Newsreel: 20.07.03

• FOR a party with footprints in just one state, Samata dominates the national mainstream. First, its national council meet lays bare the fate of two issues. Samata makes it unequivocal that it is against sending troops to Iraq as well as bringing about a legislation to facilitate the building of a Ram Temple. Then began the drama. In the party meet where battlelines were drawn between the Fernandes and Nitish Kumar factions, Party MP Prabhunath Singh hurls strong words at the Railway Minister. A peeved Nitish promptly ‘quits’ as minister, but the resignation is rejected by the PM. With the Rail Bhavan functioning without a minister for two days and the media ridiculing the whole affair, Nitish finally decides to get back on track. In the final scene, five Samata leaders including Fernandes, Nitish and Singh are spotted in the cave temple of Amarnath, seeking blessings from the ultimate slayer, Shiva.

• IF heart is the metaphor for the truth that lies beneath, then the Indo-Pak relations have a bright future. One of the first passengers to step out from the Lahore-Delhi bus, two-and-a-half-year-old Noor Fatima gets a new lease of life as surgeons in a Bangalore hospital plug the holes in her little heart. Meanwhile, another visitor from across the border comes, sees and claims to have been conquered. Well almost. Maulana Fazal-ur Rahman, one of the three godfathers of the spawning madrasa chains near the Durand Line that gave birth to the Taliban militia, comes calling on New Delhi. Though his visit was limited to a tour of the famed Deoband seminary in UP and meetings with some non-government leaders, the peace chirps that he made miffs militant circles.

• WHEN Citizens No. 1 & 2 of India’s infotech industry stand up and say something, the whole country listens. This time, what they uttered — on successive days — snowballed into a major embarrassment for both the Centre and the Karnataka governments. Infosys’ N R Narayana Murthy gives the civil aviation ministry an earful over its reluctance to grant flights from Bangalore for Germany, despite repeated requests. The next day, Wipro’s Azim Premji blasts the S M Krishna Govt for its ‘‘senseless’’attitude towards infrastructure development. The message that the top guns delivered — to whomever concerned — was not lost: Times are tough, we are trying our best. Better be with us, or lose us.

• MOVE over batsmen, move over forwards, it’s the spikers’ turn to hog the limelight. In a campaign that surprised even the team, the Indian youth volleyball team thrashes world champions Brazil but eventually go under to return with a silver from the World Youth Championships in Sidhanpur, Thailand. In football, Baichung Bhutia’s five goals for East Bengal in a 6-0 win over Philippines’ Army FC tops sports bulletins. Elsewhere, Mukesh Rehani creates a flutter of sorts by becoming the first Indian to perform well at an international pool event, crossing the group stages at the World Pool Championships at Cardiff, UK.

• IT was the last thing that Messrs. Blair and Bush could afford in a post-war scenario getting messier by the day. Police in UK find a body matching the description of a former UN weapons inspector who was dragged into the heart of a row over whether Britain’s government ‘‘sexed up’’, or warped, intelligence to justify war in Iraq.