Delhi: It seems Congress President Sonia Gandhi is eyeing the media closely. She decided in advance the list of leaders appearing on various channels on the day the poll results were out. Ajit Jogi, Kamal Nath and Salman Khurshid were preferred over the other usual faces. They were briefed on what to say and what not to. The result: everyone ended up saying the same things on different channels.

A Shimla Pact that Failed

Delhi: Hamid Karzai, chairman of the Afghanistan Interim Administration, may have been pleased at the red carpet treatment given to him by the Indian leadership, but he must have sorely missed the nostalgia trip to Himachal Pradesh University at Shimla. Keeping Karzai's Shimla connections in mind, a whistle-stop trip to his alma mater and a lunch at the state governor's residence were lined up. However, with time at a premium, Karzai was forced to postpone his trip down the memory lane at the last moment. The snow-capped peaks in Shimla will have to wait another day for him.

End of the Meet

Delhi: It wasn't merely the English vs vernacular and Naipaul vs the brat pack spats that dominated the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)-sponsored literary meet in Delhi. Politics was a hidden undercurrent with many ministers expressing their unhappiness that the delegates (Sir Vidia Naipaul and a couple of other Britons apart) and the organisers were people unwaveringly hostile to the present dispensation. In searching for an answer the know-alls pointed meaningfully at outgoing ICCR chief Himachal Som's new assignment: India's ambassador to Italy.

Cool as Karunanidhi

Lucknow: DMK leader M. Karunanidhi has the knack of being at his best in the worst of times. Even while being dragged by policemen during his midnight arrest after aiadmk supremo and arch rival J. Jayalalithaa returned to power in May 2001, the veteran found time to scribble this on a reporter's notepad: Aram vellum (truth shall triumph). After Jayalalithaa's emphatic win in the Andipatti by-election, whose result was announced on February 24 (also the lady's 54th birthday), Karunanidhi faced the reporters' queries with ease again. His opening sentence was, "I extend my birthday greetings to her (Jayalalithaa)." Either he was being chivalrous or he has a way with words.