Pm Bides Time On Media Advisor Post

The post of media advisor to the Prime Minister has become the latest front for the unstated turf war within the government.

Atal Behari Vajpayee is yet to sign the file to appoint Sudheendra Kulkarni, a close associate of home minister LK Advani, for the job.

Kulkarnis appointment as an officer on special duty with the Prime Minister would certainly increase Advanis grip over the PMO and some of Vajpayees aides are therefore averse to it.

Vajpayee already has little say in the crucial areas of home, finance and defence, since Advani and his close associates are in charge of those ministries.

 

The file for Kulkarnis appointment has been waiting for Vajpayees signature for more than two weeks now. Kulkarni meanwhile continues to be seen in and around the Prime Ministers office in South Block, Parliament House and Vajpayees 7, Safdarjung Road residence.

Since Kulkarni has no official status, Pramod Mahajan, who was last week appointed as the political advisor to the Prime Minister, is on the ascendant. Mahajan reportedly moved closer to Vajpayee during the latters 13-day rule in 1996.

Before that, Mahajan was said to be in the Advani camp.

While Mahajans appointment is not therefore seen as a major gain for either camp, it has raised another set of hackles. In the last five years, Mahajan has had to counter allegations of maintaining a `five-star lifestyle and being close to certain industrial houses.

A former minister in the PMO says Mahajan is bound to have wide power as all files must pass his desk. Even the principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Brajesh Mishra, cannot now be half as powerful as A N Verma was under P V Narasimha Rao, particularly since Mishras expertise is primarily in matters of defence and external Affairs. Nor does Vajpayee himself have as much of a grasp over economic issues as Rao.

Vajpayees aides fear that Advani may look for a suitable occasion to try and shift control of the ministry of personnel, which controls the Central Bureau of Investigation, from the Prime Minister to the home ministry.

Vajpayee is also apparently concerned at the trend of defence minister George Fernandess statements, which do not match Vajpayees perspectives on international affairs.

Fernandess latest statement that Pakistans missiles were built in China is likely to add to Vajpayees worries.

In finance, Vajpayee has a minister who is known within the BJP as more loyal to Advani than to him. Sinha was given the finance portfolio after Vajpayees declared desire to retain the portfolio was overruled.

His declaration that he would retain the portfolio had followed his failure to induct confidant Jaswant Singh for the job. Advani and his associates blocked Singhs appointment on the ground that he was defeated in the Lok Sabha election.