| September 8, 1997 | ||
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Newsnotes The recently constituted mpcc executive managed to pack in a record number of sons and daughters of Congressmen. Arjun Singh's son Ajay Singh, S.C. Shukla's son Amitesh Shukla and MP Dilip Singh Bhuria's daughter Nirmala Bhuria got away with plum posts. Ajit Jogi even managed to sneak in brother-in-law Ratnesh Solomon as an executive member in the 25-member committee. Among the losers was Motilal Vora, who wanted his MLA son Arun Vora to get in. The only star politician who didn't want to sneak in any of his relatives was Madhavrao Scindia. And given the new committee's strength, the ones who have been clearly cut down to size are the Shukla brothers, whose supporters comprised half the number of the outgoing jumbo panel of 200. In the classical tradition of the West Bengal Congress, Mamata Banerjee first took a step forward, then two steps backwards. The feisty founder of the Trinamool Congress Committee, which she claims is the "true" Congress, made the costly blunder of sharing a dais with former chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray last week. While most Congressmen regard Ray as the party's soft underbelly, Mamata, in all innocence, thought he would give her outfit an image boost. Now the Marxists, who had begun to believe that Mamata would be their nemesis, are confident of winning the battle, for Ray has always been a "bad representative" of the Congress. In 1991, Ray, as PCC chief, lost the elections for the party when the Marxists literally painted the town red with reminders of his "blood-letting" during the Emergency. In 1996 he contested the Lok Sabha elections, only to lose miserably. Now, he has returned to politics, after having sworn never to do so. With friends like him around, does Mamata need enemies? Remember the promise Parkash Singh Badal made soon after he became chief minister in February? That his ministers would draw only Re 1 as "token remuneration" for their "services" to the people of Punjab? Barely six months later, the ministers are flouting the directive with gusto. They not only accept Re 1 as salary, but also help themselves to perks, including Rs 50,000 as annual petrol allowance and monthly expenses of Rs 2,500 for telephones, Rs 3,000 for constituency tours and Rs 2,500 for hospitality. Even the 23 ministers who were inducted during the first cabinet expansion last month are raking it in. Admits Chief Secretary R.S. Mann: "All ministers are drawing salary and perks." Most of the ministers, however, are openly critical of Badal's "unrealistic" directive. Says a senior minister: "Not everybody is a landlord like Badal." Asks another: "For how long could we cut corners to run our household?" Badal doesn't have an explanation for his ministers' volte face. "It was only an option for them to claim Re 1 as salary," he says defensively. So the ministers still pile up staggering bills. In the first quarter alone, hospitality expenses amounted to Rs 6.75 lakh, with Badal himself accounting for Rs 5.26 lakh. A babu's fate can sometimes get linked to the destiny of a prime minister. Take the case of Mahendra Jain, the once-powerful man in the PMO during H.D. Deve Gowda's tenure. So impressed was Deve Gowda with this IAS officer that he decided to reward him with the post of Tea Board representative in London. But unfortunately for Jain, Deve Gowda had to demit office soon after signing the order and the posting never materialised. Of course, Deve Gowda did ask I.K. Gujral to expedite Jain's transfer, but despite the prime minister's assurance, nothing has come of it. And with the Department of Personnel not bothering about him, Jain continues to mark time, helping out with work in Deve Gowda's office at Safdarjang Lane. For a man slated to fly high, the fall has been quite precipitous: Jain heads for office in a bus from his Meena Bagh residence every day. I.K. Gujral may have stopped going to the Saturday Club at Delhi's India International Centre, but the list of special invitees is getting more and more interesting. And so are the sessions. Ex-prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, after accepting an invitation, disappointed the Fogies by backing out at the last moment. Next came old man in a hurry Sitaram Kesri, who, expectedly, said things that Gujral's friends would have liked to hear -- like how much of a Congressman the prime minister was. The session was going fine until the members asked him why he had pulled down the Deve Gowda government. Losing his smile, Kesri soon flew into a rage and, switching to English, delivered his verdict: Gowda was a buffoon. Personal dislike, it seems, cannot be hidden. What happens when the Delhi Government decides to play Ms Grundy? Sixteen unaided public schools in the capital are feeling like errant schoolchildren after the state Government recently served them with notices for hiking fees unreasonably and for financial irregularities. The warning came after the schools allegedly violated the Delhi Schools and Education Act and Rules, 1973. Though parents have heaved sighs of relief at the Government move, the concerned school authorities are unhappy and are threatening legal action. "Like any other institution serving society, schools should stand the scrutiny of a social audit. But the audit must be fair," says K.J. Vari, principal of Modern School, Vasant Vihar, one of the schools served with the notice. But the 'blacklisted' schools have cause for worry since some of them have hiked fees by over 20 per cent in one year. Somehave also raised money through other means like building funds and extra curricular activity funds. While some parent-teacher associations have protested against these demands, most parents have preferred to quietly toe the line, worried about their children's future. "The Government is not against any particular school," says Health and Education Minister Harsh Vardhan. "Just because the schools are imparting education to the masses, they do not have the right to exploit people." It remains to be seen which party will take the battle to court. