Snippets/Mail Today, July-07, 2008

WITH the fate of the UPA Government no more in the hands of the Left, those dramatic to’s and fro’s, captured daily by a hundred TV crews outside AKG Bhavan and the frenetic meetings inside to discuss more ways to arm- twist the government are a thing of the past. Even the Politburo (PB) seems to have gone on long leave, so they make do with something called the “Available Politburo” (APB). The APB consists of three wise men and one woman, who as the name suggests, are mostly “available” in the Capital. They meet every morning, read the newspapers to update themselves on what they and everyone else did the previous day and then decide what is to be done for the day. The problem is, TV and the internet keeps updating news through the day, so the Comrades end up taking a“firm” decision in the morning, reverse it by afternoon before changing it again in the night. They don’t deserve sympathy. The agony and the confusion is self- inflicted.

IN these times when everyone from the Prime Minister downward is talking about liberalisation and unshackling, there is apowerful trade union that is calling the shots and virtually holding the government to ransom. It is called the Indian Administrative Service. Apower and status hungry lot, the members of this TU are known to compromise on everything but their instinct to survive and their superior pay scales. Their “I- me- mine” attitude is now bringing the government machinery to the brink of afratricidal war. Last week, about 150 officers of the IPS officers( Central) association met in New Delhi, among them several DGPs and IGs. Their grouse –Pay Commission, promotion norms, pensions, empanelment etc. The policemen are showing anew belligerence. They are particularly galled that ashowcause notice has been served on Abhinav Kumar, abright young SSP from the Uttarakhand cadre. His crime was that he wrote two incisive articles in anewspaper about the stepmotherly treatment to the IPS. Each time abomb blast takes scores of lives in Hyderabad, Jaipur or wherever, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister appear on TV to wax eloquent about the need to strengthen the internal security apparatus. No dispute on that. But instead of heading for the green room to comb his hair before facing the TV cameras, Shivraj Patil, perhaps the most ineffective Home Minister this country has ever had, should put his money where his mouth is and give these brave officers their due.

No spent force

VGEORGE. Not many people these days would remember a man who went by this name. As Rajiv Gandhi’s secretary, he was among the most powerful men in the Capital earning him the sobriquet King George V. But after Rajiv’s death, it was widely believed that he had fallen on bad times, out of favour with 10 Janpath and shunned by the very Congressmen who once prostrated before him. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Last Sunday, union ministers, PCC chiefs, Congressmen turned governors, et al headed for God’s Own Country for the wedding of George’s son. Congressmen are not known to do anything that could earn them the wrath of 10 Janpath. If George indeed was out of favour, the Congress bigwigs would not have taken that long flight to Kochi. George may have chosen to stay out, he certainly is not down. Not bad for someone whose first job as Sanjay Gandhi’s secretary owed solely to the amazing speed he displayed on the old Remington Rand typewriter.

SUNNY DUBAI has been both the financial and business capital for Indian and Pak industrialists. Now it is becoming avenue for political rendezvous. Top politicians and ministers from both countries find Dubai airport, the perfect backdrop to exchange news and views. Pranab Mukherjee and Sharad Pawar exchanged updates on the N- deal in Dubai. Last week, junior Foreign Minister Anand Sharma met Asif Zardari there. No TV crew following, no "breaking news". While in Dubai last week, Iwas told that more than adozen Indian ministers drop by every month. For what, Idon’t know. Can’t be just the sun, sand and surf.

Impossible is nothing in race to power/Mail Today/July-07,2008

NECESSITY is the mother of all initiatives. Nine years ago, Sonia Gandhi’s office kept Amar Singh waiting for an appointment he had sought with her and he never forgave her. He persuaded Mulayam Singh to back out from apromise to back her for prime ministership on the fall of the Vajpayee government in 1999, and made nonsense of her famous “Igot 272” claim. Since then the two sides have been daggers drawn, both politically and personally. Yet, for the government’s survival, it was to the SP that the Congress leaders turned. All UPA alliance partners were kept in the dark about the parleys with the SP and the initial feelers were sent through Sonia’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, Amar’s good friend while the SP leader was holidaying in the US. The high command has been wary of engaging him directly due to Singh's aggressive nature and his ability to drive hard bargains. Not to speak of his unpredictable and his impulsive instincts. After the way they stood her up in 1999, Sonia could ill afford another slap from the same palm, which explains why she entered the scene only after the SP made its intentions public. The first sign of this was Amar Singh’s statement that “containing communalism was top most priority for the SP”. The ice melted, Sonia called Amar on phone and later he and Mulayam dropped by at 10 Janpath and the government is no longer in peril. PS: Though SP and BSP had earlier announced they no longer back the UPA, they never withdrew their letters of support given in 2004. As the Adidas ad says, "Impossible is Nothing” applies in politics too.

