Stalling for the FM

At a recent event organised by a society of traders in Kolkata, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was yet to arrive. As the finance minister was getting ever later, the Bharatiya Janata Party's National Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh was told to keep the audience engaged. Singh, naturally loquacious, normally has little trouble. However, when the delay seemed to be getting somewhat inordinate, even Singh began to run out of words. "Should I end," he asked, "or will the minister take more time? I expected to have gotten two to three chits by now to stop speaking." Nevertheless, he kept the show going till Jaitley arrived. Fortunately, it appeared a diatribe against Mamata Banerjee didn't take too much effort.