Lessons in self-defence

After suffering the ignominy of having papers containing the Bill for reservations in promotions snatched from him by a Samajwadi Party (SP) member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, V Narayanaswamy, minister of state for personnel, came well prepared on Thursday. Not only was he seated far from the aisles (from where the SP member had accosted him), he made sure two other Congress members sat alongside him. Also, there were no papers in his possession this time, since he spoke after learning his lines by rote. The latter fact did not go unnoticed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, both of whom turned round and acknowledged Narayanaswamy’s efforts.