The Great Sleep

As a result, no one knew when Kant had his heart attack. He died peacefully in his sleep. When the grandchildren bounced in the next morning to wake him up, he didn8217;t reply. The household decided to let him sleep on, thinking he8217;d had a late night in his study. It was only when it was way past his usual waking hour that another effort was made to get him up. It was, of course, too late. Rigor mortis had set in.

Mulayam8217;s Hardsell

There8217;s more to Mulayam Singh Yadav8217;s decision to back the Congress vice presidential nominee Sushilkumar Shinde than opposition unity. It seems he wants a letter of support from the Congress for his party in Lucknow so that he can set about trying to form an alternative government.

It sounds ludicrous since Mayawati has only just been sworn in. But with tensions mounting between her and the BJP, Mulayam is apparently convinced he can woo away enough disgruntled MLAs from the BSP to make up his shortfall. But he needs a letter from the Congress to strengthen his negotiating power.

When Amar Singh telephoned Sonia Gandhi to declare support for Shinde, he made it pretty clear what his party is after. Opposition unity must not remain confined to Delhi, he is reported to have told her.

It8217;s put the Congress in a fix and while the party is trying to make up its mind, the roulette wheel of power is spinning madly in Lucknow. Mulayam is trying to crack the BSP, Mayawati working on the SP with ministerial carrots. Only the BJP is going nowhere. It8217;s just fighting with itself.

Bend it Like the BJP

One of the stops on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi8217;s visit to Delhi this time was the renovated party headquarters on Ashoka Road in central New Delhi where the BJP8217;s new interior decorator, Arun Jaitley, has been hard at work. He revamped his own office, which incidentally used to be Modi8217;s old office when he was general secretary. Then he overhauled president Venkaiah Naidu8217;s room.

Now construction is in full swing for a new media centre and offices for sundry other uses. Roll over, Jagmohan. With Ananth Kumar in charge of the Urban Development ministry, Jagmohan8217;s strict rules on unauthorised constructions in party offices have obviously been given short shrift.

Uma8217;s Order, Order

Old habits die hard for Uma Bharati. Whenever she8217;s unavailable to answer Parliament questions on her ministry, she assigns the task to Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaaz Hussain. Not that he knows much about sports or youth affairs, but Uma hasn8217;t shed her tendency to bark orders at Hussain from the days when she was president of the Yuva Morcha and he was secretary.

Poor Hussain has been mugging up on sports along with civil aviation so that he can face Parliament on behalf of his former boss. And MPs have forgotten that the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs has a Minister of State, P Radhakrishnan, because he8217;s rarely seen or heard.

Keeping His Brief Intact

Now that Arun Jaitley is no longer a minister and doesn8217;t have an office in Parliament House, he8217;s come up with an ingenious solution for storing briefs for debates and discussions in the House. He8217;s created a mobile filing system which lies in the boot of his car, bags full of files which are ready reckoners on issues likely to dominate the session. All he has to do when he needs information immediately is to summon his car and pick out the relevant bag. After all, what8217;s a lawyer without a brief?