Sources Close to Sources

The News Minute | August 30, 2014 | 4.12 pm ISTWorse than the Left-NDA-UPA put togetherSlowly but surely, Prime Minister NarendraModi has come to the conclusion that the stranglehold of babus in New Delhi is probably “worse than the UPA-NDA-Left put together.”Those are supposed to be his exact words according to Sources Close to Sources. Now we don’t know if it’s the gujju in him or the politician or a combination of both, but businesspeople say if he gets rid of bottlenecks that are entertained and maintained by bureaucrats who have maintained the status-quo in Delhi, the Indian economy could grow by a few percentage points. Some job descriptions have also reportedly disappeared, atleast for now. Among them are file pushers, file carriers, file blockers, stamp carriers, door openers, door closers. We will update this file periodically. Oh dear, now what! It would appear that since many events, roads and museums are named after Jawarharlal Nehru and members of his family and the separation between office and person is dim, UPA Chairperson is a trifle puzzled about whether or not to invite Prime Minister NarendraModi to the November 14th memorial lecture at the Jawaharlal Museum. Hmmm. We also out our heads together and scratched our scalps in search of an answer that looked so obvious that it was evading us. Then someone in the newsroom said if the Prime Minister is not invited, maybe people in the room will boo. We didn’t think that was an issue because we know that only boors boo and such anti-social elements are not invited to important functions. At time of writing, it is being reported that good sense has prevailed and elders in the Congress have convinced Ms. Gandhi to invite the Prime Minister. We are more intrigued by advice by the elders in the Congress. How old is elder?MaithreyaFor 10 hours on Thursday, Network 9, a Kannada news channel reported on a lady called Maithreya Gowda who claimed she was married to Karthik Gowda, son of Union Railway Minister Sadanand Gowda. She said he had tied a thread around her neck and assured her that he would convince his parents to accept her as his bride. In other words, it was a love-marriage as opposed to an arranged one. In the meantime, newspapers reported that Karthik Gowda was engaged to another lady. Maithreya Gowda wept, choked, she wept some more on television and this went on for the whole day and even made it to the national networks in Delhi. By the time we figured out what was going on, we were weeping with fatigue. Friends of the minister’s family saidKarthik is a good boy and he lives with his parents. Maithreya Gowda has filed an FIR alleging rape and cheating. She could have been in a relationship with Karthik Gowda, they may have secretly married, he could have changed his mind either voluntarily or under pressure and the lady may have been betrayed. The case is in a court of law. We know only Delhi makes stories, but spending two days on this story killed it. We think.(Beginning today, we bring you an occasional post about the hum and the drum from New Delhi and other planets.)