Flagging the error

Rural Development Minister and senior Congressman Jairam Ramesh was briefing reporters at the party headquarters on the roll-out of the direct benefits transfer scheme, for which he is playing a pivotal role, and was attempting to switch from English to Hindi with seeming ease. All was well till he referred to the government’s flagship programmes as “dhwajvahini” schemes. To that, Congress media chairperson Janardhan Dwivedi, who is referred to as Panditji in Congress circles for his chaste Hindi and because he is a teacher, corrected him mid-sentence. It is “dhwaj vahi”, he said, not “vahini” (which means army).