Sinha for war?

A little bird tells us that Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha spoke strongly in favour of military action against Pakistan in a recent meeting of the council of ministers. Considering the fact that Mr Sinha expressed the view that “war is best avoided” in his interview to this paper, eavesdropper has begun to wonder whether Mr Sinha is actually a closet hawk or is only being more loyal than the King, given his recent entry into the Sangh Parivar!

Our resident cynic, however, has a different explanation. A war will divert attention from fiscal management and no one can then blame Mr Sinha for throwing up bad numbers on the fiscal front. All the sins of weak fiscal management can be laid at the altar of war economics. With cynics like these, who needs a Paki?!

India Inc’s guide
Even as the Union external affairs minister, Jaswant Singh, hasn’t yet delivered upon his promise — that of posting a full-fledged ambassador to Afghanistan by 2001-end — special envoy S K Lambah has been burning the midnight oil. The gent has been holding numerous discussions over the past few days with India Inc to help guide the latter on toe-hold strategies in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, Mr Lambah met Ficci president R S Lodha and explained to him the structure of the proposed Reconstruction Commission, the stakes in the Tokyo Summit, and the likelihood of ‘tied aid’ that would emanate from the US, the EU, and Japan to the benefit of their own corporates. The last mentioned has emerged as India Inc’s best bet for third country tie-ups.

Tailpiece
Talk about a demand-supply mismatch. At a meet-the-press organised by a leading pharmaceutical company in the capital recently, there were so many representatives of the concerned public relations company that they heftily outnumbered the journalists they were supposed to take good care of! All’s well that ends well, though. The scribes got on with the job at hand and the PR chaps enjoyed a bash!