Ever since it received a notice from the Income Tax Department, the
Congress headquarters on Delhi's Akbar Road has become careful about sundry expenditure.
On November 26, the office secretary had received no intimation till the close of banking
hours of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting that evening. So he could not
withdraw any money to buy refreshments for CWC members or mediapersons who were certain to
descend. When news about the meeting finally arrived, the harried secretary was overheard
calling some party officials and arranging the rather modest sum of Rs 2,000. The sum
could buy 100 plates of sweets for journalists and an insipid dhokla fare for the CWC
members. It left both journalists and politicians unhappy, with CWC member R.K. Dhawan
promising to host a kebab feast at the next meeting. All that the back-room managers of
the AICC could say was: "Let the leaders order biryani and kebab, but the orders must
be placed before the bank closes."
A mid-week conversation between a journalist and a Rajiv-loyalist was quite revealing.
The journalist told the politician his "party had lost the initiative by not
withdrawing support at once"; the neta agreed. "You'll lose the next
election"; again the neta agreed. "So you won't be in government";
this time the neta had a reply: "The point of this exercise was not to get
into government. It was to get the Congress into opposition." Not surprisingly, this
politician is no friend of Sitaram Kesri's.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, overheard before leaving for Hardwar: "Bhad me jaye
sarkar. Hum to chale Hardwar." (Let the Government go to hell. I am going to
Hardwar).
Whenever you see Shekhawat, predict a split. Such is the legend of Rajasthan Chief
Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, whom the BJP has allegedly employed for breaking parties
in Gujarat and at the Centre. As the cross-party rebellion of first-time parliamentarians
gathered momentum, Shekhawat sightings became part of Delhi's political folklore. The BJP
leader was spotted in the capital for most of the past week and each time anyone saw him,
a fresh rumour of a split he was supposedly masterminding surfaced. Eventually nothing
happened -- but not since the days of Maharana Pratap have the rulers of Delhi been so
awestruck by a Rajput chieftain from the west.
The Congress party is witnessing a tussle between the haves and the have- nots: those
who have a seat in Parliament and those who do not. The haves, apprehensive about losing
their seats, are resenting the shrill advocacy of the have-nots for the dissolution of the
Lok Sabha. Santosh Mohan Dev, the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, frowns at the
dissolution move. He even yelled at former MP Rangarajan Kumaramangalam in the Parliament
lobby last week: "If you're seen here so regularly I'll push a proposal to stop the
entry of defeated MPs into privileged areas." Kumaramangalam was quick with his
reply: "Are you sure you won't become an ex-MP after the elections?"
By then, Jitendra Prasada, Congress vice-president and a Rajya Sabha member, had
strolled into Dev's vision. Dev now took his battle further: "If the Lok Sabha is
dissolved, the Rajya Sabha too should be dissolved." Prasada, a Congress hawk,
retorted: "That solves all problems as both the prime minister and the Congress
president are Rajya Sabha members." |
