JULIUS CAESAR: Want to have fat men around him, sleek headed men such as sleep o’nights.” Rajiv Gandhi it seems, has a similar preference for South Indian Brahmins. Apart from the two Iyengars in the PMO, S. Vasudevan and G. Parthasarathy, hovering at the top of the power echelons are T.N. Seshan, Cabinet Secretary Kalyanakrishnan, Home Secretary, and P. Murari, land B Secretary. And topping them all is that perennial orbiter, Mani Shankar Aiyer.
“Mani” it is now fairly clear,
Prime Ministerial sentence describing the Opposition MPs as limpets. It may be recalled that another famous remark of Rajiy Gandhi calling the National Front as a National Affront was also attributed to the fertile mind of this IFS officer.
In recent days he has been seen in Parliament giving advice and instructions to Congress I MPs. He is so conspicuous that a Marxist MP in the Rajya Sabha remarked: “Everybody is being briefed by Mani Shankar Aiyer these days.”
Article extracted from this publication >> September 15, 1989
