Inside Track

Some of the sycophants surrounding Vajpayee have been extremely indiscreet in arbitrarily increasing Vajpayee’s age to an auspicious figure in order to make a big splash on his birthday. Last week, Kalayan Singh, Madan Lal Khurana, Vijay Goel and Sahib Singh among others inserted large laudatory ads in Delhi newspapers congratulating the PM on his 75th birthday. The Gujarat government even named three schemes after the PM to mark the occasion.

The Lok Sabha Who’s Who, however, puts Vajpayee’s date of birth as December 25, 1926, which made him 73 last month. To ensure that this was no printer’s devil, I checked up the previous year’s newspaper file to confirm that my memory was not playing tricks. Newspapers ofDecember 26, 1997 reported that Vajpayee celebrated his 72nd birthday by welcoming into the BJP, Congress MP Dilip Singh Bhuria, along with Som Pal, Ayub Khan and 95 retired defence officers.

Code of dishonour

In the whole messy business of the sacking of the Naval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat none of those involved comes out with clean hands. Politicians and bureaucrats backing favourites on the basis of regional loyalties and personal relationships is a major reason for the growing malaise in the armed forces.

A lobby from Punjab, including a powerful newspaper proprietor and former Defence Secretary Ajit Kumar were pushing for the appointment of Harinder Singh as deputy chief of naval staff, despite the negative report from Bhagwat. Whether Bhagwat had the right to defy the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet over the selection of his principal staff officer is a matter of debate. But Bhagwat’s stand would have appeared more principled if he too was not a creature of the same system.

Someyears back, a selection board consisting of the then Navy chief and a future Navy chief did not want to clear Bhagwat’s name for promotion from Rear Admiral to Vice Admiral. The decision was changed after a telephone call from the then defence minister. Similarly, Bhagwat was appointed Navy chief because of political pressures from his home state Maharashtra and against the advice of his predecessor Admiral V.S. Shekhawat. Like Harinder Singh, Bhagwat too has broken the service code of honour by washing the Navy’s dirty linen in the courts by levelling unsubstantiated charges against his superiors. He even denigrated a former Prime Minister in one of his petitions.

Incidentally, the bio-data of the new Naval Chief Sushil Kumar describes him as the most decorated officer in the Navy. Kumar’s decorations include the coveted Uttam Yudh Seva medal for conduct during war operations in Sri Lanka and Maldives, although he did not take part in battles in either country during the operations. Kumar was simplydirector of naval operations at headquarters in South Block.

Uncertain expansion

All speculative reports on proposed cabinet expansions should be prefaced with the rider that political compulsions keep forcing postponements and changes in the best laid plans. As of this week, the proposal for a cabinet expansion shortly after Vajpayee’s return from Bangalore to the Capital stands. The key question is whether Yashwant Sinha will be replaced as finance minister by either Jaswant Singh or Andhra Pradesh Governor C. Rangarajan who was earlier Governor of the RBI. While M.L. Khurana is tipped to lose the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, it is not Sushma Swaraj but P. Rangarajan Kumaramangalam who might take his place. New inductions could include Venkiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh, provided Kalayan Singh is permitted to stay on in UP. Arun Shourie will in all likelihood become deputy to L.K. Advani in the Home Ministry.

Out of sync

One cause for the present muddle in the BJP which will not bediscussed openly at the party’s national executive in Bangalore is Kushabhau Thakre’s dismal performance as the party president. The septuagenarian Thakre seems caught in a time warp. His strength was that he knew every party worker by name in the BJP’s predecessor, the Jana Sangh, which was a small, centralised, not-very-successful outfit. But these are inadequate qualifications for heading a diverse, mass-based, increasingly undisciplined national party.

During his eight months in office, Thakre has allowed things to drift. He has not even allotted portfolios to office-bearers or put anyone in charge of the state units. Thakre’s Delhi office is usually locked since he is perennially on tour. He is suspicious of and almost hostile to — the national press and was even opposed to taking a Delhi press party to Bangalore.

A characteristically disastrous Thakre press performance was held on the night of the assembly poll results. Asked his reaction to the Madhya Pradesh results, Thakre togged in anold-fashioned hand-knitted bonnet and practically snapped at the correspondent for asking a very legitimate question.