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Technological up gradation of bank's branches is Corporation bank CMD's priority
Financial inclusion by outreaching poor people of India tops the agenda of JM Garg Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the Corporation Bank. In an interview to <whispersinthecorridors.com> he shared his vision.
"Innovative initiatives to ensure that poor people in India are benefited by different schemes of Corporation Bank is my top priority," said Garg who is known for his meticulous planning, hard work & sincerity. Garg who is famous as a versatile banker, had assumed the office of the Chairman & Managing Director of Corporation Bank on November 6, 2008. Here are excerpts from his interview:
1/What is your priority?
Answer: Technological up gradation of branches of the Corporation Bank is being done with an eye on future market. Recently we launched a new facility, 'e-payment through ATM' in August 2009. Ashok Chawla Finance Secretary to Government of India (GOI) launched it. This facility will help customers to pay various taxes like income tax, fringe benefit tax, securities transaction tax (STT), gift taxes etc. at anytime from any ATM. The bank will earn revenue of Rs.0.11 per payment made. Nearly 10 lakh of total ATMs will avail the facility initially. This facility is being made available for any taxpayer, irrespective of the fact if they are our customers or not. We are pioneer in taking this kind of an initiative in the Indian banking sector.
2/What is the new initiative that you are going to implement?
Answer: There are many new initiatives on the anvil. Our main thrust is give an impetus to banking among poor people living in rural & urban areas while boosting the process of financial inclusion.
3/ What is your expansion plans?
Answer: As I told you that the Corporation Bank is laying a lot of emphasis on "financial inclusion" so we are going to multiply rural banking by five times. At present 418 locations are covered by the Bank. We will cover people living 2000 villages.
4/Are you opening new branches?
Answer: Yes, we are going to open 150 new branches. This is aimed at reaching Eastern, Northern & Western regions of India. At present we have network of 1076 branches.
1995 batch IPS officers empanelled in GoI
This is the official list of IPS officers of 1995 batch empanelled to hold DIG and equivalent level posts under the Government of India - Mssrs David Lalrinsanga - AGMU, Devesh Chandra Srivastava - AGMU, Ravinder Singh Yadav - AGMU, Madhup Kumar Tiwari - AGMU, Zorammawia - AGMU, I D Shukla - AGMU, Munna Prasad Gupta - AM, A Y V Krishna - AM, R S Praveen Kumar - AP, Rajiv Kumar Meena - AP, Atul Singh - AP, Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat - AP, Veerisetty Venkata Srinivasa Rao - AP, Swati Lakra - AP, Sushil Mansing Khopde - BH, Jag Mohan - BH, Pradeep Gupta - CH, D J Patel - GJ, B S Jebalia - GJ, R B Brahmbhat - GJ, Raju Bhargava - GJ, Shiv Pal Singh Verma - HP, Ganesh Dutt Bhargava - HP, Venugopal N - HP, Satinder Pal Singh - HP, Subhash Yadav - HY, Chakkirala Sambasiva Rao - HY, Charu Bali - HY, Sandeep Khirwar - HY, Sanjay A Lathkar - JH, Pankaj Kumar Darad - JK, Shiv Darshan Singh - JK, Rajesh Kumar - JK, Tsewang Namgiyal Kalon - JK, Satish Ramaji Khandare - JK, S Suresh - KL, M R Ajith Kumar - KL, R S Harihar - KTK, Syed Ulfath Hussain - KTK, Amrit Paul - KTK, Arun Jeji Chakravarthy - KTK, Umesh Kumar - KTK, Niket Kaushik - MH, D G Rao - MH, A D Shinde - MH, V K Chaubey - MH, P S Salunkhe - MH, S K Tarwade - MH, R G Kadam - MH, Naval Bajaj - MH, Amitesh Kumar - MH, A Sai Manohar - MP, Chanchal Shekhar - MP, Yogesh Deshmukh - MP, Jai Deep Prasad - MP, K P Venkateshwar Rao - MP, Meenakshi Sharma - MP, Bishwanath Deb Barma - MT, Puneet Rastogi - MT, Thugbemo Lotha - NL, Jong Pongnungsang - NL, L Singsit - NL, Padmakar S Ranipse - OR, S K Priyadarshi - OR, Santosh Bala - OR, Radha Kishan Sharma - OR, Ritu Arora - OR, Gollapalli Nageswara Rao - PB, Kapil Dev - PB, Pramod Ban - PB, Mohd Faiyaz Farooqui - PB, Amit Prasad - PB, Gautam Cheema - PB, Surinder Singh - PB, Tejinderpal Singh - PB, Biju George Joseph K - RJ, Prashakha Mathur - RJ, Smita Khare - RJ, Vinayak Vineet - SK, V A Ravikumar - TN, S Nallasivam - TN, M Ramasubramani - TN, S N Seshasai - TN, S Davidson Devasirvatham - TN, Sandeep Mittal - TN, Bala Naga Devi - TN, P V Krishna Prasad - UK, Deepam Seth - UP, Ravi Kumar Lokku - UP, Anupam Kulshreshtha - UP, Ashok Mutha Jain - UP, Alok Singh - UP, Rajkumar RN Kuril - UP, Amrendra Kumar Sengar - UP, Vijay Bhatia - UP, Ashok Kumar Singh - UP, Jawed Shamim - WB, Ajay Mukund Ranade - WB, Anil Kumar - WB, R Sivakumar - WB, Satya Sankar Panda - WB, Shailendra Pratap Singh - UP and Daljit Singh Chaudhary - UP.
