| Ear
Today, Gone Tomorrow Delhi: In this, the thermonuclear age, you
wouldn't want the man with the finger on the button to hear "launch" instead of
"lunch", would you? Obviously not. Which is why, to the qualities of
statesmanship and vision, add another requirement for prime ministership: hearing. Atal
Bihari Vajpayee has often been praised for his statesmanship, and perhaps vision. But his
hearing wasn't up to scratch. Unknown to most, the prime minister has an inner-ear
problem. The Government has now rectified that deficiency. Vajpayee has just acquired a
miniaturised hearing aid that sits unseen inside his ear. The total cost of importing this
button-sized marvel of technology: Rs 1.6 lakh. In any case, this financial munificence
only follows the great Indian tradition of paying the medical bills of our leaders, never
mind that they refuse to use the same hospital facilities that they proudly declare as
being on par with the best in the world. Vajpayee can indulge his ear while the
Government's still here.
A Guru for the Godman
Chandigarh: Chandraswami,
the man whose faithfuls were once legion, has turned a disciple himself. And that too of a
Panchkula-based retired army officer-turned-astrologer. So last week, when the
controversial godman undertook a secret pilgrimage to the Haryana town, aboard the
executive class of the Shatabdi Express, it raised a lot of eyebrows in political circles.
Though Chandraswami -- currently entangled in a plethora of court cases -- had come to
seek astrological solutions to his woes, his meeting with Haryana Lok Dal chief Om Prakash
Chautala, who apparently was his host, did leave the BJP leaders restless. Speculation is
rife over the political motives behind Chandraswami seeking refuge in a little known
astrologer. After all, Chautala's party of four MPs is supporting the Vajpayee Government
at the Centre. Not surprisingly, there were more CID men in plainclothes than
Chandraswami's followers to see him off at the Chandigarh railway station.
Cyclone PR
Ahmedabad: When
it comes to pr, few politicians can match Digvijay Singh. Last week, the Madhya Pradesh
chief minister was in neighbouring Gujarat lending a hand to the cyclone-affected people
of the state. He donated Rs 1 crore for relief work, besides announcing that his state
would gift 10,000 electric poles to replace the thousands that were destroyed in the
disaster. But when a reporter asked him why he came almost a month after the cyclone,
Digvijay was quick to retort: "VIP visits soon after a calamity often hinder relief
operations." It's a different matter that his image-building trip was on the advice
of good friend and AICC Treasurer Ahmed Patel.
Jet, Set, Go
Delhi:
Farooq Abdullah was in the capital last week when his new friends in the BJP gave him the
ultimate gift: Rs 250 crore to tide over Jammu and Kashmir's financial crisis. Long before
he left, Farooq informed the J&K resident commissioner about his departure plans. At
the appointed hour, the bureaucrat was at the airport -- garlands, entourage and all -- to
see off his chief minister. But Farooq just didn't show up. After waiting for a while, the
harassed man sought the airport authorities' help. They told him that Farooq had taken off
an hour earlier. Not to Srinagar, but to Mumbai. To meet his film star friends?
Post-dated Check
Mumbai: Suresh
Prabhu, the Union minister for environment and forests, is the sort who dodges
controversy. Yet, his second stint in the Central Cabinet -- he had earlier handled the
high-profile industry portfolio -- seems dogged by controversies. First it was the Coastal
Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification which everybody except the environmentalists want
diluted. Now comes the charge that he was on the board of directors of Western India
Financial Services when the company issued dishonoured cheques to investors in Kerala in
October 1996.
Last week, a first class judicial magistrate in Kerala issued
a non-bailable arrest warrant against the former chartered accountant and Shiv Sena
member. Prabhu, though, was quick to obtain a stay from the Kerala High Court on the
ground that he had resigned his company post in May 1996, five months before the offending
cheques were issued. However, investors say that the resignation was notified only in May
1997. As demands for Prabhu's resignation grows in Parliament, the case can only get
murkier. More or less like the CRZ mess that he finds himself in.
Backward Step
Calcutta: The appointment of A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury as president of the rump West
Bengal Congress is a strange way to revive the party's fortunes in the state. The
71-year-old is almost an invalid but owes his comeback to his invincibility in his pocket
borough, Malda, the only constituency to return a Congress victor in the last Lok Sabha
election. "Barkatda", as he is known, is not expected to effect a shake-up of
the Congress, whose credibility has been eroded by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata
Banerjee's successful branding of it as the Marxists' "B Team". At best he can
be expected to unite the top leadership, itself a tall order. However, the choice of
Chowdhury's old rival P.R. Dasmunshi as the "working president" is bound to
reopen wounds of the '80s when intense factionalism virtually crippled the party. In one
impulsive move, party chief Sonia Gandhi seems to have ensured a smooth run for the
Marxists in West Bengal.
At Daggers Drawn
Chandigarh:
Their "made-for-each-other" posture notwithstanding, matters are not all
hunky-dory between the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal. Last week, the allies got into a
public wrangle over the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar (USN) -- an area in Uttar Pradesh
largely inhabited by Punjabi settlers -- in the proposed Uttaranchal state. When BJP
central leaders maintained that the Akalis' demand for USN's non-inclusion was
"non-feasible constitutionally", the Akalis warned of "serious
consequences" if they were let down on the "sensitive issue".
