Asked to comment on why her husband Kaushal Swaraj was among the first to congratulate RJD president Laloo Yadav after the revocation of President's rule in Bihar, she said, "What we do as a matter of personal courtesy has nothing to do with what we feel as a party."

She promised the curtains would soon fall on the Vishnu Bhagwat drama. "It's just a matter of days," she pointed out, "before the Defence Minister spells it out on the floor of the House." She, however, avoided being drawn into a controversy over the new insurancescheme for rape victims. "We have heard of the displeasure with which it was received everywhere, so we are doing a rethink on going ahead with it," he said.

She scoffed at ex-prime minister V P Singh's attempts at equating Bal Thackeray with Dawood Ibrahim. When asked if the government wouldn't mind sending Union Home Minister L K Advani to Dubai to appease the don she said, "it's ridiculous that we are thinking of both of them in the same breath."

Admitting that she had taken up the issue of Thackeray's criticism of her for "promoting Fire," she said, "once I spoke to him everything was cleared and he retracted his remarks."

Swaraj later inaugurated an auditorium of the Abihinav Vidya Mandira school run by the Chhatrapati Shikshan Sansthan. The auditorium is named after the world's first woman doctor, Anandibai Gopal Joshi, who was brought up in the same premises in Kalyan. Along with her on the dias were ex-MP Ram Kapse and Union Minister of State for Railways Ram Naik, Tribal Welfare MinisterVishnu Sawra and former tourism minisiter Jagganath Patil. MLA Digambar Vishe and CIDCO chairperson Narayan Marathe were also present.