Pressing business

It was tough to get a word from the horse8217;s mouth on the Jaipur blasts. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was not in Delhi when the explosives went off last Tuesday. On a two-day visit to the Northeast, Patil returned on Wednesday evening and accompanied UPA President Sonia Gandhi to the stricken city the next day. Till then it was Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal who fed the media with his theories on the blasts. It was with some anticipation, therefore, that journalists looked forward to Patil8217;s planned media interaction on Saturday. However, Patil was summoned by Sonia Gandhi that morning to accompany her on a visit to Karnataka where elections are being held. And since there can be no bigger command for a Congressman than from 10 Janpath, Patil cancelled all his programmes for the weekend, leaving the mediapeople quite bemused.