1994 batch IPS officers empanelled during review in GoI
This is now official - IPS officers of 1994 batch empanelled to hold DIG and equivalent level posts under the Government of India during the review are Deepak Kumar - AM, B L Sujatha Rao - AP, Mrs. Abhilasha Bisht - AP, Dr A Ravi Shankar - AP, Amit Kumar - BH, P S Ahlawat - HY, Navdeep Singh Virk - HY, Abdul Gani Mir - JH, Mrs. Tadasha Mishra - JH, Ashutosh K Dumbre - MH, Sanjib Panda, T C Damore - RJ, Rajesh Kumar Arya - RJ, Sujeet Pandey - UP, Dr (Mrs) Purnima Singh - UP, Raja Srivastava - UP and Vineet Kumar Goyal - WB.
1993 batch IPS officers empanelled to hold DIG rank during review
This is now official - IPS officers of 1993 batch empanelled to hold DIG and equivalent level posts under the Government of India during review are P.K. Das - AM, P V Sunil Kumar - AP, Sunil Kumar Jha - BH, B D Vaghela - GJ, J K Bhatt - GJ, Rajpal Singh - HY, Manvinder Singh Bhatia - JH, Anil Kumar Gupta - MP, V N Pachori - MP, Kartar Singh - PB, Hari Ram Meena - RJ, Sunil Dutt - RJ, Govind Gupta - RJ, R Arumugam - TN, Ashok Kumar Das - TN, Sunil Kumar Gupta - UP, Barun Kumar Mallick - WB and Ajoy Kumar - WB.
Review of 1992 batch IPS officers for empanelment to DIG rank
This is now official - IPS officers of 1992 batch empanelled to hold DIG and equivalent level posts under the Government of India during the review are N Chandra Mouli - AP, Shiv Ram Sharma - HP, T K Vinod Kumar - KL, A S N Murthy - KTK, Sanjeev Kumar Singhal - MH, Dhananjay Kamalakar - MH, Rajesh Kumar Rai - UP, B Prasad Tripathi - UP, P K Srivastava - UP, Sushil Kumar Singh - UP, R Pratap Singh - UP and Bhagwanaram Meghwal - WB.
6 IPS officers of 1991 batch empanelled for DIG during review
This is now official - Six IPS officers of 1991 batch empanelled to hold DIG and equivalent level posts under the Government of India during the review are Madireddy Pratap - AP, K Lakshman Mohan - AP, Raghuvansh Pd Yadav - BH, Naresh Pd Singh - JH, Jag Mohan - WB and Bhushan Kumar Garg -PB.
IPS officer applies for VRS
1981 batch IPS officer of Karnataka cadre Kempaiah has reportedly sought voluntary retirement from service.
Singh to join Ministry of Health ?
Dr Amarjit Singh is being tipped to be Joint Secretary Health in the Government of India. He is 1982 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
Why Shivshankar Menon is out of the conference ?
The Ministry of External Affairs has reportedly dumped former Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon from the Heads of Mission conference scheduled to be held from 24-28 August,2009. He has not been invited to speak or make any presentation at the conference.Really ,this is significant.
Punjab gets three officers from the fresh batch to be inducted in IAS
Punjab has been allotted three officers from the new batch of 120 officials to be inducted in IAS.
Insider to be Gopinath's successor in the RBI if ?
