A rapturous welcome for Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in Delhi

A bibliophile

President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, was in for a rapturous welcome in Delhi recently especially by the India Foundation which has strong affinity to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Trade Minister Suresh Prabhu and Telecom Minister Ravishankar Prasad offered all possible help from India in the fields of infrastructure and human capital training. But Ghani, himself an academic singled out Minister of state for external affairs, M J Akbar, whose books, he said publicly, he read with enjoyment and wonder. Ghani began his remarks by recalling, predictably, Rabindranath Tagore’s Kabuliwallah. Ghani studied at New York’s Columbia University and during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, taught at several American universities.

Torn between 

The Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is torn in two. He has grasped son Akhilesh’s arm and is being seen at Samajwadi Party functions. But he would dearly like brother Shivpal — who has launched a parallel political party and announced will contest all 80 seats in UP — to return to the family fold. What he would like is for Shivpal to get the position of party general secretary. But now, at last having got full control of the party, son Akhilesh is clear Shivpal must not be allowed to return. Usually, a family meeting resolves such matters. But Akhilesh is not ready even to hold a family pow wow. So Mulayam is forced to watch his family empire disintegrate before his very eyes. Compare this with the much more orderly succession in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam — or even the Janata Dal (Secular).