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