LAHORE It is the feel-good factor at work, and nobody needs it more than Amarinder Singh, dogged as he is by wranglings in the state Congress unit. The Punjab chief minister's trip to Lahore, the capital of Pakistani Punjab, was a heart-warming affair in more ways than one. Not only did it succeed in stirring another bout of cross-border bonhomie, Amarinder played his own brand of cultural diplomacy with aplomb, laying the ground for several Punjab-to-Punjab initiatives ahead of the unfolding bilateral ties.

GOOD NEIGH-BOURS: Elahi gifts a horse to Amarinder

A red-carpet hospitality and a windfall of positive publicity was a heady cocktail that the erstwhile scion of the Patiala royalty usually savours the most. As a staunch votary of the re-opening of the Wagah trade route, Amarinder's plea for an official visit to Pakistan has been hanging fire with the PMO for quite some time. And, he had complained to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee about it. So when he got an invite to attend the World Punjabi Conference at Lahore, the PMO gave its final nod to Amarinder's trip but not before pruning his jumbo entourage of ministers, MLAs and officials to only nine members, mostly security staff.

But Amarinder made the most of the occasion, making a strong and emotion-laced pitch for revival of ties on commerce and culture between the two Punjabs-couched, of course, in diplomatically correct nuances. The high point of his visit, which included a pilgrimage to Sikh shrines and a night stroll along Lahore's famed food street and Anarkali bazar, was his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Parvez Elahi, who announced introduction of the Punjabi language in Gurmukhi script in his province.

Amarinder added to the upbeat spirit by granting Rs 2 crore for setting up a World Punjabi Centre in Patiala and offering to host the next World Punjabi meet in his home town. "Once these initiatives gain momentum, then the sky is the limit for both Punjabs," said Amarinder, returning with a thoroughbred horse gifted by his host. The flip side is that his goodwill trip in the poll season may only add to the feel-good factor being played up by the BJP and ridiculed by his own party.

- By Ramesh Vinayak

THE GOLDEN PUMPKIN | Prahlad Patel Union minister of state for coal

He is getting everyone's goat. Union Minister of State for Coal Prahlad Patel came up with the bizarre statement, on the eve of Bakr-Id no less, that goats in Bhopal were found to be HIV positive. Not that too many eyebrows were raised. Patel is known for such disturbing phases in his life. In the past he has tried sanyas, donning a white lungi and headgear, complete with a long flowing beard. But ever since becoming a minister at the Centre and a very powerful political associate of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharati his creativity has gone into overdrive. Patel convened a press conference especially to let the world know that he has personal and crucial information on the "deviant sexual behaviour of goats". According to him, his associates got the blood of six goats from a slaughterhouse tested and all the tests turned out to be HIV positive. The medical community, of course, found this hilarious. Patel's professed intention behind the revelation is to further the cause of vegetarianism but the timing of his disclosure is suspect. As is his political sanity.