Two important newsitems of recent vintage are worth recalling. The first is actually a photograph; that of a group of children gawking at a monkey that us clutching on to a Rashtriya Janata Dal flag. Now, before we are accused by the RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav of defaming him, let us make it absolutely clear, that it's not him we are referring to. We checked.
The second involved another honourable politician, the Prime Minister of India, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. Vajpayee recently revealed while releasing a book in New Delhi, that the Bharatiya Janata Party had initially considered adopting the Lantern as its party symbol rather than the Lotus. The Lantern, for the uninitiated, is now the symbol of the RJD.
Of course, the reference to these two items is totally irrelevant to the piece that follows. But given the irrelevance of Indian politics per se, we claim satiric license in wasting your time.
Now for the real thing. Since most of this information, completely unconfirmed, has come to use from disgruntled Congressfolk (all of them fit that billing when not in power), it may not necessarily be true. However, we will allow the truth to deter us from our endeavour, having drawn inspiration from those we write about.

The sour grapevine informs us that the second spate of desertions from the Congress is imminent. The first, if you recall, occurred in 1998, right before the Lok Sabha elections, and the exodus stilled only after the eternally sychophantic Congressmen found their security blanket in the form of a member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, Sonia Gandhi, taking over the party.
Unfortunately, Madam has only succeeded in diminishing the Congress' returns in the last elections and therefore, there are several Congress leaders who are heading to their natural habitat, the power centre, the BJP.
Among them, one, a former Minister in P V Narasimha Rao's Government, Kamaluddin Ahmed, has already walked out and over. That brings us to the rest.
First, there is former Delhi MP and Jagjivan Ram's daughter Meira Kumar, who is also being wooed by the BJP. She also appears amenable towards the saffron forces and could given Ram Vilas Paswan, the Dalit face of the National Democratic Alliance, some sleepless nights in the near future.
Then there is "Kaka" Rajesh Khanna. He recently refused to contest the Kannauj Lok Sabha by-election caused by the seat being vacated by Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief. Khanna had been asked to take on Mulayam's son, Akhilesh. Interestingly, last week, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh held a birthday bash at his residence and Khanna was a prominent attendee. That do also featured major BJP leaders, including Home Minister L K Advani.
So Khanna doesn't appear averse to jumping ship, though he's still deciding which.
The link between Khann and Meira Kumar is that both sought Rajya Sabha nominations from Delhi, were denied, and thereafter, went into a sulk.
Another luminary who may be headed NDAwards is the Congress' blow-dried economist Jairam Ramesh. Not only has Ramesh been praising Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's performance, he may also be seen at the India International Centre in Delhi, chumming up with BJP ideologue Jagdish Shettigar.