As the grapevine has it, an insider is likely to be picked up as the new Deputy Governor (DG) in Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as successor to incumbent DG, RBI Ms. Shyamala Gopinath provided the later doesn't get extension.
Bureaucrats in power-beware
Bureaucrats in power beware, an stint in PMO may be heady. However, when power equations change ,those milling around for favours vanish without a trace. Several PS's to Prime Ministers have experienced such fall from favour and importance. The latest to meet such a fate is Shakti Sinha, 1979 batch UT cadre IAS officer ,a one time PS to Atal Behari Vajpayee. He has been consigned to the farthest possible posting in Andman Island !.
Pragya Richa Srivastava gets three months extension
Latest information says that Joint Commissioner of KVS, Pragya Richa Srivastava, has been granted three months extension in tenure to handle Public-Private Partnership Project of School. Now 1991 batch IPS officer of MP Cadre Ms Srivastava will operate from the Shastri Bhawan. Meanwhile, her charge of KVS has been given to a Joint Commissioner.
Member of TDSAT to be selected today
Meeting to select Member of the TDSAT is being held on Monday. Five retired and serving IAS officer have applied for the post.
Dr. Arvind Virmani to retire next month
Dr. Arvind Virmani, Chief Economic Advisor to Government of India (GOI), who is on three months extension will be retiring next month.
Prabhu to be CMD, Oriental Bank
Appointment of TY Prabhu, Executive Director (ED) of the Union Bank, is soon going to be a reality as far as his being appointed CMD of the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) was concerned. The slot fell vacant since previous CMD Alok Mishra has joined Bank of India as CMD early this month. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has reportedly cleared TY Prabhu's file.
(We said this in April 2009)
Basant Seth to be CMD Syndicate Bank
Appointment of Basant Seth, Managing Deputy Managing Director (DMD) SIDBI, is soon going to be a reality as far as his being appointed Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the Syndicate Bank was concerned. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has reportedly cleared Basant Seth's file.
(We said this in April 2009)
GS Vedi to be CMD P & SB
Appointment of GS Vedi, Executive Director Punjab and Sindh Bank (P&SB) is soon going to be a reality as far as his being appointed Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Punjab and Sindh Bank (P&SB) was concerned. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has reportedly cleared GS Vedi's file. He will succeed incumbent CMD RP Singh IAS 1976 batch, AP cadre.
(We said this in February & June 29,2009)
Uncertainty prevails over fate of RP Singh, CMD-P&S Bank
An air of uncertainty prevails over the fate of RP Singh Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Punjab and Sindh Bank (P&SB). GS Vedi Executive Director (ED) of the same bank has been finalised as his successor but Singh's next destination is yet to be decided who is an IAS officer of the 1976 batch & belongs to the Andhra Pradesh cadre. Under RP Singh's tenure the Punjab and Sindh Bank saw a three times growth & has non-performing assets (NPAs) at its lowest ebb. It may be stated that at present in Banking sector RP Singh is very senior incumbent.
Race for AAI Member (planning)
As the grapevine has it race for Member (planning)in Airports Authority of India (AAI) is mainly among three officers. They are: P.K.Nagpal, G.K.Chogyal & S.Raheja.Interviews for the post will be held on August 24, 2009.
Ranganath to be new Chief Secretary of Karnataka ?
Latest information says that no woman IAS officer will be able to become new Chief Secretary of Karnataka. Now the name of 1975 batch IAS officer S V Rangnath has started doing the round for the post. Ranganath is presently on deputation to the Government of India. Present Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao is superannuating on September 30.
3 names are in circulation for the post CS Jharkhand
Names of three IAS officers are doing rounds for the post of Chief Secretary to the Jharkhand government. They are Shiv Basant, A.K.Singh & Sushil Chadha
Ms Alka Upadhyay is Secretary GAD second time
Ms Alka Upadhyay has been appointed Secretary GAD in Madhya Pradesh for the second time during the last five years.1990 batch IAS officer Ms Upadhyay is presently Secretary Finance.
Durga Shankar Mishra returns to UP
Durga Shankar Mishra who was earlier Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) in the Civil Aviation Ministry has returned to his parent cadre of Uttar Pradesh on August 24, 2009. He is IAS officer of the 1984 batch.
Y.P.Rai joins as DDG, Rural Business
Y.P.Rai who was earlier Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) in the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) has assumed the charge as DDG,Rural Business in India Post on August 24, 2009. He is an Indian Postal Service (IPS) officer of the 1984 batch.
