The Outsider Delhi: After Narasimha
Rao, it's Sitaram Kesri's turn now -- to write an autobiography, that is. Unlike Rao's
fiction, The Insider, Kesri's will be the real thing, beginning with his foray into
politics as a band-master and ending with how he missed the bus when he was about to board
it. Apparently, the bitter Chacha intends to expose all those who conspired to oust him
and install "Brahminical rule" in the country once again. Wonder what the former
loyalist will have to write about the Gandhi family's latest entrant into politics. For
her part, party chief Sonia Gandhi is keeping Chacha in good humour -- taking him along to
Champaran in Bihar to launch the party's revival campaign and making him a permanent
invitee to the Congress Working Committee along with V.N. Gadgil and K. Karunakaran.
Taken for a Ride
Delhi:
Rashtrapati Bhavan was in a tizzy. Orissa Governor G. Ramanujam had resigned --
unannounced. The President called the prime minister to inquire if he had asked for the
resignation. The answer was an astonished "No". So the governor was asked why he
had quit. "The home secretary told me the new Government wanted me to,"
complained Ramanujam. The home secretary was duly summoned and asked for an explanation.
He too was perplexed: "Asked the Orissa governor to resign? Me? Haven't spoken to him
in days." So what happened? As it turned out, the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar had
received a hoax call -- and its gullible resident fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Still Gloating
Hyderabad:
G.M.C. Balayogi is still coming to terms with his election as Speaker of the Lok Sabha. On
his way to native East Godavari district recently, he couldn't help sharing his initial
experiences. From being an ordinary member who used to wait for an appointment with the
Speaker, the presiding officer of the House now exults that even the prime minister comes
and sits in his "chambers". He takes prides in the fact that three former prime
ministers and 16 former chief ministers vie with other MPs to catch his attention when
they want to hold the floor without notice. The mercurial Laloo Prasad Yadav and gadfly
Subramanian Swamy are among those who have already met him to seek an opportunity to raise
vexatious issues in the House. The budget session is to begin only on May 27, but it
appears Balayogi already has his hands full.
Clockwork Woes
Chandigarh: Stung
by criticisms for not having a grip on the administration, a recharged Punjab Chief
Minister Parkash Singh Badal -- just recuperating from health problems -- has begun to
crack the whip. In order to discipline late-comers and those who prefer to tee off at the
nearby golf club during office hours, Badal has decided to introduce time-card system for
the 200 IAS officers in the civil secretariat. Expectedly, rumblings of protest are coming
from the babus who feel that the system would make a laughing stock of them before their
subordinates. But Badal is unfazed. Adding to their woes are early morning telephone calls
from his residence, enquiring about negative news in the dailies. Clearly, Badal means
business -- at long last.
Cross-Connection
Bhopal: On a
visit to Madhya Pradesh recently, CBI Director Trinath Mishra got a red-carpet welcome --
word had spread that he was on a "secret" mission. So, in its eagerness to
please Mishra, the police installed a direct phone line in his room at the Police
Officers' Mess. The only problem was that the line was "stolen" from IGP
(Railways) Harish Trivedi, who was also staying in the mess. Worse, the phone proved more
of a nuisance to Mishra who had to receive calls well past midnight informing him about
the crime situation in the railways and requests from fellow officers for rail
reservations. Fed up, Mishra threw the phone out at two in the morning.
Object of Ire
Lucknow: It is
perhaps the kind of attack that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh has never had to
face in his many years in politics. An attack that he did not expect even from his worst
political enemies. Last week, some of Kalyan's ministerial colleagues and BJP legislators
descended on Delhi to petition the party central leadership. The object of their ire:
Kusum Rai, a 35-year-old BJP member of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation. His opponents in
the party say that Rai, who is frequently seen at the chief minister's 5 Kalidas Marg
residence, has emerged as an extra-constitutional authority. They charge her with
interfering in party affairs and denying people access to the chief minister. Kalyan
scoffs at such suggestions. "My family has long-standing ties with hers. Not only
Kusum but her husband and uncles are regular visitors to my house," he says. As for
charges that he was pampering her constituency, he asks, "If a hospital comes up in
her constituency, does it mean only her children can avail of the facilities?" The
petitioners have returned to Lucknow confident that their grievances would be redressed,
but last heard the party's central leadership has no plans to concede any of their
demands.
Crime in Uniform
Patna: For
crime-infested Bihar, it was another blow to its image. Last Monday, a senior ips officer,
Dinesh Singh Bisht, SP (railways), Patna, was charged with "dealing in stolen
vehicles". The state Crime Branch came to this conclusion after it was entrusted with
the investigation into the affair last year following newspaper reports that Bisht, as SP
of Palamu, had masterminded the auctioning of two stolen vehicles -- a Maruti car and a
Gypsy -- by manipulating police records to make them appear "unclaimed".
