August 10, 1998

Members of the party's media cell land plum posts and emerge as influential players in the coalition Government.

By Saba Naqvi Bhaumik

There may be a deep sense of foreboding over the BJP coalition's survival into the next year. But there is a small group of backroom boys who have cause for celebration. They are members of the party's media cell, all of whom have landed plum jobs with the new regime: Rajya Sabha nominations, government jobs, even the chairmanship of an institute. For all its paralysis on various fronts, the BJP has been most efficient in providing jobs for its boys. And for all the bad press the party has been getting, members of the cell meant to monitor the media appear preoccupied with their own appointments and postings.

The most recent windfall comes the way of Mohan Guruswamy, 50, a management consultant with political ambitions. Landing in the BJP in the mid-'90s after a circuitous political journey with Chandra Shekhar's Janata Party and V.P. Singh's Janata Dal, Guruswamy's expected appointment as special adviser to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha with the rank of a secretary has raised eyebrows. He has been consultant to several business houses and till recently was executive director of the Siddharth Sriram-owned SIEL. Now he says his job will be to act as a conduit between Sinha and the Government.

Besides his political interests, over the years Guruswamy has tried to position himself as a defence analyst. He's now pointing to his financial qualifications: a master's degree in public policy and management from Harvard University. Besides, as he says, "Yashwant Sinha and I go back a long way when we were the two closest aides of Chandra Shekhar."

Guruswamy will take no salary from the Government but is expecting the allotment of a house and car. He points to his luxurious south Delhi company house and says, "In terms of living standards, this job is a climbdown for me -- an index of my commitment to the party." He shrugs off the suggestion that this would be compensated by the power to influence major policy, but says, "I told the leadership that I would have preferred an ambassadorial post."

The haste with which members of the media cell are being appointed is often being repented at leisure. Take the case of former PTI diplomatic editor Ashok Tandon, 50, who quit his job as he was tipped to head the Press Information Bureau (PIB). But it turned out to be a case of the right hand of the Government not knowing what the left was doing. The incumbent PIB chief got an extension and Tandon had to be accommodated in the PMO. He continues to work as a routine information officer, but his powers remain nebulously defined.

It is the convener of the BJP media cell, the veteran RSS hand and Hindi journalist Dina Nath Mishra who has landed the most secure job: a six-year Rajya Sabha term from Uttar Pradesh. Mishra describes the cell as being built on a "culture of friendship". He cites his 32-year-old association with Balbir Punj, executive editor of the Ambani-owned Observer of Business & Politics, as typical of the relationships within the media cell.

Active in ABVP student politics, Punj had worked in RSS daily Motherland before joining The Financial Express, from where the Observer Group recruited him. Punj is known for his political connections within the Sangh Parivar, not his bylines. He cannot be described as an eminent journalist. Yet the BJP regime did not bat an eyelid before appointing Punj chairman of the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communications (IIMC) Delhi, which has an annual budget of Rs 6 crore. Grumbles an IIMC teacher: "We'd never heard of him though we teach journalism here." Past chairmen have been senior academics like P.C. Joshi or bureaucrats like G. Parthasarthy and P. Murari.

Punj will get a small monthly honorarium of Rs 4,000 besides access to an air-conditioned car and a telephone. But he will enjoy the prestige of being chairman of an influential institute: the perks include being on several media advisory committees of the Government. As chairman, Punj will be in a position to influence appointments in the institute besides being the final financial sanctioning authority. Punj, who will continue with his job in the Observer Group, says, "It's an honorary job. There's no reason to make a big noise over it."

Other members of the cell work more unobtrusively. Take Sudheendra Kulkarni, one-time CPI(M) activist and journalist of sorts. Kulkarni spent a year in the Hinduja Group as vice-president, media, before embracing the BJP in 1996. He now lives in a spartan room at the party headquarters, takes no salary for his labours as director (communications) in the PMO and describes himself as an ordinary party worker. Like most media cell members, Kulkarni rose swiftly in the BJP ranks because of the blessings of former party president L.K. Advani. Guruswamy too describes Advani as his mentor and says, "I would never have joined the BJP if I had not interacted with Advani."

The only member of the BJP media cell who has yet to land a plum post is journalist T.V.R. Shenoy, whose political connections extend to several parties besides the BJP. There is speculation that Shenoy's sights could be set on being part of the committee that will choose the new Prasar Bharati CEO.

The person who would certainly know rumour from fact is Chennai-based chartered accountant S. Gurumurthy, godfather of the entire media cell group. Gurumurthy carries the complete moral sanction of the rss. Mishra describes him as an "embodiment of the spirit of the rss". Gurumurthy often makes overnight trips to the capital, following which appointments suddenly materialise. For instance, Punj was appointed IIMC chairman soon after Gurumurthy accompanied him to a luncheon meeting with I&B Minister Sushma Swaraj.

As the boys swiftly corner the plums jobs, there are bound to be those left with mere crumbs -- a situation that is already leading to growing heartburn in the party. This is definitely not a recipe for good digestion or bonhomie.

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