The Union Ministry of External Affairs is still quibbling over what should be the protocol for Carla Bruni, the supermodel who is the constant companion of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The French president has been invited to be chief guest at the Republic Day parade. International jet setter Bianca Jagger, recently in India, has been telling her influential Indian friends they should advise their prime minister to follow the Saudi example and bar Carla from coming to New Delhi. Bianca is the former wife of Mick Jagger and she has reason to be annoyed with the singer model. Bruni is an old flame of the philandering rock star.

Delaying tactics

Dredging operations for the Sethusamudran channel were stayed by the Supreme Court last October. In December the government counsel sought an extension on the stay, pleading for more time to re-submit an affidavit. Now the case comes up once again on January 16. Union Culture Minister Ambica Soni, after getting her fingers badly burnt by the last affidavit submitted to the court, is playing safe and has referred the matter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who feels the government should tread cautiously with the Karnataka elections due in March. The Congress does not want to provide the BJP with any ammunition which might suggest that it is anti-Ram. It has informally decided that the government counsel would request another three months’ extension on the stay and that Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam be taken off the case.

However, Union Transport Minister T.R. Baalu is pushing hard to reverse this decision. The dredging contractors are breathing down his neck and threatening to withdraw in case there is a further postponement.

Imitation, no flattery

The Union Home Ministry turned down Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s request for SPG protection even though she falls in the very high risk Z-category. The ministry pointed out that this would mean amending the SPG Act, which stipulates that the force is reserved exclusively for the prime ministers and former prime ministers. The only exception being Sonia Gandhi and her family. Actually, many chief ministers have established their own special security forces, since they are not entitled to commandeer the services of the elite SPG and the NSG. Chandrababu Naidu as Andhra Pradesh chief minister had his Greyhounds, Jayalalithaa formed the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force and Nitish Kumar constituted a Special Security Wing. Perhaps Mayawati could take a cue from Lalu Prasad Yadav, who set up his own private bodyguard by inducting personnel from the Railway Police Force. Yadav’s security men are dressed in black uniforms identical to NSG commandos and eight Ambassador cars travel in the railway minister’s entourage. Some time back the Director-General of the NSG wrote to the home ministry protesting that Yadav’s guards, by imitating the NSG, were denigrating the importance of the crack force.

Chandrababu’s makeover

Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has sent out a large four- page New Year greeting card. There is a picture of Naidu with a farmer’s turban, ploughing the field. The wording on the card emphasises the importance of agriculture. It seems that Naidu, for the 2009 general elections, would like to focus on farming and shed his old image as the benefactor of IT and industry. Defeat in the 2004 elections was a wake-up call for Naidu. He

realises that there are more voters in the villages than the towns and being projected as a techno savvy computer whiz is not going to win him the election.

No workout, just work

Not many are aware that there is a well-fitted gymnasium in the basement of the Prime Minister’s Office in South Block. The gymnasium was opened during Vajpayee’s regime at the initiative of the late Ashok Saikia, Vajpayee’s trusted aide. In the present regime, neither Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nor NSA chief M.K. Narayanan or the PM’s Principal Secretary T.K. Nair, who are all past 70, use the gym. Probably the oldest person on the treadmill is Sanjaya Baru, the prime minister’s media adviser.