Attitude problems

While Sudarshan has made no secret of his grievances against Vajpayee to his visitors, until now he has never spoken so freely to the media. In fact, traditionally the RSS chief speaks on political matters only once a year on Vijaya Dashmi and that too very guardedly. The loquacious Sudarshan has, however, been far more forthcoming than his predecessors.

Disaster management

Although disaster management is normally handled by a cell in the home ministry, in the case of tsunami, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh felt that the responsibility should be handed over to the Planning Commission. A retired IAS officer from the Maharashtra cadre, K S Sidhu, was appointed as chief coordinator, relief and rehabilitation for tsunami.

Last month the Asia Development Bank (ADB) invited India for a meeting to discuss a tsunami package, which it was offering to all affected countries. Sidhu was selected to lead the Indian delegation to the Philippines. But at the last moment the home ministry had to do some fleet footed disaster management of its own, when it was discovered that Sidhu had obtained a US passport after his retirement from service and would therefore have to opt out of the trip.

Accompanying baggage

Former President K R Narayanan has asked for permission to visit Turkey with his wife as a guest of the Turkish government. What is most unusual is that Narayanan has requested the Government of India to bear the cost for two attendants to accompany him. The home ministry, which was initially reluctant, has cleared the proposal after some prodding.

Who’s with whom

While Sudarshan’s dislike of Vajpayee is known, his suggestion that L K Advani should resign as party president came as a surprise to many. Actually Advani was compelled to take over the reins of the party last year after Venkaiah Naidu had per force to step down, because Advani was conscious that the RSS was trying to impose its own choice on the party. Sudarshan’s favourite among the younger BJP leaders is Sushma Swaraj although she does not have a Sangh background and started her political career in the erstwhile socialist party.

When Brajesh Mishra talked dismissively of a coterie around Sudarshan who tried to influence him, he was referring to a group of journalists and Swadeshi Jagran Manch promoters who are close to the RSS chief. Although many of Sudarshan’s advisers were nominated to the Rajya Sabha they share the common grievance that the Vajpayee government did not give them the importance they felt they deserved. Known detractors of Mishra such as S Gurumurthy and Balbir Punj are close to Sudarshan.

Incidentally, while one of Sudarshan’s complaints against Vajpayee was that his government had kept silent when George Fernandes was frisked by the US Immigration authorities, the RSS chief seemed to be unaware that one of his own favourites in the BJP had to suffer a similar indignity but also chose not go public about it.

Blame it on the UN

Indian journalists who attended the release of the seventh World Health Report brought out by the WHO at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan were handed a press kit and CD of the report. Half an hour later an anxious organiser from the health ministry approached each Press person and demanded back the CD without offering any explanation. A day later, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss ordered an inquiry to find out why the CD had been withdrawn so mysteriously.

It seems that a vigilant joint secretary in the health ministry noticed that the CD contained a map of India showing our part of Kashmir as disputed territory. The health ministry protested in writing to the WHO which explained that it had simply used the standard map of the world brought out by the United Nations.

Baggage offloaded

The PMO is annoyed with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who submitted a written request expressing great anxiety to accompany Manmohan Singh on his recent tour to Mauritius. Patel made out a case that his presence was necessary since an agreement on civil aviation was to be signed by the two countries. But although Patel was duly included in the delegation, at the last minute he backed out without offering any plausible explanation.

Unauthorised spokesperson

IT was not the official spokesperson of the foreign office who carelessly suggested to the media that a city other than Delhi could be selected for Musharraf’s visit to India in case the Kotla cricket stadium was not completed in time for the match, as reported in this column last week. The remark was actually made by one of his colleagues in the MEA who had accompanied the Prime Minister on his trip to Mauritius.