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Quid
Pro Quo Delhi: For
accepting legal services, some clients are always willing to pay the lawyer back in kind.
Example: Laloo Prasad Yadav, the scam-struck former chief minister of Bihar and Rashtriya
Janata Dal (RJD) president. The lawyer in question is Kapil Sibal, president of the
Supreme Court Bar Association, and a resolute defender of Congressmen and their allies who
are in trouble with the law. Laloo, his client in the fodder case, is willing to offer the
vakil sahab a seat in the Rajya Sabha in the forthcoming biennial elections even though
Sibal will remain a Congress candidate. All that Laloo has to do to secure a safe passage
for Sibal is to transfer to him the surplus RJD votes in the Bihar Assembly, which has
seven vacancies. Since the offer was made a long time back, Sibal had enough time to put
together the required evidence of residence in Bihar. The Congress too is in need of a
powerful advocate of its cause in the Upper House, where the party's strength will shrink
considerably this year. However, Sibal's journey to the Rajya Sabha now hinges on the
crucial nod from 10 Janpath.
Out of Focus
Bangalore: If former prime minister H.D.
Deve Gowda is to be believed, the media -- lensmen in particular -- is responsible for the
Janata Dal's debacle in Karnataka. First he pointed to his attire, the dhoti, as the
reason for his not being invited as a guest on television networks. Then he accused
lensmen of spending too much time photographing archrival Ramakrishna Hegde. Recently,
when a group of press photographers landed up at Anugraha, the house he occupied as chief
minister and currently the residence of his son and state Housing Minister H.D. Revanna,
the former prime minister barked at the lensmen who wanted some frames of the post-poll
Deve Gowda: "Go away and shoot (Hegde's) Lok Shakti meetings, don't waste your film
rolls here." While he blames the press for "reports against me influencing the
voters", the "humble farmer" is indeed paranoid about the Bangalore press,
saying it is obsessed with Hegde. Deve Gowda, whose only memorable photographs are of him
stealing the mandatory forty winks, should know that unlike him, Hegde happens to be a
media-savvy politician.
First Among Equals
Bhopal: Guess which Congressman from Madhya
Pradesh is closest to Sonia Gandhi? No, it is neither Arjun Singh, the self-proclaimed
follower of the Nehru-Gandhi family, nor Madhavrao Scindia, who is supposed to have a good
personal equation with Rajiv Gandhi's widow. If Sonia's election tour in the state gave
any hints, the person closest to her is Kamal Nath. During her half-a-dozen trips to the
state, she chose to visit only one candidate's home -- Nath's Kamalkunj on the outskirts
of Chhindwara town. Apparently, Sonia made the unscheduled halt at Nath's house despite
objections from her security personnel. Ever since, Nath has become the envy of other
Congressmen from the state, having emerged as the only gainer among his peers in the
just-concluded elections.
Pack-up Time
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh
Bhandari is leaving no stone unturned to ensure his survival in the coveted post. Having
lost the politico-legal battle on the issue of dismissal of the Kalyan Singh Government,
Bhandari recently hired the services of a Vastushastri couple from Agra. The Vastu experts
changed the positioning of Bhandari's dining table, double-bed and other furniture. Later,
he even flew down to Agra to seek the couple's blessings. The Vastu experts may have
"cured" the ill-effects on him, but Bhandari, realising that a BJP government at
the Centre is a near certainty, has lost all hopes. He is said to have told his personal
staff to start packing up. Apparently, the controversial governor has decided to resign
from his post on the day Atal Bihari Vajpayee takes over as prime minister.
Law of the Jungle
Hyderabad: S. Venugopalachary has retained
both: the Adilabad seat for the TDP and his reputation as an abettor of timber smuggling.
In the latest incident, the minister of state for agriculture in the I.K. Gujral
government roughed up Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Anoop Singh when his staff seized a
car moving contraband timber out of a rice mill in Nirmal town at night. While a stunned
and bleeding Singh fled for his life, Venugopalachary took away the vehicle -- and the
timber. Agitated ifs officers demanded the immediate arrest of the errant minister.
"We are prepared to shed blood to protect the forests while smugglers bay for our
blood," said Karimnagar West DFO Vipin Chowdhary.
