Letter from Delhi: Rudy not inclined to change old rules

Rajiv Pratap Rudy as a junior commerce minister would often fly in private airlines in a clear breach of the old government order which enjoined on ministers and bureaucrats alike to fly the state-owned Indian Airlines.

But now that he is the Minister of Civil Aviation, Rudy shows no inclination to have the said order withdrawn. So strict are the 'babus' (government officials) in enforcing the order that even when there is no IA flight to their intended destination they would rather stay put a day or two extra at tax-payers' expense away from their station of posting than take the private domestic airline to get back to work.

Hand in the till

Having been caught with her hand in the till, Mayawati is now engaged full-time in targeting the prime minister. The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and a couple of her key aides are looking furiously for evidence in order to nail a close foster relative of Vajpayee.

Knowing full well that the CBI has unearthed but only a small part of the broad daylight loot she had indulged in as the one-woman ruler of UP till the Supreme Court ordered investigations into the Taj Corridor scam forced her to quit in a huff, she can possibly have no valid explanation for her overnight riches. That would explain her furious efforts to throw mud at Vajpayee and his foster family. A senior UP cadre IAS officer who now finds himself in the doghouse along with his BSP patron is tapping the capital's wheeler-dealer community to lay his hands on something substantial to embarrass the premier.

Forgery

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi is facing prosecution for two alleged forgeries. One is a recent case registered by the CBI after he had furnished forged documents purported to be a vital part of the Central Intelligence Bureau and Central Bureau of Investigation's dossier on him and other senior Congress leaders.

Following Jogi's written complaint to the prime minister, the CBI investigated the matter and duly came to the conclusion that the said documents were clear forgeries aimed at tarnishing its image.

The other is an old case in which Jogi had forged a certificate to declare himself a member of the scheduled tribes for which he was now being tried in a Shahdol court. The said certificate was allegedly issued by a tehsildar when no such tehsil had existed at that time.

It now turns out that given Jogi's penchant for forgeries a question mark has arisen about the authenticity of the certificates furnished by him at the time of his entrance exam for the IAS back in 1970. Sources say the CBI has undertaken a thorough examination of the certificates to establish whether or not these were genuine. The CBI might have felt encouraged following reports that Jogi's son, Amit, managed to fool everyone by sitting for the IAS examination a couple of years ago even though he was a US citizen and, therefore, ineligible to join the IAS or, for that matter, any other central or provincial civil service. It's another matter that he failed to qualify for the IAS.