Birthday Crash
Delhi: Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee's December 25 birthday bash was not the only party to be cancelled on account of
the hijacking of IC 814 on X'mas eve. Union minister Arun Jaitley was to head for the
Andamans to spend New Year's eve with his family and friends on the islands. Friend Pramod
Mahajan had even planned a bash in Chennai during the BJP conclave on December 28, the
birth date Jaitley shares with close friend Ranjan Bhattacharya, Vajpayee's foster
son-in-law. But Jaitley was summoned to the capital to join the team monitoring the hijack
drama. No party, no holiday. But then all this is not new to Jaitley who has spent two
birthdays in jail -- as a political prisoner during the Emergency. Culture Vulture
Bangalore: Former Union minister Ramakrishna
Hegde, in political wilderness, is now seeking solace in cultural affairs. Having agreed
to head the Indo-French Forum, a cultural body, Hegde has now turned his attention to
matters of the art. Last week, the 72-year-old leader was seen regularly at friend and
Bharatnatyam dancer Pratibha Prahlad's three-day dance and cultural show in the city. As
he recently said, "Politicians anyway don't retire."
Coming Clean
Delhi: Should the prime minister be grilled
by a committee formed by his own Government? Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not mull over the
question when the K. Subrahmanyam panel set up to look into the lapses that led to the
Kargil infiltration last winter expressed its desire to quiz him. The three-member probe
team was not only welcomed at Race Course Road, but found Vajpayee submitting himself to
the hard questions, without hedging even once.
Free For All
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram
Prakash Gupta is desperate to get rid of the "weak" and "dull" tags
attached to him. So, if a party MLA requests him to transfer a district official, Gupta
promptly obliges. Trouble arises when the chief minister overturns his own decision on the
request of another MLA from the same district. Gupta's please-all policy has led to
hilarious situations. Like three DMS in a district one day.
CONFESSIONSAL
Former Madhya Pradesh deputy chief minister SUBHASH
YADAV got a stay in the cooperatives case from a higher court.
The cooperative's court had ordered your removal
from all posts in the cooperatives.
That order has just now been stayed by a higher court. I was not an accused in the
case. I was never given an opportunity to present my views.
What about the charges of corruption and
favouritism levelled against you?
Totally wrong. I suspect the hands of my opponents to divert the attention
from the farmers' movement that I had started.
Your movement seems to have lost its edge.
But we have forced the Government to buy soyabean worth Rs 200 crore. It
wasn't touching it earlier.
It is alleged that you started the movement because
you were kept out of the ministry.
No one says that the cause I am advocating is wrong. The only complaint is
that through this I am trying to weaken the Digvijay Government. That is not my motive. If
that happens, it will be incidental.
-N.K. Singh
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