Agents of insurance 

April.04 : Delhi and specially Congresswallahs know that behind every successful man is a woman. This saying now holds true especially in the case of babus from Madhya Pradesh who were nabbed by income-tax sleuths recently. In many cases, the sleuths discovered, the wives of the babus were working as insurance agents, a useful occupation for investing “surplus” wealth of their husbands. 

These wives invested the “surplus” from their husbands and their seniors, including Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, and expanded their business by selling policies to contractors and sub-contractors. 
It helped that the babu was associated with a department known for the rich pickings to be had. The income-tax raids identified IAS officer Arvind Joshi and Public Works Department (PWD) executive engineer Deepak Asai along with their wives as the culprits.
According to sources, the mastermind behind this practice was a woman. Seema Jaiswal, once an agent herself, rose to become the branch manager (sales) of the insurance firm. Having connections with departments like the water resources, PWD and Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation, she engaged the spouses of other rich babus as agents. Interestingly, all this knowledge may be of little use when the government prosecutes the IAS officers for possessing assets beyond their known sources of income. Since the government can only act against its own employees, the wives in all likelihood will make it home safe!
 
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PMO hits back 
Suresh Kalmadi ducked this one well! Ruling out Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador for the Commonwealth Games probably saved him — at the crease, before he was to be declared out. He lives on for the moment. 
A couple of weeks ago Mr Kalmadi as chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee had ousted financial expert Sanjiv Mittal, a 1984 Indian Defence Accounts Service officer (reportedly appointed at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh), along with two other babus. Mr Kalmadi’s marching orders to that lot was perceived as a snub to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). 
The government’s reaction was not long in coming. Clearly hoping to avert yet another potential embarrassment, the PMO hit back, with the Cabinet Secretariat ordering that Mr Mittal be reinstated and that he would continue in the post till the conclusion of the Games. But those who know Mr Kalmadi say that his Bachchan act after the forced ceasefire may not last long and he may explode again. 
 
Dilip Cherian