Manmohan's Delhi and Delhi's Manmohan

It was sometime around the new year in 2003, one was at the favourite watering hole of the Congress leaders in Delhi at the Raisina Hills.

- SIDHARTH MISHRA

Owned by the family of the late Congress MP Charanjit Singh, the hotel gave liberal discount cards to the Congress leaders.

One such leader was member of the Delhi legislative assembly from Tilak Nagar, Sardar Jaspal Singh. Since he was from the extended family of the hotel owner, he was proud owner of the family card, which meant 100 percent discount. With talk in the town of reshuffle in Sheila Dikshit cabinet, Jaspal Singh too was trying his luck.

That evening after a political discussion with your columnist about his chances, Jaspal Singh decided to visit his two political mentors - Manmohan Singh and Arjun Singh. He ordered two cakes, one without sugar with a lot of cream icing. The other with sugar but no cream. The former was for Manmohan Singh who was a diabetic and the second for Arjun Singh, who had cholesterol issues.

Jaspal Singh had known both the leaders closely as they had contested the South Delhi parliamentary seat at different times. Arjun Singh in 1985 by polls and won. Manmohan Singh contested from here in 1999 against Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and lost narrowly.