Capital Buzz/Virendra Kapoor

PM proposes, PM disposes

Should we or shouldn't we? Tell about Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, that is?

Oh, this indecision! It has been killing us, folks, really it has been. Should we shatter our dear old PM's suave, polished gentle-man-to-the-core image, or should we let it be?

No, better not. After all, he is our PM, the only one we have for the moment, and...

To heck with it! Ye guys deserve to know about him, and know ye will before the day is out.

Remember Bhabhani Sengupta? Yep, the same gentleman whom Gujral readily sacrificed when things became a bit uneasy after 36 hours of his (Sengupta's)joining office ?

Well, that was the first of the Gujralian revelations -- that he is as good as any other politician when it come to saving his skin. Forget about friendship, loyalty and all such rot -- that is for the birds, not politicians.

Now for the second of Gujral's 'loyal' acts. The dear man had promised to make Rajiv Nayar, his good pal and columnist Kuldip's son, the additional solicitor general. The necessary strings had been pulled, the manoeuvre completed and Nayar had to all but don the ASG's robe.

But no! Some clever chap leaked the news out to a reporter, and there it was all over the paper next day!

Eyebrows were raised and the decision questioned within the United Front government itself -- all of which didn't escape Gujral's extra-sensitive, diplomat's nose. Trouble, he smelt; he saw his wobbly chair becoming even more wobbler.

And the result?

Sorry, Nayar, can't make you solicitor now. Too dangerous (for my skin).Yes, yes, a promise is a promise is a promise and all that. But promises, like laws, are made to be broken, na? So...

So Nayar quietly folded his robe, locked it up in his almirah and went around dejected.

Gujral, meanwhile, had decided to tackle the two feuding UF Yadavs, Laloo Prasad and Sharad. He went, he saw and he spoke to both.

Now both Yadavs are going around with Gujral-is-with-me grins. Poor they! They need to talk to either Sengupta or Nayar.

Keeping chacha happy

When former prime minister H D Deve Gowda called on then Congress president P V Narasimha Rao, the press and a section of the UF howled.

Wonder why the same courtesy is not extended to Gujral.

In less than two months as the PM, Gujral has paid obeisance at current president Sitaram Kesri's door -- wait for this -- no less than 14 times! (Deve Gowda met Rao only 30 times in his eight months in office.)

Invariably, it is the good Gujral who has taken the trouble to go to chacha. What transpires at these meetings are not known, but what is known is that the Dr Tanwar murder investigations have been put on the back burner.

Also, Kesri appears to be confident that the little matter of Congress receiving foreign funds would be quietly eased into a deep grave.

Just passing time...

Time, it's said, has this annoying habit of hanging heavy. And that is exactly what it is doing with Deve Gowda.

After his nerve-wracking schedule of pre-Gujral days, Deve Gowda finds it a hard job to pass time. There is nothing much to do these days except sleep -- which he does to his heart's content. But even then, there is still time left.

So he sees visitors. To his heart's content. Only there aren't many of them. So there still is time left.

Off he goes visiting, hence. Again, to his heart's content. Former prime ministers Chandra Shekhar and Narasimha Rao are good for calling on. So he calls on them frequently. And holds long one-to-one and two-to-ones. People say he is plotting something -- that the three ex-PMs and Kesri-haters are going to go on the offensive immediately after the Congress organisational polls.

Of course, there isn't anything like that. Deve Gowda is just passing time...