OUCH: Thyagarajan (with mike) presides over the pandemonium

When the J. Jayalalithaa government introduced the one-man-one-post rule, aimed at clipping the wings of M.K. Stalin, Chennai mayor and MLA, the DMK went curiously silent. But when Stalin finally shed his mayoral robes last month leading Deputy mayor "Karate" Thyagarajan to plonk himself on the mayor's seat, there was chaos in the Chennai Corporation.

At a council meeting of the corporation chaired by Thyagarajan for the first time on June 28, DMK members came in cars sporting the mayoral flag. Clad in black and belligerent, they frequently interrupted the meeting and walked out-and in-in protest. When TMC leader P. Vetrivel passed an unsavoury remark on the DMK's conduct, members took offence and a minor fisticuff ensued. Surprisingly, Thyagarajan, contrary to what his prefix would suggest, sat rock-like on the mayoral throne vowing to carry out "all Amma's orders".

-Arun Ram

PUNJAB PARADOX
The Anomaly that is Amarinder

LACKING PUNCH: Amarinder's anti-graft drive now looks suspect

The Judiciary is not alone in experiencing convulsions in the multi-crore rupee PPSC scandal that lent Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh a potent anti-corruption issue to crow about. The plot thickened following an en bloc shunting out of four top intelligence officials who had played a key role in busting the scam. On the face of it, an unsavoury turf war between the Intelligence Wing and the Vigilance Bureau spurred Amarinder to crack the whip. But intelligence chief A.P. Bhatnagar, who was earlier transferred and then chargesheeted, has alleged he and his three subordinates were kicked out not only to "scuttle" the investigations but also to cover up the involvement of "influential" persons close to the Punjab Government.

A red-faced Amarinder was quick to mount a damage control. "The Intelligence-Vigilance spat was threatening to bog down the investigations in a mess," says Amarinder. But the abrupt transfers of his hand-picked officers followed by imputing of dubious motives by a senior police official has dented Amarinder's much-touted anti-graft tirade which has already begun to look like a political witch-hunt against the Akalis. Clearly, after basking in the reflected glory of the Sidhu scandal, Amarinder is now feeling the heat.

-Ramesh Vinayak

SIGNPOSTS

APPOINTED: Former Delhi Police chief Ajai Raj Sharma, as director-general of the BSF.

AWARDED: To Dr Naresh Trehan, cardiologist, the Indian Medical Association's Doctor of the Decade Award. Trehan has been honoured with the Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons.

GIVEN: An extension, to Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan, for
two years.

DIED: Dev Dutt Shastri, 84, president of the All India Forward Bloc, in Delhi. He was an associate of Subhash Chandra Bose.

ADDED: By the US Government, the Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Federation, to a list of "specially designated global terrorist" entities.

Designed to Succeed

Imagine draping a sari that is your own in every way-from the design to the colour, all chosen by you. As other cooperative societies languish, Tamil Nadu's textile cooperative, Co-optex, has come up with an innovative "design-your-own-sari" scheme. Its computer-aided design centre in Chennai allows customers to select a design from 100 traditional, 50 ethnic and 50 fancy designs, besides 1,000 motifs (for pallus) or create their own design for the sari, border and pallus. The concept applies to silk saris for now. Says T. Rajaram, manager, printing and processing: "Our designers will change patterns till the customer is satisfied." And keeps coming back for more.

-Arun Ram