In the Presidential election last month, the towering personality of BJP candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was a cause of sleepless nights for the campaign managers of Pratibha Patil, the UPA nominee. Fearing cross-voting, the UPA preferred not to rely only on political management but to adopt a two pronged strategy. It involved seniormost party functionaries and ministers working for Patil on the one hand while, on the other, the Intelligence Bureau’s services were engaged.Party leaders were entrusted with getting feed back from their respective states while the IB was concerned with ferreting out the possibility and magnitude of sabotage from with in the UPA constituents across the country.
PC Halder, Director, IB, deputed sleuths of SP and DIG rank in UPA as well as Opposition-ruled states.The feedback from the political observers was matched with the IB reports and, wherever a mismatch occurred, it was the IB input that was relied on. Thus, it was a relief for the UPA when Halder’s report ruled out the likelihood of cross voting in the states in favour of Shekhawat and predicted smooth sailing for Patil to Raisina Hills.The report also correctly said that the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalitha, might make a volte-face and jettison the Third Front’s decision not to support the UPA nominee.Surprisingly, the IB failed to gauge the political mood of the rebel BJP MLAs of Gujarat.They ended up voting for Patil.
RAW chief forced to spy inwards!
Since its inception,the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW),India’s external intelligence network agency, has built a formidable reputation in not-so friendly countries. Indira Gandhi’s brainchild, working under the Cabinet Secretariat, has always matched its counterparts in developed nations. Of late, however, RAW’s preoccupations have changed. Instead of keeping an eye on neighbouring and other countries, the agency has been investigating its own officers. It is an accepted practice that the intelligence agency of every country has to keep its sources alive. To do so, officers posted in foreign countries have at their disposal huge sums.These funds remain unaccounted for.
Now, according to Cabinet Secretariat sources, an anonymous complaint has led to RAW Director Ashok Chaturvedi being asked to investigate a peculiar case involving misappropriation of such funds in various ways by his colleagues. A large number of RAW officers have allegedly put the money into the stock market and real estate, hiring and purchasing houses. All this has led to the loss of valuable informers and is affecting the flow of intelligence input. However, the highly embarrassed RAW officers investigating the case believe it is yet another ploy by an enemy country to demoralize the agency personnel and divert its manpower.
Ramadoss shys away from s-word
The word “sex”has countless connotations and no one understands this better than Sujata Rao, the Director of the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. NACO has a large fund for its battle against AIDS in the country and, with money being no bar, Rao came up with the idea of sex education in schools to help control spread of the disease. UNICEF and the Ministry of Human Resource Development were roped in and committees formed to evolve a programme for sex education.
A precedent is available in Delhi where the state government is teaching sex education through a book titled Yuva. When the teachers read from the book, the students giggle. However, when Rao’s proposal reached the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Anbumani Ramadoss, he smelled a conspiracy against him. Already facing flak over his tussle with P Venugopal, the reputed cardiac surgeon who is Director,All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ramadoss realized that the sex education project would create a flutter in the media and invite criticism from the saffron brigade. So he invited Rao to his office and showered her with praise for the splendid project. Then, he advised her to put it on hold and concentrate on other work. Rao has been left disappointed that the land of Kalidas and Khajuraho has become so steeped in politics. And the proposal is languishing inside a file.
