Diary: The Foreign Hand

To enhance the Congress' profile overseas and to monitor closely the NDA's foreign policy initiatives, the Congress' foreign affairs department has brought on board such old hands as Messrs N.D. Tiwari, Shiv Shankar, R.L. Bhatia, Eduardo Faleiro, Salman Khurshid, Murli Deora and Anand Sharma. A few have been allocated regional tasks under chairperson K. Natwar Singh's stewardship. While Deora will keep a watch on Indo-US ties, Bhatia will handle Canada, Faleiro South Asia and Sharma African affairs. With domestic matters still in a tizzy, the Congress has at least got its parallel foreign policy machinery working overtime.

Thus spake Prasada

 

Jitendra Prasada talks little but says a lot. In private, he's been reportedly comparing the proposed Congress-RJD coalition in Bihar with Dhritrashtra's fatal embrace. But as a cad said, wasn't the decision to go along with the RJD taken by the CWC of which Prasada is a senior member? Jitendra bhai's prompt reply to that was: Hum to wahi kartey hai jo Arjun Singh kahtey hai.

Blame their press

The cat's now out of the bag: the Clinton visit will not end with a press conference in which the American President will face a barrage of questions from the desi media. There are already long faces in the journalistic fraternity over this missed opportunity. But the reason for skipping such a headline-hugging event is apparently quite serious. As US officials let their Indian counterparts know: You never know with these American journalists. They are liable to ask all sorts of questions once they get hold of the President! Considering that Clinton came almost at the bottom in a recent survey of US presidents, the official explanation comes as no surprise. Indian journos can be reassured that they weren't the reason for the Prez giving the press meet a go by.

Inside info on The Insider

Expect more works of fiction from the pen of Narasimha Rao. Available at your bookshops this week is the paperback edition of The Insider with four chapters that were not in the hardback. (No, there's no need to rush to the shops they aren't the ones that were deleted for being too naughty.) Apparently, Rao felt the book was incomplete and has updated.

And coming in spring 2001 is the sequel to The Insider in which our hero (a romanticised version of Rao himself) takes the story forward to 1989. That book is one-third complete and will end with the death of Rajiv Gandhi.