Policing the appointer

A persistent rumour doing the rounds at North Block last week was that the Union Home Ministry had decided to replace Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul with the CBI’s ace officer Madanlal Sharma, a Rajasthan cadre officer of the 1972 batch. It took the IPS lobby by surprise as Paul still has six months left before retirement. Nor could they understand why the Home Ministry should get an officer from outside the UT cadre as Delhi Police chief. Anyway, it certainly irked the country’s first woman cop and the only UT cadre officer of the 1972 batch — Kiran Bedi. She sought immediate appointment with Home Secretary Vinod Duggal. Bedi has been empanelled as Director General of Police and ministry sources reveal that an angry Bedi stormed into Duggal’s office and warned him through a letter that she would move court if the ministry tried to impose an outsider on the Delhi force. The “Venugopal” act worked and it seems that the ministry has backed off, at least for the moment.

Penny wise

That Finance Minister P Chidambaram is punctilious is well known to all his cabinet colleagues. But in the just-concluded Parliament session, one got a glimpse of how this attitude has seeped into North Block as well. Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani asked the Finance Ministry if the outstanding amount of direct taxes in the country on April 1, 2006, was estimated at Rs 1,17,000 crore. In his reply, Minister of State S S Palanimanickam wrote an emphatic “No”, leading all to believe Jethmalani’s estimate was way off the mark. But he wasn’t —outstanding taxes stood at Rs 1,16,766 crore. One can argue that a smoothly functioning finance ministry should account for every penny, but the minister’s reply to the second part of Jethmalani’s question belied all that. Asked if “only“ Rs 11,700 crore was the recovery target from these outstanding dues for this financial year, the ministry strangely agreed—when the actual target is higher at Rs 11,741 crore.

Lalubhai, MBA

After IIM-Ahmedabad and the HEC School of Management, it is now a Paris-based savant who wants to chronicle the Indian Railways' stunning turnaround story. Rail Bhavan is abuzz with an offer made by management guru Pramod Batra to write a book on Railways Minister Lalu Prasad. Sources say Batra, who has more than a dozen motivational books to his credit, is keen to profile Yadav for his next book, tentatively titled Simple Management Wisdom of Professor Lalu Ji, a case study on how he is transforming the Indian Railways using elementary management ideas. While the ministry is yet to respond to the proposal, sources say that Lalu himself is not averse to the idea. “When you can have toys, toffees and rakhis modelled on Laluji, what's wrong with somebody writing a book on him?” asks a Yadav loyalist.

No excuses

Soon after the CPI(M)’s firebrand MP Brinda Karat told the Rajya Sabha a fortnight ago that Muslims were being specifically targeted by the police for interrogation following the 7/11 blasts, a delegation of Muslims took the cue and met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to complain about Muslim-specific profiling in Mumbai. Evidently upset, she asked them who had ordered such an assignment. They pointed to Home Minister Shivraj Patil but he quickly washed his hands of the entire episode and reportedly passed the buck to National Security Advisor M K Narayanan. The matter reached the prime minister, who summoned his NSA and asked for an explanation. But there was none forthcoming as Narayanan searched for a credible reply. Congress sources now say the PM is getting increasingly unhappy with Narayanan about the way he handles security issues. Also, any talk of Muslim profiling can be politically disastrous especially with elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year.

Fast intervention

After defiantly fasting for two days on the Telangana issue despite a frail constitution, TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao ended his protest past midnight on Thursday or when NCP leader Sharad Pawar showed up with a glass of fruit juice. But Pawar, who shares great political rapport with the TRS leader, was drafted in only after efforts to get Rao to call off his fast failed. Apparently Rao’s condition began to deteriorate fast and an alarmed party colleague,

A. Narendra, started working the back channels to talk Rao out of his fast. He spoke to Pawar, who in turn spoke to the prime minister and reported details of the TRS leader's declining physical condition. The PM acted fast and sent the NCP leader to the TRS leader.

Eat, drink, be merry

The dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for all UPA MPs last Wednesday was, for many, an occasion to break bread with the Congress’ bitter rival, Amar Singh. The Samajwadi Party leader, given his social relations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was invited only after clearance from 10 Janpath. The last UPA dinner Amar Singh attended had ended as the social disaster of 2004. He was accused of gate-crashing the party to celebrate the formation of the UPA, and he had left swearing he would never step into 10 Janpath again. But this time, he was more than honoured. There were only three tables: one each for the prime minister, Sonia Gandhi and Shivraj Patil. While Singh didn’t get to sit on the two high tables, he was guided to Patil’s table, and was among the handful of nearly 500 invitees who had a seat at all. The SP leader cannot stop smiling and is still heady with this social coup.

Gold standard

It was to be a grand memento in recognition of ONGC’s achievements in its 50 years. So a proposal was moved to celebrate the corporation’s golden jubilee with a 10 g gold coin and a cash gift to each employee of ONGC. But the board decided to give the memento a miss and add its money to the gold. Now each of the 35,642 employees on the rolls on August 14 will get a gold coin worth Rs 15,000 to mark the jubilee year. The gold coin and the memorabilia are to be handed out to all the board directors—functional and part-time—too. But those who brought the ONGC to its present stature will be given the go-by.

Tailpiece

The staunch protagonists of Vande Mataram could not have bargained for such a dismal performance. On Sunday, as the BJP brass, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, stood up for the national song at the end of a function at the party headquarters, a Rashtradharm magazine staffer, who led the chorus, went completely off key. The result: red faces all around. Everybody, including the two senior leaders, tried to retrieve the situation by singing more than loudly to drown out the wrong notes, but the besura lead singer’s efforts outdid theirs. Perhaps they should pay more heed to the saying that training first begins at home.