Silver jubilee re-union of 1984 batch held
The silver jubilee re union of 1984 batch all central and all India services officers belonging to the 1984 batch was held at Woodland Lawn, Delhi Gymkhana Club on August 22, 2009. Over 200 people & their spouses attended the grand gala event. Even many of those who quit their services & joined elsewhere including J.D.Seelam Congress's Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh had made it to the event. Though, rains played role of a spoilsport; spirits of participants were not dampened.
RTI
Anveshak software
Information about the Volume /Mass / Design of the Anveshak software
(used by Research and Analysis Wing), storage media used for transport
and the vendor's role and responsibility etc. was sought. The
Commission observed that none of the aforementioned queries make any
reference to any confidential data or information stored within the
software by R&AW, disclosure of which can prejudicially affect the
sovereignty and integrity of the nation, or could adversely affect the
national security or the strategic, economic or scientific interests
of the country. What qualifies for exemption from disclosure is the
confidential data collected and stored by R&AW within the Anveshak
software subsequently.
[CIC decision dated 4-05-2009, Brig. (Retd.) Ujjal Dasgupta v. CDAC].

Comments
Public Authorities have a tendency to describe anything remotely
connected with the intelligence agency as exempted u/s 8(1)(a), which
should be avoided.

Mrs. Anuradha Verma
Co-author of the book: RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE
(A new decision every Monday)

CORPORATE
B P Rao is number one in panel
Director in the BHEL B P Rao is going to be next CMD of the BHEL. Selection Committee has put his name number one in the panel .
Raina is new Director Human Resources GAIL
SL Raina has taken over as Director (Human Resources) of GAIL (India) Limited.

Aaj Ki Aawaz
Make Advani and Jaswant sit on the Sach ka Saamna hot seat!!
And let the lie detector correlate their statements with their heartbeat!
One of them is fibbing and the fibber needs to be exposed!!
Because fact is our politicians fib looking very composed!!
And mind you some of them are so skilled at fibbing or lying!!!
That their lying is 'lie detector' defying!!!
Jaswant says that Advani was in the know about the Kandhar hostage exchange,
Advani's statement that he was not in the know sure did and still does sound strange!!
Post general poll there were demands that Jaswant be made Leader of Opposition!!
And Advani got rankled and angry at this proposition!
And then Advani never liked Jaswant as Jaswant was from the Vajpayee camp!!!
Jaswant carried the Vajpayee stamp!!
In all this Advani has emerged as vindictive and small!!!
Don't know how apne aap ko Loh Purash he does call???
Seems Advani's analogy of Loh Purash was a person who is hard by nature!!!
Loh Purash actually means one who is principled and values his stature!!!
Now even his speech writer has distanced himself from Advani… or is it a game!!!!
For Advani's speech in Pakistan Kulkarni was made to take the blame!
The speech writer is not like a puppeteer so Advani knew what he said!!!
Though Advani started pussy footing after in its face RSS went red!!
Kulkarni says that Jaswant's sacking was graceless and shameless!!
And as no one BJP is willing to own up for this decision its also faceless!!
INLD is first off the block in election jingles….. Tau tehra zamaana hai laana!!!!
This should in actuality scare the people of Haryana!!
If INLD comes to power Tau's son and grandsons will be back to their bullying ways!!
Haryanvi's still dread those days (when INLD was in power)!!
And Chautala has a Tau Statue fixation!!!
He had vowed to erect a Tau statue outside Haryana ka every station!
In the State elections in October inflation is going to take a toll!!!
And Congress will pay the price for Pawar's dubious role!!
But in Haryana as the Opposition is weak Congress will win!!!
Had there been a strong Opposition Congress would have been done in!!
In Maharashtra Shiv Sena BJP will benefit from inflation,
Congress will pay for something that is Pawar's creation!!
With a leaking NREGS and drought hitting hard and not much to write home on relief!!
BJP and Shiv Sena will have enough sticks to beat up Congress NCP is my belief!!
Can't Congress do in Maharashtra what it did with Laloo….fight election on its own?
Okay this will make Pawar moan and groan!
But as he's a Cabinet Mantri and definitely does not want to quit he'll lump it!!!
In fact to underplay Congress going on its own he'll use Maratha wit!!
But does not seem that Congress is willing to take this chance!!!
Though I understand that at this modality it did momentarily glance!!
After this came the 'NCP should merge with Congress' advice!!!
Pawar said no but many NCP leaders were seen scratching their heads as if they had lice!
