Way Off Target

Organisers of the half-a-century old Ram Lila function at the Parade Ground in Old Delhi always manage to persuade the cream of Delhi’s...

Organisers of the half-a-century old Ram Lila function at the Parade Ground in Old Delhi always manage to persuade the cream of Delhi’s political world, including presidents and prime ministers, to attend their function. But in the past, the custom was that leaders from opposing political parties were either called at different times or else kept at arm’s length in the seating arrangements.

This year, for a change, Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi were placed smack next to each other, providing a photo-op for lensmen. Vajpayee’s first attempt at aiming

the arrow at the Ravan effigy was way off the target and did not even touch the base of the demon god. Sonia joked in Hindi, ‘‘Thank God, he is not pointing the arrow in my direction.’’

Where’s The Birthday Boy?

In response to criticism that the Information and Broadcasting ministry had done little to highlight the government’s achievements, minister Sushma Swaraj requested all ministries to send in a list of their accomplishments to mark the third anniversary of the Vajpayee government on October 13. A couple of booklets were prepared out of the combined dhobi list.

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Home Minister L K Advani, who presided over the press conference to mark the anniversary, remarked that he himself was unaware that the government had done so much until he read the Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) lengthy compilation. But if there is so much progress to report, why should Advani feel that the government’s number one achievement was killing more terrorists than any previous regime?

While Advani claimed 161 ISI cells had been busted, the booklet put the figure more modestly as 101 ISI outfits. Either claim is non-verifiable. The DPM was less forthcoming on issues such as the economy, border de-escalation and communal disturbances.

The most curious part of the bash was that the birthday boy, the Prime Minister, was out of India, and other central ministers, apart from Swaraj and her MoS Ramesh Bais, as well as NDA partners were missing. To avoid the impression that the DPM was trying to steal the PM’s thunder, a valedictory function has been called for October 26.

Jaya Hindutva

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has made it to the cover of the latest issues of both Panchjanya and Organiser. The RSS magazines have showered praise on Jaya for defending Hinduism and criticised the godless DMK for comparing her ordinance against forcible conversion to POTA.

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Jayalalithaa’s Hindutva zeal is not to cosy up to the BJP central government as some assume. Jaya, an Iyengar Brahmin, has always been deeply religious even if the Dravidian parties to which she was affiliated were born out of an anti-religion movement.

Her religious faith has doubled after her return to power. During the DMK rule when she was slapped with numerous corruption cases, Jayalalithaa visited every major temple with a female deity in Tamil Nadu to seek the goddess’s blessings.

She did the laksharchana at the Kali temple in South Arcot offering puja 100,000 times along with over 50 kilos of red chillies and presented an elephant to the Guruvayur temple in Kerala. Jaya’s idols have been installed in some smaller temples in the state and there are posters depicting her as a goddess or Mother Mary.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister demands her followers prostrate themselves before her, whereas leaders like MGR and Karunanidhi officially frowned upon the practice as being associated with temple worship.

Father Knows Best

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Omar Abdullah, like Rajiv Gandhi before him, wanted to distance himself from his parent’s government so that he could convince the electorate that he would be starting with a clean slate.

But the new NC president’s snide references to Farooq’s regime were seen as ingratitude to his father, particularly when at one thinly attended election rally Omar remarked sourly that his problem was that unlike his father he could not keep the audience entertained with antics for two hours since he could talk only about serious issues of governance.

Unlike Omar, who sulked like a schoolboy after the poll reverses, the seasoned Farooq took the defeat in his stride, continued golfing and responded cheerfully to media queries. He also reportedly chided his son and told him that politics is not mazak and one should learn not to bite the hand that feeds you.

Monkey Business

SECURITY guards were seen earlier this month sanitising Yogana Bhavan with sniffer dogs and two langoors in tow, prior to Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s visit to the Planning Commission for a function.

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The use of sniffer dogs is routine in detecting bombs, but the introduction of langoors was a first. The apes were brought in to scare away the hordes of smaller monkeys who invade the building through the windows at the rear.

To ward off the menace a notice signed by an undersecretary has been put up all over Yogana Bhavan urging the staff not to feed leftovers from their lunch to the monkeys, not to leave their tiffin boxes on the table and keep all office files inside steel cupboards or else the monkeys tend to tear up official papers.