In a fix

Shahnawaz Hussain,BJPs lone Muslim MP in the Lok Sabha,is finding himself in the awkward position of having to travel simultaneously on two boats.

In a fix

Shahnawaz Hussain,BJPs lone Muslim MP in the Lok Sabha,is finding himself in the awkward position of having to travel simultaneously on two boats. Hussain had organised a rally for Uma Bharti when she entered Bihar on her Save Ganga campaign last year. On Friday,he found himself rallying for the same cause again,but with Sushma Swaraj this time. The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha led a multi-party delegation it also had Prabodh Panda of CPI and Rewati Raman Singh of SP to petition the Prime Minister on Friday,seeking his intervention in saving the river. Swaraj and Bharti are not adversaries,but Hussain is still being asked which didi he is closer to.

SPAM ATTACK

IT was not a very auspicious beginning to his new assignment. Mukul Mudgal,a retired chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court who is a one-man committee probing into the lobbying activities of Walmart stores,held its first meeting with company officials on Friday. On the same day,some of his friends alerted him to a suspicious looking email sent from his account having been received by them. Mudgal realised that his email account had been compromised and had been sending out mails to all his contacts with an attachment labeled important documents. He had to send out a clarification mail,warning all his contacts about the spam and asking them not to open the attachment.

WAIT CONTINUES

THE showpiece Food Security Bill is the new darling of the UPA government,but for its owner Food Minister K V Thomas it hasnt exactly turned out to be very lucky. The day it was approved by the Cabinet,it missed the front pages of most newspapers because the DMK had pulled the plug on the UPA on the same day. That meant some loss of credit for Thomas who has put his heart and soul into it. It was because of this Bill that Thomas had to even let go of the opportunity to visit Vatican at the inaugural mass of the new Pope. The dates for its scheduled discussion in Cabinet and introduction in the Lok Sabha were overlapping with the event in the Vatican. But the Bill could not be introduced on Thursday and then again on Friday,the last day of Parliament before it went into a month-long recess,because of disruptions. On Friday,the ministers wife was present in the visitors gallery to see her husband introduce the Bill but that was not to be.

LOOKING UP

ADEQUATELY rattled over the dismal performance of Indian institutes and universities on the prestigious global Times Higher Education Survey and rankings,the Ministry has decided it is time to understand the underpinnings of this survey. The M M Pallam Raju-led ministry has invited the survey organisers to come and hold a workshop for the benefit of its officials in May to help them understand just what it would take for the Indian universities to climb up the charts.