Fly on the wall

Fly on the wall
Harish Gupta

Trying again
Apart from flying ``sky-marshals'' on all flights originating from sensitive airports, the Civil Aviation Ministry also plans to create a specialised aviation security force.

The bureaucracy, however, failed to remember that the scheme to deploy `sky-marshals' in early '90s had miserably failed. The marshals wanted the same perks, pay and hotel accommodation as the crew.

While the crew stayed in 5-star hotels, the marshals were sent to the local police station to spend the night. The airlines refused to pay them as they were deputed at the behest of the Home ministry.

Political deal
Why did External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh fly with the three terrorists to Kandahar? It now transpires that one of the conditions of the hijackers was to upgrade the talks from joint-secretary level to political level. They wanted that it should be part of a political deal and therefore, must be clinched only at Jaswant's level.

Cancelled show
If Jaswant Singh went all theway to Kandahar to fetch the hostages, someone in the PMO suggested it would be appropriate for Atal Behari Vajpayee to go to the Indira Gandhi International Airport to receive them. The message was flashed accordingly to the SPG and the security agencies. Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav who was already at the IGI Airport to welcome them home, borrowed a cellphone to telephone Brajesh Mishra. He told him that it would be disastrous if the PM came to the airport to receive the hostages. Mishra wanted him to talk to the PM as all arrangements had been made and the PM was about to leave. Yadav's brief talk with Vajpayee made the PM to cancell the trip.

Power problems
After Cogentrix, the Government is willing to give counter-guarantee to the Hinduja's power project in Andhra Pradesh. The delay in the Congentrix case is understandable as it was bogged down by public interest litigation (PILs) for a long time. But the delay in the Hinduja project is their own making. They want the Centre not onlyto pay for the power purchased by the state, but also want the Railways, Surface Transport and other departments to pay for any delay in transportation of coal and other raw material.

Second coming?
P V Narasimha Rao is waiting for his moment. After the charges against him were dropped in the St. Kitts and Lakhubhai Pathak cases, he is hoping to get out of the JMM bribery case. The fact that he remains in the political mainstream was evident on New Year's day.

His supporters made a beeline to wish him, he met some Telugu journalists and gave an interview too. Pranab Mukherjee and R.K. Dhawan who were dropped as general secretaries in the AICC too wished Rao well.

Sonia strikes back
Sonia Gandhi kept the soundbite journalists' at bay at the Prime Minister's Iftar party. Since it was Vajpayee's show, she didn't want to steal the thunder. She, however, freely mingled with the crowd. When asked to comment on the hijacking, she sarcastically said: ``They have rubbed (our) nose inKandahar. They (the govenment) have compromised the country's honour. Are they nationalists?''