Central Public Works Department (CPWD) employees are duty-bound to look after MPs’ flats in Delhi. And, some of them – being ambitious as well as farsighted – cleverly win the trust of the concerned MP’s better half, and then quit the monotonous government job to become the MP’s official assistant. Thereafter, they prosper visibly – as did Inder Singh, a small-time CPWD staffer, who became Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Santosh Mohan Dev, Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. The man who once drove a dilapidated two-wheeler now owns a big car.
When Dev was an MP during the Atal Behari Vajpayee regime, Inder Singh looked after the maintenance of his official residence. Dev’s wife was so pleased with his services that she ensured he became her husband’s personal assistant. Inder Singh resigned and took up this new job. And, when the Congress-led UPA government made Dev a Cabinet minister, Inder Singh became his OSD – working from the minister’s residence. Bureaucrats in Udyog Bhawan now receive instructions from the minister’s favourite OSD – who is careful to inform the minister beforehand.
Inder Singh’s office at the minister’s residence is perpetually filled with businessmen seeking to buy sick industries. The ministry has a provision for sale of sick industry to private parties which translates into a lucrative proposition for the ministry, the buyer and the inevitable middlemen. Predictably, inducements are also given to declare an industry sick for the purpose of such a sale.
According to sources, the minister has devised a curious method to show endorsement of his OSD’s instructions to officials or to prospective buyers of sick industries. He takes a catnap. Thus, as soon as his head drops onto his chest, everyone takes the hint.
Rajnath, perpetual ingrate: trust and treachery
The BJP’s defeat in the recent UP Assembly polls has brought its national president, Rajnath Singh, under attack from his own men. And his betrayal of trust of a fellow partyman is being cited. In October 2000, when he became UP Chief Minister and had to become an MLA within six months, a three-term Congress MLA from Hydergarh constituency, Surendra Nath Awasthi “Puttu”, joined the BJP and vacated his seat for the CM. Rajnath promised Puttu a Rajya Sabha nomination but did nothing when the time came.
When the next Rajya Sabha elections came around, he was BJP General Secretary and asked Puttu not to push his claim, pleading that he did not have a base in Delhi and that winning a Rajya Sabha seat would save him from being ousted from BJP politics. Again, Puttu obliged and got a minor, unsolicited, reward – a nomination to the UP Legislative Council.
Then, Puttu’s son joined the BSP and secured a ticket from Hydergarh in the recent UP polls. Puttu asked Rajnath to skip electioneering in Hydergarh while he himself, being a BJP MLC, would not campaign for his son. Rajnath agreed but secretly wanted fellow caste politician Arvind Singh of the SP to win. On April 19, Rajnath addressed a rally for the BJP candidate in Hydergarh. Angry and desperate, Puttu then shared the dais with Mayawati when she came to canvass for his son. The SP candidate won and Puttu is awaiting a showcause notice from the BJP.
Patel flying high: profligate peregrinations
Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel’s business empire caters to the needs of both haves and have-nots – his gold mines in Maharashtra are aimed at the former and his bidi factories at the latter. Being in civil aviation has helped him diversify. Liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines has been allowed departure facility from the exclusive Indian terminus and Patel is now expanding his business in Bangalore.
His son’s company, Jeetu Developers, has purchased 112 acres of prime land near Bangalore airport at a whopping Rs 1.70 crore per acre. Patel’s son is married to the daughter of Bangalore-based Congressman RG Deshpandey, who helped in the purchase. Sources say a township based on cargo, hotel and related sectors is planned. But how is it that only relatives of Union ministers have the liquidity for such ventures
