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Sept 20, 1999
 Cover Story
Elections 99
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He Can Do Magic
Delhi: On a recent helicopter tour of
Orissa, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi found very few people on landing at a venue, which was
lashed by rain. She decided to leave at once but Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang did some
quick numerology and advised her to stay back till 2:45 p.m. when "the clouds will
disappear and the people will arrive". Right enough, dot at 2:45 the clouds cleared
and the audience trooped in. The incident has raised the stock at 10 Janpath of the
somewhat clownish Gamang who sports a red scarf and loves to beat a tribal drum in public.
Pet Subject
Delhi: There were many red faces at the
cpi(m) headquarters in the capital when its aged crusader Jyoti Basu again blurted out in
a tv interview that the "closed chapter" of his becoming prime minister may be
"reopened". Earlier, some Politburo members had mustered courage to request Basu
to desist from harping on the issue in view of the Congress' "sensitivity" on
the subject. Basu had reportedly agreed. As he strayed from his promise, there were
frantic calls from Delhi to a former MP considered close to him, who was filing his
nomination papers far away from Calcutta. The harassed candidate confessed to his party
bosses that he didn't have the nerve to broach the subject to the old man. That left the
party leaders in a cold sweat.
Wrong Diagnosis
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Governor Suraj Bhan
has managed to stay away from controversy so far. But last week, he promptly walked into
one. When experts from the Sanjay Gandhi Post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences
organised a workshop on nephrology, Bhan was invited to inaugurate it. But senior faculty
members and other experts from the field squirmed in their seats as Bhan, in his inaugural
address, instead of focusing on the subject at hand, chose to wax eloquent about a
"spiritual healer" who had reportedly cured a senior rss functionary. Suffice to
say the "spiritual" dose was a bitter pill for the allopaths.
Family Tensions
Patna: Rabri Devi, it seems, is no
more enamoured of being chief minister of Bihar. If she could, she would quit the high
office and go back to her kitchen. What has caused this sudden turnaround is the heaps of
files and streams of officials she has to deal with every day. Recently, she told a
reporter: "If I continue in politics, who will look after my family?" But hubby
Laloo Prasad Yadav is in no mood to relent, simply because there is no one else whom he
can trust to keep the seat warm until he gets a reprieve from the courts. Clearly, this is
one problem that is defying a solution. |
