The rocket ride from Rameswaram to Rashtrapati Bhavan

After pulling A.P.J. Kalam’s name out of the hat, the NDA just had to sit back and enjoy the discomfiture of the Opposition. Mulayam Si...

After pulling A.P.J. Kalam’s name out of the hat, the NDA just had to sit back and enjoy the discomfiture of the Opposition. Mulayam Singh Yadav was the first to break ranks, enthusiastically endorsing Kalam’s candidature, even claiming credit for it.

Mulayam’s erstwhile colleagues in the People’s Front promptly reacted by dissolving the Front. The Congress, once it realised that K.R. Narayanan would not play ball, first maintained an enigmatic silence on the issue. The suspense was broken on Thursday when it went along with the Kalam proposal.

‘Left in the lurch’, more or less summed up the dilemma of the red-faced Marxists. However, they pugnaciously continued to plough the lonely furrow — and came up with an interesting name for the presidential election of July 15 — Captain Lakshmi Sehgal.

MANTRALAYA ACTION THRILLER

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After all the running and the chasing over the last fortnight, the scene shifted to the Maharashtra assembly on Thursday, where Hero No 1 Vilasrao Deshmukh in concert with Hero No 2 Chhagan Bhujbal, rescued their tottering government from the imprecations of Enemy No 1, the Saffron Villains.

The end was expected to be a cliff-hanger — but proved to be tame. The Democratic Front notched a convincing 143-133 win over the Shiv Sena-BJP, with some help from the Speaker, who had disqualified the seven NCP floor-crossers for not having mustered the mandatory one-third for a legal split.

Meanwhile Papa Tiger Thackeray in his East Bandra den, as he watched his cubs botch up their Operation Power, just yawned. He would rather enjoy the wine than worry about coming to power, he said. Which may be another way of saying that the grapes are sour.

IT’S A RUM THING

Old Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence, finally headed this way on his country’s peacekeeping mission. A day before his arrival on Wednesday, India demonstrated its seriousness in de-escalating tension in the region by ordering its warships out of their patrolling duties in the Arabian Sea.

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But Rumsfeld wanted more steps on ‘‘defrosting’’ the region — and so indeed did the somewhat cheeky General next door, who demanded that India pull back its troops and resume a dialogue over Kashmir. The big hint of the visit: Al Qaeda may have a presence on the border although the US denied having hard evidence of it. Pakistan of course pooh-poohed the suggestion

FINALLY AN END TO THE VSNL CONTROVERSY

After two weeks of arguments and counter-arguments between the government and Tata-VSNL, the imbroglio over the Rs 1,200 crore investment decision by VSNL was settled. Tatas-VSNL agreed to have a government nominee on the sub-committee of the VSNL board which will decide on the investment in Tata Teleservices.

THE PEACE DIVIDEND If markets had their say, they would certainly plumb for peace. With war fears receding, the country’s financial markets staged a strong recovery with the Sensex gaining nearly 145 points over two days.