Divine intervention

Congress loyalist Girija Vyas' elevation to the Union Cabinet may not have been unexpected given that the party had to balance caste equations in her home state of Rajasthan ahead of the Assembly elections there. What took everyone by surprise, however, was the religious fanfare with which Vyas took charge of her assignment as minister for housing and urban poverty alleviation. On her first day at the office, the minister arrived with a battery of priests, flowers, garlands and other religious paraphernalia and conducted a puja before officially taking over. No doubt, the Congress is looking for some divine intervention ahead of the general elections next year. But last time we checked, India was a secular republic and its ministers were supposed to honour that, at least in the discharge of their public duty.