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CHANGING TACK

THOUGH he was the first one to float the name of APJ Abdul Kalam when the guessing game for the Presidents post had begun a few weeks ago,Samajwadi Party leader Shahid Siddiqui has been singing a slightly different tone when addressing Muslim audiences. While still not opposed to Kalams candidature,Siddiqui does not find him Muslim enough. Discussing potential Muslim candidates for the next President in an article titled Kaun Banega Muslim Rashtrapati in an Urdu weekly owned by him Siddiqui has written that if Kalam is considered for a second term it should be because he is a successful scientist and not because he is a Muslim. He says this is because Kalam always sought to downplay his Muslim identity when he was President. The potential Muslim candidates mentioned in his article include Hamid Ansari,Farooq Abdullah,SY Quraishi,Najma Heptullah,K Rehman Khan,Salman Khurshid and Mufti Mohammad Saeed.

HIGH FLYER

SUBRAMANIAN Swamy is surely enjoying his moment under the sun these days,and is not shy of accepting the perks which come his way. Just recently,he walked out of a Jet Airways flight in Delhis Terminal 3,and there was a dedicated buggy,thanks to GMR,waiting to ferry him alone through the long walkways of the terminal. This,particularly,invited attention because N K Singh,a Rajya Sabha member,who also arrived by the same flight,was given no such courtesy as both the airline and airport staff were solely focussed on Swamy. The general elections may still be a distance away,but its clear who Jet Airways and GMR see as a high flyer.

VENUE HUNTING

THE Ministry of External Affairs is busy venue-shopping these days. With Hyderabad House closed for renovation for sometime now,South Block is hosting the visiting foreign ministers in five-star hotels. So,the talks with Japanese foreign minister were held at Hotel Leela Palace and with the Afghan foreign minister at the Oberoi hotel,but none of them have been able to spare large halls for events of this scale. The reason: the spacious halls in these luxury hotels are booked months in advance,and MEA got into the act only a few days ago. So,the media event for the Japanese foreign minister was held in a cramped hall,with hardly 18 chairs. They did better for the Afghan ministers event. And now they have managed to book a large hall in a luxury hotel for the sudden visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton due next week,which usually attracts very high attendance. Last heard,the MEA was also working the phones to find an appropriate venue for the visit of Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni next week.

FALSE ALARM

THE fervent and urgent appeal of the mother of a death row convict saw the Supreme Court abruptly cancel its special hearings in the 2G spectrum scam case on Tuesday and post it to another date,only to realise that it was a false alarm. The bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan was hearing the 2G matter in the afternoon when the lawyer for the mother of a death row convict lodged in Patiala jail moved an urgent application,seeking a stay on the execution of the son which,he said,had been fixed for Wednesday May 2. Mindful of the urgency of the matter,the Justices adjourned the 2G hearing to May 10 but minutes after that the mothers counsel came in rushing to announce that there had been a mix-up and that no dates had yet been fixed for the execution. By this time,the Supreme Court registry had also got it confirmed from the jail superintendent of Patiala that the execution was not going to happen on May 2. With no other case listed,the court had no other option but to call it a day. The Bench still remained benevolent and Justice Singhvi,in fact,told the mothers lawyer that the court would not mind sitting any time,day or night,to entertain his application in case the execution date is fixed.