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Missing
the Action Delhi:
As Delhi's politics hots up for a possible reunion of the Congress and United Front (UF)
partners, past and present, one group is missing from the country. The entire UF top brass
is overseas. CPI(M) General Secretary H.S. Surjeet is touring Canada, after having touched
the shores of Portugal and Cuba. Fellow comrade, CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan, is
enjoying the hospitality of the South African Communist Party. As for the front's former
prime ministers, I.K. Gujral is in Dhaka, optimistic no doubt that there is still some
hope for a track II Gujral doctrine. H.D. Deve Gowda, the man who missed Karnataka during
his months in Delhi, is visiting the humble farmers of America. And so is UF spokesman S.
Jaipal Reddy. With Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party pulling out of the front and aligning
itself with Laloo Yadav's RJD, the UF leaders are a dispirited lot. At a time when the
Parliament session is starting, the UF stalwarts seem least concerned about the political
developments and the likely fall of the Vajpayee Government. A case of India abroad, as
they say.
Mobile Bureaucracy
Calcutta: Bureaucrats in Calcutta's Writers' Building, the state secretariat, seem to
be taking West Bengal for a ride. Car crazy babus and political lackeys have set an
unprecedented record in vehicle usage, which has turned the large public park opposite the
secretariat into a massive "Government vehicles only" parking lot. A recent
scrutiny of the log books of 20 departmental and hired vehicles has puzzled the auditors.
For instance, a group of five IPS officers with posts binding them within city limits,
were found to have logged 3,95,378 km, consuming 72,887 litres of fuel worth Rs 14,57,740
over periods ranging between eight and 34 months. Chief Minister Jyoti Basu's confidential
assistant, Joy Krishna Ghosh, was found with several cars at his disposal, of which one
vehicle alone (WMY 211) had clocked 1,55,620 km between January 1995 and December 1997,
consuming 19,329 litres of fuel. Now that's taking the state forward.
Pet Projects
Bangalore: After former prime
minister H.D. Deve Gowda's failed bid to get an airport built in his home district Hassan,
it's the turn of another Karnataka minister to pursue this pet obsession. One of the first
things on Union Civil Aviation Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar's agenda is to activate an
almost-dead airport at Hubli, where his late mother was deputy mayor. Given Kumar's
personal interest, work is on full-steam and on July 17, the Hubli airport will buzz to
life when Gujarat Airways opens its Hubli-Mumbai and Hubli-Bangalore flights. Not to be
outdone, state BJP chief B.S. Yediyurappa also sought and got the minister's nod for an
airport in his home district, Shimoga. In Yediyurappa's words, this was "an
opportunity for us to make the best use of the civil aviation minister". Some
high-flying logic this.
Crashed Course
Hyderabad: A year after Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu launched a special training
programme for his legislators, with an offer of laptop and desktop computers at half the
price, less than a third of the 294 MLAs have shown interest. While Finance and
Legislative Affairs Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju took the lead in buying a laptop, 70-odd
MLAs have bought the desktops, mostly used by their children. But the sincere Raju is
still learning. When he asked computer experts what "booting" meant, they took
it as a joke. So the curious Raju turned to a journalist last week and got the
explanation. At this rate, looks like Naidu will have to re-boot the programme itself.
Sparing the Rod
Chandigarh: Sikh politics has become so
muddled that resolving one controversy only sparks off another. When the five head priests
ruled on June 25 that Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) President G.S. Tohra
was not guilty of visiting the Nirankari Bhavan in Patiala during the last Lok Sabha
elections, violating the 1978 anti-Nirankari edict issued by the Akal Takht, many thought
that would be the last word on the debate. But now hard-line Sikh organisations are
alleging that the priests deliberately dismissed the photographic evidence submitted by
Congress leader Amarinder Singh to favour Tohra, who's their appointing authority.
Much to the consternation of his baiters, the clergy refused
to give credence to Tohra's reported confession that he had "inadvertently"
visited the Bhavan. Instead it declared that the photograph showing Tohra in the company
of Nirankaris was "fabricated". Curiously, in spite of dubbing his evidence as
fake, the priests spared Amarinder. While Tohra's supporters are exulting at the verdict,
the Akali hard-liners are demanding that he be subjected to a lie-detector test.
- Ramesh Vinayak
Clipped Wings
Calcutta: Few people expected the Mamata
Banerjee wave to ebb so soon. When two of her loyal MLAs resigned their seats to contest
and win the Lok Sabha elections in February, the Trinamool Congress' (TC) ability to
capture those two assembly seats -- Chanditola and Bowbazar -- was taken for granted. But
the by-elections last week produced surpriing results. The Marxists won these and that too
by handsome margins.
For Mamata this was the second major setback in a month.
