Competitive Hindutva

The only people entitled to quote the scriptures were Pravinbhai Togadia and the VHP, he decreed.

The flight was packed with journalists and Togadia didn’t disguise his animosity towards them, remarking, ‘‘When we come to power, all of you secular media will have to go to Pakistan.’’ Yet, despite his avowed aversion to the English language media, Togadia kept harassing the airhostess to get him a copy of The Indian Express and appeared uninterested in other newspapers, including the Gujarati dailies.

Pet Relief

Customs officers all over the country were flooded with complaints from irate owners of pets arriving from abroad ever since the Department of Animal Husbandry officiously introduced a new law putting domestic pets on par with wild animals meant for zoos and circuses.

Unsuspecting pet owners had to produce all sorts of certificates, including a testimonial that their cats and dogs were not an endangered species besides an import licence from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) since pets were classified under the Exim policy.

Some months ago, the American embassy had its hands full completing the paperwork for securing permission for Ambassador Robert D. Blackwill’s pet dog to enter India.

Heartrending scenes were witnessed at customs counters as owners were forcibly separated from their pets, who were taken away to poorly looked after quarantine cages. Senior customs officers would get calls in the middle of the night from protesting pet owners. A few animals even died while in quarantine.

After the go-ahead given by DGFT chief Lalit Mansingh last month, a meeting of the concerned departments was convened to remove the absurdities in the law. Pets, provided they are not more than two per person, can now walk through customs with just a vet’s certificate.

CVC’s Paper Chase

When he took over as Central Vigilance Commissioner, P. Shankar discovered a backlog of some 500 files. His predecessor N. Vittal had been so busy on the lecture circuit speaking about corruption that he had no time to complete the actual task assigned to him: looking into specific allegations of corruption against government employees.

In the four months since he took charge, Shankar has disposed of 250 files. The three-member commission discovered that some of the pending cases were outside the jurisdiction of the commission and, at times, downright frivolous.

For instance, one of the files dealt with a tip-off to the former CVC that an estimated Rs 500,000 crore had been deposited in foreign bank accounts by corrupt government officials. Vittal took the unsubstantiated claim seriously enough to direct a section officer in the commission to investigate how the money could be brought back. Could the hapless officer deal with a task which seems even beyond the CBI’s ken, particularly as the vague tip-off provided no details of who held the accounts or in which banks the money had been deposited?

Maha Rivalry

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj was not overjoyed at Modi’s spectacular victory in Gujarat since it meant that Arun Jaitley, as general secretary in charge of the state and Modi’s ardent supporter, would be entitled to share some of the glory. Significantly, Doordarshan while covering the Gujarat results, interviewed L K Advani, Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu but blacked out Jaitley. In contrast, he figured prominently on private TV channels.

The bad vibes between two of the BJP’s articulate younger leaders were evident when Jaitley and Swaraj came face to face while they were waiting for their cars after a sumptuous lunch at Naidu’s residence.

Quizzed by the media on the latest developments in the party, Swaraj remarked sarcastically that they should address the queries to the ‘‘maha mantri’’ standing nearby instead. Jaitley declined to speak to journalists, quipping that he had a paan in his mouth and so fortunately could not put his foot into it. The crack was lost on Swaraj.

Two For One Secretary

When he was promoted from Additional Secretary to Secretary, steel, N N Khanna moved to a bigger government bungalow on Shahjehan Road, but failed to surrender his earlier house on Tilak Marg. This became a source of heart-burn among fellow bureaucrats, and the Directorate of Estates in the Urban Development ministry obtained minister Ananth Kumar’s approval to issue a notice of eviction.

But just when the notice was to be served, Khanna was transferred as Secretary, Urban Development, and the Assistant Director Estates who had to implement the order got cold feet at the prospect of taking action against his new boss.

Until early this week, Khanna hadn’t yet handed over possession of the extra house although the paperwork for relinquishing it is complete!