrang Dal activists who were angry with him for drawing a nude goddess Saraswati, Husain
renamed the gallery Ahmedabad Ki Gufa. The last straw for the controversial artist was the
recent protest organised under the banner of the Hindu Samrajya Sena against his presence
at a function.
Mumbai: Base Mettle
Last week, Union Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan made a surprise stop at Nanded, the
hometown of former Union home minister S.B. Chavan in Maharashtra. He did not visit the
dusty town to inaugurate any railway service but to attend an important election campaign
-- if you consider the Nanded Municipal Council polls important, that is. Having proved
his mettle at laying foundations, the minister was there to consolidate the Janata Dal's
base in the state. With Congress losing influence in the seven districts of the Marathwada
region and the BJP-Shiv Sena unable to make much headway, the United Front believes this
is the ideal time to woo the people there. After Paswan, it is the turn of Samajwadi
Party's Raj Babbar next week. "Nanded has many north Indians and we want to solicit
their support," says a party leader.
Mumbai: Saffron Secrets
When foes Sudhakarrao Naik and Bal Thackeray met last Saturday over a couple of drinks,
it was enough to give most Congress leaders a hangover. Rumours said that Naik was getting
on the saffron bandwagon, especially after he said,"I thank Kesri for not making me a
general secretary." Having lost the Muslim and Dalit votes, losing tribal votes now
could spell doom for the Congress. "This should not happen," declared party
leader Vilasrao Deshmukh. Naik is piqued at being left in the lurch after serving the high
command (read taking on Pawar). So, is Naik becoming a Shiv Sainik? Reportedly, the Sena
hasn't offered him anything big. For someone who's been chief minister, governor and aicc
general secretary, the chairmanship of some "water resources development board"
is hardly a bait. But Naik is willing to wait.
Hyderabad: Closed Encounters
You win some, lose some. That is what Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu
Naidu learnt after the dust had settled last week. An amazing 9,69,640 of a staggering
pending 23,22,192 files were cleared during the 'File Clearance Week', including 31,255 at
the state secretariat, 8,10,093 in the districts and 1,28,292 lying with the heads of
departments. But it didn't take Naidu long to realise that many files had been closed in
the spirit of competition by the departments. The reasons for closing files make
incredible reading: "closed for the time being", "a reminder will be
sent", "decision can be taken at a later stage", and so on. The chief
minister has now directed some of the secretaries to look at the dusty files afresh,
prompting Minor Irrigation Minister B. Gopalakrishna Reddy to cheekily suggest that a
'dust clearance week' should be held soon. Naidu is distraught at the week's results but
has got what he actually wanted: ample publicity in print and on tv.
Bhopal: Last Resort
When Chief Minister Digvijay Singh invited his cabinet colleagues to head for the hill
resort of Panchmarhi in the Satpuras next week, no hurrahs were heard. On the face of it a
brain-storming session, the real objectives of the exercise remain a mystery to most, save
Digvijay's closest chums. "We will assess the performance of the ministers and
determine how the Congress can win the elections next year," says one innocuously.
This is enough to send a shiver down some ministerial spines; the last time such an
exercise was held, ministers opposed to the chief minister had found themselves at the
receiving end of a barrage of criticism from hand-picked party workers. There was
embarrassment also when results of an opinion poll on the performance of ministers were
made public. Some ministers feel the Panchmarhi sojourn is the countdown for a cabinet
reshuffle-cum-expansion. Not surprisingly, jittery ministers, as a last resort, are asking
the newly installed mpcc bosses to scuttle Digvijay's event and hold a stock-taking
exercise of their own.
Delhi: Life's a Party
Ajit 'never-say-die' Singh is at it again. After aligning with political parties of
every hue, and launching innumerable others, the political heir of Chaudhary Charan Singh
has finally decided to reclaim his father's legacy -- by floating another party. Former
Union minister Satpal Malik has already joined the yet-to-be-named party and brought with
him former BJP MP from Aligarh, Usha Rani Tomar. Now Rasheed Masood has decided to merge
his Ekta Party with the proposed forum. Ajit has welcomed him with open arms, hoping to
tap western Uttar Pradesh's Muslim vote bank, which is about 25 per cent of the region's
population. But Masood could prove more of a liability as he alienated Muslim
fundamentalists in the pre-Babri Masjid days by refusing to toe their hawkish line. His
recent demand for 8 per cent reservation for backward class Muslims in the obc quota might
do the trick. As Ajit welcomes old pals into his new party, he could also be letting in
old problems.
Bangalore: Losing Gamble
The single-digit lottery ticket has brought the Karnataka government more loss than
luck. The state lottery scheme annually rakes in approximately Rs 6 crore. But now there's
a financial crisis owing to the single-digit lotteries run by other state governments in
Karnataka. A Supreme Court judgement allows state lotteries to conduct their business with
the host state's formal consent. "People just keep buying these tickets, hoping to
make money instantly but most of the time they are losing," says Deputy Chief
Minister and Finance Minister Siddaramaiah. He announced last fortnight that he had sought
the Centre's intervention to ban such lotteries and that he had even written to the prime
minister.
The police too is helpless as it must abide with the recent Karnataka High Court
direction "not to interfere with the petitioner-agents' right to carry on the
business of sale of single-digit lottery tickets organised by other state
governments". Karnataka's own experiment with the single-digit lottery in 1992 was a
failure. According to Karnataka's Small Savings and Small Lotteries Director N.K.
Ramaswamy, other states have been barred from selling them but they obfuscate the sales
with double-digit lottery tickets. While the state Government is gambling on a favourable
response from the Centre, the single-digit menace continues.
Gandhinagar: Fire in the House
Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela got only a temporary reprieve last week when
Congress leaders desisted from toppling him. He soon found himself facing another storm,
from his own Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) men. Vaghela had to expel Chandan Singh
Champavat, chairman of the Gujarat State Handicrafts Corporation, from the RJP, after he
found that he was spearheading a campaign to make Revenue Minister Atmaram Patel the chief
minister. Champavat and Patel reportedly sent feelers to the Congress high command that
Vaghela had lost the support of a majority of the 47 RJP MLAs and that Patel was ready to
replace him with Congress support. "I committed a great blunder by leaving the BJP
for Vaghela. Now I will expose Vaghela's true character," says Champavat. A fellow
Rajput who played the lead role in Vaghela's 1995 rebellion against the BJP, Champavat is
undoubtedly one of the few who know the inside stories of Vaghela's Government.
Chennai: Upper Hand
The recent seat-sharing package arrived at between the squabbling partners of the
ruling DMK-TMC combine seems to be one-sided. At least, that's what some DMK grassroots
workers would have the party believe. While the DMK's brutal majority in the Tamil Nadu
Assembly would ensure a smooth win for the three TMC candidates contesting the Rajya Sabha
elections from the state, the DMK itself will have to really fight it out. Not so much in
the Rajya Sabha polls in Pondicherry as in the two assembly by-polls it is contesting in
Tamil Nadu. The dismal Pudukottai by-poll experience has refuelled doubts in the DMK about
the sincerity of the TMC in providing wholehearted support. With the DMK busy trying to
placate their coalition partners and the Congress a divided house after state unit chief
K.V. Thangabalu sacked Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthy, the TMC believes it has the upper hand --
for now. |
