Diplomatic Gesture

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is no stranger to diplomacy. A former Indian Foreign Service officer,she seems to know exactly what works in diplomatic circles.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is no stranger to diplomacy. A former Indian Foreign Service officer,she seems to know exactly what works in diplomatic circles. So,before she told her hosts in Ho Chi Minh City that Vietnam was an important pillar of Indias look-East policy,Kumar had taken care to pick three of the six MPs in her delegation from north-eastern states. She was also cautious not to include the representative of Arunachal Pradesh,for that was likely to upset China which is uncomfortable with India and Vietnam drawing closer.

On Sick Call

The call of Rahul Gandhi seemed too compelling for Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma,who has been admitted to AIIMS since mid-April. Verma left the hospital and headed for Varanasi on Tuesday for a two-day UP Congress convention which is to be inaugurated by Rahul and addressed by Sonia Gandhi among others. Incidentally,Verma is only a recent entrant to the party,having switched over from the Samajwadi Party before the last Lok Sabha elections. He is slated to return to AIIMS after the Varanasi convention.

Different Strokes

The BJP delegation which had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday on the Karnataka issue seemed quite upbeat with the assurance given to it that no unconstitutional step will be taken as regards the Governors stand. In contrast,the party leaders who met President Pratibha Patil on the same issue on Tuesday were much more subdued after the meeting. Asked what the response of the President was to their demands,more than one BJP leader came out with exactly the same expression: The President asked us to have some snacks!

In Praise of Metro

In Delhi for a hearing,the head of the panel adjudicating on the Mullaperiyar dam controversy,former SC judge Justice K T Thomas found a novel way to spend an idle Sunday. Thomass official work was slated on Monday but he reached Delhi on Saturday to attend the wedding reception of the son of a fellow judge. With nothing much to do on Sunday,he called his peon and we set off,up and down,on the Delhi Metro the whole day. It was my first time on the subway. I had never used it here. Its as good as Paris and London.

Birth Pangs

The confusion surrounding the Army Chiefs date of birth has been seeing new twists and turns,with the last being a police complaint lodged by him a few weeks ago against what he alleged was a fake birth certificate that recorded the year of his birth as 1949. Now,it seems that another forged birth certificate is doing the rounds. This one,also purportedly issued from Pune,puts the year of birth as 1952. The implication,spin masters appear to allege,is that the chief would not even have been eligible to join the National Defence Academy,throwing his entire service life into question!!