NEW DELHI: A drama of resignation played out by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee lies behind Congress President Sonia Gandhi hustling to make Home Minister P Chidambaram enter into an uneasy truce with him.
Mukherjee had, in fact, gone to New York to tell Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of his decision to resign over a note on the 2G case against Chidambaram, which seemed to originate from the Finance Ministry. The resignation news was, however, kept under wraps by the diplomatic staff led by India’s ambassador, the 63-year old Nirupama Rao, a former foreign secretary who pleaded and persuaded Mukherjee to hold back any such announcement.

She immediately got in touch with the second devi in the story, the 62-year old Omita Paul, a former Indian Information Service (IIS) officer, who has been Mukherjee’s adviser since 2004.

Omita took control of the situation in Delhi and dashed off faxes to Mukherjee in Washington to assure him that the disputed sentence against Chidambaram was not put in it by the Finance Ministry. On returning to Delhi, Mukherjee drove straight to his office in the North Block to go through the entire file of some 450 pages, and went to call on the third devi, Sonia Gandhi only after Omita Paul cooled him down further by pointing out that he was not responsible for the objectionable line against Chidambaram, which was added by someone in the PMO before passing on the information on a RTI application.

But for Sonia Gandhi and her political secretary Ahmed Patel making quick moves to quell the infighting, the Prime Minister would have been left with no choice but to accept resignation of his top two ministers. They heeded the party’s directive to bury the hatchet, but both remain suspicious of each other as ever.

M K Alagiri a rare sight in Delhi
Union Minister MK Alagiri was in Delhi for very few days in September, as he was busy with the civic elections in Tamil Nadu. But Alagiri kept himself abreast of the latest information from Delhi not only on his Ministry but also on the happenings in Tihar Jail and the courts, thanks to his frequent phone calls to his close confidantes.

Late cut
The Union Law Minister, Salman Khurshid, is a busy man these days. The Lok Pal agitation and other pressing issues have kept the lawyer so preoccupied that he could not find time for a haircut. So Khurshid with flowing hair had become a staple on television. Meanwhile, pressure from Mrs Khurshid and friends mounted on the minister to keep his appointment with the barber. Last heard, Khurshid was nabbed at his residence, but the haircut supposedly took place after midnight.

Old fear arises
As for the original lauh purush — LK Advani — there seems to have been major miscalculations on his part about the latest yatra. The old man is flummoxed by the lack of enthusiasm from party men. Take the Madhya Pradesh unit, for example. The Shivraj Singh Chauhan regime is battling corruption charges, and it feels that Advani’s presence may cause more damage. There is the Shehla Masood controversy as well. Before her death, the RTI activist is supposed to have written to the CVC, alleging that the state government had misused taxpayers’ money by hosting Advani during his Panchmarhi visit. Another visit from the old man, it is being feared, would cause further trouble.

Peace over war
Salman Khurshid is not the only troubleshooter available to the United Progressive Alliance. He has august company in the form of veterans such as Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal. But the problems are so many that the government has been forced to look around for more people to do the job. Can there be any other reason for the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ambika Soni, to journey to the east? It is unlikely that Soni exceeded her brief when she met the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee. The meeting, in fact, is being seen as an attempt to bridge the gulf between the Congress and its ally, the Trinamul Congress. Banerjee, the TMC chief, refused to accompany the PM on his Bangladesh trip and caused major embarrassment to the government by opposing the agreement on the Teesta waters. The bad blood was also apparent when she sided with the National Democratic Alliance to pan the bill on communal violence. The UPA, however, holds no grudges. Is that the message that Soni delivered to Banerjee?

Caught and bowled
The BJP has had its own share of Anna Hazares within the party. Shanta Kumar has built a reputation for being a dissident. Kumar, the former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, has raised the issue of nepotism time and again. This time though, the obvious target was archrival and present CM, Prem Kumar Dhumal. Dhumal’s son, Anurag Thakur, is a Lok Sabha MP and the head of the BJP’s youth wing. Kumar’s campaign against dynasty politics could have gathered steam had he not got the timing wrong. Thakur has bagged the prestigious post of joint-secretary in the BCCI. He has wasted no time in puncturing Kumar’s campaign by pointing out he got there by virtue of his hard work. That he is the first Himachali to bag the post has also helped him nip Kumar’s campaign in the bud.

No more family holidays
During the eventful eras of PV Narasimha Rao and HD Deve Gowda, so many ‘close relatives’ accompanied the respective prime ministers on foreign trips that there used to be little space on the ladder leading to the VIP aircraft. Apart from his wife, only two relatives accompany Manmohan Singh on his sojourns. This time, it was the turn of his eldest daughter and one of her children to travel along with the PM. Singh’s spin doctors seem reluctant to accommodate more people lest it dent the PM’s image further.

by our Delhi correspondent