Diplomat-turned-politician Natwar Singh will think twice before he tangles with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee again.

Adept at antagonizing people with his know-it-all attitude, the Congress leader chided Vajpayee on his anti-war stand against America.

When the prime minister rose to answer queries in Parliament, he pointedly referred to the former IFS officer, barely hiding his disdain.

After answering the ‘clarification' Singh sought, Vajpayee reminded him he was a junior official 'somewhere in Africa' when he visited that country as foreign minister in the Morarji Desai government .

For most people, Vajpayee's message could have been unmistakable. But Singh being Singh didn't get it.

A few days later at an all-party meeting convened by the prime minister on the Iraq war, he again took on Vajpayee.

For a while, the prime minister let him talk. But when Singh claimed the government's stand that no outside force has the right to change by force a government in another country, Vajpayee let him have it.

He began slowly, recounting the foreign policy blunders committed by successive Congress regimes -- which went on for quite some time -- and concluded by telling Singh pointblank he had nothing to learn from him, so would he mind shutting up?

Singh shut up all right.

The return of Dua

Remember H K Dua?

The journalist turned diplomat, who is now India's ambassador to Denmark, will return home at the end of his tenure shortly.

And he has managed himself a job, too. As editor of The Tribune, the daily headquartered in Chandigarh.

Dua will replace Hari Jaisingh whose term ends later this month.

Wannabe MPs

Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar's term as a nominated Rajya Sabha member is due to end in June, and already the lobbying has begun to fill that slot.

Among those in the running are two glib journalists and a Pune-based industrialist allegedly close to the Maharashtra chief minister.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh