Inside Track

Electric shock
The unpaidelectricity bills of MPs over the last four years in Delhi adds up to nearly Rs seven crore and this even though MPs are entitled to 25,000 units of power free, working out to Rs 75,000 annually. After they did not respond to repeated reminders and notices to pay their outstanding dues, the NDMC Chairman B.P. Mishra last month ordered the electricity supply of 30 defaulting MPs to be cut. One indignant MP felt that the same yardstick could not be applied to MPs as ordinary folk and gave notice of a privilege motion against the NDMC chairman.

Since the Parliament’s Privileges Committee is empowered to send officials to jail if it feels a member’s rights have been impinged, this should normally have served as sufficient deterrent for further action. But better sense seems to have prevailed and the Parliament House Committee has in the meantime started consultations with the NDMC for a compromise formula for payment of the electricity arrears. And, despite the privilege motion, the NDMC is now continuing withits drive to recover its dues and a fresh list of defaulting MPs has been drawn up.

Pipped at the post
While the Congress, BJP CPI(M) and JD have been making the politically correct noises about their desire to introduce reservations for women in Parliament, they have done nothing whatsoever within their own parties to further the cause of giving women adequate representation in the decision-making process. In fact, the AIADMK and the TDP have stolen a march over the national parties by appointing women as whips in the Lok Sabha. The AIADMK’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha is Dr V. Saroja, a gynaecologist, while the TDP’s chief whip is Dr Sugana Kumari, a paediatrician. Andhra has another first to its credit, with Pratibha Bharati of the TDP being elected the first women speaker of a state assembly.

Messenger mess
Is there really enough work in the PMO for four former journalists? Particularly as there are several other scribes keen to offer gratuitous advice on how the government shouldhandle the media. And this is apart from the large contingent of Press Information Bureau officials. It seems H.K. Dua, who has been appointed to the secretary level position of Press Adviser to the Prime Minister, will restrict himself to interacting with senior editors and proprietors. Ashok Tandon who acts as the Prime Minister’s Spokesman will liaise with those slightly lower down in the media hierarchy.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, a director level officer in the PMO used to write the PMs speeches and his messages for special occasions, but with the arrival of another media expert Kanchan Gupta, his work load will be lighter and Gupta will handle the drafting of messages. If after all this the Prime Minister still gets bad publicity, then it will simply be a case of too many messengers messing up the message!

Credit or debit?
Retired CBI officer K. Madhavan claims credit for being the first to deduce the connection between Quattrocchi and the Bofors payments. He has also boasted that he wasresponsible for freezing Quattrocchi’s bank accounts since he made the request on behalf of the CBI back in January 1990. The CBI’s very own Inspector Clouseau has conveniently forgotten that at that time he submitted Quattrocchi’s name to the Swiss authorities, it was merely one of a hit-or-miss list of 26 names of people with connections with the Gandhis, including Amitabh Bachchan and Sonia’s brothers-in-law.

The false leads along with shabbily prepared and incomplete documentation was one of the major reasons for delaying investigations at the Swiss end by three years. The fact of Quattrocchi’s involvement was brought out by the Martin Ardbo’s diaries in 1989 and the direct link of Quattrocchi to the bank accounts was established only in 1993. And Madhavan had nothing to contribute to these two major breakthroughs.