For over 50 years he has been in politics. Given this, if anyone expects Vajpayee ji to be natural and straightforward in his views and opinion, it will be sheer foolishness. The truth is that our Prime Minister know it very well what to speak on different occasions and at different places. With the passage of time he has grown so adept at changing the sides of his tongue that even a consummate political fox will not dare match his skill. If during his last September visit to the U. S. A., he said that riots in Gujarat made him lower his head with shame, at the Goa conclave he cited the reasons for the riots to the Godhra incident. If during his recent holidaying at the Goa beach, he heaped scorn at the champions of Hindutva, at the birthday function of Murli Manohar Joshi, he lost no opportunity in justifying the ‘bhagwakaran’ of NCERT text books. Thus different Vajpayee at different places. Understanding the situation, he puts on and off his masks. But then, he should not be blamed for this. It is natural and he is committed to nurture it to its core. After all, it is due to his tongue-twisting ability that he is surviving in power. Can a Hollywood hero match such surviving skill?

A wit quipped that the NDA coalition cabinet at the Centre has been the most reshuffled and carefully reshuffled cabinet in the history of the country. It has set up a sort of record in giving a chance to people from about two dozen different political parties to try their luck in the ministerial lottery. And there is talk of yet another reshuffle around the corner. The corridors of power were humming with reshuffle talk, which always precedes the actual reshuffle. Often the most discussed names are dropped and dark horses are adorned with cabinet crowns. The jungle telegraph says that Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Uma Bharati and Raman Singh, might be given important responsibilities to refurbish the BJP party organisations in the States, specially Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. And Sanjay Paswan might be asked to take over as the Bihar BJP chief. Some of them are making rounds of party boss Venkaiah Naidu's house to appeal that they might be allowed to discharge their ministerial responsibilities for some more time. The new hopefuls to join the Union Cabinet include Mukhtar Ahmed Naqvi, once the only Muslim showpiece leader in the BJP and Dr. Farooq Abdullah. Naqvi seems to have been taking the plea that the BJP needs some more Muslim ministers and having been elected to the Rajya Sabha and having adorned the party general secretary's seat, he deserves to be there. And, of course, there are murmurs about Mamta coming back too. The Modis of the BJP, beware.

Before the Republic Day, the capital is always agog with speculation as to who will be honoured this year? In fact, so many people have been honoured so much that the very glitter of the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Bharat Ratna and other awards and honours seems to be fading. But guesswork was still on. A group of 'sons' in politics were active in demanding posthumous Bharat Ratnas for their distinguished fathers. Om Prakash Chautala wanted Chaudhari Devi Lal to be honoured with the highest honour, Ajit Singh wanted Chaudhari Charan Singh to be honoured likewise and Biju Patnaik's son, Naveen Patnaik, wanted his father to be honoured. Some people raised the question: if people of great stature had to be honoured, why not Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya be honoured with a posthumous Bharat Ratna? And being nominated to the Rajya Sabha had also become a sort of patronage award for the media-folk. A little bird said that the names of Prabhu Chawla and T. V. R. Shenoy were the frontrunners for this honour in this class and category.

Ever since Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated the prestigious Metro Rail in the Capital, a 'metro war' has broken out between Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit of the ruling Congress in Delhi and former Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana of the BJP, now the Metro Chairman. But that was only the apparent facet of the shape of the battle for Delhi to come. With eyes on the future elections in Delhi now, the youth factor in both the BJP and the Congress is also coming cautiously to the fore. Two old youth leaders of the Delhi University in the 'Seventies, and contenders, rising BJP star Arun Jaitley and the quiet Congress contender Subhash Chopra, were also being touted as the contenders for the Chief Ministership of Delhi in the future. That seemed the reason to some for Subhash Chopra's visible invisibility from some of the political fracas that Shiela Dikshit had been involved in. Will the youth factor come to the fore in Delhi politics?

The message of the Press Council of India Chairman, Justice K. Jayachandra Reddy, to the Indian media is that "the power of the media has to be exercised with great caution. The Fourth Estate has no doubt become a force to reckon with. It has to play the role of a watchman rather than a gamekeeper". The message was given while releasing the Journalists National Diary 2003 produced by PROBE, a resource centre for journalists.