Backburner bench

Many fear that the Supreme Court intervention in the arrest of five journalists for breaching the Tamil Nadu Assembly’s privilege will ...

Many fear that the Supreme Court intervention in the arrest of five journalists for breaching the Tamil Nadu Assembly’s privilege will lead to a judiciary versus legislature confrontation. But indications are that the highest court in the land will avoid reaching a final decision in the matter by taking the pragmatic view that the issue of legislative privilege should be referred to a larger bench for hearing. In that case, the matter could drag on for years, by which time Jayalalithaa’s fury and the dust kicked up would have died down.

Why the difference?

During the ticket distribution for the forthcoming Assembly polls, the Congress party headquarters at Akbar Road, New Delhi, was swamped by crowds of ticket seekers. Hawkers had set up tea stalls in the compound and cars lined the road for a quarter kilometre distance on either side. Trucks carrying slogan-shouting party workers waving flags constantly made the rounds of the party office and Sonia’s residence nearby. In contrast, at the BJP office at Ashoka Road it was business as usual and the number of vehicles parked outside the building were no more than the usual number.

One surmise for the heavy traffic at the Congress office is that grass-root political workers smell a Congress victory and are flocking to the winning side. The BJP argues that this phenomenon is simply because decisions about party tickets are made in Delhi in the Congress, whereas in the BJP, by and large, the selections are made at the state level.

Tug of war delays

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Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal retires at the end of the month, but his successor is yet to be announced. Next in line is the affable Secretary in charge of Europe in the MEA Shashank, but Sibal is hoping to get an extension. Shashank is backed by DPM L K Advani who has questioned the proposal for Sibal to continue after a policy decision has been taken regarding extensions. As of now Shashank is slated to get the job. But since the FS’s extension is supported by the all-powerful Principal Secretary to the PM, Brajesh Mishra, cynics say after the PM’s trip to Russia, the scales may well tilt back in Sibal’s favour.

Pre-emptive bail

With poll surveys suggesting that the BJP could lose three out of the four forthcoming Assembly polls, BJP President Venkaiah Naidu opted for pre-emptive bail and announced that the forthcoming assembly elections were not a referendum on Minister Vajpayee’s government. Naidu really wanted to make the point that a bad electoral verdict should not stand in the way of his re-nomination as party president. Another one who has started making contingency plans is party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan. During the initial stages of the campaign, Mahajan, who does not share a good equation with Uma Bharti, kept away from MP and let Arun Jaitley handle the region. But apprehending that MP could end up as the only winning state for the BJP, Mahajan now wants to muscle in on this territory.

Need for cover

If the Tamil Nadu journalists charged with breach of privilege feel nervous despite the court stay against their arrests, it is understandable. Jayalalithaa has a reputation for settling scores with adversaries in disregard of legal niceties. One of her latest victims is Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar who jokingly compared her to an elephant in an article. To compound his irreverence he heckled the chief minister in a speech. The moment Jayalalithaa indicated her displeasure with Aiyar the local MLA chased the Congress MP out of the meeting and beat him up. A terrified Aiyar took temporary refuge in Pondicherry.

Some years back, Jayalalithaa even ordered the Chennai Airport Authority to force an Indian Airlines plane flying from Chennai to Mumbai to return to Tamil Nadu so that Subramaniam Swamy, who was one of the passengers, could be off-loaded. After Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister Vajpayee announcing her decision to arrest Union Minister M Kannappan under POTA, the PM advised the minister that the best course for him was to keep out of Tamil Nadu. After all Vaiko has been in jail for 19 months for incurring Jayalalithaa’s displeasure!

Unusually mum

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While both the Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pandey and Prime Minister Vajpayee have claimed that no names of any minister were taken during their discussion with CVC P. Shankar, he himself has remained silent refusing to either confirm or deny the report. Shankar’s silence is uncharacteristic. An extremely upright officer, he is known to speak his mind. In the early seventies when M. Karunanidhi was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu he addressed a group of district collectors and inquired whether any of them had complaints against politicians for interference and intimidation. Shankar was the only one to stand up and point a finger at his local politician. For his honesty he was soon shifted to the Chennai secretariat. In his last job as Chief Secretary Shankar was naive enough to complain to Jayalalithaa that some of her ministers were taking bribes. He fell out of favour with the Chief Minister and shortly afterwards resigned from service.

In his present position as CVC, Shankar is reportedly unhappy with the government’s apathy to his complaints and at one point even considered resigning. As the CVC is a constitutional post Shankar is answerable to no one and his tenure continues till September 2005.