No pappi, no jappi

On Wednesday, Vajpayee suggested that India-Pakistan jointly patrol the border, indicating a slight thaw in the Indian position. By the end of the week, the temperatures had considerably dipped, what with the weight of weight-lifter Richard Armitage being applied judiciously on both New Delhi and Islamabad.

Passage out of India

Meanwhile, the exodus continued as diplomatic staff and foreign nationals headed for the international airports in the country. On Wednesday, the US and Britain changed the language of their travel advisory and instead of merely advising their nationals to leave, now stated that they should leave. Many Indians seeking visas for foreign destinations were left high and dry outside visa offices.

Naik administered price rise

The government decided to hike the price of petrol by Rs 2.50 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre in an effort to compensate the oil companies for the hike in the price of international crude. The government also reduced the excise duty on both petrol and diesel by two per cent.

The oil marketing companies have now been given the freedom to review the retail prices of petrol and diesel every 15 days and change the prices in accordance with the international crude oil prices.

This time, however, Union petroleum minister Ram Naik received flak for his handling of the price rise. Since the announcement had come earlier, many petrol pumps responded by putting up ‘No stock’ boards, so as to sell their stocks at the higher rates. Oil’s not quite well here, one could say.

TATA to a controversy?Union Home Minister L.K. Advani had to step in to end the simmering tension between the Union minister for Communications, Pramod Mahajan, and the Union minister for disinvestment, Pramod Mahajan.

An uneasy peace was brokered on Thursday and the curtains sought to be brought down on the controversy over the decision of the VSNL board to invest Rs 1,200 crore in the loss making Tata Teleservices. Earlier, Arun Shourie had publicly defended the share holders’ agreement.

A free holiday on the house

A whiff of horse dung rose from Maharashtra’s state assembly, as five MLAs from the Peasants and Workers Party withdrew support to the Congress-NCP Democratic Front government in the state. To protect their flock from the predatory strikes of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine, both the NCP and the Congress undertook extraordinary measures to keep their MLAs under lock and key, albeit in pleasant circumstances.