Delhi: L.K. Advani's staff can't get much work done when Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi speaks in the Lok Sabha. For her staff in the adjoining office switches on the closed-circuit TV full volume and places a telephone receiver in front of it. The person on the other end of the line is either Sonia's daughter Priyanka, her son-in-law Robert or son Rahul, calling to listen to her speech. Live!

Fast Thinking

Delhi: The Sangh Parivar has a poor track record of keeping promises. Every bureaucrat worth his measure of red tape knows that. During the VHP's recent shiladaan programme in Ayodhya, for instance, no officer was ready to underwrite the VHP's assurances. The Government wanted Union Home Secretary Kamal Pandey to sign an affidavit on March 12 assuring the Supreme Court that law and order would be maintained during the VHP programme in Ayodhya. Pandey refused to respond, pleading he was fasting for Mahashivratri. Fast thinking that.

Easy Escape

Chandigarh: What Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala doesn't know about wriggling out of tricky situations doesn't merit mention. In the past week, the Haryana Vidhan Sabha was informed that Chautala's investment scouting trip to four south-east Asian countries had cost the state exchequer Rs 45 lakh. Trouble ahead? Not for any son of Tau's. The Government cleverly listed the starred question as the last one during question hour, pre-empting any supplementary queries. Chautala had the last laugh, as usual.

Shadow Games

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thought that he had covered all bases when he ordered detectives to shadow rival and former Union minister Dilip Ray. That way, he thought he could scuttle Ray's efforts to gather enough signatures from state legislators to seek re-nomination to the Rajya Sabha. But Ray proved too clever for him. The night before the nomination, he boarded a Howrah-bound train from Bhubaneswar, disembarked at Cuttack and stealthily returned to file his nomination the next day. All the while Naveen slept peacefully, having been told that Ray had gone to Kolkata to drown his sorrows.