|
|
|
|
METRO TODAY | DAILY NEWS | ASTROLOGY | ARCHIVES | INDIA TODAY | HOME |
|
|
FLIPSIDE The Coterie Club By Dilip Bobb
It's the general annual meeting of the Coterie Watching Club (CWC) and, as usual, there are sharp differences in the ranks and filing copy is something of a problem. As journalists assigned to the newly introduced Coterie Beat, it's their job to keep newspaper readers informed about the latest developments concerning that all-persuasive body. Here's how their latest meeting at the Press Club bar went. Ist CWC member: This coterie beat can be very demanding. Everybody's demanding some post or the other. I've been in and out of the party headquarters and I still can't figure out who's in and who's out. It's like a revolving door. They leave one way and come back another. What do I tell my editor? 2nd CWC member: Depends how close he is to the prime minister. But seriously, I've been on this coterie beat a lot longer. I started way back during Mrs Gandhi's days, when the coterie was made up of stalwarts like Pranab Mukherjee, R.K. Dhawan, Arjun Singh ... 3rd CWC member: How things have changed. I have just finished speaking to the horses' mouth on my mobile phone and I can confirm that the old coterie is definitely out. A new one is getting ready to rejuvenate the party. It's a generational change. 1st CWC member: Does that mean Kamal Nath, Pilot and Gehlot are in? 3rd CWC member: That's the next generation. I'm talking about youngsters like RKD, Arjun, Pranab ... Innocent Barstander: This is ridiculous. It's the same old faces. And what about Sonia resigning? Now that would be a scoop, if someone else were to throw their hat into the ring. 1st CWC member: That's old hat. In any case, that's another beat. It's called the SOS beat. Innocent Barstander: Never heard of it. 1st CWC member: It stands for Save Our Sonia and it's headed by Mani Shankar Aiyer. 2nd CWC member: To be on the coterie beat you need more cross connections than MTNL supplies. First, there's the outer ring. Innocent Barstander: Who's in that? 2nd CWC member: The Black Cats. Then there's the inner outer ring. That's the SOS brigade. Then there's the inner ring. Innocent Barstander: Who's in that? 1st CWC member: The SPG. Then there's the outer coterie. The ones who are supposedly out but are actually in. That leaves the second coterie. That's based on the one-man-one-listening post principle. His name is George. 2nd CWC member: Then there's the Final Solution, known to insiders as SOS, but not to be confused with the first SOS. This one stands for Save Our Seats. The idea is to get away from the Gandhi family name and show the voting public that the party has wiped out its past. Innocent Barstander: Who's in that? 2nd CWC member: The Vadras. |
|||||||
| Top |
 BUSINESS TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS | COMPUTERS TODAY Write to us | Subscriptions | Advertise with
us |
