Chatwal: all chatter, no wail

Curious to know how six years later Chatwal remained untroubled by the CBI cases, and flies unhindered in and out of the country, I made a few enquiries. It seems the CBI did file charges against Chatwal in its Mumbai’s court in December 2000. The court granted Chatwal bail on April 30, 2001, but even after five years, the court has not yet framed the chargesheet against him.

Who’s winding up whom

A meeting of the committee of secretaries was called to discuss a proposal for winding up the Department of Consumer Affairs. The note on the subject claimed that the budgetary allocation to the department did not benefit either the public or the consumer, without providing any evidence. It was suggested that the functions of the department could be transferred to other ministries. The Health Ministry could take over the Bureau of Standards, the Commerce Ministry the Forward Markets Commission, the Ministry of Textiles the Jute Exchange and the Home Ministry could administer the various acts which at present come under the department’s purview.

The buzz in government is that the seemingly outrageous proposal was sent by none other than Mohammed Taslimuddin, who happens to be the Minister of State in the Department of Consumer Affairs. Taslimuddin, like many ministers of state, nurses a grievance that his senior minister, Sharad Pawar, has kept all the powers for himself and very few files are actually forwarded to him. Taslimuddin, who has his hands full in any case fighting the criminal cases against him, visits his office rarely. The fact that the proposal merited consideration at all could suggest that the Government was keen to administer a snub to Pawar.

No pain in neck

Some in the press gallery wondered how Jairam Ramesh did not develop a crick in the neck. As a Rajya Sabha MP, Ramesh was earlier confined to the Upper House, but as the newly appointed Minister of State for Commerce he is entitled to sit in the Lok Sabha as well. Last week Ramesh was seen in the Lok Sabha not in the front rows reserved for ministers but on the back benches. He had parked himself just one row in front of Rahul Gandhi and spent almost an hour craning his neck backwards to chat with the leader of Congress’s Generation Next. It was not clear who was instructing whom.

One hat too many

Once a politician is elected to a position of power on a sports body he generally manages to cling on to it for the rest of his life. Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi’s name has been long linked with the All Indian Football Federation, K P Singh Deo with the Indian Rowing Association, Jagdish Tytler has a long-standing association with judo, Vijay Kumar Malhotra with archery, Om Prakash Chautala with boxing, S S Dhindsa with cycling and Vidya Stokes with women’s hockey. It was heartening, therefore, to learn that Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi had voluntarily resigned as president of the Indian Athletics Association last week.

Some assumed that Kalmadi was setting a noble example for other politicians who have monopolised sports bodies, and making way for new blood. But this is not quite the case. Kalmadi says he was simply wearing too many hats and did not have enough time to devote to the association. After all Kalmadi is president of the Asian Athletes Council and a member of the world body for athletics. He is chairperson of the organising committee for the Commonwealth Games in India due in 2010. He is in-charge of the bidding for the Asian Games for India in 2014. And is also responsible for bidding for the Olympic Games for India in 2016. In addition, Kalmadi is president of the Indian Olympic Association and the Athletics Federation of India happens to be one among the 32 federations which report to the IOA.

Dialling PM’s residence

A resident of Jaipur telephoned the Prime Minister’s residence claiming to be a friend of the PM’s wife Gurcharan Kaur and was put through. The agitated caller informed the startled PM’s wife that he was being beaten up and begged for help. Kaur alerted the authorities. Investigations brought out the fact that the mysterious caller was in the habit of picking up fights with his neighbours and in the process often got beaten up. The local police considered him slightly deranged. Nobody took his boast that he knew the PM’s wife seriously, until he actually succeeded in making a call to the PM’s Race Course Road residence.