Vajpayee's uncharacteristic tough side

Vajpayee's demeanour usually displays a kind nature

By Mark Tully

(CNN) -- With the leader of the Indian opposition Sonia Gandhi threatening to increase pressure on the unwieldy coalition government following a scandal which revealedÊhigh-level corruption, the prime ministerÊhas acted with uncharacteristic toughness to warn off investigative journalists and to demonstrate that his party'sÊhard line Hindu nationalist agenda has not been abandoned.

Recently IndiaÕs government-runÊtelevision networkÊbeamed a full frontal still photo of the face of the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at the audienceÊfor what seemed like a whole minute of the main evening news bulletin.Ê

I was reminded of the same networkÕs promotion of Rajiv Gandhi during the last year of his term of office as prime minister -- promotion which incidentally did him no good in the general election which followed.Ê

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VajpayeeÕs face is kindly and avuncular, so is his usual demeanour.ÊBut he has been described as the mask hiding the true face of his Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, with its Hindu nationalist agenda.

Now under the strain of three years in office the mask appears to be slipping.

Vajpayee's 'Achilles Heel'

The editor of one of IndiaÕs leading news magazines, Outlook, was summoned by the prime minister to explain why theÊcover of one editionÊhad shown a not so avuncular picture of Vajpayee alongsideÊhis two closest advisers and his foster son, with the headline ÒThe Prime MinisterÕs Achilles Heel.ÓÊ

The article itself alleged that the advisers and VajpayeeÕs foster son wielded Òformidable cloutÓ, and suggested that they were involved in awarding government contracts.

While the prime minister expressed his disapproval to the editor, the income tax department suddenly decided that there was something wrong with the returns of OutlookÕs proprietor and raided his offices in Bombay, the regional office of the magazine.

That was interpreted as a clumsy suggestion to the proprietor that he should drop his one media interest, Outlook,Êand concentrate all his energies on his other less high-profileÊ business interests.Ê

Even more severe punishment was inflicted onÊ the main financiers of the dotcom company Tehelka.

Tehelka means sensation and the web-site certainly created a sensation with its secret filming of the president of the BJP receiving a wad of notes in reward for offering to support a defence deal, the close companion of the defence minister and president of his party offering help with the same contract for a contribution to party funds, and generals along with more junior army officers concerned with arms procurement in equally compromising positions.

The investment bank which put up most of the money to float Tehelka was closed down by stock exchange regulators. Tarun Tejpal, the editor of Tehelka, has been asked by the commission set up to enquire into all the misdeeds revealed by the secret filming to provide details of all his investments.

Tejpal said to me,Óthey are meant to be investigating the bribe-takers not us.Ó

Ministers given a freer hand

After Tehelka Vajpayee has also allowed his ministers who have shielded behind his mask a freer hand. The home minister Lal Krishan Advani and the Human Resources Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, have come up with a package of measures which will delight the xenophobic elements in the BJP.Ê

No invitation to foreigners to take part in seminars can be issued without government clearance, nor can Indian academics go abroad without that clearance, and anyone who has a foreigner staying with them over night has to give details of their guest to the police.

This prompted one cartoonist to drawÊan Indian greeting a foreigner at the airport and saying, ÒWelcome to India. Come with me to the police station.ÓÊ

The Home Ministry has now said the full rigours of these regulations will be confined to citizens of neighbouring countries, which of course includes Islamic Pakistan, but thatÕs hardly a good neighborly gesture just before Pakistan new President Pervez Musharraf comes to Delhi for his first summit meeting with Vajpayee.

It now remains to be seen whether, when Vjapyee recovers from the knee operation he has just undergone, he will want to refurbish his avuncular image, or whether he has decided that prime ministers canÕt afford to beÊkindly uncles.