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CAPLOOKS
Pressing
Matter
Delhi:
In Ladakh last week for the annual ritual of "Sindhu Darshan",
Union Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani had one special request: he wanted
his host, the Indian Army, to include Chushul, a forward outpost on the
Indo-China border, in his Ladakh itinerary. Not many knew that it was
a trip down memory lane for Advani in more ways than one. For long he
had cherished a desire to visit Chushul where he had last gone 39 years
ago-as a "journalist" covering the 1962 war. At Chushul the
home minister, whose ancestral home was in Pakistan's Sindh province,
further expressed a desire to visit Sindh and be on the banks of the Sindhu
river.
Need
Of The Hour
Delhi: Not much is known about Atal Bihari
Vajpayee's mind on readmitting the Trinamool Congress into the NDA but
he is going out of the way to win over the party's MPs. Last week, when
he heard that Jadavpur MP Krishna Bose also wanted her knee treated by
Dr Chittaranjan Ranawat, he ordered that arrangements be made for her
to receive treatment along with him at Breach Candy hospital, Mumbai.
Does it smack of an unlikely mix of health and politics? Well anything
to keep the Government going.
Clean
Winner
Delhi: Arjun Singh has for long been eyeing
Manmohan Singh's job as leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha. But
with some help from Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan got elected last week to the
Upper House, despite Arjun's plans to scuttle his win. Evidently, Arjun
had wanted AICC General Secretary Kamal Nath to field a businessman as
the second Congress candidate. When the venerable sardar heard of this,
he told Sonia he would rather withdraw. Not wanting to lose one among
the few Mr Cleans in the party, Sonia obliged him.
Man
Of Letters
Bhubaneswar:
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik loves to write letters. Only
the recipient rarely responds to him. For months now he has been sending
letters to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on subjects ranging from
waiving the state's debt to funds for the east coast railways. The latest
is a 14-page tome demanding that Orissa be declared a special-category
state. No reply still.
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