Vis-a-Vis

LALU PRASAD YADAV Union railways minister and RJD chief versus RAM VILAS PASWAN Union steel minister and LJP chief

"Those who want to take the boat are welcome, otherwise they can sit on the shores. We aren't going to touch anyone's feet and request them to join us."

"Lalu Prasad Yadav's boat is destined to sink and those who want to drown with him are free to sail in his boat."

EPILOGUE: In the midst of all the bickering it is the UPA boat that appears shaky.

PICTURE SPEAK

Site of a blast in Baghdad

DELHI South Block is facing a silent revolt which has put the appointment of India's new envoy to Iraq Suresh K. Goyal on hold. Recently, the External Affairs Ministry was taken aback when the dozen-odd employees and security personnel manning the Indian mission in Iraq sent an SOS to the Foreign Office demanding bulletproof cars and extra security to move around in Baghdad.

However, many officials thought the demand was justified, considering that the Egyptian envoy was killed in July and diplomats from other countries have been attacked. The US has been asking India to increase its engagement in Iraq and take part in the reconstruction efforts and Goyal's appointment would have been part of that process. However, India backed down following its assessment that the security situation has been worsening.

In the past three months the situation has been so bad that all the Indian Embassy staffers have been functioning from the ambassador's residence and do not even venture out. While most embassies have shifted their operations to Kuwait and Jordan, India is among the few countries still operating from Baghdad.

-By Saurabh Shukla

DELHI It's the most unusual of places for matrimonial advertisements. From next month the RSS mouthpiece, the Organiser, will start carrying matrimonial ads. The target is not the brahmachari pracharaks, the full-timers in the Sangh Parivar who are debarred from matrimony. But "there was a lot of demand for this, especially from overseas friends of the organisation as they are keen to marry within their own ideology," says Editor R. Balashankar. This will mark a departure from the magazine's usual ethos. And who knows, it may also influence the current debate raging at the RSS headquarters at Keshav Kunj on whether pracharaks should be allowed to marry.

-By Priya Sahgal

WON: By Anju Bobby George, the silver medal, at the World Athletics Final in Monaco.

APPOINTED: Nafisa Ali, as chairperson, of the Children's Film Society of India.

WON: By Lt-Colonel Rajyavardhan Rathore, the gold medal in the double trap event of the Asian Clay Shooting Championship in Bangkok, his first top finish this year.

DIED: K.V. Surendranath, 80, veteran CPI leader and former Lok Sabha member.

CHOSEN: Pandit Ravi Shankar, by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, for the PETA Humanitarian Award, for putting pressure on the government to amend laws to prevent cruelty to animals.

ELECTED: Hashem Abdul Halim, West Bengal Assembly Speaker, to head the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Index