New Delhi, Aug 30 - With the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government having completed 100 days in office that many see as a mixed bag high on intent but not so high on delivery, attention is focussed on a possible cabinet reshuffle as well as a revamp of the All India Congress Committee.

Grapevine has it that Salman Khurshid, the minority affairs minister, and a sulking Srikant Jena, who initially refused to take charge as minister of chemicals and fertilizers, are likely to be upgraded.

Changes are afoot even in the Congress party with the 'high command' - read 10, Janpath - hoping to usher in the one-man one-post principle. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Veerappa Moily, A.K. Antony, Prithviraj Chavan, who are all currently ministers in the union cabinet, may be divested of the state units they are in charge of.

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'More money doesn't mean military strength'

Pranab Mukherjee may now be in charge of the finance ministry but his versatility and his experience keep him in touch with practically every aspect of governance. At a luncheon interaction with editors, Mukherjee was asked if allocating only 2.2 percent of GDP for defence did not make a handicap for India compared to Pakistan that spent 3.4 percent of its GDP on defence.

Mukherjee, who has been defence minister and then foreign minister in the previous Manmohan Singh government, promptly replied that military spending was not necessarily an index of the country's defence preparedness. He said India had taken a conscious decision not to up its defence spending and even if Pakistan spent five percent of its GDP on defence, it did not make that country any more secure.

'Our forces are well prepared to meet any eventuality,' Mukherjee assured.

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No need to eat less, Pranab counters Lalu

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee could not help taking a dig at his former cabinet colleague Lalu Prasad over a comment on drought. The latter had said one way to counter drought would be to eat and drink less, even skipping one meal a day.

During a meeting with industrialists, Mukherjee gave his usual update on drought and said India had enough stock for over a year to counter its ill effects. But his subsequent comment, with that little smirk, is what left the audience in splits.

'Let me assure all of you there is certainly no need to eat less or drink less as someone has suggested,' he said, with a clear allusion to Lalu.

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Smile, women MPs tell serious Sandeep

At a panel discussion on the Women's Reservation Bill, east Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit had to brave a face-off with veterans like Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat and Congress leader from Jharkhand Mabel Rabello.

As the debate took a serious turn, women MPs were keen to know the obstacles posed by male MPs for the passage of the bill - that has been pending for years in parliament - and if it would be ever given a fair chance to become law. The two women Rajya Sabha MPs took friendly jibes at Dikshit.

'Smile Sandeep!' cried Karat with a laugh, while Demello took hold of his shoulders and shook him saying, 'There, I am shaking him, may be he'll smile.'

Dikshit finally broke his silence and said the bill would only work if another delimitation exercise was undertaken to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 725 from the current 545.

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Creamy posts for dark horses

Ask the country's first woman Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar how she made it to the presiding officer's post, when so many other names were being bandied around, and she has a simple answer.