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Blasting Comrades Delhi: Minutes after the
Pokhran blasts, Defence Minister George Fernandes and his predecessor Mulayam Singh Yadav
ran into each other in the Parliament House Annexe. The two veteran socialists, now
divided by the trenchant line called the BJP, greeted each other, with Mulayam cursorily
asking, "Kya ho raha hai (What's happening)?" Pat came Fernandes' reply:
"Dhamaka ho gaya (A blast has occurred)." "Dhamaka?" asked a surprised
Mulayam. "Haan, dhamaka. Nuclear blast, jo kaam aap log nahin kar sake (A nuclear
blast, something you people couldn't do)." Fernandes departed leaving Mulayam
speechless. But his silence lasted only a few minutes. Soon Mulayam was back to
BJP-baiting: "I told you, we shouldn't have allowed these fellows to rule. We spent
all our time discussing PDS -- and look what they've done."
Party in Tatters
Delhi: One of
the biggest losers of the recent general elections has been Sharad Yadav. From being the
president of the once-ruling Janata Dal and the self-appointed prophet of a new Indian
social system, he has been reduced to a virtual nonentity. His party has withered away,
Sharad himself lost to Laloo Yadav in Madhepura and last week Bihar JD chief Ramai Ram
walked into Laloo's RJD with seven MLAs. His miseries were compounded recently when he was
asked to vacate his official bungalow since he was no more an MP. Last Monday, when
journalists asked him for his reaction to the nuclear tests at Pokhran, Sharad brushed it
away: "Arre nuclear blast kya hai. Hamare party mein blast ho raha hai aur hamein
samajh nahin aa raha (The blasts are happening in my party and I can't figure out
anything)."
Clearance Sale
Patna: Poultry
dealers in the city are making a beeline to Raj Bhavan where a unique sale is on. New
Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari, a strict vegetarian, has ordered bargain sale of the
thousands of Japanese quails, turkeys and chicken which his predecessor A.R. Kidwai so
painstakingly reared into one of the best poultry farms in Bihar. While Kidwai may miss
the mouth-watering taste of the exotic birds in his new premises in Calcutta, his
successor wants to have nothing to do with birds -- winged or otherwise. Bhandari has also
cancelled the orders for fresh stocks placed by Kidwai with a poultry farm in Jabalpur
just before he was transferred to West Bengal. Residents of Patna aren't sure whether this
summer they would get mangoes from the governor's orchard, normally available at
reasonable rates. From all indications, it's close shop for Raj Bhavan's retail outlets.
VIP Traffic Fine
Lucknow: After
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee expressed his anguish over the harassment of the
public by officials in the name of VIP movement, comes a shocker from the Allahabad High
Court. Justice G.S.N. Tripathi, himself a victim of a VIP movement, imposed a fine of Rs
10,000 on a host of state government officials on charges of obstructing movement of his
car for hours during the visit of the then chief minister Mayawati last year. The Judge
also wanted that the public should be properly informed about VIP visits and there should
be minimum obstruction. It is, however, doubtful if the officials, always anxious to
please their political masters, would ever follow either the court order or listen to
Vajpayee. After all, the bureaucracy everywhere considers itself above the law.
Conspiracy Theory
Hyderabad: When
it comes to playing to the gallery, Election Commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurthy is a clone
of former chief election commissioner T.N. Seshan. He takes audiences by storm with his
rhetoric, barbs, wit and colourful anecdotes. Emphasising the need to purge politics of
corrupt and criminal elements, Krishnamurthy argues that if a murderer can be elected to
the Lok Sabha, then there is no reason why a thief should be sent to jail. He says that
politicians develop cold feet at the thought of bringing in electoral reforms because
there is no blood circulating in their feet and it is time public opinion asserted itself.
"Delhi is a city of conspiracies where silence is observed as a strategy," he
says. Little wonder then that Krishnamurthy should speak up only while visiting native
Andhra Pradesh.
Well Done
Delhi: The
charm of a bygone era is being recreated on Delhi's famous lawns and avenues. Deep wells,
or baolis as they were called during the Mughal period, lying dry for centuries, are now
flush with water -- cooling the lawns and making flowers bloom. After an unsuccessful
attempt to revive the ancient baolis in 1971, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC)
renewed its efforts earlier this year and got the wells going. Says S.C. Basu Roy, chief
engineer: "The results have been encouraging."
Baolis at Lodhi Gardens, Talkatora Gardens, Nehru Park and
the adjoining Satya Marg and Kautilya Marg in the diplomatic enclave, have been restored
-- each at an average cost of Rs 50,000. The water is potable and may eventually be
supplied to homes in the NDMC area. Efforts are also on to revive the five famous baolis
of Panchkuian ("the place of five wells") and several others in the capital.
This is good news for the denizens of Delhi, where precious drinking water is always in
short supply in the summer months.
