Did Ye Know...

... In the year of 1977, when the Janata Party came to power unseating Congress for the first time since Independence, and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, Prohibition was clamped in Delhi.

Overnight, the Delhi Administration's department of Excise, entrusted with the task of organising and monitoring the sale of liquor in Delhi, was disbanded. Instead, a new department, the deprtment of Prohibition, was created.

Prohibition was a subject close to Morarji Bhai's heart and the department of prohibition went about its business of discouraging the sale and consumption of liquor in Delhi with a great degree of seriousness. In 1980, when Mrs. G won the elections and came back to power again, things changed once again.

Prohibition was lifted, and the department of Excise was resurrected to carry on with its old business. Mrs. G' s advisors told her it would be politically incorrect to be seen as a government that was completely against Prohibition. So, it was decided that the department of Prohibition, downsized considerably, would however still carry out the occasional anti-alcohol campaign.

Now THIS is the really interesting part of the story...

For reasons best known to themselves, and reasons that have never been quite explained since, the Delhi government, in its infinite wisdom, created the joint post of Commissioner of Excise and Director of Prohibition. Thus, in effect, the same man who was entrusted with the task of encouraging and promoting the sale of liquor in Delhi was also given the job of discouraging the sale and consumption of alcohol in the Indian capital.

For thirteen long years, this administrative anomaly continued and Delhi's Excise Commissioner was also the director of Prohibition. A succession of brave officials, to their credit, held the dual post, without ever officially communicating they had any difficulty in managing such contradictory chores.

I had the pleasure of meeting one of the last incumbents of this unique office. On record he refused to comment on the rather interesting nature of his job, except for once mumbling under his breath that officials much senior than him had created the dual post and it wasn't the job of lesser mortals like him to question the wisdom behind such a major administrative initiative.

Off the record, the man did admit that someone with a multiple personality disorder would have been ideal to do justice to the dual posting.