The soundness of the saying, “Call upon the Lord in the day of trouble and He will deliver you” cannot be denied either by the cops or the detainees in the lockup of Hanumanganj police station in Bhopal. On February 7, a recital of Sundarkand — a chapter from Ramcharitmanas, where Hanuman is reminded about his power to fly by Jambavan — was organised by devout policemen of the new investigation wing in the police station. The recital was loud enough to give a chance to the three detainees who were in the lockup to escape.

The recital drowned all the noise that was created when the three accused dug a hole through the wall of the lockup. The feat was performed with the help of a pipe they had smuggled out of the toilet. Truly, the Sunderkand paath provided the mukti marg (road to salvation) to the criminals. But it was another matter for the cops who had gone into a trance of sorts that night amidst the sacred recital, failing to hear the sound of digging.

Moral: Be inclusive. Organise the next Sunderkand paath in the lockup itself.

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United campaign?
Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav is known for his peevishness and frequent tongue lashing to people around him. There are very few in his party who haven’t been at the receiving end. In fact, even his press conferences in Uttar Pradesh often end with skirmishes with scribes. Mr Yadav, however, got a taste of his own medicine when he flew to Basti district last week to campaign for his party candidate. When he arrived at the venue, well behind schedule, he found barely a few dozen people waiting to hear him speak. The few who were waiting at the venue also left after his helicopter landed — apparently, they had come to watch the chopper, not hear the leader’s speech.

Mr Yadav went on to the dais and sat alone for several minutes till the JD(U) candidate arrived to welcome him. Party workers were nowhere to be seen. A fuming Mr Yadav stomped off the stage and his candidate in Basti has not been responding to phone calls ever since. JD(U) leaders in Lucknow are now wary of setting up Mr Yadav’s election meetings in Uttar Pradesh. And Mr Yadav himself is said to be not too keen on campaigning now. So much for the “united” colours of the JD(U).

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Happy hours at sea
Amidst THE tension ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the date of birth controversy involving Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh last week, defence minister A.K. Antony spent a few pleasant moments aboard India’s aircraft carrier INS Viraat. Mr Antony had landed in Visakhapatnam for a massive naval exercise and visited the grand old aircraft carrier off the coast.

It so happened that it was the marriage anniversary of one of the top naval officers that day and a cake was cut aboard. The previous day, it was yet another naval officer’s birthday. A top naval officer joked to the minister that if he spent a few more days on the ship, every day would be a day of celebration. The minister couldn’t have agreed more, with the Supreme Court having just upheld the government’s contention in the Army Chief’s date of birth controversy.

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Cop laureate
Sometimes creative pursuits overshadow professional success. Chhattisgarh’s senior police officer Jayant Thorat realised this recently. Mr Thorat’s passion for writing poetry earned him the sobriquet “shayar cop”. The 1998-batch IPS officer seemed to enjoy this new identity and flaunted his literary talent by composing a new sher (couplet) every day and displaying it on the notice board in his official chamber.

In Raipur, his “fans”, mostly his colleagues, used to visit his office room on some pretext to read and enjoy his shayari. Appreciation from his colleagues spurred the cop’s quill. However, in last month’s reshuffle, Mr Thorat was transferred as deputy inspector-general (DIG) of police (Naxal operations) to insurgency-hit Bastar.

Within a fortnight of his joining the new posting, seven hardcore Maoists surrendered before him at Kanker, setting off jubilation in police circles in the state, which inevitably led to jokes in the police administration that the Naxal leaders surrendered not due to their change of heart but in order to be able to read DIG Thorat’s shayari.

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Realty tremors in Chennai
K.R. Periakaruppan was an influential minister in the DMK government of M. Karunanidhi that ruled Tamil Nadu till May 2010. He was in charge of administering temples but that “divine duty” might not save the man from trouble now. A female relative of the former minister has lodged a complaint with the Chennai police commissioner, accusing him of taking Rs 1.45 crore from her during the DMK reign, promising to recover her land grabbed by a realtor. As many as eight ex-ministers of the DMK were arrested for alleged land-grab after chief minister J. Jayalalithaa announced tough measures against land-grabbers.

The latest to land in jail is former minister Vellakoil Swaminathan, the strongman of the western region of Tamil Nadu. Even Mr Karunanidhi’s son and former deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin has a property case registered against him, though he has not yet been arrested. DMK seniors, to put it mildly, are in a state of panic and it shows most on the face of Union minister M.K. Alagiri, Mr Stalin’s elder brother. The ferocious Madurai tiger has stopped growling ever since Ms Jayalalithaa cracked the whip on land-grabbers and, worse still, the district collector sent him a notice for irregularities in the acquisition of land for his engineering college. The ground under the DMK tribe seems to be quaking, if not slipping.