Falling Star
The uproar over the prime minister's threat to resign may be over with the NDA reaffirming its faith and promising to behave. But the incident has called into question Vajpayee's inclination to govern. Buffeted by crises, is he preparing for a last bow? A report.

The Political Bank
The never-dying saga of UTI pitches the Government and the Opposition into the usual slanging match. More skeletons fall out of the UTI cupboard proving that the institution has been misused by politicians of all hues.

Crouching Tiger
Discontent is brewing in the RSS and the VHP over the coalition-hampered BJP and a pacifist Vajpayee being unable to push through the saffron programme. How long will it be before they refuse to toe the BJP line?

The Centre
Cannot Hold
Prodded by the DMK to requisition the services of three IPS officers involved in the arrest of M. Karunanidhi, the NDA Government is dragged into a constitutional debate.

Unravelling The Plot
A week after Samajwadi MP Phoolan Devi was gunned down by masked murderers, all the men believed to be involved have been arrested. Yet many questions remain to be answered before the case is solved.

Space Invaders
Research reveals life on earth may have originated from outer space comets.

STATES: MADHYA PRADESH

Passing The Buck

IN A SPOT: The shootout has given a beleaguered Digvijay a new problem

More than exposing the infighting in the state unit of the party, Prajapat's action has focused attention on the criminalisation of the MPCC. For long there have been allegations that the state party outfit was being run by thugs and goons. Initially, Malviya and Agarwal got along fine but eventually differences cropped up between them. Perhaps to counter Agarwal's muscle power within the MPCC, Malviya promoted Prajapat, a little-known Congressman from Indore with a criminal record.

Malviya, who used to call Prajapat his beta till last Sunday, is now on the backfoot. He may have to pay the price for promoting somebody with a criminal past and giving him the most authoritative organisational post. But he deftly passes on the buck to the chief minister. "I was not alone in choosing Prajapat. He had the approval of Digvijay Singh," says the MPCC president.

Digvijay and Mohsina Kidwai, AICC general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh, now maintain that there is no place for criminals in the party and that they firmly believe in the Congress tradition of non-violence. That glorious tradition was under serious strain in June when a violent mob led by the president of the Bhopal unit of the Youth Congress, Arif Masood, attacked a cinema hall for screening Gadar. The attackers alleged that the film had hurt the feelings of a religious community. To be fair, the party leadership did suspend Masood for instigating violence and arousing communal passions.

Such elements are not rare in the MPCC. In December 2000, Sonia Juneja, a 23-year-old office-bearer of the party from Narsinghpur, had hijacked a car at gun point from another office-bearer in Bhopal. She is now in jail but no one knows who brought her into the party fold. Another MPCC general secretary, Sobran Singh Mawai, who is supposedly a Scindia supporter, has been accused of kidnapping 18 zilla parishad members of Morena district.

Interestingly, only a handful of the office bearers of the MPCC have actually contested an election. And even fewer have won one. Malviya had stood in the Lok Sabha elections in 1999 but lost. Prajapat lost his deposit in the Indore municipal corporation elections in 1993. That was the only election he has contested. Agrawal has lost two consecutive assembly elections from Bhopal and Itarsi. Another general secretary, Lalit Srivastava has not managed to win in the past two parliamentary elections. His colleague Rekha Jain has never contested. And Mawai was denied the ticket in the last assembly elections.

Meanwhile, the kettles are calling the pots black. Says Congress MLA Premchand Guddu: "Malviya's role in the murder attempt needs to be investigated. He should resign owning moral responsibility for promoting people with no grassroot support." Guddu, who was earlier the president of the state Youth Congress, faces several criminal charges himself, including that of murder.

If the MPCC is beginning to look like an underworld den it is thanks to the rampant factionalism in the party's state unit. Senior leaders like Vidya Charan Shukla, Scindia and Arjun Singh played factional politics in the MPCC even while they were pursuing politics at the national level. Men and women with dubious credentials and no grassroots support were promoted so that they did not become independent power centres but continued to depend on their mentors. The only things kept in mind were the caste and community combinations. A criminal record was usually seen as a plus.

Perhaps that is why all factions unanimously opposed the appointment of Vithalbhai Patel as MPCC president even though his name had been cleared by the high command twice. A capable leader with a clean image, Patel is too much of his own man. In the MPCC that can work against you.

MetroScape

Man Of Many Parts
Dilip Chhabria is shifting gears. The 48-year-old ex-designer, rejuvenating the geriatric Ambassador and, sacrilege, redesigning the Mercedes, is diversifying.
more...

Looking Glass

Kolkata Aroma Bar:
The Address

Delhi Exhibition: Journey-Yatra

Bangalore Restauran t: Ai Cavalli

Bangalore Ice-dems : Stem dance theatre

Bangalore Furniture : Cinnamon

Kolkata & Delhi Play: Macbeth

Mumbai Photography : R. Veeresh Babu

Clinical tests of a controversial drug at a Kerala cancer institute exposes the vulnerability of the medical field to a larger malaise. An investigation by India Today Special Correspondent M.G. Radhakrishnan in
Trial And Error