But where are the ministers?

Even as the political climate rises in the country over the reservation issue, with several government hospitals out of action due to the striking doctors, almost all the ministers concerned with the issue are happily out of the country leaving Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alone to face the music.

Human Resources Development (HRD) minister Arjun Singh has gone to Saudi Arabia on a trip to ostensibly discuss setting up of overseas campuses of Indian educational institutions.

After making the initial announcement of 27 per cent reservations for the OBCs in institutes of higher learning, Singh has been shockingly low profile on the matter.

Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, the health minister, has jetted off to Geneva, Switzerland, for the World Health Conference, even as several thousand patients are suffering in various hospitals due to the long strike.

In fact, negotiations with the doctors have been handed over to the minister without portfolio Oscar Fernandes and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister T K A Nair. Ramadoss is expected to be out of town for the next week or so.

The PM, however, cannot depend on Oscar for long either since he is expected to travel to New York on an official assignment.

Even the UPA government's trouble-shooter at large, and head of the Group of Ministers on reservations, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherji is out of the country. He has gone for a five-day trip to China and Japan for defence talks.

With the students' strike refusing to end and the Supreme Court coming into the picture, it appears that the government has been caught on the wrong foot.

The PM has, however, not scheduled any travel inside and out of the country till July, when he travels to Russia for the G-8 summit.