Wooing the movers and shakers: Aarti R Jerath

MEANWHILE IN DELHI

Wannabe ministers in the Congress are a sorry lot. They tried so hard but didn't make it, again. Look at the effort that went into lobbying for a place in the union council of ministers. Suddenly, all the Prime Minister's men were much sought after dinner invitees. Planning Commission chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia and his wife were seen frequently at Rajya Sabha MP Ashwini Kumar's parties. This was the Punjab connection.

The other hopeful from the Rajya Sabha, Subbarami Reddy, concentrated on wooing Principal Secretary TKA Nair and Media Advisor Sanjaya Baru. Reddy invoked the Andhra link with Baru. And Nair happens to be Reddy's neighbour. Even the PM's private secretary Vikram Doraiswamy hit the party circuit. He's become a permanent invitee on inveterate glamour host Suresh Kalmadi's guest list. Kalmadi has been eyeing the sports portfolio after Sunil Dutt's demise.

On the other side, Sonia Gandhi's chief aides Ahmed Patel and Ambika Soni were much in demand, naturally. So were their camp followers. Soni loyalist Jairam Ramesh, for instance, found his popularity graph zooming up. With the expansion/reshuffle put off till after the winter session of Parliament, the tamasha threatens to continue.

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Jaipal Reddy bid a strange farewell to the media. Just 24 hours before he relinquished charge of the information and broadcasting ministry, he lashed out at Indian journalism's falling standards. This was at a seminar organized by a newly opened media school in the Capital, ISOMES. Reddy clearly knew he was being shifted because he didn't pull his punches as an I&B minister would normally.

In a candid admission of his disillusionment, he said the threat to the Indian media comes from within, not from the government. News is dumbed down and trivialized, facts are not checked, personalities have become bigger than issues. He said he was horrified to read a comment in one newspaper that the PM should pick someone with a good English accent to succeed Natwar Singh in the Foreign Ministry! Being a self-effacing man, Reddy has found it difficult to adjust to the new world of sound-byte journalism, despite his penchant for one-liners. He's been the darling of the print media since his days as Janata Dal spokesman but demands of television seem to have got him in the end.

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It's interesting that Sonia Gandhi and the PM did not meet on the fateful day the expansion was scrapped. That itself should have signaled something to the aspirants. Instead, almost the last person to meet the PM that evening was Sonia's political secretary Ahmed Patel and his footprints are clearly visible in the changes that have been made.

The decision to give Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi the I&B portfolio is being attributed in the Congress circles to Patel's clout. Dasmunshi is said to be a Patel loyalist. When the cabinet was formed last year, Patel managed to get him a berth but couldn't get him a good ministry. This time, Dasmunshi has bagged the hi-profile I&B portfolio and the crucial parliamentary affairs ministry. Both are key jobs in a coalition set up, the first for image building and the second for keeping the government afloat.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net