Frustrated with her style of functioning, her party chairman, Pankaj Banerjee, ditched her
to rejoin the Congress. The BJP has all but abandoned her as an ally in the anti-Left
front. Bickering and ego clashes in the TC's top echelons have clouded its vision. The
party is yet to formulate a serious programme to best the Left Front. Now the question is:
where does the Bengal tigress go from here?
Wet Lashes
Mumbai: It was only a downpour, not the
dreaded N-bomb. Yet Mumbai suffered a near-total breakdown in services and infrastructure
last week. Citizens had to suffer knee-level water, stranded buses and trains, and taxis
and rickshaws charging 500 per cent more. As the water receded mid-week, what came through
was the failure of the celebrated Disaster Management Plan (DMP) introduced by the
Government after the breakdown last year.
"Yes, it proved inadequate," admitted Chief
Minister Manohar Joshi. What stood out starkly was the authorities' failure to carry out
one of DMP's main provisions -- establish a channel of communication in the shortest
possible time between various official and non-official agencies involved in the crisis
management. "In the crunch hours, we didn't know what others were doing," said a
senior BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation official. Worse, in parts of Mumbai, it took
three days for the rain water to recede. "It's a shame. The authorities are floored
by expected events year after year. What if Mumbai is bombed?" asked S.R. Kamat,
member of the Centre's Crisis Response Committee. Officials need to get cracking on their
DMP manuals -- and soon.
Fast-Track Policy
Bangalore: When the top metros are feeling
the pressure, can Bangalore escape it? While authorities in Delhi and Mumbai are tearing
their hair trying to devise means to control the chaos reigning on their roads, officials
in this southern city have sought a quicker option: clamp down on slow-moving vehicles
like bullock carts and jutkas.
However, the ban, which came into effect last week, has drawn
protests from 500 affected families. "Animals and human beings have always coexisted
on Indian roads. So why should we be banned?" asks R. Narasimhamurthy, among the
owners of the city's estimated 300 bullock carts. The traffic police have their own
reasons. "Bangalore's roads are designed for just three lakh vehicles," says C.
Motiram, additional commissioner of police (traffic and administration). "With almost
11 lakh vehicles, there is a severe congestion."
The authorities are suggesting that the cart owners take bank
loans to buy three-wheelers. As for the animals, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals has offered free shelter. Undecided owners have no way out. The traffic police
are determined to ensure that slow vehicles have no place in a city described as India's
fastest growing.
-Stephen David
Minefield of
Trouble
Bhopal: It's a controversy that refuses to
die down. The issue of leasing out diamond mines in Madhya Pradesh took a new turn last
week when Ramesh Bais, Union minister of state for steel and mines, refused to grant a
prospecting licence to B. Vijaykumar Diamond Consortium, awarded a lease by the state
Government in end June. His stand: the decision may prove detrimental to Chhattisgarh
which is slated to get statehood soon. Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is not amused.
"I'll take up the matter with the prime minister," he says.
Unfortunately for Digvijay, his partyman S.C. Shukla alleges
that the consortium is a facade for certain multinationals. Shukla says the National
Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has the capacity to mine. Digvijay maintains that
NMDC was prepared to pay only 10 per cent royalty, while the consortium was willing to pay
10 per cent of the sale value and Rs 20 per carat for development of the area. "This
was the best possible deal," he says. But his rivals are not listening.
Opening Salvo
Thiruvananthapuram: It was meant to be an
auspicious start. But the very first session of the Kerala Assembly in the newly
constructed Rs 70 crore legislature complex was marked by a boycott. The Opposition United
Democratic Front (UDF) took exception to a casual remark made by the Left Democratic Front
(LDF) Government's chief whip and CPI(M) leader T.K. Hamsa and walked out of the hall.
While making his speech, Hamsa ridiculed Congress leader A.K.
Antony for paying obeisance to popular godwoman Mata Amritananda Mayi during a visit to
her ashram in 1995. Opposition leaders allege that Hamsa then observed that the picture of
the two appearing together reminded him of super star Mamoootty hugging "sex
siren" Silk Smita in a film scene. Angry UDF members rushed to the well of the House
demanding an apology for the "derogatory remark" against a spiritual leader.
Speaker M. Vijayakumar promptly offered to expunge Hamsa's remarks. But when the Marxist
leader refused to relent, the entire Opposition walked out.
"It is unfortunate that the first day itself became a
black day for the Assembly," said Antony. "The remarks against the Mata, who is
worshipped by thousands, make my head hang in shame." As usual, Chief Minister E.K.
Nayanar reserved his ire for the Opposition. "They are right to demand the withdrawal
of the remark," he said. "But they misused it to whip up communal
passions." |
