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After
Basu, Work
Reviving
a listless economy and keeping the die-hard reds at bay—the new Chief
Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya will require extraordinary grit to junk
the legacy of Basu raj.
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NEWSNOTES
CAPLOOKS
Abroad
Hints
 Delhi:
Bangaru
Laxman is known as the man who took over from Kushabhau Thakre as president
of the BJP. But a perusal of the party chief's recent list of appointments
would suggest that Laxman has something to do with the Foreign Office.
The list of countries whose envoys called on Laxman in the recent past
include the US, Russia, Iran, Morocco, Vietnam and Palestine, among others.
Last week, 18 diplomats from the Arab world called on Laxman at his party
office. Of course, such courtesy calls are accompanied by the mandatory
invitations to visit these countries. So, is Jaswant Singh finally going
to taste competition?
Smiling
Still
Delhi:
People who have met P.V. Narasimha Rao of late are not likely to come
away with the impression of having interacted with a man who has been
handed a jail term. At the Satyanarayan puja at Heavy Industries Minister
Manohar Joshi's residence last week, Home Minister L.K. Advani assured
the Telugu bidda that there was no extra effort on the Government's part
to fix him in the JMM bribery case. The former prime minister merely smiled.
With the Delhi High Court taunting the CBI's case, Rao can afford to smile.'
Swearing
by Speed
Calcutta:
West Bengal's minister for cooperation in the Jyoti Basu cabinet, Bhakti
Bhushan Mondal, was too ill to be sworn in as a minister in the new Cabinet.
Basu's successor Buddhadev Bhattacharya graciously decided to induct Mondal
into his team later. Mondal would have none of it. Ten minutes after the
ceremony in which Bhattacharya's team was sworn in, Mondal reached the
Raj Bhavan-in an ambulance. Efforts to usher him out failed until the
new chief minister assured him that he would be sworn in later.
Vastu
Vexation
 Raipur:
Ajit Jogi does not want to reside in the bungalow specially renovated
for Chhattisgarh's first chief minister. Its vastu, you see, is all wrong.
He wants the collector's bungalow instead. If he ever gets to move in
there, Jogi will be in familiar surroundings. As collector, he lived there
for four years.
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 In
August, Uma Bharati vowed to stay away from politics for two
years. Last week, she rejoined the Government.
Q.
What made you change your mind?
A.
I agreed to join the Cabinet because this will give me a platform
to promote the cause of Dalit women and those from the weaker sections.
Now I will be part of the decision-making team.
Q.
Was there pressure on you to join the Cabinet?
A.
Yes,
there was a lot of pressure from my seniors and elders whom I respect
a lot.
Q.
Is it a fact you wanted a post in the party set-up?
A. I left all decisions regarding me to my seniors. But the
post of a cabinet minister is the right kind of weapon to fight
for a cause.
Q.
Some people say that you never liked politics.
A.
When I became an MP for the first time, I got disenchanted. But
I suffered for this kind of feeling.
Q.
Why did you take sanyas in Kedarnath?
A.
I went there for peace of mind. But taking sanyas from politics
is good neither for me nor for my party.
Q.
Will you, as a minister, go to Bhopal and take up people's causes?
A.
I will continue my fight for the people because I represent them.
-Farzand
Ahmed
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COLUMNS |
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 With
all the noise about the cabinet resolution on dilution of the government’s
stakes in public sector banks, is anyone buying shares of these banks,
asks V. Shankar Aiyar in Au
ContrAiyar.
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TALKING
POINT |
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"The emphasis will be to create a truly world class faculty with diverse
approaches, beliefs, research and pedagogical styles," Prof. Sumantra
Ghoshal, founding dean of the Indian Business School, tells INDIA TODAY
Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in an
exclusive
interview.
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DESPATCHES |
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Long-forgotten
customs are invoked to preserve Meghalaya's endangered sacred groves,
and the legends surrounding them. INDIA TODAY's Teresa Rehman reports
on the unique conservation effort
in Despatches.
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