Inside Track: Waste of taxpayer money

When the Consultative Committee of Parliament attached to the Power Ministry met in Thiruvananthapuram, on the agenda were several facets of the country's perennial power problems raised by the MPs.

Officials of the power ministry and its allied organisations such as the National Thermal Power Corporation had spent tens of valuable man-hours preparing exhaustive notes on the issues raised by the members.

Besides, they had also made copious backgrounders for briefing the minister just in case during the actual deliberations members came up with further queries or sought more information.

A lot of official time was also spent on ensuring that the ministers, senior Power Ministry officials and the MPs were received at the airport and housed in comfortable hotels and guest houses during their stay in Thiruvananthapuram.

But on the appointed day only eight members showed up, the other 20-odd having decided to play hookey. Even the eight who came to the meeting were more interested in visiting the town rather than deliberate over the woeful power situation in the country.

The minister and senior officials of the power ministry waited in vain for the meeting to get underway. When it did, it seemed that the eight attending members had other things on their mind.

At a most conservative estimate a crore of rupees of taxpayers' funds was wasted on a meeting that served no purpose at all.

Now that the poll in the riot-hit Gujarat has been scheduled for December 12, and there is a lot riding on it for the ruling National Democratic Alliance in Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is under tremendous pressure to campaign for the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the state.

But Vajpayee is reluctant. He has been persuaded by his close aides that any association with the controversial Modi, who has become a hate figure for the secularist brigade following the communal carnage that ravaged parts of the state early this year, would dent his liberal image. Left to himself, Vajpayee would prefer to steer clear of the Gujarat campaign.

But the problem is that even though his instinct tells him not to endorse Modi's leadership in Gujarat, he might still be obliged to seek votes for him due to pressing reasons, some of which impinge on the well-being of his own administration.

The bigwigs of the Sangh Parivar have conveyed to Vajpayee that the loss of Gujarat by the BJP would mark the beginning of the end of his own prime ministership since the opposition would get all the more strident and make it hard for him to function. Should the BJP lose Gujarat, so goes the argument, several constituents of the NDA will dump the BJP and go their own separate way.

Also, Vajpayee's refusal to campaign for Modi might rile the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other constituents of the Sangh Parivar which are already shrill in their opposition to some of the crucial policy initiatives of the NDA government. Therefore, Vajpayee has been offered a via media: instead of campaign extensively in the state, address just one massive meeting of some half a million people in Ahmedabad on the eve of the poll and thus help wrap up the BJP's campaign on a high note of euphoria and enthusiasm. If one knows Vajpayee well, he might still come round to pitch in for Modi despite all his reservations.

Remember Rajesh Khanna? The original Bollywood superstar, who at the peak of his popularity in the early 70s had enjoyed far bigger public adulation than any other star before or since. Well, he is back scrounging around for a Rajya Sabha seat. A one-term Congress party member of Parliament from the New Delhi constituency, Khanna had gone back to Mumbai to try and revive his film career once his stint in politics had come to a spluttering end in the early 90s.

Even then he had tried in vain for the party nomination to the Rajya Sabha. However Khanna's return to films, and later a half-hearted attempt to work in a TV serial, too came a cropper.

The upshot was that yesteryear's biggest superstar was again lobbying for a Rajya Sabha nomination from the Congress party. Last heard, the Congress party leadership was quite lukewarm to Khanna's entreaties.

Every Diwali, former Delhi Congress strongman Sajjan Kumar used to send a basket of 'gur and rewadias' (raw sugar and groundnut sweetmeats) to fellow politicians and a host of journalists in the capital. The choice of the Diwali present was meant to underline Kumar's rural constituency.

As a two-term MP from the Outer Delhi constituency, Kumar reveled in his rural roots. The trick was picked up by the late Rajesh Pilot, who had fashioned himself as a farmers' leader. Pilot always hosted a hundred odd journalists at his house, providing them 'saag' and 'lassi' (mustard leaves and buttermilk) and other rural delicacies once a year and tried to re-create the rural ambience by making his guests eat from 'thalis' while squatting on the floor.

Now, it was the turn of another Congress party stalwart and former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar to stress his rural connection. This Diwali he sent the old and reliable 'razzais' (cotton quilts) to a handful of well-wishers and friends in the political and media world. None of the recipients missed the heavy symbolism intended in the choice of Jakhar's Diwali gift, though it was another matter as to how many would actually use the Rajasthani quilt to keep themselves warm this winter.

A senior functionary of the Rajasthan High Court who had propositioned a woman doctor if she wanted a favourable verdict in a case filed by her, was arrested. But the judge is expected to get off scot free, for, he enjoys immunity. But he may not enjoy anonymity - the name of the errant judge is an open secret in the legal community in Jaipur and in Delhi.