This was one royal coronation where the pomp and pageantry were outdone by controversy. The heir of "Bubbles" Bhawani Singh, erstwhile maharaja of Jaipur, has become a contentious issue. He has formally adopted Padmanabh, the four-year-old son of his only child Princess Diya and her husband Kunwar Narendra Singh, whose love marriage he had opposed as it was within the same gotra. Padmanabh not only inherits the Jaipur maharaja's properties but also the Gaddi. Bhawani Singh could have willed it to Diya but the adoption was seen as an attempt to pre-empt any dispute over succession. Those challenging Bhawani Singh's right over his properties are Rajmata Gayatri Devi, his father Sawai Mansingh's third wife, and his two stepbrothers born to the late maharaja's second wife. They want stepbrother Jaisingh to succeed Bhawani or Jaisingh's son adopted.

ROYAL RITE: Padmanabh flanked by Bhawani Singh and his wife

This became clear when Gayatri Devi stayed away from the coronation and wrote to Bhawani Singh to "reconsider his plans". Rajput Sabha President Narendra Singh Rajawat declared that adopting a daughter's son was against traditions. This criticism upset the family. "We cannot be expected to adopt the son of someone who has filed a case against us," says the maharani.

Though a galaxy of royals and Rajputs attended the ceremony, including Jyotiraditya Scindia and Arvind Singh Mewar, it would been more of a celebration had the feuding family joined in.

-Rohit Parihar

MISSING STAR: Sinha at Aan mahurat in Mumbai

He has continued to entertain, even after switching roles to full-time politics, but Union Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha obviously thinks Parliament is unworthy of his skills. What else can explain his erratic attendance in both Houses of Parliament, a lapse for which Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan pulled him up.

Evidently, Sinha was too busy in verbal gymnastics to even notice. Now his career path takes another aboutturn as he prepares to return to his first love: starring in Bollywood movies where his dialogue is written by someone else.

Parliamentary sessions or even health policies play second fiddle to Sinha's newly discovered perks of being a globetrotting Union cabinet minister and a film star. During the eve of the winter session, Sinha was accumulating frequent flyer miles in the US, attending a meeting of the US Association of Physicians. He mercifully cancelled the Senegal leg of his global tour to return to India-only to fly down to Mumbai to grace the mahurat of Aan in Mumbai on Sunday. It's unclear what was more tempting-the prospect of being the first cabinet minister to act in a film or replacing erstwhile adversary Amitabh Bachchan.

-Sandeep Unnithan

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