What’s in a missive?

There is no bigger fun than watching members of the red brigade fight amongst themselves. Nandigram has provided them with the ideal opportunity to hone their skills in logic-chopping and pettifoggery. From the land of capitalism, leftists like Noam Chomsky et al wrote a letter addressed “To our friends in Bengal”, urging them not to split the Left. The letter said, “We are faced with a world power that has demolished one state (Iraq) and is now threatening another (Iran). This is not the time for division when the basis of division no longer appears to exist.” A missive like this could not go unanswered by section of the Left intelligentsia which is opposed to what happened in Nandigram. So a counter letter is in circulation, signed by Arundhati Roy and others, expressing dismay at what Comrade Chomsky and others have written. This letter, more than twice the length of Chomsky’s, seeks to inform comrades about what really is happening in West Bengal. A spurious call for unity is matched by a spurious fall from innocence.

India’s grill master

In a ceremony in Singapore on November 29, Karan Thapar won the Asian Television Award for best current affairs presenter. It is the fourth time that India’s leading inquisitor on television has won this award. This year’s award was given for his interview of Ram Jethmalani in the programme, Devil’s Advocate, on one of the leading television channels. The Diary learns that there is no truth in the rumour that Mamata Banerjee, Brinda Karat and Narendra Modi are signing a joint petition protesting against the grant of the award to Thapar.

Enough is not enough

Not a single Muslim figures in the BJP’s list of candidates for the Gujarat polls. When a scribe pointed this out to Shahnawaz Hussain, the lone Muslim member of the party in the Lok Sabha, he shot back, “When they have made me decide on the distribution of 182 tickets in the state as a member of the central election committee, why should anyone bother about the absence of a Muslim candidate? Is it not enough that one Muslim is part of the panel which distributed tickets for the entire state?” Can Hussain answer that question himself?

Oil’s well with Deora

The Union petroleum minister, Murli Deora, is all smiles. His pet project of getting the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology to Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency, Rai Bareli, has got the go ahead. There were several potholes on the path. Rai Bareli, or for that matter, Uttar Pradesh, does not produce a single barrel of oil. Deora, reportedly, sold the proposal on the ground that oil exploration is possible in and around the region. The second logic was Rae Bareli’s ‘proximity’ to Delhi. When the plan really gets going, Deora will have scored his first brownie point since taking over the ministry from Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Surviving the fall

Ambika Soni cuts a lonely figure these days. Ever since she burnt her finger in the Ram Sethu controversy, she has had no partymen calling on her. She is supposed to have blurted out her difficulties to old time friend, Ghulam Nabi Azad. The J&K chief minister, himself a victim of palace intrigue, seemingly comforted Soni by saying that she should consider herself lucky to have retained her cabinet post. “Look at Natwar Singh,” Azad apparently told her. Soni got the message and allowed herself a wide grin.

Divided house

Mayavati has dropped a bombshell of sorts by allegedly declaring that she has no objections to the division of UP, and that if the Centre piloted a bill to that effect, her party would support it in Parliament. Many politicos, including some Congressmen, believe that much of UP’s problems stem from its unwieldy size. In fact, the breaking up of the state into Vindhyachal, Avadh and Harit Pradesh would greatly benefit it. But not all are happy about the possibility. The Samajwadi Party is opposed to any division as this would diminish its clout. The BJP is okay with the idea as it could gain from a divided UP — score in Vindhyachal and Avadh and emerge as a key figure in western UP. The Congress, as usual, is in a dilemma. Apart from the fact that it has clearly opposed the creation of new states, a divided UP would mean that its dream of coming to the Centre on its own strength would never succeed.

FOOTNOTE

Nowhere to begin

Cut up as it is about the possibility of a divided UP, the Congress seems to be making no headway in the state as it stands now. And this despite the presence of Rahul Gandhi, newly inducted into the Congress working committee, and the appointment of Digvijay Singh as AICC gen-sec in charge of UP. For one, the party has not been able to name its leader in the UP assembly even four months after the formation of the government. More intriguing, it is still without a head in the UP legislative council. Congresswallahs in UP have great expectations from the young Gandhi, who is being portrayed as the saviour of the party in the state. But party workers were completely foxed by Rahul’s demure and directionless speech at the AICC session recently. One wag even referred to an old Hindi song to describe Rahul’s message to them, “Ajeeb dastan hai yeh/ kahan shuru kahan khatam/ Yeh manzilen hai kaun see/ Na woh samajh sake na hum.”