Delhi underground

Down and outThe Vijay Goel camp was crestfallen after V K Malhotra was declared BJP8217;s chief ministerial candidate for Delhi. But a bigg...

Down and out
The Vijay Goel camp was crestfallen after V K Malhotra was declared BJP8217;s chief ministerial candidate for Delhi. But a bigger worry for BJP cadres, however, is that Goel may try to undercut Malhotra8217;s campaign. He had been working hard for the candidature. In a show of strength, he organised a rally in Ram Lila Maidan though tt did not end up as his show. Goel has maintained a stoic silence and to escape from giving reactions, he left for a rally early in the morning for Sonepat.

Flashbulb moments
If party general secretary Vijay Goel was conspicuous by absence, Mayor Arti Mehra8217;s presence couldn8217;t have been more prominent at the 8220;coronation8221; ceremony of party veteran V K Malhotra as chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Assembly elections. The mayor, known to be in the line for an election ticket this year, took it upon herself to present a thick garland of flowers to Malhotra and pose for flashbulbs, before being ignored twice by party General Secretary Arun Jaitley when she offered him a box of laddoos for Malhotra. When the leaders decided to stand on the podium, scrambling for some space among Harshvardhan, Jaitley, Malhotra and Jagdish Mukhi, Mehra scurried over to Jaitley, pretending to exchange a few words of grave importance, perhaps eager to be captured by the flashbulbs, again.

Lack of coordination
It seems that before calling press conferences, the various units of Delhi Police do not check with each other. One such incident happened with the Joint Commissioner of Police Special Cell Karnail Singh. After three more alleged terrorists were picked up on Sunday by the South Delhi police, they held a press conference, where they declared that the terrorists had a role in the Delhi blasts. This was in the morning. In the evening, the Special Cell called another press conference to share information about investigations in the case. Many statements made here were contradictory to what DCP South H G S Dhaliwal had said. After repeatedly being questioned by the media, Singh finally said: 8220;We have not interrogated the terrorists caught in South Delhi. The picture will become clear after that.8221;

Barricades in place
On Friday afternoon, Union Minister and Delhi MP Kapil Sibal visited the Batla House area to hear for himself the different stories pouring in about the encounter. The lane with house no. L-18 is blocked on either side by police barricades.

As soon as the minister arrived at the spot, the barricades mysteriously disappeared, surprising residents. Except for a couple of policemen, the lane was empty. Locals thought the barricades were removed for good but as soon as the minister left, they were back in place. Was it Delhi Police8217;s way of receiving ministers? Shaken by the encounter, every activity in Jamia Nagar has become an object of scrutiny by residents.

In preparation for Kapil Sibal8217;s visit, curious onlookers watched silently as a young boy ordered by the police to move the barriers struggled to load the bulky, heavy police barricades on his rickshaw and tow them away.

Perhaps the scrutiny got too much. The boy, perhaps nervous from all the eyes on him, dropped his baggage and the yellow barricades came crashing down from his rickshaw.

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All about the vote bank
On a day when a bomb blast rocked the Capital, just two weeks after the serial blasts, political mobility was at its unusual best. BJP8217;s chief ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra and state president Harshvardhan were the first to visit the spot of the blast and the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where the injured had been admitted. Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit too visited the hospital later. When asked why they had chosen to stay away from Batla House in Jamia Nagar, where the encounter of alleged Indian Mujahideen mastermind Atif Ameen had taken place, a state BJP leader said: 8220;It8217;s a Muslim-dominated area and is more tense. We expect a negative response in such areas; moreover, it8217;s not our traditional vote bank.8221;

Thief among patients
Even as the entire city came forward to help the victims of the serial blasts and prayed for their well being, there have been instances of miscreants posing as doctors and demanding money from patients8217; relatives to provide them with better treatment in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

One such case that came to light was of a person who posed as a doctor and demanded Rs 3,000 from the relatives of Faaruq, a victim from Kashmir who lost his brother in the Gaffar Market blast and is himself battling for life at the hospital.

This 8216;doctor8217; roamed about freely the hospital dressed in a white coat, carrying a stethoscope and demanding money from the already hassled relatives. A lot of patients complained about this and also the loss of their belongings like mobile phones to the authorities.

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The 8216;doctor8217; was later caught and handed over to the Mandir Marg police station.

Me? executive? no!
The Delhi High Court drew the line when a government counsel sought an order from the Bench to 8220;direct8221; a department8217;s officers to complete paving a thoroughfare in the Capital during a PIL hearing. 8220;We cannot run the government from this bench. Our function is to make the officers active and not replace the executive,8221; the court said. As an afterthought, the court added: 8220;If the executive had done its job, all the problems in Delhi would have disappeared long ago.8221;

This column could not be carried on Monday because of space constraint