Wrong direction

It was meant to be Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal’s press interaction on his ministry’s efforts in the Northeast. Instead all he talked about was the networking website for Indians living abroad, a sort of Orkut for Persons of Indian Origin. Not a single word on Northeast, why? It emerged that he changed tack at the last moment after being reminded about the model code of conduct in the states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland, where assembly elections are due. When he ran out of steam on the website, the minister took the opportunity to inform the journalists about a new maize hybrid developed by the Department of Biotechnology.