In its report, submitted in March, the Crime Branch said that
Bisht forged police records to conceal the registration, engine and chassis numbers of the
vehicles -- stolen from Delhi -- and then got them auctioned in the name of his
hand-picked men, pocketing the money. While the car was auctioned for Rs 23,501, the Gypsy
was given away for Rs 9,000. The case against Bisht was strengthened when Mansukh Kindo,
the then officer-in-charge of Rehla police station, made a written statement that Bisht
pressured him to tamper with records.
Despite the indictment, no action has been taken against
Bisht as yet. State DGP K.A. Jacob says the SP has already given his explanation.
"After examining it we will take necessary action," he says. The
"explanation", if made public, should be interesting.
Cultural Strains
Mumbai: After
months of shouting from rooftops that it would not allow any Pakistani cultural artiste to
perform in the city, the Shiv Sena has finally enacted it. Last week, as select invitees
were watching Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali Khan perform at the Centaur Hotel, about
100 Shiv Sainiks disrupted the function on the ground that "these concerts should be
boycotted because no Indian singer was welcome in Pakistan". Curiously, Shiv Sena
chief Bal Thackeray's son Udhav and his wife Rashmi were to be the chief guests at the
performance but did not turn up.
In the past, the Shiv Sena had "banned" the
Pakistan cricket team and performers like Nusrat Fateh Ali from the city, but had not
appeared keen to implement it as they had many friends in the culture world. This time the
party obviously intended to "teach Pakistan a lesson", which has evoked mixed
reactions from Mumbai's culture crowd. "The action has harmed India's image abroad
and should be condemned," says Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi. However, there are many
personalities like filmstar Anupam Kher who are of the opinion that "because of
Pakistan's support to Kashmir all Pakistani artistes should be banned".
At the Centaur concert, the police, conveniently, arrived
late. Will that embolden the Shiv Sainiks to put strictures on more things Pakistan?
Unhill Luxury
Shimla: Himachal
Pradesh Governor V.S. Rama Devi has added a spanking new Mercedes Benz to the Raj Bhavan's
fleet of cars. Nothing wrong, except that this luxury item has burnt a Rs 25 lakh hole in
the cash-strapped hill state's resources. The lady apparently went ahead with the
purchase, brushing aside objections from the state Finance Department which had proposed
the purchase of Indian-made models of foreign cars like the Cielo or Opel Astra.
While the Benz was sanctioned by the previous Congress
government headed by Virbhadra Singh, the Raj Bhavan justifies the purchase citing reasons
of protocol -- visiting foreign dignitaries have to be treated with comfort. For his part,
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal too is keeping Rama Devi in good humour -- having just
hiked the Raj Bhavan's annual budget from Rs 84 lakh to Rs 98 lakh and not objecting to an
additional demand of Rs 15 lakh. He really has no choice, given the wafer-thin majority of
his BJP Government in the Assembly.
Volte Face
Thiruvananthapuram:
Political compulsions have prevailed over the will to solve Kerala's development needs yet
again. The CPI(M)-led LDF Government last week rejected clearance for a finacial tie-up
between Kannur Power Projects Ltd (KPPL) and the US-based Enron for setting up the largest
private-sector power project (513MW) in the state at a cost of Rs 1,407.65 crore. In a
letter to the Centre, state Power Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that "the tie-up is
not acceptable to us because Enron was at the centre of a raging controversy" in
Maharashtra.
Strangely, the rejection has come quite late. Since the MOU
was signed in March 1996, the project has got all the 52 clearances except the final
techno-economic approval from the Central Electricity Authority. Critics say the tie-up
was rejected by the CPI(M)'s central leadership under pressure from CITU, which fought
Enron in the courts over the Dhabol project in Maharashtra.
"Political expediency should not overtake the state's
vital interests," says K.P.P. Nambiar, a relative of Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar and
head of K.P.P. Nambiar and Associates, Enron's collaborators. Many feel the state
Government may have only been playing up to its CPI(M) bosses as it is sure the courts
will overrule its decision on the grounds that the project has progressed too far.
Hate List
Bangalore:
This is one Speaker the ministers love to hate. Ramesh Kumar, Speaker of the Karnataka
Assembly and staunch supporter of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, has been accused
by four ministers of the J.H. Patel Cabinet of high-handedness and political opportunism.
Among them is P.G.R. Sindhia, the transport minister, who fell out with Deve Gowda after
the farmer from Hassan blamed him for not supporting his son H.D. Kumaraswamy at
Kanakapura, a Sindhia stronghold, in the February Lok Sabha polls.
Matters were not helped much when Kumar turned up at the
Jindal guest house near Bangalore on April 26 where Janata Dal leaders were holding a
meeting to select candidates for the May 8 legislative council elections. His detractors
objected to his presence at a purely political meeting and also chided him for advocating
seat adjustments with the Congress as a prelude to a long-term alliance. "A Speaker's
first job is not to speak much," says a minister. "This man is using his office
to further his own interests."
Many feel that Deve Gowda is propping up Kumar as a candidate
for the chief minister's post. But the Speaker says that all he is concerned about is his
job in the Assembly. "I have more friends than enemies, enemies I can take care of
but not friends. I'm not politically ambitious at all," says Kumar. Supporters of the
chief minister would not vouch for that. |
