Of snakes and poisons

A Chinese Whispers item in Thursday's edition said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had to issue a rejoinder on Wednesday to one of his tweets earlier in the day - that spoke of sandalwood remaining unaffected even when snakes cling to it -and say that by "snakes" he wasn't referring to foe-turned-friend Lalu Prasad but friend-turned-foe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has come to ally BJP's rescue, questioning the strength of the Janata Parivar bond by picking up from where Kumar left. "At the time of announcing the pact with the Janata Dal (United) and naming Nitish Kumar as chief ministerial candidate of their alliance, Lalu Prasad had said he was ready to drink poison. Now, Nitish Kumar calls him a snake. So, they are poison and snake to each other," he said on Thursday.