Tour of duty

With the parliament session in full swing and things quiet on the domestic front, the service chiefs have decided to take it a bit easy. While Air Chief Marshal F H Major returned from a weeklong trip to Turkey on Sunday, his counterpart in the Army, General Deepak Kapoor, headed off to Poland and Belarus on the same day for a seven-day tour. Their choice of destinations has left analysts wondering as none of these countries has any significant defence relationship with India. Only Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta’s six-day trip to Vietnam last week—a follow-up of the Defence Minister’s visit in December—is being seen as a visit of any consequence.