Tailpiece

It was, you could, say an occasion for spicy small talk and perhaps unpalatable to Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh. At the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Kolkata-based corporate giant ITC and the Spices Board of India on a pilot project to market spices from the north-eastern states, Ramesh told ITC chief Y C Deveshwar that being Kolkata-based, the company could do more for the Northeast than the Spices Board had done till date. Ramesh8217;s argument was that the Board, headquartered in Kochi, focused mostly on southern spices like cardamom. Hearing this, Deveshwar couldn8217;t resist taking a dig at the Congress8217;s current dilemma with its Left allies: 8220;We may be energised by the Right, but we are not hampered by the Left.8221; Incidentally, a little later, when the Spices Board Chairman was asked about the various spices parks planned across the country, the first that came to his lips was the one coming up in Chhindwara, the constituency of Ramesh8217;s senior, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath.