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Politics Business Expressions General Sports Leisure States 21 January 1998   The mother of all apologies Manmohan Singh is rapidly developing the politician's trademark trick of saying many things without saying anything. The latest is the interview in this newspaper in which he spoke of the need to apologise over Babri demolition and Operation Bluestar.   Tax laws for national development The Supreme Court Judge S P Bharucha seems to have given three judicial signals welcoming the New Economic Policy during his inaugural speech at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Income Tax Bar Association of Ahmedabad last week. The first signal is in the form of a virtual welcome to the Voluntary Disclosure Income Scheme. Losing sheen There has never been a new year like this in Surat. Hundreds of workers who came to resume work at the city's diamond polishing centres on January 1 were welcomed by a notice board which announced wage cuts. They had seen similar announcements -- at least twice in the past three years -- but the 30-40 per cent cut was more than they could take. Airport bullies The woes of Indian fliers seem never to end. If it is not the weather being nasty, it is the unions, and more frequently the latter. Not content with offering bad services to hapless passengers, these unions have never felt any qualms about leaving fliers in the lurch every time the whim takes them.   In search of an agenda For the United Front's manifesto committee which is supposedly redrafting its agenda, it will be like reinventing the wheel. The general consensus was that the common ground between national and regional constituents of the Front and the Left parties was covered remarkably well in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). Ill-equipped Assam police fight a losing battle Many tales have been told of inaction of the Assam police during militant attacks in the north-eastern state. The truth, however, is that with just a few wireless sets and vehicles, dead telephones and no sophisticated arms, the Assam police have been fighting a losing battle with the militants, who use state-of-the-art arms and know the terrain better.