| Newsnotes Delhi: Seat of
Discord
The Congress-BJP psychological war continues, with leaders from both sides using every
opportunity to upstage each other. During the all-party meet at Prime Minister I.K.
Gujral's residence recently to discuss the proposed amendments to the Anti-Defection Act,
Congress chief Sitaram Kesri and Atal Bihari Vajpayee came face-to-face after a long time.
Kesri reached 7 Race Course Road about 20 minutes late and when he entered the room the
only seat vacant was the one next to the leader of the Opposition. He moved towards it but
halted mid-way once he realised his predicament. Seizing the moment, Vajpayee told him,
"Come on, at least behind closed doors you can sit next to me." Not to be
outdone, Kesri replied: "If I sit next to you in private then in public you might
embrace me." This caused a ripple of amusement among those present. Eventually, Lok
Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma led Kesri by the hand to the sofa and sat between Vajpayee and
Chacha, sparing everyone else the blushes.
Delhi: Family Feud
The long-running feud between the former and present chief ministers of Delhi, Madan
Lal Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma, has now degenerated into a physical fight between their
supporters. Trouble began with Khurana's men accusing Verma of using private detectives to
spy on their leader's movements. The trading of charges culminated in an MLA close to
Verma slapping one of Khurana's men. Now both camps are working overtime to discredit each
other. Khurana supporters claim to have information about a lottery king who allegedly
ordered the snooping on Verma's behalf, besides details of a Rs 100 crore land scam
involving his men. Khurana, for a change, is keeping quiet and letting his supporters do
the muck-raking. Verma, MEAnwhile, has sworn to step down if any charge is proven. With
the polls in Delhi due in a year, the squabbles in the extended Hindu parivar of the BJP
is bound to get murkier.
Calcutta: Red History
Anyone interested in the history of Indian communists? For Rs 1,000 per volume,
scholars may be floored by "rare documents on growth and development" of the
country's communist movement. Already 12 volumes are out and there are 11 more in the
pipeline, says a spokesman of the National Book Agency, the CPI(M)'s publishing outlet.
But there are two problems. It will be the CPI(M)'s version of the communist struggle.
And, it comes at a time when the Marxists themselves face a split down the middle over
division of spoils. Last week, on the 80th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, their
political patriarch Jyoti Basu warned of "attempts to break" the party. Snide
comments are being heard from all corners that those who are really keen must make a rush
for their copies.
Mumbai: Pressing Quota
Having failed to push the women's quota bill through party lobbies, the supporters of
the bill have now turned to the press for help. Or so it seems. Rajya Sabha Deputy
Chairperson Najma Heptullah made an impassioned plea to mediapersons last week in Mumbai
for some consensus on "improving the balance of representation" in state
legislatures and Parliament. The press was all sympathy, but attendant Congressmen
(fearing they will lose their tickets) were not. When asked why parties couldn't be
pressured into allotting a third of the tickets to women, the suave presiding officer
said: "Woh bhi ho sakta hai (that too is possible)." And then she looked at the
Congressmen waiting for party bigwigs and smiled ... knowingly. Very simply, the women's
bill seems to have everyone's support except those who can push it through.
Mumbai: Straw Power
The Maratha "straw man" has done it again. Expected to lead the charge of the
"light brigade", Sharad Pawar had egged on several senior Congressmen after
party chief Sitaram Kesri's failure to prevent the BJP from coming to power in Uttar
Pradesh. Some state MPs even went about telling mediapersons how Pawar could be leading
the formation of a "Democratic Congress Party" against the ways of the "old
syndicate". And that the new party may not be averse to joining the United Front. But
as usual, Pawar chickened out at the last moment. Barely hours before the crucial Congress
Working Committee meeting in Delhi on November 9, he found something terribly important to
do in Mumbai. A Congressman in Mumbai explained the sudden flight out of the capital as a
dharam sankat (moral dilemma) for Pawar: he would have had to take a stance in the
Kesri-Jitendra Prasada war and so vanishing from the scene was the best option. Seriously
though, Pawar has opted out so many times that it should stop making news. But his
loyalists disagree -- apparently, the fact that he still manages to make people believe
that he "can" is what matters.
Chandigarh: Calling Sonia
It was the maverick Bhajan Lal's way of avenging his humiliation in the presence -- and
with tacit support -- of Sitaram Kesri during the Congress chief's maiden visit to Haryana
recently. Ever since he was greeted with slogans of "murdabad" and not allowed
to speak at the rally that Kesri presided over, an enraged Lal hit Chacha where it hurt
the most: by giving a clarion call to Sonia Gandhi to lead the party. "Only she can
save the Congress," said Lal at a rally of his supporters in Jagadhari last week. The
Haryana supremo, who is spearheading the rebels against pcc chief and Kesri's confidant
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, even got his "bring Sonia" call endorsed by the
impressive gathering. Lal, according to the party grapevine, has succeeded in mellowing
down Sonia's aversion towards him with some quiet pr. Helping him forge a new equation
with her are those at Madam's household who -- including her gardeners and peons -- were
obliged with discretionary plots in the plush sectors of Gurgaon when Lal was chief
minister. Clearly, Lal is now trying to encash his investment at 10 Janpath to take on a
hostile Kesri.
Chandigarh: Price of Populism
It is a classic case of crass populism recoiling on its practitioners. The ruling Akali
Dal-BJP combine is belatedly realising that its pre-poll promise of abolishing octroi -- a
sop to woo traders and businessmen who form the BJP's votebank -- may not work out after
all. What has put the Parkash Singh Badal Government in a bind are official reports that
it is "financially unviable" and could be "suicidal" for the
municipalities.
