Within control

What is tragedy the first time, is often a farce the second time. On December 5 that is what was enacted at the Indira Gandhi International airport — the day when passengers swore they had heard gunshots in the wee hours of the morning, and sent the securitymen ‘looking’ for the ‘incident’ ever after. Throughout those (un)eventful hours, the phones kept ringing relentlessly at the CISF control room. One caller enquired, “Hello, is this CISF control room?” It happened to be the newly-appointed Union minister for home, P Chidambaram. The inspector who took the call was, naturally, taken aback. It was unexpected for any minister, and not the DG, to call up personally to enquire after an incident. Thankfully, our man had the ‘incident’ report in front of him and reeled out the information to the minister, ending with an emphatic assurance that “there is no cause to worry”. The minister took his advice. The inspector is now an assistant commandant posted at the IGI airport.

Kiss, and make up

Down, but not out. Mayavati may have suffered reverses in the assembly polls, but her plans for the Lok Sabha remain intact. In her home state, she has deputed ministers individually responsible for most of the 80 Lok Sabha seats from the state. Their task is simple — to see that the BJP, Congress or Samajwadi Party nominees are not elected. Ministers apparently have been given a free hand to try every trick in their book. All this is driving the Congress and the Samajwadi to desperation. Last heard, Mulayam Singh Yadav had okayed the candidature of two Congress nominees. On the Congress side, Raj Babbar, who recently switched sides, has been asked to patch up with Amar Singh.

Guest of honour

At the wedding of Mani Shankar Aiyar’s daughter, Kanimozhi was the star attraction. So much so that even Aiyar was found insisting on her photograph with the couple. When the lensmen were about to click, Aiyar urged them to be careful, adding that the photograph would have serious bearing on his political fortune in Tamil Nadu during the coming polls. Kanimozhi honoured the host by breaking into laughter.

Shoe-throw away

After the now famous shoe-throwing episode, our sleuths are an even more worried lot. They are dreading this already-popular sport being taken up by desperados when they are face-to-face with VVIPs. While there is grudging appreciation at the way the US president ducked the two shoes hurled at him, there is much consternation among crack commandos and intelligence agencies. They are pretty confident that none of the VVIPs they are duty-bound to protect can show the same degree of mental and physical agility that saved Bush his face. Which is why they are insisting that visitors take off their shoes at some distance away before meeting VVIPs.

Scientific progress

Things in the Congress are strictly following the law of cause and effect. Little wonder, Ajit Jogi and Suresh Pachauri are feeling the heat after the poor performance of the party in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Jogi had aspired to be the leader of the Opposition in the new assembly. But Madam has quashed the dream and appointed his bête noire, Ravindra Chaube. The Congress president is supposed to have been fed reports of Jogi’s attempt to ‘fix’ nominees hostile to him. A similar fate has befallen Pachauri, who waited for days to get an audience with Madam. In the end, he was given precisely three minutes. During that precious time, he tried to convince his listener about his allegations of sabotage, but he is said to have been put firmly in place. For now, that is.

Missing the story

The media is blind. Or, it would have trained its spotlights on Shahnawaz Hussain, the Kishanganj MP, who was selected the BJP parliamentary spokesman after VK Malhotra resigned. Shahnawaz was handpicked by LK Advani ahead of other senior members, including Anantha Kumar, a former Union minister. There are also plans to make Hussain the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, a post held by Malhotra. Hussain is known to be a forceful speaker, an able manager of parliamentary affairs, given his skills in getting along with the different sections in the party. But there is a niggling worry. Could it really be that Hussain’s anointment has nothing to do with the highly charged atmosphere following the Mumbai terror attack?

FOOTNOTE

House that!

Bigg Boss 2 is over, but Sanjay Nirupam, the Congress MP who had been one unlikely participant, continues to be under ‘house’ arrest. That is, he continues to carry errands for and do the bidding of the former occupants of the house. First he rendered yeoman service, finding suitable accommodation for actress and former jail bird, Monica Bedi, in the Lokhandwala suburbs. Now she wants him to get her a voters' ID card. There is another show buddy, Raja Choudhary, who is reported to have kept calling him from the Oshiwara police lock-up after assaulting a waiter. Then there is Payal Rohtagi, another celebrity participant, who wants him to help her sell her house in Baroda. Nirupam is supposed to have got her in touch with interested parties. There is also Asutosh Kaushik, the Bigg Boss, who is alleged to have sought Sanjay’s help to get a child into DPS Delhi. Keep up the good work, Nirupam.