A new broom for old rules

Those baying for National Security Adviser MK Narayanan’s blood after the 26/11 attack have gone silent. Not because Manmohan Singh put his foot down and refused to sack the NSA. They are quiet because the way the wheel has turned, there is no worse punishment than having P Chidambaram as home minister. In the three weeks since PC moved into Shivraj Patil’s place, Narayanan has gone from being the pivot of the security establishment to one of the many boys at Chidambaram’s high table.

Key security-related decisions are no longer made in South Block where the PMO is based. The process has shifted lock, stock, and barrel to North Block, where Chidambaram sits. The tipping of the scales is evident in small things. For the first time in four-and-a-half years, the NSA is travelling across the road to attend meetings in the home ministry. At the very least, he has to be present for the daily 9:30am briefing by the intelligence chiefs to the home minister. But on many days, he goes again for the 2:30pm meeting and, sometimes, he makes three or four trips to North Block in one day. Shivraj Patil didn’t dare summon the all-powerful security czar. PC dares.

The NSA is not the only one who is feeling the effects of a new broom sweeping in North Block. Home ministry babus are learning to the cost of their morning golf sessions that PC means business. Gone are the days when they could stroll into office at 11am after a bracing morning on the Delhi Golf Club greens, go out for a leisurely lunch from 1pm to 4pm, and wind up at 7pm after a desultory glance at a few files. Now, they are all at their desks before 9am, when Chidambaram strides into North Block. And post-lunch, they are back at their desks by 2pm You never know who PC will summon for the 2:30pm meeting! An officer confessed that they are all doing their file work more carefully because the minister actually reads the notes put up to him, unlike Patil who just signed where he was told to.

Ironically, those who baited Chidambaram when he was finance minister have become Chidambaram’s admirers today. PC’s blushes were something to see when the CPI(M)’s ever critical MP Brinda Karat stood up in the Rajya Sabha last week to compliment him. (She was happy with him because he had agreed to incorporate her suggested amendments to the rape law.) "At this rate, you will be a better home minister than a finance minister," she told him, much to everyone's amusement. Chidambaram smiled sheepishly and shot back, "Madam, that's a backhanded compliment."

The banter only proves yet again that nothing is permanent in politics. Those who shunned Chidambaram for his arrogance and inflexibility are surprised to find him much more mellow and ready to listen in his new avatar as home minister. Even his speeches in Parliament on the Mumbai attack and the new anti-terror laws did not have his trademark superciliousness. Is he preparing for a new role in the post-poll scenario next year? Time will tell.

TAILPIECE: The grasshopper of Indian politics, Ajit Singh, is all set to ditch the BJP and join hands with the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance that is in the making. He seems to have decided that the Congress is a better bet after the results of the recent assembly polls punctured the myth that the BJP is on the comeback trail. BJP leader Arun Jaitley was taken aback when Singh suddenly raised his price at their last meeting and didn’t seem at all interested in negotiating. Singh is believed to have opened channels to the Congress and the SP and is ready to settle for less seats than the BJP was offering him. He has come full circle. He started with the SP, moved on to the Congress, bargained with the BSP, flirted with the BJP, and is now back with the SP-Congress.