Inside Track: Modi's mulishness could boomerang

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may have had his way on denying the party ticket to Haren Pandya, but he may have to pay a huge price for his stubbornness.

For, from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani everyone in the Sangh Parivar has taken a dim view of Modi's 'me-or-Pandya' attitude.

The Gujarat chief minister had threatened that he would withdraw himself from the contest altogether if Pandya was given the BJP ticket to contest the next month's election to the state assembly.

Even the chief minister's most ardent well-wisher, Arun Jaitley, had pleaded with him not to stand on prestige, but to no avail.

Modi refused to budge even when a senior RSS functionary asked him to accommodate Pandya.

Instead, Modi kept on harping that Pandya had sought to sabotage him by feeding the media falsehood against him and that he was in cahoots with those who were blaming him for the post-Godhra communal riots in the State. Given that the BJP leadership sets a great store by consensual decision-making, Modi's defiance of the party's top brass is bound to recoil on him sooner than later.

The Congress member of the Rajya Sabha, Kapil Sibal, was certain he would be able to persuade his party to oppose the 'Securitisation and Reconstruc-tion of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Ordinance' when it came before the Rajya Sabha for ratification.

Sibal was convinced that the Ordinance would fail to become law and said as much while arguing the case of a chemical company which had challenged it in the Mumbai High Court.

The Ordinance was aimed at recovering over Rs700,000 million worth of non-performing assets of banks and financial institutions, advanced to various borrowers who had since become defaulters, having declared their businesses sick and non-operative.

A chemical company which owed the banks Rs14,000 million had hired Sibal to plead its case in court.

On the eve of the winter session of Parliament when the Congress Party met to discuss their stand on the above Ordinance, most speakers argued that it would be counter-productive for the party to be seen to be opposing the measure.

Unwilling to sense the mood of his colleagues, Sibal however persisted in his argument that the Congress Party should oppose it. But mid-way through his high-pitched opposition, he was cut short by Manmohan Singh who was presiding over the meeting.

Singh tersely told Sibal that he should not speak on the issue since he was opposing the measure on behalf of a private party in a court of law and therefore there was a clear conflict of interest.

The spirited attempt by legal-eagle Sibal to stall the enabling legislation stalled.

It is not uncommon for MPs to take sides in corporate wars. And corporates sure know how to negotiate their way out of trouble in the nation's political maze. So when two MPs in the Rajya Sabha filed starred questions against two rival corporate houses, everyone knew that the usual suspects had inspired them.

Since both questions were listed for replies the same day for oral answers and supplementary questions thereon, the MPs who had chosen to file them in the first place decided to play truant.

They had asked the question at the behest of one corporate house to embarrass its rival, but had played truant only to ensure that the question they had filed did not come up for answers at the goading of the other corporate house.

A couple of Congress members of the Rajya Sabha were gossiping with scribes and fellow MPs over cups of hot coffee in the Central Hall of Parliament when suddenly one of them got up with a start and made towards the House, beckoning to his colleagues to follow him.

When asked the reason for the hurry to go back to the House, he promptly shot back, " We have to walk out in a moment."

Apparently, the Congress Party had decided in advance that it would stage a walk-out following the Government's reply – whatever it was – on the short debate over the Tehelka judge's resignation. In order to walk out, you had to be inside!

India International Centre, the prestigious watering hole of the creme de la creme of the capital's bureaucratic, diplomatic, academic and journalistic community, is obviously in decline in more ways than one.

An uneasy relationship exists between the hands-on no-nonsense director of the IIC and a senior managerial hand who inspires to play a much larger role than is warranted by his contract of employment.

But even while making allowances for all round decline in moral and social mores, the latest report in the IIC bimonthly Diary has come as a surprise to most members.

Writing in its September-October issue, the IIC Director, N. N. Vohra, says, "It has to be reported, with enormous regret, that the functioning of our library has received a severe jolt. There have been several instances in the recent months of the library rules being blatantly violated – tearing off pages from newspapers and taking away books without having them issued. We had not expected that any of our distinguished (emphasis added by the columnist) library users – among the defaulters are former senior defence services officers and a person who has been an international civil servant – would resort to such reprehensible practices.

The library committee has taken a most concerned view of these violations and the offending members have been debarred from using the library for periods ranging from one to six months."