Capital Buzz / Virendra Kapoor
The Rao-Deve Gowda Tango
Prime Minister Deve Gowda was somewhere in eastern Uttar Pradesh campaigning for United Front candidates in the state assembly election when an aide informed him about the Supreme Court order
exempting P V Narasimha Rao from a personal appearance in the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case.
Deve Gowda immediately asked to be connected to the former prime minister.
At 8, Motilal Nehru Marg, the call was received by Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi,
a junior minister in Rao's government and one of the few still
loyal to him. Chaturvedi called Rao who was talking to the throng
of Congressmen gathered to congratulate him on his 'great victory'.
Even as Rao talked to Deve Gowda, the Congress general secretary,
Devinder Dwivedi walked in followed by UP
Congress chief Jitendra Prasad and a little known party leader from the state, a Mr Trivedi.
Rao's conversation with Deve Gowda cheered the former premier no end. In an expansive mood, he said, "When Chaturvedi, Trivedi
and Dwivedi are with me, how can I expect evil?"
Incidentally,
an Andhra Congress leader was heard appropriating
credit for Rao's reprieve. "I told him not to
wear his dhoti like a north Indian and instead wear it in
the Tamilian lungi style. It has already brought him relief."
Whew!
After Rao, Pranab?
Narasimha Rao had a contingency plan ready should all the stratagems have failed to prevent his going to jail in
the cheating case. Aware that the denial of bail by Special Judge
Ajit Bharihoke would immediately cause his detractors to seek
his removal as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party,
Rao had his resignation ready.
But that would not
mean the CPP could have had a free hand in choosing his successor.
No, like in Sitaram Kesri's case, Rao loyalists
had planned to make former foreign ministerPranab Mukherjee
the CPP leader.
Mukherjee, who had tried in vain to become
CPP leader soon after Indira Gandhi's
assassination, was a party to the Rao loyalists's strategy.
Rao's objective was to deny the
coveted job to any of his detractors. But on Monday morning when
the apex court provided unexpected relief, a Rao aide informed Mukherjee that
the chief was
not quitting.
Mukherjee now waits for
the law to take its course for his own ambition
to be realised.
Bungalows for the asking
In spite of an activist judiciary, it seems there is no end to
the power of the executive to bestow largesse on its favourites.
Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda clearly believes in winning friends
by distributing state favours.
First, he allotted a palatial bungalow
on Safdarjung Road to former president, Ramaswamy Venkataraman who has decided to live in the capital after the DMK's return to power in
Tamil Nadu.
The former President lived in
a state-owned bungalow in Madras while two of his houses in the
city were rented out, much to the DMK's chagrin.
Deve Gowda has now allotted a type-V bungalow to the widow of former President
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy who has expressed a desire to stay in
Bangalore. The Karnataka government was instructed to allot the
bungalow to Nagaratnamma Reddy.The Centre will exchange with the Karnataka government two smaller houses in lieu of the large bungalow for
Mrs Reddy.
The Deve Gowda government has decided to allot type-V bungalows
to the surviving spouses of former Presidents, vice-presidents
and prime ministers. The widows of former Presidents Fakhruddin
Ai Ahmed and Giani Zail Singh, and former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Rajiv Gandhi occupy large government bungalows in
the capital.
V P Singh's wry humour
If Prime Minister Deve Gowda cannot help making a snide remark or two about Mandal Messiah V P Singh, it seems, the latter too is not above taking an occasional potshot at the 'son of the
soil' from Karnataka.
The other day while consulting his lawyers
in connection with the summons from the Jain Commission, supposedly
probing the conspiracy behind Rajiv Gandhi assassination, Singh
noted ruefully Deve Gowda's exertions to save Narasimha Rao from the clutches
of the law.
"It would be simpler for the prime minister to persuade
the courts to convert Rao's home into a prison rather than
waste his time in saving him from going to jail. Since
Rao and 19 members of his council of ministers are involved
in one case or the other, Rao can be allowed an air-conditioned
room at 9, Motilal Nehru Marg as his prison cell. His ministers
may be given the outhouses with ceiling fans as their cells. During the
mandatory one-hour outing from their cells they may well plot
their future scams..."
Law and Politics
Legal correspondents rather than political editors dominate the
front pages of newspapers these days. This is what the law reporters
have gleaned from their exertions in the corridors of the high-domed
precincts of the judiciary.
The Deve Gowda government would do anything
to lessen, if not altogether eliminate, judicial activism.
Deve Gowda has on more than one occasion spoken to senior political
leaders in this regard. The BJP leaders may have spurned his bait,
but the PM has not lost hope.
The Deve Gowda government is now toying with the idea to bypass Justice J S Verma for the appointment of Chief Justice of India when the present incumbent, Justice A M Ahmadi retires in a couple of months. Instead, it will appoint the next senior judge, Justice M M Punchhi, as the Chief Justice of India.
The ground to be cited is the all too brief tenure -- a few weeks -- that Justice
Verma would enjoy as head of the Indian judiciary before he retires.
Justice Punchhi with Justice K T Thomas delivered the order exempting Narasimha Rao from personal exemption in the cheating
case.
Fate, after all
How times change! Some four years ago when Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy's elder daughter, Geetanjali, got married, Deve Gowda, not even an MP then, was stopped at the gate of his house by overzealous guards who suspected him to be a Tamil militant. He was rescued by Swamy himself and ushered in.
Last fortnight when
Swamy's younger daughter, Suhasini, married Foreign Secretary
Salman Haider's son, Nadeem, everyone else had to wait outside so that Prime Minister Gowda's entourage could bless the couple!
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