Corridor talk

Recently, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla visited finance ministry officials in North Block, the complex that also houses an office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Since Birla is at the centre of a controversy regarding coal block allocations, journalists naturally asked him if he had been contacted by the CBI in connection with a First Information Report, in which the agency had named him. Birla chose to maintain a dignified silence but an ultra-loyal company official offered the enigmatic reply that the journalist concerned was in the wrong corridor. Which could mean a lot, or nothing at all.