Funding reduced for President’s dream project

On February 27, when election results for Punjab and Uttarakhand came out, Congress leaders went into hiding. AICC general secretaries in-charge, Janardan Dwivedi and Motilal Vora were incommunicado and so were more than a dozen senior ministers and party functionaries who were authorized to speak for the party on panel discussions et al. So, the one or two who were available, were seen running from channel to channel.

Prime spot hunt

With the Budget grabbing eyeballs on TV, it’s no surprise there’s a jostle for seats behind the FM and beside him in the front row, which are prime spots. Congress President Sonia Gandhi took her usual seat at one end of the front row, but soon there was a melee— first Surface Transport Minister TR Baalu occupied the other end, then came Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who quietly sat beside Sonia. Pawar was followed by Lalu Prasad, who squeezed beside Baalu. When the FM walked in, he looked askance, but none of his Cabinet colleagues looked ready to move. Baalu was even seen kindly picking up the FM’s briefcase and putting it on the floor to make space. Finally, Lalu, much to the amusement of the Opposition, vacated his seat.

Not wiser by experience

Last fortnight’s blasts on the Samjhauta Express should serve as a grim reminder of the blasts in Mumbai’s local trains last year. But the Western Railways that takes care of Mumbai’s suburban trains on the Churchgate line along with the rest of West Zone, has been headless for at least four months. With the Railways Ministry not appointing a new general manager, the Central Railway general manager has been asked to look into the Western Railway’s operations ‘from time to time,’ which means neither gets adequate attention. Laluji, where’s your management mantra today?

Thakur tangle

The fight for Uttarakhand’s top job between the BJP’s BC Khanduri and B.S. Koshiyari was really bitter of caste and regional rivalries. Koshiyari, a former CM and a Thakur, had the backing of the majority of party MLAs, and the party had hoped, with a little help from the RSS, to have a potentially unbeatable Thakur-Brahmin (Khanduri is one) combination to lead the state. But the Thakur card seems to have worked against him, party president Rajnath Singh, a Thakur himself, did not want to be seen backing one from his own community in a tough leadership battle. So, Khanduri as CM was the only right thing to do.

Bitter-sweet

Another BJP rivalry, this one involving party president Rajnath Singh himself, went worse. At the celebrations for the party’s victorious election results, everyone wondered if it would bring Singh and Arun Jaitley, general secretary in charge of Punjab, who delivered another win for the party, together. To begin with there were no congratulatory meetings between the two, though they spoke briefly on the phone. Finally, when they met, it was anything but sweet, literally. First, Singh offered sweets to Jaitley who said he was too full. When Singh insisted, Jaitley sidestepped saying he had diabetes. For the record, the BJP general secretary is almost never seen at party HQ next door to his official residence and has stopped talking altogether to TV channels on daily issues.

Bonhomie in uniform

There’s some good news on the eastern flank — talks between the Border Security Force and Bangladesh Rifles here in Delhi went swimmingly well. The visiting delegation, led by BDR Director General Shakil Ahmed, disarmed the BSF team headed by its DG A K Mitra with its willingness to cede ground on some contentious issues. These included permitting tea plantations right up to Zero Line along the border with Assam and West Bengal and, a bridge in Tripura. Some couldn’t stop talking about Ahmed’s shuddh Hindi, though this could have had something to do with his Indian connection – his mother is from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. He, however, told Indian officials his fluency comes from being a big fan of Hindi music over the years.

Keeping Left

Soon after the CPI(M) increased the levy on its MPs’ salaries, the party has added a new white ambassador to its modest fleet, consisting a Tata Sumo and a Maruti Omni at the headquarters. Keeping the tradition of the working class party alive, the ambassador will have a less than Rs 5,000 for its interior makeover bill. However, the vehicle is not reserved for any member, seemingly following the principle of all vehicles for everyone, each according to the need.

Tailpiece

The FM’s dog food howler may have got the BJP all hot and bothered – first it awoke a dozing Sushma Swaraj and SS Ahluwalia to high alert, who soon began firing that the tax rebate was to help Sonia Gandhi manage her canines. But as someone from the party pointed out, the ‘real’ kutta-billi crusader from the Nehru-Gandhi family’ was in their own party. We haven’t heard from Maneka as yet.