Friends are for a cup of tea Committed From ashes to ashes. To return from the quiet burial of the Godhra ashes issue to the almost-forgotten figure of the ash-smeared hero of Ayodhya, Ramchandra Das Paramhans, and one of his other commitments. Paramhans has a friend, and the most unlikely one. While he is willing to give up his life for the Ram temple, his friend is out to stop its construction at any cost. The mandir-masjid dispute, however, has not come in the way of the sadhu and his buddy, Mohammad Hashim Ansari, key litigant in the case filed by the Sunni Waqf Board. While the 94-year old mahant is reputed to have filed a case on December 5, 1950, seeking permission from the courts to worship, friend Hashim followed suit with one on December 16, 1961, seeking removal of the idols from the inside of the then undestroyed Babri Masjid. The Paramhans-Ansari friendship apparently goes back to the Fifties, when the sadhu, a resident of Bihar, made Ayodhya his home. The two have reportedly met regularly before and even after December 6, 1992. Ansari is said to run a tailoring shop in Ayodhya, and the mahant is a frequent visitor to his shop, not so much for fashion as for a cup of tea and a quiet chat. There have also been times when Paramhans is said to have hired Ansari's taxi. Any lesson in it for the belligerent VHPwallahs in Godhra and elsewhere? Just in case there is, would Paramhans please care to preach it himself? Seeing red A lesson in red. Just before he left for Hyderabad to attend the CPI(M) party congress, Nirupam Sen, commerce and industry minister in West Bengal, got to know that comdrades in the Dum Dum-Sinthi area had decided to burn copies of a particular vernacular newspaper that was carrying a series of reports on the left. They needed to play god and stop the paper from reaching readers. A furious Sen reached out to them before that with a strict warning. If they had to be so barbaric, they would have to do it outside the party. There was a wise note as well. Newspapers will be newspapers, and there was a political way of dealing with them. Burning copies was not that. An emissary was despatched and the masterminds told that they would be thrown out of the party if they went ahead. Magic words. The dadas relented and newspapers safely reached readers. End of an affair Nothing is going to be the same in Gujarat anymore, not even Muharram. The Muslim population there has reportedly decided not to bring out colourful tazias. Muharram is a month of mourning for the community and the happenings in the state will lend it more sombreness. Unfortunately. How to run Meanwhile, political life goes on as usual. Najma Heptullah, Rajya Sabha deputy speaker and currently running for the vice-president's chair, is taking no chances this time. Not that she did ever. Anyway, dear Najma recently called on Pranab Mukherjee, seeking his support for the coveted post. But Mr Finger in Every Pie is himself gunning for the post. Naturally, he declined committing himself. He merely asked Najma if she had got the approval of Mrs G. Then in a lengthy explanation, he informed Najma how important it was for the runner to, first and foremost, secure sponsorship from one's party. Mrs H got the message, loud and clear. But evidently that hasn't stopped her from seeking the sponsorship of other important people like LK Advani, Jyoti Basu and N Chandrababu Naidu. But, we have been told, none has given any commitment. Did they all remind her about Mrs G? Self-aid is the best AIDS Help!!! The Jammu and Kashmir CM, Farooq Abdullah has reportedly re-inducted one Govind Ram to his cabinet two years after he had decided to drop him, shocked out of his wits by his minister's ignorance. Ram then was minister of health. At a world AIDS conference held in Jammu, the minister had his audience in splits when he started talking. He hit it off by saying that Jammu and Kashmir was facing a severe aids problem because the Centre was not giving enough aids. Farooq decided he had had enough. So why does he want him back now? That is because the elections are nearing and he probably wants some aid from his representative in Jammu. To come of age In didi's aid? The Trinamool Congress has a new star on its horizon, Partha Chatterjee, first time MLA from Behala (West), who seems to have earned the confidence of Mamata Banerjee and is the Trinamool's new face in Delhi and all other major affairs. Chatterjee, a former corporate who left a plush job for the rough and tumble of a political career, also seems to have earned the respect of the powers that be. Chatterjee recently had the rare courage to point out in the assembly that the governor's speech, while mentioning the dead, had failed to mention the policemen who had taken the bullets at the American Center. The chief minister thanked Chatterjee in the house and is even said to have asked his MLAs to look out for what Chatterjee was saying. In another incident the assembly speaker showered encomiums on Chatterjee for his constructive advice in political and administrative matters. So far so good. But will he manage to be didi's man in the Trinamool? Footnote / As some would like it A politico's former wife and daughter-in-law of an opposition party bigwig found dead in a five-star hotel is one piece of news the bored national capital would bore into till death. So while the police still gropes in the dark about the murder/suicide angles of the mysterious death of Natasha Singh, social Delhi is agog with rumours and conspiracy theories. One has it that the police ought to look into dead Natasha's divorce petition once again in which she is said to have mentioned her husband's romantic involvement with the daughter of a high profile diplomat. One way to nab Jagat, eh? And there would be many more than willing to egg the police on along that route. Hubby Jagat was once gen-sec of the Indian youth Congress and naturally had political ambitions. So even while people hadn't stopped gasping in shock over the death, IYC chief, Randeep Surjewala, is said to have attempted to settle old scores. That is till he had to be reminded by AICC gen-sec Oscar Fernandes that this wasn't exactly the time. He also begged the media not to politicize the tragedy. 'Politicize', who?