Letter from Delhi: A low key wedding for Advani's son

Some politicians make a fetish of simplicity. Lal Krishna Advani is one of them.

Seeped deeply in the ascetic RSS tradition, the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India was not a little concerned that his son Jayant's wedding should not send out the wrong signals and ensured that it was celebrated without much pomp and show.

Thanks to Advani, it was a low-key affair even though the bride's side was keen to organise it on a grander scale befitting the high political status of the bridegroom's father.

Both the wedding ceremony and the reception that followed at the same venue a few hours later were organised at the fully secure precincts of the Indian Air Force auditorium and the adjoining lawns.
The guest list for the wedding was kept to the bare minimum while at the reception later in the evening there were 800-odd invitees.


From President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi everyone who was anyone in the national polity was present that evening.

Surprisingly the BSP leader Mayawati showed up to offer her greetings to the newly-weds while the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha, who had earlier conveyed her decision to attend, skipped the reception at the last moment.

Those who claim to know Jayalalitha well said her absence was meant to convey her annoyance with Advani for his refusal to go along with her on the slapping of a POTA case against the MDMK minister M. Kannappan.

It was a long day for Advani who took a full day off from the cares of his office to partake in the festivities. A very shy person, it took some persuasion from his daughter Pratibha for him to agree to don the inevitable saffron turban which close relatives and friends of both the bride and the groom traditionally support at the wedding reception.

A journalist working for a television channel kept the turban on his shoulder all through the evening hoping to thus advertise his proximity to the Advanis.

Another from the same media group stayed on till the wee hours of the morning and left only when the bride and bridegroom and their families drove away from the complex.

Finding herself in a corner following the Supreme Court-ordered probe by the CBI and the Income Tax authorities, BSP President Mayawati has typically decided to use her trade-mark abuse of ~Manuwadis~ to brazen out her tryst with the law. In spite of her downright abusive reaction to the searches by the IT at her premises, the fact is that the former UP Chief Minister will find it hard to explain her actions.

Though she and her relatives had acquired a string of properties all over, her acquisition of the plum bungalow in the exclusive Chanakyapuri in New Delhi is enough to nail her I-am-innocent plea. Contrary to her claim that the bungalow was bought by the BSP, and not her, the registered sale deed carries her photograph and duly lists her as the only buyer. She paid Rs70 million by cheque, though how and from where she could raise even this amount from her legitimate sources of income remains unexplained. The actual market price of that bungalow is at least four times higher than its registered price.

A flashy fleet

The requirement that all imported vehicles must be sent to the lone automobile facility in the country in Pune for tests has been done away with in the case of the three spanking new BMWs acquired by the Government for the Prime Minister's use.

The Commerce Ministry exempted these cars, which now form part of the Prime Minister's fleet and starkly stand out from the mandatory white Ambassadors, bullet proof or otherwise.

There is pressure on the Ministry to do away with this quaint provision in the law but the indigenous automobile lobby is working overtime to have it retained in the hope that it would prevent the free import of foreign cars, especially by the cash- rich exporters who can import without paying much duty against their forex earnings.