They know NCP is living on borrowed time and will sooner or later have to join Congress!
And then NCP Leaders are Congressmen …. think alike and even alike their dress!!
Chai Pani was first practiced by Congress….and Pawar got it in Congress!!
Only later he got an acute case and now for chai paani in everything he does press (for)!!
Amar Singh vows that he'll make Congress pay dearly when he comes back!!
He's already started this and everyday to the Press on the phone Congress he does attack!
Fact is for Congress not wanting to ally with SP Amar is mainly to blame!!
The minute talk of an alliance with SP came known Congress heard from all sides shame shame!!
There is no doubt Deora has a lot of convincing to do!!!
And a lot of answering too!!
Ghar ka bhedi Lankaa dhaaye is an apt saying and so Anil's info flow!!
Okay the brothers don't live under the same roof but about each other a lot they know!!!
Confucius says….. dekh tehre sons ki haalath kya hogayi Dhirubhai!!
Ek door eke liye they dig karr rahe hai khai (ditch)!!
Bharat Kumar
aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

Forum
(The views expressed in this column are of the contributors. We do not owe any responsibility, whatsoever, of the views of our surfers as they are their personal opinion)
Specialist in Foreign ministry-
It is never late for MEA to wake up to reality that they cannot handle all economic issues themselves. Pandit Nehru wanted them to be political diplomat and not economic diplomat. Unfortunately , they have taken over economic diplomacy and forgot political diplomacy. The evidence is in form of blunder committed by one of so called bright diplomat , who happen to be foreign secretary of this great country. If foreign secretary can do this kind of blunder, then one can imagine about lesser soul of Indian diplomacy.
The other important thing is, they are saying that they have shortage of manpower but they are very keen to give political clearance to official visits when the other ministry is nodal ministry. The biggest problem of IFS is that they do not want to do their job but want to handle economic issues and that is where problem lies.
If they allow other people to handle economic issues then they can focus on core diplomatic issues.
The CBDT has long history of developing expertise in area of economic and DTAA negotiations but unfortunately they are never part of MEA team nor in International bodies. This one department can fill vacuum of shortage of officers in MEA. India will get a fillip by involvement of CBDT/CBEC and other specialist from other ministry in area of economic diplomacy.
I hope PM ca take a lead to initiate this reform in MEA.
S Kumar
No one capable to tell Govt, what not to do
Sad that none of them seem to be capable to tell to the Government what not to do and focus only on good governance. What has happened to M/S St. Stephens ?
Ranganath
Govt deserves collective gratitude
Retire after 33 years or 62, the government deserves our collective gratitude
Singh
It would be great justice to SC/ST
35 years or 62 would do great justice to the SC/ST groups who join civil service late because of various difficulties and end up retiring as Joint Secretaries.
Rita
BSP owes victory to vicious circuit within BJP
To my views, the victory of BSP is merely due to vicious circuit within BJP which deviated BJP workers and party cadres to disassociate themselves from the routine fighting spirit. Had BJP been active with spirited enthusiasm, the BSP votes could have been cut and Congress must have a little edge, if not over, equivalent with BSP at this stage. It is on record that Congress Party's vote ratio has increased considerably. Anyhow, this is politics, which will go on like this.
HS Bhalla
Parties like BSP, SP surviving due to blunders of national parties
Parties like BSP, SP, etc and their top leaders are surviving and thriving solely due to incompetence and historical blunders committed by the main political party of the country i.e. Indian National Congress. Even now they are not realizing this. Once they realise this and work in the interests of the people without thinking of short-term political goals, caste-based parties will automatically go. The other national political party is groping in the dark and has no ideology of its own.
Bishan Sharma
It is really a very serious issue
Dear Sirs and Colleague,
I hope you have gone through the letters attached with this mail from 'borderman'.
It is really a very serious issue which affects us on three fronts; official, social and of course financial. All other Group A services, in addition to IAS and IPS, have been included in these orders for upgradation except for services like CPOs and other offices under various ministries.
It might not be a deliberate step on the part of the GOI to deprive us of these benefits but this anomaly is here for all of us to suffer. As stated earlier it affects us socially and officially too apart from affecting us financially. A number of services and privileges are related to the Grade Pay being drawn by an officer irrespective of his rank. With this Non-Functional Upgradation an officer of 1989 batch of IAS and 1987 batch of other services (like Indian Audit & Accounts Service, Indian Civil Accounts Service, Indian Customs & Central Excise Service etc) is entitled to travel 'Business Class' by air in whatever rank he is but an officer of even 1972 batch of BSF can not travel 'Business Class'. Similarly it affects entitlements for Government Quarters, various allowances and other such facilities directly related to Grade Pay and not to a specific rank.
