We are now well into the month that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had been waiting for with bated breath!

The BJP expects the manna of power to fall into its lap any day now. For, hadn't its leaders been told by Delhi astrologer Lachhman Das Madan that their political fortunes would change for the better in September 2004?

Apparently, the deadline for the astral switch and -- the BJP leaders presume -- transfer of power is September 26.

Whether or not Madan, editor-publisher of the astrological monthly Babaji, actually predicted the fall of the UPA government and the NDA's return to the New Delhi gaddi, Vajpayee, and, to a lesser extent, his former deputy L K Advani, seem to have convinced themselves that their miserable existence away from the centre of power would end this month.

That must explain the sense of expectation in the two camps. Even their minions hope to reclaim their rightful places in the corridors of powers soon.

Though miracles can never be ruled out, as things stand, there appears to be no threat in sight to the stability of the Manmohan Singh government. But, of course, that is hardly going to stop the lotus-eaters of the BJP -- who, it may be recalled, were keen to introduce astrology as a full-fledged course at the university level -- from hoping against hope that somehow Madan's purported prediction will come to pass.

Madan, who has pored over the horoscopes of almost all important national-level politicians and bound and catalogued them in his Rajouri Garden home-cum-office, insists that he never pinpoints days and dates for grihadisha changes, though he does declare broadly the time when an auspicious period is about to begin at the end of a malignant one.

But Vajpayee and Company are beyond being influenced by such clarifications. For them, Madan cannot be wrong. After all he was the only one to have predicted before the last parliamentary election that neither Vajpayee nor Sonia Gandhi would become prime minister!

Kamal Nath does his 'duty'

Aam Aadmi might be the leitmotif of the ruling coalition, but Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath is not one to forget the khaas aadmi.

A couple of weeks ago, this column noted how he had extended largesse to steelmakers and basmati rice exporters. Now, he has shown his generosity to big-time exporters. Never mind that the latest giveaway could cost the poor taxpayer more than Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) per annum.

One of the most controversial decisions in the foreign trade policy unveiled by Kamal Nath a few days ago is the restoration of duty-free credit to export houses on an incremental basis.

The previous dispensation had abolished this giveaway following complaints and the ministry's investigation that quite a few export houses were declaring exports by third parties as their own to corner benefits under the scheme.

Upon abolition of this scheme, these export houses felt so aggrieved that they made the rounds of the then ministers and ruling alliance politicians, offering them the usual blandishments for its restoration.

But all this was to no avail. The government ruled out restoration of the scheme because it was an avoidable waste of precious resources and was being abused by certain unscrupulous exporters.

Apparently, the modus operandi was to appropriate the exports of smaller parties by offering them 10 to 15 percent more benefits in cash than they were entitled to under the law, then listing their exports under the export house's name. Recycling exports, ostensibly for 'value additions,' was another way to log higher growth.

Babus at war

New Delhi's bureaucracy is abuzz with stories about the summary transfer of Meenakshi Dutta Ghosh.

The high-profile project director of the National AIDS Control Organisation has been pushed aside as an adviser to the Planning Commission.

The suddenness of her removal shocked babudom, especially when none was named to head NACO in her place.

There is near unanimity in official circles that Ghosh has been done in by a long-time detractor, a senior civil servant in the department of family welfare.

This senior babu reportedly used his regional connections to see her out of the ministry. Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss was persuaded to grant his wish though, by all accounts, the feisty Ghosh has done a great job with NACO.

Ghosh, an IAS officer of the 1970 batch belonging to the Union Territories cadre, and the senior babu never got along with each other from Day 1, with the former protecting her turf rather aggressively.

But Ghosh had good contacts in the earlier NDA government, and so the senior babu could do precious little about it.

With the UPA taking over the reigns of power, he at last saw his chance to get the thorn out of his side. Ghosh isn't entirely friendless in the new dispensation, but the senior babu successfully played the regional card and painted her as a loyalist of the old rulers.

Anbumani's ministrations

Senior doctors at the prestigious All-India Institute of Medical Sciences are aghast at Health Minister Anbumani's chutzpah.

Having appropriated the guest house at the AIIMS campus till he was allotted a suitable ministerial bungalow, Anbumani pointedly made it his business to let them know that he, as a qualified medical doctor, knew as much as any of them about health and medicine.

The staff particularly resented Anbumani advising internationally renowned surgeon Dr P Venugopal, who has only recently taken over as director of the institute, on medical matters.

Surely the minister does not need to tell the only Indian surgeon to have successfully done a heart transplant how to go about his work.

Time-barred views

Then there are these mischievous elements who have freely distributed copies of a newspaper article written by one of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's aides some months ago in which he had described Vajpayee as 'our best PM, even better than Nehru.'

Happily, Dr Singh is least bothered what his aide said or wrote before joining him.

Illustrations: Uttam Ghosh