Black hole

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) boss Vaiko may no longer be in Parliament after losing the last elections, but he is still a worry for UPA leaders. Vaiko has invited Union minister Farooq Abdullah to release his latest book, A history of the emancipation of the blacks, in early December in Kallingappatti, Tamil Nadu. When Sudip Bandopadhyay, chief whip of the Trinamool Congress, entered Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s room on Monday holding an invitation for the programme, he was grilled by Mukherjee and two of his visitors – Home Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister A K Antony – about his connections with Vaiko, a proud supporter of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA) in 2002. Bandopadhyay was also told that a top minister had advised Abdullah to read the book carefully before he released it, since the writer is Vaiko and the potential for trouble was high.