Venugopalachary denied the charges but surrendered before a
local magistrate when the police booked him for attempt to murder and prepared to arrest
him. According to forest officials, he has often intervened on behalf of timber smugglers
in the past three years. Though the officials called off their agitation following an
assurance from Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, they probably know that not much will
be done -- each MP is crucial to the numbers game in the Lok Sabha. And though he is still
not out of the wood, Venugopalachary has retained two acs and a generator provided to him
by the government just to prove his might.
Safe No More
Calcutta: The problem with Calcutta is that
it takes big crimes to shake the authorities out of their slumber. It took the murder of a
ruling coalition MLA for the authorities to admit that the city's MLA Hostel had become a
den of goons and antisocials. On February 27, a Bangladeshi tourist was gang-raped by five
men in the Railway Yatri Niwas at Howrah station. She had been lured to the place by a
tout who promised to get her a ticket on an Ajmer-bound train. It would have been treated
as just another case, but for the fact that the victim was a prominent functionary of
Bangladesh's ruling Awami League party.
Subsequent investigations have revealed that the Yatri Niwas
is hardly what it was built to be. Railway staff are known to be a party to gambling,
drinking and other illegal activities on its premises. The indifference of the state to
this can be gauged by the claim that virtually every minister makes about Calcutta being
"relatively safer than all other metros". But the fact that the Left Front
Government last week handed the rape case to the state CID is perhaps proof that the
ministers find their own words hard to digest.
Sense and Censorship
Mumbai: Pramod Navalkar can never be accused
of not taking his portfolio seriously. As Maharashtra's minister of state for cultural
affairs, he has waged an untiring war against vulgarity and pornography. Cinema halls, for
their titillating posters, and magazines like Debonair and Fantasy have been his targets
in the past. Now, the objects of his ire are the city's bus stops.
According to Navalkar, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and
Transport Undertaking (best) bus stops, apart from obstructing pedestrians, encourage
immoral behaviour. And how? Well, the new bus stops, part of best's drive to earn money
from illuminated advertisements, are covered on all sides but the front. So, while the bus
stops are lit up from the outside at night, it's dark inside -- perfect setting for, what
Navalkar considers, licentious behaviour. In fact, what set him off was the sight of
teenagers necking inside one of these bus stops. The minister's prescription may not be
the best thing for best, which is perpetually in the red. The loss in advertising revenue,
about Rs 9 crore a year, will just make its task more difficult. Admits Vinay Mohan Lal,
general manager, best: "This form of advertising has good potential for revenue and
it will be lost now." Well, at times, Navalkar can surely be accused of taking his
portfolio too seriously.
The Siege Within
Kohima: The Congress Government may have
taken oath in Nagaland, but the state's influential non governmental organisations (NGOs)
are keen to see the BJP come to power at the Centre. The reason: annul the recent polls in
the state. The ngos had supported a poll boycott called by the banned National Socialist
Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah faction), with the result that no political party barring
the Congress participated in the sham elections. Chief Minister S.C. Jamir won a majority
in the state Assembly even before a single vote was cast. The NGOs now say that if a BJP
government comes to power at the Centre, the move to throw out a government which is in
place "against the will of the people" will gain impetus. After all, the BJP
itself couldn't contest the elections.
Jamir's first move after he was sworn in was to extend a hand
of friendship to the NGOs: "We should work unitedly on the Naga political
problem." For now though, the NGOs aren't keen to return the gesture. They perceive
Jamir as the biggest impediment to Naga unity.
Without Sails
Srinagar: The fabled charm of Kashmir owes
much to its houseboats. But this famous symbol of the Valley may soon become part of
history as "most houseboats are in a bad shape and may even sink", warns
Hamidullaha Wangnoo, convener of the Houseboat Owners' Association. Nearly 1,100
houseboats are in urgent need of repairs but their owners can't afford to do so. With
tourist trade being slack, houseboat owners have been the worst hit. "So desperate is
our situation that some of us have even sold our valuables," says Wangnoo. "If
the Government doesn't pitch in, the houseboats may appear only on picture
postcards."
Says houseboat owner Khurshid-ul-Islam: "As such, it's
the Government's responsibility to compensate those who've been affected." The
association estimates that while the total investment of the houseboat owners is around Rs
1,200 crore, the loss during the past eight years has been around Rs 750 crore. Worse, the
relief package announced by the Government in September is yet to be implemented.
"We've already spent Rs 3,000 each on completing the formalities," says Wangnoo.
However, Director of Tourism Naseem Lanker says the Government has started collecting
information from banks about the loans. Until that is completed, the houseboats will have
to remain anchored. |