Socially it undermines our status amongst officers of other cadres we interact with. And yes we do not live within our own four walls we do interact with others in society and now all our peers are on a higher pedestal.
And financially we are disadvantaged the most.
Our 1972 batch officers are getting a Grade Pay of Rs 8900/- whereas, as per this order, even a 1976 batch officer of other services is entitled to get GP of Rs. 12000/- irrespective of his rank. A 1987 batch officer is entitled to GP of Rs. 10000/- against Rs. 8700/- for BSF officers. Similarly a 1993 batch officer of these services (1995 batch for IAS) has been granted PB 4 on Non-Functional Upgradation basis irrespective of his actual rank and promotion. In BSF it might still take some time for 1993 batch to get PB 4 as Grade Pay here is directly related to promotion to a particular rank. And this difference in Grade Pay has a cumulative effect as other allowances like DA, HRA, TRG, SDA etc are as a percentage of PB+GP.
This upgradtion is to mitigate the disadvantages of a delayed promotion in a particular cadre or service.
DOPT says in these orders:
'Such up-gradation would not be
linked to the vacancies in the grade.'
It further says:
'Non-functional up-gradation to the next higher grade pay
granted under the scheme is a fall back option only, to be
applied in cases where officers of a particular Service have not
been granted promotion to a particular grade in normal course
according to the due procedure.'
These orders are not cadre-specific orders, these are applicable to a wide spectrum of cadres and services. Certain services like CPOs etc have got excluded but I feel it was not with an intention to deprive us of these benefits but just that we could not be covered due to certain administrative shortcomings. Our demand for an Organised Cadre status assumes more importance under such circumstances. But at this stage, I feel, inclusion of all other services including CPOs in these orders by DOPT is more important and we need to pay attention towards that.
NK

TAIL-PIECE
You may like to add a little humour in your otherwise serious site
It was the day after India's Independence Day. A thoughtful Tony Blair who had watched the celebrations on TV got onto the phone with his friend Bush:
"India!" shouted Blair.
"What about India?" asked a startled Bush.
"We English made a mistake George," said Blair, "I need to get India back as a colony!"
"You serious Tony?" asked a still more startled Bush.
"Yeah this is not the India we let go some sixty years ago," said
Blair, "this is a colony we would be proud to have now."
"So whatcha plannin' to do?" asked Bush.
"Why George what we did to Saddam. Attack them."
"You sayin' we? You not hoping I'm goin' to join you are you?"
"I helped you in Iraq George, you forgettin' or sometin'?"
"Yeah but we had an excuse there Tony, we were lookin' for weapons of mass destruction, you remember?"
"So we do the same thing here George. We tell the Indians to give up their weapons of mass destruction!"
"I don't know whether we are doing the right thing Tony, India's a
democracy you know?"
"I lied for you in Iraq George. Nearly lost the elections for you. I'm sure you could do this lil' favour for me.. With India back as my colony, we'll be back as a world power! Britain rules the world! You heard that phrase George?"
"I thought it was America who was doin' the rulin' Tony."
"We'll do the rulin' together George. You and me will be equal
partners once I get my India back. Come on George talk to that
Manmohan feller, tell him to give up his weapons of mass destruction, or else..!"
"Okay Tony since you insist. Can call me back in five minutes."
"Shall I get my ships ready?"
"For what?" asked a surprised Bush.
"For war dammit," shouted Tony as he put the phone down and waited for Bush to talk to the Indian Prime Minister. He walked over to a little globe he had on his office table and circled India gleefully.
The phone rang and he ran to pick it up.
"Tony it's me," said George, "how many ships you got ready?"
"Aye aye sir, the Royal Navy is ready for action!" said Tony, standing at attention.
"You can send them to India," said Bush.
"To fight?" asked Blair happily."
"No to pick up their weapons of mass destruction."
"Whatcha talkin' about?" asked a confused Blair.
"Manmohan said you would know 'cause it's your people who made them," said Bush.
"What weapons of mass destruction?" whispered Blair uncertainly.
"Their politicians, their MP's, their MLA's and last but not the least the bureaucrats" said Bush happily,
"Manmohan said you could take them all back to England where they were trained years ago by yer people to divide and rule..!"
Contributed by-Nippy Mehta