Delhi: When Union I&B Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan recently for a SAARC conference, she exuded charm and Urdu. In April, K.C. Pant, the prime minister’s Kashmir interlocutor, will go to Pakistan for another SAARC meeting—this time on poverty. He’s been given the transcript of Swaraj’s interview on PTV’s Newsnight as the sort of diplomatic-speak to emulate.

Kolkata: When Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee sought the Supreme Court’s opinion on whether the foundation stone for the proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya could be laid on the undisputed area, Marxist MPs were up in arms, saying Sorabjee was acting like a BJP member. The very next week, the CPI(M)-led West Bengal Government had to file an appeal on a police supersession case in the Supreme Court in a hurry. Balai Roy, the state’s advocate general, was rushed to the capital. From where? Hyderabad, where the senior law officer was attending the 17th Congress of the CPI(M) as a delegate. Saffron goose and red gander?

Smaller Show

Chandigarh: Perhaps he believes that austerity, like charity, begins at home. After rejecting aides’ suggestions to re-decorate his office, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has trained his guns on the elaborate security of the Chief Minister’s Office—including a dig, eight sps, 600 policemen, a jammer, a fire engine and an ambulance. “I don’t need such a big paltan,” he says, mocking the mini army that protected predecessor Parkash Singh Badal. Amarinder says he will be happy to reduce his security detail to 20 per cent of its present strength.

Unlikely Benefactor

Bhopal: With Madhya Pradesh reeling under a power crisis, Union ministers Uma Bharati and Sumitra Mahajan advised the PMO to stall the Indira Sagar power project to stymie Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. But Digvijay approached Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee who approved a joint venture that put the project on a fast track. That’s more than Digvijay’s boss Sonia Gandhi did when she rejected his candidates for Rajya Sabha elections.