The Hindu : PM unwell, Cabinet meeting put off

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 22, 2002

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PM unwell, Cabinet meeting put off

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI OCT. 21. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, cancelled for the second consecutive day today all his appointments, including a special Cabinet meet on the Tenth Five- Year Plan, because of his "bad throat.''

The official word is that there is nothing wrong with Mr. Vajpayee's health and he is suffering only from a throat infection and has been advised by the doctors to refrain from talking. He is reported to be "clearing files'' and attending to other routine prime ministerial chores.

Yesterday, Mr. Vajpayee cut short his stay in Lucknow because of his troublesome throat. That announcement was interpreted as Mr. Vajpayee's way of getting out of a possibly embarrassing press conference where he would have been asked about the BJP dissident MLAs.

But for most the day, the Prime Ministerial aides were at pains to suggest that Mr. Vajpayee was actually down with a bad throat. The cancellations of appointments today confirmed that perhaps after all Mr. Vajpayee was not affecting some kind of political illness.

The special Cabinet meeting on the Tenth-Plan is now tentatively planned for next week. The unexpected postponement should give the Prime Minister a week's time to iron out the increasingly pronounced differences within the Cabinet over the direction of the disinvestment strategy.

The controversy over disinvestment acquired a new dimension after the Disinvestment Minister, Arun Shourie, disclosed publicly the lobbying done by Shiv Sena functionaries on behalf of a bidder in the sale of a public sector hotel in Mumbai.

Whatever the correctness of Mr. Shourie's charge, NDA partners are believed to be exercised over what is being regarded as a breach of coalition dharma.

Mr. Shourie's "outburst'' against the Shiv Sena has not been appreciated by other NDA partners, who do not necessarily disagree with him.

The Prime Minister's "forced silence'' may induce other ministerial colleagues to emulate him, said an official.

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