Home and away games/Power&Politics/Mail Today-June 30,2008

Never in Independent India has a government been so fragile and so susceptible to pressures that even foreign policy, an area in which all previous governments operated on across- party consensus, becomes avictim of domestic politics. On June 20, the National Security Adviser MK Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh were in Colombo. Since the newspapers maintained a mysterious silence on the matter, it can safely be assumed it was asecret mission. Ichecked around and was told that they had gone to oversee security arrangements for the forthcoming SAARC summit. That’s laughable, since Ithink the SPG is more equipped to do the job. Aspecial aircraft took them from Delhi to Colombo where they met Tamil politicians like RSampanthan among others. On Saturday morning, they held long discussions with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and chiefs of the three services at the Temple Trees (President's home- office). The Indian team is understood to have told the President that apolitical solution –within the framework of a united Sri Lanka –was necessary to the Tamil problem. The Indian officials also stressed the Sri Lankan military campaign could not be the only option. With the Army closing in, the LTTE, many of whose leaders have been killed in recent times, is with its back to the wall. In the late 1980s, it was Narayanan, then IB director, who was Rajiv Gandhi’s main interlocutor with the LTTE. But that’s another story. Back to the present. Enter M Karunanidhi, the LTTE’s biggest benefactor whose wish is the UPA leadership’s command. He couldn’t bear to see his boys getting slaughtered by the Sri Lankan forces. And so the whirlwind tour by Narayanan and gang. Next, the Communists who want to debate everything but never want to tell the truth about anything, decide how much India should cosy up to the US. If it’s Pakistan, it’s the Wagah border Candle Light Brigade. Of late, Indo- Nepal ties hinge on the whims of an apparatchik in Gole Market. Despite heading one of the weakest governments that it has been India’s misfortune to have, Manmohan Singh sought his place in history via the Indo- US nuke deal. Having taken the first step, he should have done his best to take it to its logical conclusion by enlisting all round support. Instead, he sat back in the madcap hope that industrialists and other lobbyists would take care of the rest. The results are there to see. No tears will be shed if this government is turfed out sooner than due. But it is the damage done to the foreign policy establishment that is cause for concern. During the last Congress government at the Centre, PV Narasimha Rao personally chose the then leader of Opposition and his close friend Atal Bihari Vajpayee to head Indian delegations to the UN in New York and the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. It was the most eloquent way to tell the world that when it comes to national interest, India is united.

An offer with his hands tied/Power&Politics/Mail Today-June30,2008

AMONG President John FKennedy’s more famous exhortations was calling on Americans to “pay any price and bear any burden, support any friend, oppose any foe,” for the cause of liberty. The UPA leadership seems to be heeding his advice and appears ready to pay any price and bear any burden. The cause once again is liberty, but with a twist. Liberty from the Left. Iam talking about the latest flirtation between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, which if it materialises will enable the Congress to rid itself of the baggage that is the Left. The question is: Can Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh come up with the kind of offer that Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh will find hard to refuse? For them, it's atough choice. If they do join, they have just awee bit to gain in the remaining tenure of this government, but much to lose. The SP is sure to be dumped by the UNPA, the backlash from the Muslim community, the SP’s core support group, could be catastrophic. The Congress offer has to be something that more than compensates for these losses. Will Manmohan, for example, be ready to give four or five Cabinet berths and afew junior ministers jobs to the SP, which with its 36 MPs, will become the second largest constituent in the UPA, if it chooses to join it? But Manmohan Singh is faced with arather ticklish problem. He is already presiding over the largest ever Council of Ministers with 74 members which is just about within the prescribed 15 per cent limit. His options are limited: He can either drop ministers from his party, which is relatively easy or ask smaller allies to vacate seats, which is alot more difficult. To save one deal, Manmohan Singh is weaving many smaller yet complex deals.

Back to the past for the future/Power&Politics/Mail Today,June 23,2008

THE TRUE test of any vote catcher is the ability to swing elections and on that count, the reverses in several Assembly elections suggest the Gandhi name is not enough to see the Congress through. After 12 back- to- back electoral defeats, in true Congress tradition, the party set up aseven- member committee headed by defence minister A. K. Antony, to prepare an “action plan”. Having been chief ministers, Union ministers etc, its members know what it takes to win an election. Areport, prepared after several rounds of meetings with Congressmen at all levels, has been handed over to party chief Sonia Gandhi. The committee has obviously learnt its lessons from the Karnataka debacle and among its recommendations is that the party name its chief ministerial candidate well in advance of elections in astate. It achieves two objectives: it enables the party to project the candidate and his/ her record in office/ governance; it also eliminates the need for last- minute compromises that neither serves the cause of good governance nor does any good for the image of the party. The committee is also faced with the uncomfortable truth of alack of an emerging leadership. In many states, it is yet to produce anew crop of leaders to whom the torch could be safely passed. It is therefore likely to recommend that the party fall back on the tried and tested leaders of the past. Five states are facing polls later this year. So in Delhi, Sheila Dikshit is likely to go for athird consecutive term, though Ajay Maken is said to be Rahul’s preferred candidate. In MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh too, the committee suggests the party fall back on old warhorses Diggyraja, Ashok Gehlot and Ajit Jogi. They may have the lost the elections the last time but have it in them to bounce back and boost the sagging morale of the Congress.

Panchayati Raj/Power&Politics/Mail Today-June 23,2008

WHEN IS more less merrier? When it involves Mani Shankar Aiyer. The ebullient Panchayati Raj Minister has already lost the coveted Sports and Youth Affairs portfolio for speaking his mind about the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, atrait which has earned him enough enemies. They rejoiced at what was perceived as his downgrading, but are obviously dismayed over his appointment to the power Congress Election Committee headed by AK Antony, aclear indication that at 10 Janpath, Mani still matters. So efforts are on to cut him to size. The latest is the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC). It was set up in 2005, after agap of 40 years with Congress General Secretary Veerappa Moily as its head to look into, among other things, strengthening the financial management system. Its reports are submitted in phases and one more will soon be handed to the government. One of the recommendations pertains to cutting down the number of government departments from 400 to 395 or thereabouts. Among the causalities could be the Department for the Development of North East Region (DONER), and Mani is the minister. Mani says the ARC did not consult him even once while coming to its conclusions while those close to him accuse ARC Chief of backstabbing. Moily is perfectly placed to do that. His office in Vigyan Bhavan, that shunting yard for countless commissions and useless ministries, is right behind Mani’s.