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FLIPSIDE
Mixed
Doubles
By
Dilip Bobb
Nargis
and Raj Kapoor, Charan Singh and Raj Narain, V.P. Singh and Rajiv Gandhi,
Al Gore and George Bush. Some people are destined to be coupled together
in the public eye, sharing a common fate and future, even if they may
not see eye to eye. Contemporary India has many such examples of marriages
made on earth, for better or worse. Usually the latter. Here are some
of the prominent ones.
Mani Shankar
Aiyar and Amar Singh: Their recent verbal-turned-physical clash at a cocktail
party has kicked up the mother of all gossip storms and added some colourful
new theories to the origin of the rivalry between Mulayam Singh Yadav
and Sonia Gandhi. Aiyar, whose social judgement was clearly somewhat clouded,
confirmed the old Confucius saying that he who puts foot in mouth gets
it in the backside. Definitely qualifies as a cautionary tail.
Sharad Yadav
and Ram Vilas Paswan: As a political soap opera, it has been running as
long, and with as many clichés, as Tu Tu Main Main. Now, with the
denouement in place, the Janata Dal (U) turns farce into fact. That the
'U' stands for United only adds to the irony. That Yadav has offered to
step down as president in the "interest of party unity" is the
icing on what looks like a very small cake. Even smaller if Ramakrishna
Hedge decides he wants a bigger slice. Side-splitting stuff.
Jagmohan
and Madan Lal Khurana: Little wonder the capital is in such a mess when
political expediency, as in the case of the latter, obstructs logic, which
is what Jagmohan and the judiciary stand for. Khurana's war dance in Parliament
to protest the shifting of polluting units from residential areas is at
odds with his earlier support for Delhi's Master Plan and clearly connected
to the fact that his political future, like the city he professes to champion,
is on the decline. The result: the Demolition Derby threatens to turn
Delhi into a one-horse town.
Ajit Jogi
and Digvijay Singh: The tug of war between the two Congress chief ministers
over a division of spoils would be understandable if it didn't boil down
to who flies the highest. Or the most expensive. The fight, over who gets
the better of two aircraft, a helicopter and a plane, may have been resolved,
and Jogi gets to keep the aeroplane: in a state where there are no airports!
Which will necessarily be his government's next priority. A clear case
of putting the craft before the horse.
Ajit Kumar
Panja and Saddam Hussein: One can forgive him for his frequent lapses
of poetic licence, but the minister of state for external affairs' rapport
with Iraq strongman Saddam Hussein adds a new meaning to bilateral ties.
Panja's description of the encounter: "He was looking at me with
his light blue eyes, wearing a light blue suit, but actually he was looking
deep within himself" would rival Churchill's best, except his purple
prose has caused a lot of red faces in the Ministry of External Affairs.
Clearly, diplomatic restraint is somewhat foreign to the minister.
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Enron
symbolises everything that's wrong with the way reforms were handled by
M/s Rao & Manmohan, says INDIA TODAY Associate Editor