| Published on 07-10-2008 In General |
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Written by
Insider |
Hasty Moily
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AICC's media department chairman Veerappa Moily is paying the price of being efficient. On the day of Mehrauli bomb blasts, the Congress had a statement from Sonia Gandhi within couple of hours after the incident. Moily is said to be responsible for a timely condemnation. But that was not it. The statement erroneously had exaggerated number of casualties. Moily detractors are now busy whispering to the AICC chief that by acting in 'haste,' Moily allegedly compromised on facts and subjected the leadership to an avoidable embarrassment.
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Bumbling Home Minister
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Union home minister Shivraj Patil has been dreading Fridays. Each Friday, union cabinet meets and invariably, the most well dressed minister in Manmohan government becomes the centre of attention but for wrong reasons. This Friday too, all eyes turned to Patil as the minister feebly tried to explain how and why the attacks on Christian community in Orissa were not halting. Patil went about enlisting all measures that babus in North Block have contemplated which revolve around writing letters. When the minister was asked about Bajrang Dal, Patil was far from convincing. After the meeting was over, ministers were heard whispering if the threat to Patil's chair was still looming large. Patil's well-wishers (in hopeless minority) however feel the buzz is a creation of a senior government functionary and handful of aspirants for the North Block chair.
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Bawajis on the go
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Mumbai is witnessing an election that has more build-up than US polls. The otherwise sober and quiet Parsi community was uncharacteristically charged and engaged in boisterous campaigning to elect trustees of the Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP). For the first time in the history of the Parsi Panchayat, every member of the community, who is above the age of 18, has been given a chance to elect seven trustees of the Parsi self-governing body. The otherwise quiet Parsi colonies are full of pamphlets and posters and city's Gujarati newspapers are packed with full page and double-spread advertisements with profiles and details of candidates. For those having mobile phones, constant flow of messages begging for votes is keeping them alert round the clock. Two main groups — Adult Franchise for Progress (AFP) and World Alliance for Parsi Irani Zarthosthis (Wapiz) are in fray. Wapiz party stands for preserving the past and protecting the future. Its candidates want to bring back the vultures to the Towers of Silence so that Parsi traditions can be kept intact. The AFP team calls itself the reformist and wants to bring about socio-economic changes.
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Socialist's sacrificial tendencies
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Samajwadi Party MLA Kishore Samrite has a knack of staying in news. At Kamakhya temple Guwahati recently Samrite had upset animal lovers and NGOs alike offering sacrifices of hundreds of goats, buffalos and other animals. Samrite who likes to project himself as a modern day Robin Hood has now sought shelter at Chandraswami's ashram seeking the controversial guru's help in organizing some elaborate yagnas. Samrite's gesture has however not gone down very well with Samajwadis new friends in the Congress who view Chandraswami with a great degree of suspicion and dislike. The MLA from Lanji, Madhya Pradesh is however unfazed claiming that he enjoys support and blessings of Samajwadi party general secretary Amar Singh.
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Shahrukh's—faithful's favourite
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During Ramazan, Shahrukh khan observed seven fasts and attended a number of iftaars. However the timing of breaking fast saw him reaching late so the Badshah of Bollywood worked out another method to keep date with his fans. Shahrukh began attending sahri (pre-dawn meal) for day-long roza (fast). The traffic was negligible and the actor was able to stretch his long night a bit further. In the Muslim community, Shahrukh's rating as a 'faithful' has gone up several notches ahead of Aamir and Salman.
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Capitalising on Misery—Bihar way
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In times of calamity and misery, there are sharks that thrive on turmoil and seek their pound of flesh from cadavers. The recent floods in Bihar caused by Kosi saw many such cases. Bihar, a minefield of acrimonious political rivalry is now faced with allegations relating to flood relief. The PMO has received a complaint about a leader from Bihar for devising his own mechanism to reach aid faster than the official machinery. The huge funds collected from PSUs were allegedly not passed to the PM's Relief Fund. Instead, they were directly disbursing the largesse through political flunkies. Food packets, clothes, etc, were distributed but it was allegedly done by party persons.
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Aspirants' wild goose chase
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The ticket seekers for election-bound states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh are having a horrid time in Delhi chasing senior and influential party leaders. Many lower-rung aspirants have been staying in state-run guest houses and paying for day-long taxi fares without meeting bigwigs. In contrast, siblings and close relatives of senior party leaders have easy access and good prospects of getting the Congress nomination. At one of the Bhawans, an aspirant was heard describing the privileged lot as "well-fed" and persons in his league as "unwanted" children.
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Threat remains for Shivraj
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With bombs going off at regular intervals in various parts of the country, the threat to home minister Shivraj Patil's position is still a reality. Congress insiders said a sizeable number of senior ministers are vying for North Block regardless of their seniority and experience. If buzz in the Congress circles are to be believed, ministers ranging from Kapil Sibal to Prithviraj Chavan are also nursing ambition to look after the country's internal security. Both senior leaders P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee, who have credentials to replace Patil, are keeping a studied silence.
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Babulal Gaur, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and BJP minister in Shivraj Singh Chauhan regime is struggling to get party's ticket in November assembly polls. Gaur who originally hails from Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh has a knack of annoying his political masters and colleagues alike. In fact, days before BJP began the exercise to name its candidates Gaur began projecting his daughter-in-law Krishna as his successor. The BJP has taken his retirement plan rather seriously and does not appear to be favourably inclined to accommodate the daughter-in-law. In 2003 too, Gaur had nearly missed the nomination but made it due to the personal intervention of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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