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is never short of ammunition when he has to impress a new audience. So he launched an attack on the mosquito menace at a function to commemorate the pioneering contribution of Sir Ronald Ross, who discovered the malarial parasite in a colonial bungalow in the city exactly a 100 years ago. Having arrived an hour late, Naidu made an impromptu speech. And for effect, he drew the attention of the gathering to the "swarm of mosquitoes" around the lights. But the techno-savvy chief minister slipped up when he wrongly credited Ross with "the invention of the malaria drug".That he had not been briefed properly by his officials was evident, when Naidu, ignoring the amused response of the audience, declared: "The name of Sir Ronald Ross will remain as long as the mosquito remains in the world." While some foreign delegates sat dumbstruck, others rolled with laughter. Clearly, for his centennial celebrations, Sir Ronald could not have asked for more. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was being rather optimistic. She actually expected people to believe she was helping the law when she suspended MLA and underworld don Mukhtar Ansari from the BSP Legislature Party last week. But most people saw in Ansari's suspension a not-so-subtle attempt by Mayawati to pre-empt judicial action or a CBI probe against herself. Of late, the Allahabad High Court has been turning the heat on the Government over Ansari's alleged role in the kidnapping of Vishwa Hindu Parishad national treasurer and coal king Nand Kishore Rungta, who has been missing since January. Rungta's wife Shanti had filed a petition in the court alleging that Mayawati was shielding Ansari. The court has asked the state Government what it has done to arrest Ansari, whose name came up during the investigation. It has also taken serious note of Shanti's charge that Varanasi DIG Ranjan Diwedi was removed just when the police were all set to arrest Ansari. Under the circumstances, Mayawati has found it expedient to dump Ansari for now, saying she did it so that he wouldn't influence the CID probe. Critics are not taking her at her word. Wasn't it she who had ordered Z-plus security for Ansari during her last stint? Bad times continue to dog Congress leader Sharad Pawar. Barely had he managed to squeeze into the Congress Working Committee, than defeat faced him when he returned home. A panel chaired by his nephew and political heir Ajit Pawar could win only three out of the 24 seats on the board of the Malegaon Sugar Cooperative factory -- controlled by the Pawar family for the past 30 years -- in Baramati. The rout was humiliating for Pawar since his former supporter, Chandrakantrao Taware, headed the panel that won the election. Disgusted with Ajit's arrogant ways, Taware had left Pawar's camp earlier this year. With the defeat falls another pillar in Pawar's sugar-belt power castle. The BJP gives some quaint names to its many conclaves. Chintan Sabha (introspection session) is when partymen assemble to mull over their future course of action; Ekantvas (solitude) is when Madan Lal Khurana goes off to the hills in a long sulk; and now, a Prashikshan Shivir (training camp) for all top-level state and central leaders from August 29 to September 2. Conducted behind closed doors in a farmhouse, an hour's drive from Delhi in Jhinjhauli, Haryana, the camp will be run on RSS lines. Participants, including A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, will live in dormitories, rise at the crack of dawn, do exercises, yoga, sing patriotic songs, and then reflect on various issues -- ideological, organisational, political and electoral. One subject that will figure in the 14 rounds of talks is indiscipline. After four days of living like boy scouts, they should come up with some answers. Chief Minister Rabri Devi's newly-appointed minister seem to be vying with each other in "detecting" scams. First it was Industry Minister Baidyanath Pandey who thought he had unearthed a major scandal in former chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rs 200 crore Dhoti-Sari Scheme--which is yet to take off--aimed at supplying saris or dhotis to the poor at a token price of Rs 15 each. What Pandey didn't know was that the Government had ordered an inquiry even before he had taken over as a minister. And before Pandey could take the credit, Leader of the Opposition Sushil kumar Modi came out with the allegation that Laloo and MP Prem Gupta had received kick-backs in the deal. Pandey had to keep shut. Then came the bizarre case of Science and Technology Minister Deonath Prasad "impounding" the department's cash register as it showed a discrepancy of Rs 1.5 lakh. Similarly, Minister of State for Welfare Sita Sinha went about detecting cases of over-drawal in the districts. As sources in the secretariat say, these "actions taken" were merely an eyewash. Apparently, the ministers would suspend the "tainted" staff, strike a deal, then reinstate them and all would live happily ever after --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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