PRAKASH JAVADEKAR BJP spokesman versus SHILPA SHETTY actor
"Such a public display (of kissing) is not a part of the Indian tradition."
"A big deal is being made of nothing. I don’t want a foreigner to take back bad memories from here."
EPILOGUE: Our moral police has found an issue to raise even in this—a kiss.
VOICES
"Even the prime minister has endorsed Rahul Gandhi’s statements. Manmohan Singh has demeaned his office and himself. I feel sorry for him."
L. K. Advani, BJP leader
“The Election Commission cannot compel the people to vote. Our responsibility is to conduct free and fair elections.”
N. Gopalaswami, chief election commissioner
“The policy of iron fist in velvet glove, as enunciated in the recently released doctrine of sub-conventional warfare, is paying dividends.”
A.K. Antony, defence minister
“The Bharatiya Janata Party is moving forward; the Congress is moving backwards while the UPA is getting awkward.”
Venkaiah Naidu, BJP vice-president
“I am not a 100 per cent khadi user. I wear a lot of khadi but also other fabrics such as woollens and handlooms.”
Gopal Krishna Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi on turning down an offer to head Gujarat Vidyapith
THE BUZZ OF THE WEEK
Parliament is set to resume on April 26 and the Speaker has an unusual item on the agenda. After Congress MP Milind Deora sent him a copy of Al Gore’s movie on global warming, he is now planning a special screening to educate all the MPs.
SIGNPOSTS
ANNOUNCED: The formation of Greater Hyderabad by the Andhra Pradesh Government, through the merger of 12 municipalities and eight gram panchayats with present-day Hyderabad.
ANNOUNCED: Full salary and perks equivalent to that for serving defence chiefs, for Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw (above) and retired Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh.
DIED: Jagat Murari, 85, film producer and former director of Film and Television Institute of India who won the President’s gold medal for his film Mahabalipuram.
ISSUED: Notices to the Election Commission and to the Centre by the Supreme Court, which will examine whether a “naturalised” citizen, as opposed to a citizen by birth, can hold any constitutional or public posts.
Mission Misconduct
PICTURE SPEAK
UNDIPLOMATIC: Trouble is brewing in the MEA’s foreign missions
DELHI Leave aside the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Sino-Indian border talks, and the trouble in the neighbourhood, it’s not diplomacy but troubles in its missions that is creating problems for the MEA.
In a string of embarrassments for the foreign office last month, three Indian officials posted in the UK had to be recalled in quick succession following serious allegations of sexual misconduct, corruption in issuance of visas and sale of Indian passports to illegal immigrants.
The allegations were levelled against the Indian deputy consul general in Edinburgh, O.P. Bhola, an officer of the 1989 batch of the Indian Foreign Service, for soliciting sexual favours from a local employee posted with the mission. The ensuing probe further revealed financial irregularities and fudging of bills. The official, back in India, is facing disciplinary action. However, Bhola denied the charges: “I have had an unblemished career, no charges were communicated to me. I was just asked to come back.”
Indian missions in the UK have courted controversy in the past. Last month a senior Indian diplomat was recalled for speaking out of turn on the Shilpa Shetty affair.
The ministry has also been forced to give marching orders to a visa staffer in its high commission in London and to a visa consul in Birmingham after allegations that visa prices were being fixed depending on the applicant’s nationality. One of these officials represented the Research and Analysis Wing and was deployed to ensure that suspects or fugitives don’t get visas or passports. By running a visa-passport factory, they willingly compromised national security, given that Indian passports are in high demand among terrorist groups.
All’s certainly not well at some of India’s prestigious diplomatic outposts.
-By Saurabh Shukla
Farsight in Raje-sthan
PICTURE SPEAK
DIRECT CONTACT: Raje
JAIPUR With the BSP trying to make inroads and the Congress a fractured lot in the state, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is finding innovative ways to woo the Scheduled Castes vote bank. At a rally on Ambedkar Day, she ignored pleas of her security men not to walk half a kilometre into a narrow barricaded corridor flanked by an audience of lakhs. Raje insisted that merely addressing a rally from a dais served no purpose unless accompanied by direct contact with people.
The ‘w alk’ was directed at sending a message to her detractors within the party and was aimed at proving that she could hold a successful rally with the support of just a few loyalists like PWD Minister Rajendra Rathore, sidelining RSS favourite Dalit leader Madan Dilawar, who is at loggerheads with both Raje and Rathore.
Even though the Assembly polls are a year-and-a-half away, Raje is working hard to retain the support of tribals, showing them that it is only she who is doing something concrete for them. Recently, she stood for hours listening to the grievances of over 3,000 people at her residence.
In the coming weeks, she will again embark on her favourite exercise—visiting remote areas in the scorching summer heat. “I want to know how much I have delivered and what more I can do,” she says. “I do not sit in ac offices, I am not inaccessible, have never refused anyone an audience and I do not entertain leaders who come with unnecessary demands.” Last week she hit out at detractors at a meeting at her state party headquarters.
Grit and farsightedness may just see Raje through in the distant Assembly polls.
-By Rohit Parihar
War Over Worship
PICTURE SPEAK
HOPEFUL: Yesudas
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Nearly four decades ago, noted singer K.J. Yesudas, a Christian, sang a song about his desire to one day enter the sanctum sanctorum of the Sri Krishna temple in Guruvayoor. Till date the doors of the temple open to the strains of this song at 4.30 a.m. but the singer’s desire still remains unfulfilled. Reason? He is not a Hindu and the temple won’t have him inside.
But if Minister for Temple Administration G.Sudhakaran has his way, Yesudas may soon realise his life-long dream of the divine darshan. For Sudhakaran has written to the Guruvayoor Devaswom Board to grant permission to the singer to worship in the temple. “Music has no religion or caste. How can Yesudas, a personification of music, be barred entry on the basis of religion?” asks the Marxist minister.
The temple managing committee has decided to discuss the issue at its meeting on April 26-27, said its Chairman Thottathil Raveendran. Yesudas told a TV channel that he welcomed the initiative, but said his personal opinion was that all devotees should be allowed to pray at all places of worship.
-By M.G. Radhakrishnan
OBJECT OF DESIRE
Vivid Viewing
SHARP’S 52-INCH AQUOS LCD TV Rs 3.70 lakh
This new high-definition TV’s dynamic contrast ratio smoothly adjusts the screen brightness for a deeper black level. It delivers a high-resolution, high-definition picture with a high control over colour gradation. Aquos’ six speakers minimise resonance distortion to reproduce natural and unstrained high-pitch to mid and low range sound. It can also be turned into a computer monitor for playing games or watching movies directly from a computer.
ANNOUNCED: Full salary and perks equivalent to that for serving defence chiefs, for Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw (above) and retired Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh.
