After facing a lot of flak from the Leftist parties over the FDI proposals in the budget, the UPA government decided to form a co-ordination committee alongwith the Leftists. As a result, the UP-Left co-ordination committee was formed and it met for the very first time on August 4, 2004. The agenda for this committee was to discuss the economic policies of the government with a view to prevent the Leftists from bashing the government’s economic policies in public.

But, less than a week later, the government finds itself in a tight spot after the Labour Ministry recommended an EPF rate of 8.5 percent. It seems that the Left parties were kept in dark about this recommendation, even though a formal forum existed for the government to discuss it with the Leftists.

Strangely, the Left parties have come out with guarded comments on this move by the government. Obviously chastised over the over-the-top opposition to the FDI proposals, the Left spokesman could only whimper…

Neither CPI(M) nor CPI leaders were willing to blame the UPA Government immediately for bypassing the new coordination mechanism formed last week. CPI(M) leader in the Rajya Sabha Nilotpal Basu argued the Government ‘‘should have spoken to us before taking the decision’’.

Just when I was contemplating getting a Kensington lock for my laptop, they say it isn’t secure after all and can be cracked within 30 seconds using a ball-point pen and a pair of scissors!

Of all the weird things that could happen during a tense hostage crisis, a negotiator demanding that Bollywood movie stars appeal to the Iraqi abductors, is certainly one of the weirdest.

Either the influence of Bollywood is much more powerful than most of us would like to admit… or the negotiator is fast losing his bargining chips in a long drawn-out negotiation process.

Either way, the Indian government can only look on helplessly.