Reel-Life Attack
Mumbai: If her
reel life was eventful, then Zeenat Aman's real life seems no different. The heroine of
blockbusters such as Qurbani and Satyam Shivam Sundaram hit the headlines last week when
she lodged a complaint with the Mumbai Police charging her ex-husband Mazhar Khan's
relatives with assaulting her physically. According to Zeenat, on May 9 Khan's sister, her
two teenage sons, his mother and her own 11-year-old son Azaan barged into her Bandra
residence, abused her and a friend Zaheer Aslam and beat her up. The assailants also
smashed the furniture and damaged her car. Says Zeenat: "My ex-husband brainwashed my
son into attacking me. I'll never forgive him for this." Though the motive behind the
attack is unclear, Zeenat's relationship with 25-year-old Aslam -- she has been living
with him since her divorce from Khan seven months ago -- is believed to have led to the
assault.
Bare Necessities?
Mumbai: When
Swiss lingerie company Calida launched a hard-sell campaign for its designer underwears
three weeks ago, it thought the advertisements would really turn heads. "You can see
why we remained neutral during the two World Wars" and "You thought your
appetite for indulgence could only be whetted by Swiss chocolates,'' said the ads, as
models Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea in their "scantiest best" vouched for it. But
it now appears that the company has raised more eyebrows than it bargained for. The
state's Minister for Cultural Affairs Anil Deshmukh has not only pulled up Calida
"for harming the moral sensibilities of the citizens of Maharashtra", but also
asked Police Commissioner R.H. Mendonca to take stringent action against the models and
the advertising agency for violating obscenity laws. Says Deshmukh: "The ad was
offensive, obscene and violated the state Government directive."
Lending support to the Government's campaign against such
ads, Vinnet Kanchan, leader of the youth wing of the Citizens' Organisation for Public
Opinion, describes the lingerie ad as annoying and vulgar. "Why should sex be used to
sell a product when other brands in the same product range do not do so?'' he asks. Calida
had better prepare a convincing reply.
Politics in The Family
Chandigarh: It
is difficult to match Bhajan Lal's brand of politics. The former Haryana chief minister
and MP has again outwitted his rivals in the Congress by managing to field his second son
from the Adampur assembly constituency for the June 3 by-election. Having won from Karnal
in the recent Lok Sabha elections -- his elder son Chander Mohan is already an MLA in the
Haryana Assembly -- Bhajan Lal was keen to induct his younger son Kuldip Singh Bishnoi
into active politics. But he faced stiff opposition from his detractors within the
Congress, led by PCC chief and Sonia-loyalist Bhupinder Singh Hooda. But the Congress
maverick succeeded by pulling the right strings and banking on past services rendered at
10 Janpath. When he was chief minister, he is believed to have allotted plots to many of
Sonia's close aides in plush Gurgaon. By getting a ticket for his son, Bhajan Lal has not
just emerged victorious on a "prestige" issue, he has also sent out a signal to
his opponents -- of how close he is to "Madam".
Little Cheer
Patna: The news
of eight Bihar MLAs defecting from the JD to join the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
may have brought some cheer to Laloo Prasad Yadav last week, but that was however
short-lived. Before the former chief minister and his wife, Chief Minister Rabri Devi,
could sit down to celebrate, came the news that CBI Joint-Director U.N. Biswas -- who
pursued the case against Laloo in the fodder scam -- had met the Union Home Minister L.K.
Advani in Delhi. As if that were not enough, Biswas also called on new Bihar Governor
Sunder Singh Bhandari. "We would like to speed up the investigation and the
prosecution in the fodder scam," Biswas said after meeting Bhandari. Alarm bells have
been sounded in the RJD following reports that Bhandari had prepared a damning report on
the state of Bihar's law and order, administration and finances, to be submitted to the
Centre shortly.
The defections from the JD have however given the RJD some
cause for cheer, and state JD chief Ramai Ram, who led the crossover, has said at least
four more MLAs would follow suit. The RJD is now just 23 short of a majority in the state
Assembly and Rabri will be able to keep her Government afloat even if the Congress
withdraws support -- as it has been threatening to do for some time now -- provided that
the 16 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLAs and 13 Independents continue their support. The
problem, however, is that Laloo's real troubles lie not in the Assembly but in the courts.
No Clues Yet
Calcutta: Had
Netaji Subhas chandra Bose really died in the air crash at
Taihoku airport in 1945? Perhaps the version of his death accepted by successive Indian
governments since Independence is not accurate. The BJP-led Government had promised to go
deeper into the mystery surrounding the final days of the leader of the Indian National
Army. In recent years, a team of historians from Calcutta's Asiatic Society found evidence
in Moscow's former state archives that Netaji was seen in the former USSR in 1946.
Last week, Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli
Manohar Joshi met Purabi Roy, one of the scholars involved in the research, giving rise to
speculation that the new Government may delve deeper than its predecessors. But at a press
conference Joshi was non-committal, saying that "it is a matter for the Home Ministry
to examine". Perhaps it will be quite a while before the last chapter of Netaji's
life is written. |
