NEWSREEL: 03.11.02

• Usually a Cabinet reshuffle comes in time to keep a straying flock together. In Mayawati’s case, it has triggered off just the r...

• Usually a Cabinet reshuffle comes in time to keep a straying flock together. In Mayawati’s case, it has triggered off just the reverse. With 12 BJP MLAs aligning themselves with the Independents who have withdrawn support to her government, Maya’s numbers are fast turning into illusion for the third time in UP.

Meanwhile, Mulayam Singh Yadav is waiting to take her place, with a delegation meeting the Governor on Friday, claiming support of 204 MLAs in a House of 403 and staking claim to form government.

• The person perhaps watching the closest was Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, who took over on Saturday as the J-K Chief Minister in a deal that the Mayawati-led BSP and BJP tried several years ago in UP, and publicly lived to regret. In the Common Minimum Programme worked out by the PDP and Congress — after a lot of public posturing and some private backtracking — Mufti will be CM for three years before a Congressman takes over. In other good news for the Valley, US Ambassador Richard Blackwill says the terror in Kashmir is 100 per cent imported and justifies India’s actions post-December 13 attack on Parliament.

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• Naveen Patnaik too gets a wake-up call as rebel BJD MP Prasanna Acharya is recognised as leader of the party’s parliamentary group. The rebels are now taking the battle to Orissa, which Naveen has been accused of being out of touch with.

• Narendra Modi finally gets the elections he has been demanding, though not when he wanted them. The SC says Gujarat will vote on December 12, it will be one-day polling and relaxes I-card rules. Never to be outdone, Modi quickly gets into election mode, starting with the Gaurav Yatra’s rechristening to Campaign Yatra.

Those hoping to stay away from him and his message will have no such luck. The Chief Minister has got seven different types of Diwali cards printed, complete with his picture, and made it mandatory for all Gujarat’s BJP MPs, MLAs and office-bearers to buy a minimum of 1,000 cards each. A set of 100 postcards each costs Rs 70, and the BJP has 28 MPs, 117 MLAs and around 100 office-bearers in the state.

• The Dalit killings in Jhajjar take a new turn with their new self-appointed messiah, Udit Raj, leading a ceremony where he claims the relatives of those massacred had converted to Buddhism.

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The denial follows quickly, with families declaring they didn’t know it was a conversion ceremony, and Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Anil Rastogi adding only five people had embraced Buddhism and that none was related to Jhajjar victims.

• Soon after clearing NCERT’s controversial new textbooks, the SC this week introduced sweeping changes in the way educational institutions enroll students and administer.

On one hand, it increases scope for state intervention in aided minority institutions but on the other, denationalises admissions to private professional colleges.

• In a blow to the Government’s already flimsy case against suspended DU lecturer Syed Abdul Geelani in the December 13 Parliament attack case, the Delhi High Court rules phone taps as ‘‘inadmissible evidence’’ as adequate safeguards were not followed. The other accused who benefits from the ruling is Navjot Sandhu alias Afsan Hussain.

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• Some would call it the biggest compliment of his life, but obviously Bappi Lahiri doesn’t agree. The music director often accused of lifting tunes off foreign hits sues rapper-producer Dr Dre for copying a song he recorded years ago with Lata Mangeshkar — Thoda resham lagta hai — for his album Truth Hurts. Bappi wants $500 million.

• Reliance Industries makes a significant gas discovery in Krishna-Godavari basin of Andhra Pradesh. India’s gas production is expected to double

• Russian President Putin has the last laugh as despite death of 119 hostages in the Moscow siege, despite admission that almost all died due to inhaling gas pumped in by security forces, his ratings surge to 85%. As for the Chechen crisis, it is in the danger of returning to oblivion as the US calls leader Aslan Maskhadov ‘‘damaged goods’’.

• One of the most stylish batsmen of the modern era, Mark Waugh announces his retirement from international cricket. Back home, the West Indians finally hit form on their Indian tour in the third and final Test. In hockey, the IHF announces it will hire a foreign coach.