Long faces all the way
Long faces. At least three of them are what one is witnessing in the capital these days after Sonia Gandhi announced that Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil would be UPA’s candidate for the Presidential election.

And, they belong to hopefuls-- Shivraj Patil, Karan Singh and G Venkataswami — all senior party leaders.

The scholarly Karan Singh, in fact, has made his disappointment known by telling the media that he was the best qualified for selection, while Venkataswami, a veteran dalit leader from Andhra Pradesh who had self-proposed his “availability” for the top job before the Congress leadership, has gone a step further, almost launching an attack on Ms Gandhi.

“If Indira Gandhi had been alive, my case would not have been rejected,” is what he said on Saturday. He claims that this is the second time that the Congress leadership has done injustice to him, as in 1997 too, even though over 200 MPs had proposed his name, the party had selected K R Narayanan as the candidate.

In comparison, the Union Home Minister has been graceful, not publicly making his disappointment known. However, some of his aides confide that their impeccably-dressed master is slightly “down” these days.

And not only him, some of his personal staff, who were hoping to become aides to the next President of India, are too sporting long faces.

But, as the grapevine goes, quite a number of babus in the Home Ministry too are sporting long faced, but for another reason – they were hoping that Mr Patil would get the nod and thus leave the ministry, freeing it of his stickler-to-the-rules stiffness.

Utpal Borpujari

A king on the prowl
Which are the Indian cities from where most Mercedes Benz luxury cars are ordered ? One may be shocked to know that they are not Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore but Coimbatore, Ludhiana and Guwahati.

Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya, who revealed this at a conference recently, says this signified the type of wealth and robust economic growth that the Tier II and III cities in the country have registered.

“Even I was stunned when I was told of this by the Benz management”, said Mallya who has acquired controlling stake in budget carrier Air Deccan and is now eyeing another low frill airline — SpiceJet. According to him, the purchasing power of the Indian middle class has increased in the last 10 years and people now don’t hesitate to set their sights on world-renowned lifestyle brands. The liquor baron says his full-service airline’s target is the 100 million population which has the power and money and spend like those in the UK and USA.  The `king of good times’,  who makes no bones of his lavish lifestyle, says he is prepared to buyout SpiceJet, which has just over eight per cent market share. However, that may not happen in the immediate future as those controlling the equity are unlikely to shed them until next March.

However, if he goes on to capture the budget airline, then Mallya will become the unquestioned aviation king within the country as he already is the leader controlling 30 per cent of market share (Kingfisher+Air Deccan) as against 28.5 per cent of Jet Airways and JetLite and 21.5 per cent of Indian.

B S Arun

Minister with an oily touch
Ever since the international crude oil price is on the rising trend, there has been growing apprehension that the government may finally bite the bullet by hiking the domestic retail prices of petrol and diesel.

But, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora prefers to stick to standard reply: The government has no plan to hike oil prices in near future. 

Every time scribes meet him they first ask the Minister: Is government considering hike in oil prices? Deora comes out with his usual sharp one liner: No plan to hike oil prices in near future.

Recently, a group of journalists called on Deora. The Minister greeted all with a smile saying “You can ask all questions including your favourite one on any possible hike in oil prices”.

The Minister was correct. The first question shot at him was about probable hike in auto fuel prices.

Prompt came the reply from Deora:  “There is going to be no change in my reply”.

Aditya Raj Das