AGING ‘INEPTITUDE’

The UPA’s 75-year-old Union Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahamed, desperately wants one last shot at the hustings. There is a minor complication though—his party, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) wants him to retire. Ahamed met Kerala IUML chief Panakkad Hydrali Shihab Thangal to say that he was well and had no serious health issues that could come in the way of re-contesting the forthcoming polls from Malappuram. But the truth is that it’s not on health grounds that the party wants him out. It simply wants to replace him for being an “incompetent MP”.