New Delhi, July 26 - If there is one thing common between Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna and his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee, it is their propensity to work 24x7. The only difference is that while Mukherjee seemed to be enjoying all that whirligig, Krishna looks like a reluctant foreign minister thrust into the high profile job.

Just hours after holding talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 77-year-old gentleman-politician made a statement in parliament on Clinton's visit and then headed straight to the airport to fly to Thai island resort Phuket for the India-ASEAN ministerial meeting.

In Phuket, a laidback seaside resort popular with backpackers and honeymooners, Krishna had back-to-back official engagements for the next 36 hours, barring six hours of sleep in between.

He held bilateral talks with eight foreign ministers - of China, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand - besides attending three multilateral meetings. In between, he packed in brief interactions with accompanying media.

At the end of it all, he looked a little tired, but did not disappoint journalists travelling in his Embraer special aircraft, holding a half-hour interaction, answering questions on just about every issue ranging from Pakistan and the Clinton visit to the plight of refugees in Sri Lanka.

- * -

Now the B Word

Once upon a time there was something called the K word (Kashmir) that triggered spontaneous and predictable reaction from the mandarins in South Block, the seat of India's foreign ministry.

Now the B word is the new bad word. Say B and you get stares as though you have dropped a bomb.

We have nothing to hide, we are an open book, is all you get when you ask the diplomats how Balochistan found its way into the July 16 India-Pakistan joint statement. And although they don't say it in so many words, the private joke doing the rounds is that Sharm-el-Sheikh has become a matter of sharm (shame) for some of them.

-*-

Whodunit?

It's a murder mystery in search of an author. Perhaps no diplomatic document has inspired so much curiosity about its author as the July 16 India-Pakistan joint statement.

Who drafted it? - journalists and hawks are asking with murderous gleams in their eyes.

Ask any of the big ones who were present at the Red Sea resort on that fateful day when India decided to 'delink' terrorism from the composite dialogue, and they say without batting an eyelid - 'Not me'. Clearly, one or more of them drafted it and now with the knives out they all want to disown the joint statement.

-*-

Dada versus Didi

The otherwise quiet and no-nonsense Minister of State for Finance S.S. Palanimanickam came up with an interesting line in the Lok Sabha when an MP wondered why there was a discrepancy in the minimum age of senior citizens for several of the government's programmes.

Finance Minister Pranab 'Dada' Mukherjee says it should be 65, but Railway Minister Mamata 'Didi' Banerjee insists it is 60. This anomaly has been carried into Dada's and Didi's budgets that were presented in the ongoing parliament session.

Palanimanickam said: 'One is based on health and another is based on wealth.'

-*-

Unkept promise

As Nirupama Rao returns from her post as India's Ambassador to China to take over as foreign secretary on Aug 1, another contender for the top diplomat's post, Nalin Surie, will have to settle for being the high commissioner in London.

Surie is replacing Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, who is retiring, having failed to get an extension. He had apparently been assured by former external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee that he would get an extension if Pranab 'Dada' returned as foreign minister after the election.

But now Pranab Mukherjee has been replaced by S.M. Krishna, and the promise could not be kept.