Mohan Guruswamy, for those not in the loop, was the spin doctor of the Finance Ministry till recently. He was the Advisor to Yashwant Sinha. That is, till recently. Suddenly Guruswamy was ousted from his post or he resigned and he, as suddenly, discovered ethical values, if not moral ones. Since then he has repeatedly attacked Sinha, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan, and well, told tales out of school.

But why was Guruswamy removed? Here's an interesting spin on the story. Apparently, the Prime Minister's foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya, while dining at a five-star hotel, found Guruswamy deep in conversation with Suman Dubey. Suman Dubey is like as old Gandhi family retainer and a close chum of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Since Vajpayee couldn't stand Guruswamy anyhow because he was foisted upon the Government by Home Minister L K Advani, this was taken as proof of his double-dealing.

Guruswamy was history, and thereafter hysterical, if his series of newspaper articles are anything to go by. And, well, the BJPites may have found their deepest fears well founded, after all, when Parliament convened for its Budget session, the Congress was shrilly raising the decibel level over the ``corruption charges'' he had leveled.

However, Guruswamy is well used to political somersaulting. He first coddled up to V P Singh, but couldn't sneak his way into his charmed circle. On yes, not to forget the previous Sinha connection. Like Sinha, he too was a lieutenant of former Prime Minister Chandler Shekhar.

However, his arrogant streak got the better of him. The then general secretary of the Janata Party Bapu Kaldate once found him comfortably ensconced in the party president's chair. Questioned, Guruswamy retorted: ``Is this the singhasan of Vikramaditya? Anyone can sit here.'' Kaldate faithfully reported the dialogue to Chandra Shekhar and Guruswamy was once again chucked out, something he should be quite used to by now.

But then Guruswamy must be thanked for having introduced two new phrases to the vocabulary of the world Indian economics. First, there is Neaderthal economics, the type that is purveyed and pursued by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. Second, there is Suhartoism or ``relative-oriented crony capitalism'' which he relates to Vajpayee's extended home, in a dispensation where the Prime Minister's House (PMH), or should that be PMDT (Prime Minister's Dining Table) is more powerful or more notorious than the Prime Minister's Officer.

That there is the lack of love, or anything close to it, between Guruswamy and Mahajan. Guruswamy has alleged that he was dumped because he was seen as trying to cement a bailout package for Essar, owned by the Ruias, whereas Mahajan was waltzing in an out of his office with P K Mittal (owner of rival steel giant Ispat) in tow.

Guruswamy is also peeved at having been downgraded by Sinha as a ``mere'' Consultant in the Department of Expenditure. That was what the Finance Minister described him as during the debate in Parliament on the issue of Guruswamy's disclosures. Guruswamy, himself, jumps at the opportunity to show anyone especially passing hacks his sack letter, which mentioned that he had been fired from the post of Advisor.

Finally, Guruswamy quotes the Bhagwad Gita and, assuming his erstwhile role, give some advice to Sinha: ``From anger arises infatuation, from infatuation, confusion of memory, from confusion of memory, loss of reason, and from loss of reason one goes to complete ruin.''