Pranab Mukherjee is displaying extreme caution. It seems he does not want to give any leverage to anybody that might jeopardize his final chance to make it to prime ministership. So he is, more or less, following in the footsteps of Manmohan Singh. No hush-hush dealings can take place in the Finance Ministry now. And Pranabbabu has cautioned his son, who works in a major industrial house, and daughter not to give wheeler dealers the time of day. Both are dutifully following papa’s advice.
But it so happens that the nation’s Finance Minister is required, willy-nilly, to play many roles. This has led to a certain official in the Ministry becoming all-powerful. The officer, from a family of bureaucrats, has experience among his attributes and knows precisely what the boss desires. And so one can guess the dignitaries who visit Pranabbabu’s Talkatora Road residence in the fanciest of cars from early in the morning till late in the night for the Minister keeps a long working day.
Divided Kashmir
bhim puts it in a nutshell
The government is terribly worried about Kashmir. The State might be ruled de jure by Omar Abdullah and father Farooq, but the Valley is ruled de facto by Pakistani PM Yousuf Raza Gilani’s agitation calendar. At the meeting called by Manmohan Singh, attended by leaders of various political parties such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Saifuddin Soz and Panther Party chief Bhim Singh, besides the Abdullahs, the atmosphere was grim. The PM asked the Opposition parties to cooperate with the Chief Minister and State administration. Bhim Singh’s rejoinder was, “The Opposition parties don’t know with whom to cooperate, the Congress of Ghulam Nabi Azad or the Congress of Soz or the Congress faction in Jammu. We don’t know which faction of the National Conference to cooperate with, the party’s senior leaders don’t get along with Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abullah. Even Omar and Farooq don’t get along with each other. The State administration is also divided into factions.” After he finished, pin-drop silence followed. Understandable.
Mining mafia on a roll
manipulates governor’s advisers
MOH Farook was a fiery student leader from Pondicherry who became Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and was then politically unemployed for a long while. Then, at the age of 73, he became Governor of Jharkhand and landed in the Raj Bhawan at Ranchi, to the relief of the populace who were fed up with the Madhu Kodas and Shibu Sorens. But Farook, who knows the period of President’s Rule will be over soon, turned out to be as susceptible to the mining mafia as Koda who made millions in two years. And so the administration, which expected matters to improve after the induction of a new Governor, was disappointed.
The mining mafia knows how to get its work done and has penetrated the palace. It is so powerful that it has got its favourites appointed as advisers to the Governor. And the coal mines are continuing to be gold mines.
Governor Bhardwaj shows the way
bid to oust reddy brothers
While on Governors, the post of Karnataka Governor was rather low-profile as long as Rameshwar Thakur held it. He did carry out some “odd jobs”, but quietly. But his successor, Hansraj Bhardwaj, is quite the opposite. Bhardwaj’s father was a Personal Security officer for Nehru at Teen Murti Bhawan and also a member of Indira Gandhi’s monkey brigade.
Bhardwaj is aware that Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa is popular with the masses but is dependent on the Reddy brothers of Bellary fame. The latter, along with Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, have “mutual interests” in Karnataka. Now, wherever Bhardawaj goes, he trumpets a call for removal of the Reddy brothers from the State Cabinet. He even met President Pratibha Patil on the issue. With some other top BJP leaders also having high stakes in Karnataka, Bhardwaj deserves credit for carrying out the Constitutional obligations of a Governor.
