The Sena Bhawan in New Delhi would not have expected this intriguing doubt to be raised by an ex-serviceman settled in a remote town in Tamil Nadu. R. Kannan Govindarajulu of Keezhmaruvathur in Kancheepuram district sought to know why the rank of Lieutenant General was held above Major General, while the rank of Major was above the Lieutenant at the lower level. The Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence replied contending there was no dichotomy in the designations and said the rank systems had historically evolved and was also in use in other armies of the world. Interestingly, the attachments with the reply contained information downloaded from Wikipedia.
It remains unexplained whether the second largest Army in the world should seek guidance and refer from Wikipedia - an open source platform from the internet, instead of a service manual or rule book for clarifications on its rank structure and functioning.
The same ex-serviceman had earlier pointed out that the Army flag did not have the words ‘Satyameva Jayate’ along with the national emblem. The Army eventually corrected it.
The DMK organised a State-wide demonstrations against the Land Acquisition Bill, death of an Agriculture Engineering department official, Mekedatu and Methane projects this past week. Former Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin participated in Tiruvarur.
The Tiruvarur party unit leaders had done well to tastefully design the makeshift dais in the shape of a hut, replete with hay-straw roof, to symbolise the ethos of the Cauvery delta region and to signify that the demonstration related to agrarian issues.
However, they lost the plot when it came to collecting the crowds for the protest. Hardly 600 to 700 cadre were present when the party organised a demonstration in front of the Tiruvarur Collectorate on important issues that confront the State in general and the Cauvery delta in particular.
Even the thought that their best bet for the Chief Minister’s post was leading the show failed to enthuse the protesting partymen, whom Mr. Stalin had to coax into raising slogans, and he was visibly upset with the crowd numbers and its response. A few sad DMK cadres rued the response in their leader M. Karunanidhi’s home turf.
Ever since her entry into the Congress, actor Kushbu has hogged the limelight in many party events. She has managed to tour widely across the State and is being considered a crowd puller. However, the buzz in the party is on whether she would find a bigger role and an official position to back her work. While some speculate that she may be given a post in the TNCC women wing, the decision may face stiff opposition from other women leaders. Already, MLA S. Vijayadharini had indirectly made her displeasure felt in a party consultation meeting on the space that the actor has managed to get within days of her entry into the party. A plum post may not be taken lightly by many.
“There is also a question on whether Ms. Kushbu can take a full-time role. She is doing a handful of films,” a senior leader said.
The DMK high command, which amicably solved the issue of selection of district secretaries for the Salem Central, Salem East and Salem West district party units, by avoiding the elections in the eleventh hour and nominating three leaders as in-charge, is facing the fresh problem of allotting the party headquarters ‘Kalaignar Maaligai’ in the city. The office in front of the new bus stand in the heart of the city was built by the party strongman late ‘Veerapandi’ Arumugam. His son, ‘Veerapandi’ A. Raja, was eying for the post of the district secretary of the Salem Central district unit, which covered Salem city too. But the high command nominated ‘Panaimarathupatti’ R. Rajendran as in-charge of Central district unit and Mr. Raja of Salem East unit.
The million dollar question is whether ‘Kalaignar Maaligai’ will serve as the office of the Central district unit alone or also those in charge of Salem East and Salem West districts.
“Kalaignar Maaligai was built by raising donations from cadre throughout the Salem revenue district,” says a senior party leader.
(Dennis S. Jesudasan,
L. Renganathan, Sruthisagar Yamunan and Syed Muthahar Saqaf)