The annual octroi collection is about Rs 325 crore. It has now dawned upon the
cash-strapped state Government that it will not be able to compensate the local bodies if
octroi is abolished. Besides, while the abolishment of octroi would benefit only the
traders, public wrath for choking the local bodies of revenue could be widespread. Not
surprisingly, it is now looking for a face-saver as elections to 94 municipal bodies are
due in early January. "Committing ourselves to abolishing octroi could prove a
political blunder," admits state Local Bodies Minister Balramji Dass Tandon.
Curiously, the BJP is trying to palm off the octroi issue on the Akalis'
"unrealistic" promise. Party leaders say Badal never consulted the BJP before
making it a poll plank. However, there are few takers for this argument as the octroi
promise figures prominently in the combine's common minimum programme.
Guwahati: Tightening Noose
Despite top lawyer Ram Jethmalani's protracted pleas, a special division bench of the
Guwahati High Court has decided not to grant extension of anticipatory bail to three Tata
Tea executives under investigation by the Assam Police for their alleged funding of the
extremist United Liberation Front of Asom. In effect, this gives the state Government the
option of arresting company md R.K. Krishna Kumar and his colleagues S.M. Kidwai and K.
Sridhar at any time for custodial interrogation.
In their order of November 10, Justices V.D. Gyni and N.S. Singh noted that
Jethmalani's argument before the court three days earlier was virtually a defence of the
charges levelled against the company. Later, the court also turned down the Tatas' plea
for a 48-hour stay on the order to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.
Tatas' lawyers later told reporters that Tata Tea would move the apex court "at
the earliest" against the order, which is being construed as a moral victory for the
state Government. But observers say the arrests are unlikely and it appeared from
Additional Advocate-General Pranab Pathak's arguments on behalf of the state Government
that the sword would be left dangling until the case reaches the Supreme Court.
Guwahati: On the Mat
It was a role reversal for cbi Director R.C. Sharma. The man, who many feel will pull
the rug from under Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Mahanta's feet, had the ground removed
from under his own feet on November 10. Sharma, who had come to Guwahati in connection
with the Letter of Credit scam case, suffered fractures to his pelvis and arm and injuries
to his ribs when he fell off an Indian Airlines Boeing.
"As destiny would have it, I stepped out to wave goodbye," said the cbi
director, swathed in bandages at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital. He hadn't realised
that the aircraft's ladder had already been removed. Despite the injuries, Sharma was
coherent enough to say that in all his years of air travel he had never experienced
anything quite like this. Neither had the director-general of civil aviation, who promptly
ordered an inquiry.
Shimla: Split Image
For the BJP still gloating over its coup in Uttar Pradesh, the rebellion in Himachal
Pradesh came as a jarring note. Infighting spilled out into an open show of rowdyism on
November 9, forcing the party central leadership to indefinitely postpone the election for
the state president.
Tension had been building up between the rival factions led by former chief minister
Shanta Kumar and state party chief Prem Kumar Dhumal in the run up to the elections.
Matters turned worse on November 8 when the returning officer disqualified 26 (all except
one belonged to the Kumar faction) of the 84 delegates who were to elect the new
president. Kumar and his supporters promptly dubbed it a "gameplan" by the rival
faction to thwart his election.
Kumar's defiant mood is bound to hasten the party's downhill slide. It has been forced
to play the role of a friendly Opposition as it suffered successive defeats in recent
bypolls. Little wonder, the squabbles in the BJP are music to the ears of Congress leader
and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Lucknow: Touch and Go
Security is never fool-proof in Uttar Pradesh, even for vvips. Chief Minister Kalyan
Singh had a rude shock on November 5 when a person managed to sneak into his official
residence on Kalidas Marg and touch his feet. It was only when he expressed surprise that
the Black Cats, nsg commandos and pac jawans on duty spotted the trespasser.
Though Kalyan did not make much of the incident, his son Rajbir Singh reprimanded the
security officials for the lapse. The person was later handed over to the Hazratganj
Police who failed to extract any significant information from him, other than the fact
that he was 35 years old and hailed from Hardwar. The man told the police that he entered
the chief minister's residence through the main gate, where at least 50 police and pac
jawans are deployed round-the-clock.
To avoid a controversy the police did not register a case against the trespasser. But
loopholes in the chief minister's security is a matter of concern since a similar incident
took place earlier too. In 1993, when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister, a
Maharashtrian youth entered the residence and slapped him.
Thiruvananthapuram: Left Dilemma
Kerala's Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government seems to have developed cold feet on
setting up the Rs 700 crore Asian Institute of Public Health at Munnar following a
high-pitched campaign by some doctors and a pro-left ngo that it was a covert effort to
"rob Kerala of its genetic wealth". but its co-promoters, the Johns Hopkins
University of the US, has not given up hope yet. Last week, the university held an
international seminar in the state capital to explain that it had no intention of using
"Third World people as guinea pigs". Present at the seminar was Carl Taylor,
professor emeritus at the university and the principal author of the project, who,
detractors say, has cia links and was "ordered out" of the country in 1971 by
the Indira Gandhi government. Taylor denies both the allegations, saying, "the Munnar
project would be of immense help to India."
The project was given the go-ahead by the LDF Government in October. Some doctors and
politicians are now changing tack in favour of the project. Says Congress MP A.C. Jose:
"The CPI(M) should give up its worn-out anti-American shibboleth." The obvious
reference is to the party's silence on the entry of US corporations into Left-ruled West
Bengal. |
