The height of seva
IF you want to please Lalu Prasad Yadav, you’ve got to be meticulous. Sukhbir Singh, General Manager of North Eastern Railway, belatedly woke up to this mantra to get himself into the Railway Minister’s good books and lay claim to the post of Member, Electrical, Railway Board.
Prior to presenting the Railway Budget, Lalu camped in his native village, Phulwaria, in Bihar for three days. It was a personal visit yet Singh, with a team of North Eastern Railway personnel, literally shadowed Lalu to cater to his every need.
Two engines, each pulling special trains of eight and 12 bogies, airconditioned and ordinary, remained idle at Hathua, the station nearest to Phulwaria, for the entire three days. A pilot engine ran two stations ahead of the special train carrying Lalu — in utter violation of the con vention that only the President of India is entitled to such a facility.
Singh also rushed to fulfil the demand of Lalu’s son for a branded ice cream on the running train and arranged warm undergarments for the Minister at night in the village. For three days, the villagers were provided free meals at a cost of Rs 2,50,000. Sources say the bill will be footed by Indian Railways.
Every night, Lalu would sit for a bhajan session in the open and Singh would join him, singing in chorus along with all the jun ior officers.
Pleased with Singh’s services, Lalu has forwarded his name for the post to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Vajpayee passive,
family active
ATAL Bihari Vajpayee hardly needs well-wishers from outside his family to con fuse the nation about whether his reported retirement from active politics is fact or fiction. The relaxed BJP veteran is nowadays a silent spectator of the game to decide who will be the next Prime Ministerial candidate from the party.
But his foster son-in-law, Ranjan Bhattacharya, nephew Anoop Mishra (a Cabinet Minister in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh) and niece, Karuna Shukla, Rajya Sabha member from Chhattisgarh, keep feeding news bytes to the ever-eager media saying that the old man is in good health and not planning to retire from active politics at all.
Every time his main rival within the party is able to manage an impression across the country that he is now the only party candidate for the top slot as Vajpayee has taken volun tary retirement from active politics, this trio rushes in with a contradictory statement. This has been keeping party functionaries in an undecided state of mind and, of course, causing the rival sleepless nights.
Interestingly, Vajpayee neither breaks his silence nor restrains the trio from speaking on his behalf.
Nagaland VIPs
and kerosene
KEROSENE, the poor man’s fuel, entered the black market in Nagaland during the last political regime. The situation improved overnight after President’s Rule was imposed. It remained in force for two months and RS Pandey, a 1973-batch IAS officer of the state who was Secretary, Ministry of Steel, returned to Nagaland as adviser to the Governor. He worked hard to utilize the opportunity to overhaul the gover nance and take it to the door of the com mon man.
While scanning gov ernment files relating to development, Pandey came across a provision for VIP quota in kerosene that had been in force in the state for years. Shocked, he scrapped the quota and wrote to all the VIPs that if they really needed kerosene for consumption, it would be readily supplied to them on demand. The fact of the matter was that the VIPs never utilized the quota which instead went into the black market. So, expectedly, not a single VIP replied.
Papas never preach
in business
THREE Congress stalwarts, two of them holding lucra tive Ministries in the Central Cabinet and the third issuing dik tats from the headquarters at 24 Akbar Road, often hold conflicting views on a number of issues with in the party. Yet, when it comes to business, they stand united. Their sons have formed an engineering company and opened its office in a five-star hotel in Mumbai, understandably at the behest of their fathers.
The privileged sons proudly proclaim that the company is a secular business cartel as their patron represents different states and communities and so it does not violate the secular credentials of the Congress party. So, with the unstinted backing of these powerful and influential godfathers, the new company might very well surpass the combined strength of the Ambanis, Adanis and Mittal.
