The Hindu Business Line : Party cross-talk

It is now practically confirmed that communication lines within the Congress party are quite clogged. Just a day before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party President Sonia Gandhi announced the retreat from pushing ahead with the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, senior members of the Council of Ministers, particularly those engaged in behind-the-scene activities to arrive at a consensus on the deal, were firm that the Government was going ahead with it.

“We are psychologically and politically prepared for elections,” one of those engaged in such activity told a senior journalist. His contention was that the Government would try to convince the Left parties, failing which it would go ahead and hold talks with the IAEA, even if it is at the cost of another election. Another senior functionary painted an elaborate picture of how the Left parties would be wary of an early election and would not go to the extent of toppling the Government. Alas, it now seems that such posturing was based on Sonia Gandhi’s remarks the week before at an Iftar party, where she said if elections were forced on the party, the Congress would face it. There had been no communication down the line about the party’s calculations on the likely political scenario in case the Government pushes ahead with the nuclear deal; nor was there any intimation that there had been a re-think on the issue. Senior Congressmen, or at least most of them, also seem to draw their inferences from public statements by their leaders, as does the general public.

Taste of own medicine

Journalists are getting a wee bit tired by the ‘activities’ of the two Ambani brothers, more so because both the sides resort to the same ploy to get at each other. So, when the gas pricing issue affecting the Mukesh group was at its peak, “friendly” sources from the other camp helpfully passed on copies of letters written by some Members of Parliament to the Prime Minister and other important persons protesting against the proposals of Reliance Ind ustries. This time around, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power is going for an IPO and, again, some MPs have taken up the pen to write about alleged irregularities committed by the Anil group. This time too, “friendly” sources — obviously from the other side — have provided copies of these letters to journalists so that the issues raised by the MPs could be highlighted before the IPO hits the market. Having being paid back in the same coin, the “sources” from both the sides are now pleading that such activities should stop henceforth.

Stumped by a googly

Running 24x7 TV news channels is taking its toll on the operators. Having enjoyed the last day-night India-Australia ODI on Wednesday, a colleague decided to catch up on the day’s news before turning in for the night. Lo and behold, when he switched on the mid-night bulletin of a leading English news channel, he got a shock when the anchor, reeling off the headlines, said: … “and India once again struggle at 64 for six in the last of the seven ODI series in Mumbai.” The match was over a little after 10 p.m.; had been won by India after an exciting finish and here was the news channel informing viewers at midnight that India was struggling after the loss of six wickets. Obviously, somebody was running an early evening tape of the bulletin instead of the one that might have come after the match was over.

OUR DELHI BUREAU