Vis-a-Vis

MANMOHAN SINGH Prime Minister versus RAJNATH SINGH BJP president

"There is a need to evolve a common understanding on autonomy and self-rule for Jammu and Kashmir."

"Entertaining any idea of autonomy and self-rule would encourage secession and separation."

EPILOGUE: The two sides have once again agreed to disagree. So what's new?

VOICES

"Lalu Prasad Yadav, who used to take credit for kulhars earlier, now talks about cyber cafes. It seems defeat in Bihar has changed him."

V.K. Malhotra, BJP spokesman

"There is national unity on the issue of corruption. We will keep politics free from corruption and never compromise on principles and ideology."

Uma Bharati, expelled BJP leader

"If I am dishonest then no honest man has ever been born nor will be born."

Mohammad Azam Khan, urban development and parliamentary affairs minister, Uttar Pradesh

"The gap between the Government and the Left parties has widened."

A.B. Bardhan, CPI general secretary

"It is very easy to comment while sitting out but there should be a limit to it. People (former players) forget their own past performances and start commenting, more so before the camera."

Irfan Pathan, cricketer

THE BUZZ OF THE WEEK

Plans to have US President George W. Bush make his address from the Red Fort were abandoned in favour of the Purana Qila after the US Secret Service found the Lal Qila too close for comfort to minority settlements.

A delegation from the Caribbean country was on its first visit to India to open a diplomatic mission in Delhi. Following meetings in the Capital, the delegation headed for India's Silicon Valley to interact with it titans. It, however, got a shock when thieves walked away with the minister's belongings. He was left fuming when the police made him wait for two-and-a-half hours to register a complaint. However, neither could the stolen property be retrieved nor the thieves caught. The Indian Foreign Office has expressed its regrets to the delegation, but it remains to be seen if the Dominican Republic's keenness to open a mission in Delhi is sustained.

-By Saurabh Shukla

DIED: Shantilal Shah, 87, editor of Gujarat Samachar. He was editor of the daily for 55 years and also president of the Indian Newspaper Society from 1978 to 1980.

ISSUED: Court summons to painter M.F. Husain, for allegedly depicting India, represented as Bharat Mata, in an obscene manner in a painting.

ARRESTED: Former Samata Party treasurer R.K. Jain, by the CBI, for allegedly taking Rs 50,000 five years ago from a fictitious arms dealer as commission for helping him get a defence equipment contract.

REOPENED: Cases related to the Bhagalpur communal riots that broke out in 1989, by the NDA Government of Nitish Kumar in Bihar.

DELHI Nearly a month after the Union Cabinet reshuffle, work has finally been allocated to A.R. Antulay, who has got charge of the new Ministry of Minority Affairs. He has even got a secretary, but no office yet. He continues to function from his residence on Jantar Mantar Road. But all is not as bleak as it looks. Antulay has managed to grab a sizeable portfolio, including all matters related to the Wakf Act, the National Commission for Minorities Act, representation of the Anglo-Indian community and the controversial Justice Rajinder Sachar committee. He has managed to encroach into Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh's turf of minority-specific educational and cultural matters. But fellow Muslim E. Ahmad has somehow managed to retain the Haj portfolio.

-By Priya Sahgal

PICTURE SPEAK

GOGOI: Going back to roots

Though quite an unexpected change, the state capital witnessed widespread jubilation following the announcement.

There had been talk of a name change ever since Independence as the word "Assam" does not figure in the Assamese dictionary. Opposition parties like the AGP, the breakaway AGP (Progressive), the BJP, the Left parties and various literary outfits, including the Asom Sahitya Sabha, have welcomed the development, but said it should have been discussed during the recent budget session of the state assembly. Officials counter this reservation by saying that the Assembly's approval was not necessary to carry out the change.

The AGP said that the move was just a ploy of the state Congress Government to divert people's attention from more pressing issues.

It also termed the step a gimmick aimed at influencing the outcome of the forthcoming state Assembly polls.

Meanwhile, state Government spokesperson Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Government will soon issue a notification to the Centre informing it about the renaming of the state. The approval of the Centre will not take much time and is just a formality.
-By Dipannita Ghosh Biswas

Whither Identity?

ISLAMABAD Pakistan's missile arsenal has long been suspected to be of Chinese and North Korean origin. The Shaheen-1 is the Chinese M-11 ballistic missile and the 1,500-km range Ghauri is North Korea's Nodong.

Now it turns out that even the personalities the missiles are named after are not from Pakistan. Afghan Information Minister Syed Makhdom Raheen recently dashed off a letter to the Pakistan Government protesting the naming of the missiles after Afghan heroes like Ahmad Shah Abdali and Mahmud Ghauri. Pakistan's reply: both countries have common heroes.
-By Sandeep Unnithan

Rx: no treatment

PICTURE SPEAK

LOSERS: Suffering patients

While doctors are using their free time to catch up on sleep and organise morchas, patients are bearing the brunt. Professors and senior doctors have been asked to chip in. Most hospitals will soon be forced to treat only emergency operations and labour cases if the strike continues.

To curb attacks on doctors, the city's municipal body is planning to introduce CCTV cameras in hospital corridors. It has asked doctors to withdraw the strike and threatened to take action if it continues.

-By Aditi Pai

Index