Inside track

Scandal-snuffing
Their victims include some of the Who’s Who of Delhi. So why is the media, the law, and the political world soft peddling the scandal? In contrast to the screaming headlines in the Romesh Sharma scam, there is a general reluctance tofocus on the alleged extortion racket involving Abhishek Verma and Ashok Aggarwal.
The Government should explain just how Aggarwal got away for so many years though his dubious reputation was widely known. There were corruption cases instituted against Aggarwal even when he was an income tax officer, but they were conveniently dropped after he became the private secretary to Minister of Mines, Balram Singh Yadav in the Rao government. Last year, the Central Vigilance Commission directed that the former deputy director in the Enforcement Department be posted out of Delhi. But Aggarwal stayed put in the Capital as a deputy secretary in the Department of Revenue. The CBI sat on the the CVC recommendation for an inquiry against the former deputy director of the ED for four months before his premises were finally raided. Aggarwal by then had naturally sanitised his house and office.
Aggarwal and Verma’s strength is cultivating important people in the media, business, government and politics. And a lot ofpowerful people are now anxious to keep the spotlight away from themselves in case there is a genuine investigation. Already V. George has got singed by the scandal since Verma’s interrogation has brought out that Sonia Gandhi’s private secretary has accumulated embarrassingly large assets which have obviously not come from his modest secretarial salary.

Mischievous memoirs
The memoirs of the colourful dancer Protima Bedi who died two years ago in a landslide are being released shortly. Timepass based on the candid confessions of her diaries compiled by her daughter Puja Bedi has not shied away from mentioning the names of her many lovers from Rajni Patel to Pandit Jasraj. The exception is the former Congress minister from Delhi who is referred to simply as `Manu’. But there are enough clues to speculate on the identity of the politician whose help Bedi sought in trying to get a government bungalow in Delhi under the dancers’ quota.

No return policy
Jesudas Seelam, a Karnataka cadreIAS officer, resigned on the eve of the last parliamentary elections to contest the Bapatla, constituency in Andhra Pradesh on a Congress ticket. Seelam was defeated and he now wants his IAS job back. Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna is inclined to reinstate him too, but the Ministry of Personnel and the PMO are not as accommodating, particularly as more than three months have lapsed since he put in his papers. Seelam has not, however, given up his efforts to get back his job.