At the root of the row is vested political and economic
interests. While the BJP thinks that keeping USN in Uttaranchal would be politically
beneficial, the Akalis are worried that the inclusion of USN in Uttaranchal would lead to
a new land ceiling act affecting not just the Punjabi settlers, but several Akali leaders
who own sizeable tracts of land there.
With a bargaining chip of nine MPs, the Akalis are even
threatening to vote against the bill on new states in Parliament. "Not accepting this
demand may sour our relations with the BJP," says Punjab Finance Minister Captain
Kanwaljit Singh. "It's a point of no return for us." More so because the
Opposition Congress is pouring scorn on the Akalis for not getting the Punjabis their due.
Biennial Ritual
Guwahati:
Gastro-enteritis attacks usually come every two years. This year, it wreaked havoc in the
tea gardens of three districts of Upper Assam, claiming as many as 237 lives. Now, an
inquiry led by the commissioner of Upper Assam has held tea companies and labour officials
responsible for the deaths.
In its report, the commission notes that every three of the
four deaths that occurred could have been prevented had the gardens concerned provided
proper sanitation and clean drinking water to its labourers. Besides, many of them were
found providing substandard rations to their employees. Ironically, the worst offenders
were large tea companies like Assam Tea Corporation, at whose gardens more than 50 per
cent of the deaths occurred.
Chief Minister Prafulla Mahanta has appealed to tea gardens
to provide better facilities to their labour force. But if the past is anything to go by,
those living in the labour lines must be dreading the thought of the monsoons in the year
2000.
Stolen Limelight
Hyderabad: Recovering
stolen gold jewellery is a rare event in Andhra Pradesh. Rarer still is catching the
thief. Last week joy knew no bounds in the state when the police announced that they had
recovered the gold crown and other priceless jewellery stolen from the Kanakadurga temple
in Vijayawada on April 26 and caught the thief. But the mood soon turned to gloom when it
emerged that the whole affair had been stage-managed.
Prakash Kumar Sahu, the "arrested thief", told the
court that the police foisted the case on him and collected Rs 15 lakh from the real
culprits.Then it became known that the detectives had got the jewellery made by the same
Tenali goldsmith who had made the crown for the donor, Congress MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao.
Apparently, the idea was to impress Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu who demanded quick
results.
An embarrassed Naidu has ordered a judicial probe. Chances
are that it would reveal more than what the police want to hide.
A Dead Man's Tale
Thiruvananthapuram: It
was a damper, though minor, on his birthday celebrations. Three days after former chief
minister K. Karunakaran turned 80 on June 26, the Kerala High Court served notice on the
state Government on a 26-year-old corruption scandal in which the Congress leader was
allegedly involved. The petitioner, maverick social activist and former journalist
"Navab" Rajendran, sought an investigation into the 1972 incident, narrated in a
recently-published biography of former DGP Jayaram Padikkal, a Karunakaran associate.
According to Jayaram Padikkal's Crime Diary, which author
Vengannur Balakrishnan avers is the late DGP's authorised biography, Padikkal, then a DSP,
seized and destroyed from Rajendran's office a letter allegedly written by Karunakaran's
private secretary C.K. Govindan to an estate manager demanding Rs 15,000 on behalf of
Karunakaran. Rajendran had then published the letter in his weekly Navab but was unable to
present it in court when Govindan filed a defamation suit. The book says Padikkal,
notorious for his strong-arm tactics during the Emergency, made Rajendran eat the seized
letter with chicken curry.
"I don't know whether it is true but this is what
Padikkal told me," says Balakrishnan. Karunakaran, on his part, says that it is
another tale spun to denigrate him. "Even then it was proved that the letter was
forged," he says. "Moreover, Padikkal is not alive to substantiate the
allegations." For Rajendran, who revels in putting Karunakaran in the dock, this is
another case to pursue.
Failed Course
Mumbai: For
long they have been the natural corollary to the limping education system in colleges. In
Mumbai, about 1,000 private coaching centres carry on business to the tune of
approximately Rs 1,000 crore. But for the first time this booming industry has come under
fire. Following a writ petition filed by the Forum for Fairness in Education (FFFE), the
Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra Government and the Mumbai University to
seek greater control over coaching classes, check their growth and regulate the business
in the city. It has also directed that college teachers teaching in coaching institutes
should not be paid salaries by the Government.
For petitioner Bhagwanji Raiyani, FFFE president, it's a
small victory after a long war. "The malaise has spread too far and deep," he
says. Now, college authorities hope that the ruling will bring students back to colleges.
However, the managements of coaching centres are not willing to give up without a fight.
They believe that coaching classes are necessary as they fill the void between university
education and the students' needs.
As the colleges and coaching centres slug it out, students
are earnestly waiting for the court directives to be implemented so that a sound education
system could evolve. But that won't be an easy task. What with politicians like Chief
Minister Manohar Joshi patronising coaching institutes. |
