Fire and smoke

News of the tragic fire at Mantralaya, the Maharashtra state secretariat in downtown Mumbai, had barely begun to spread across the city before rumours followed in its wake that the fire had been deliberately set to get rid of records and files, including those involving the Adarsh housing society scandal. So pervasive were the rumours that Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan actually had to issue a statement that all relevant files appeared to be secure. But it isn’t just Mumbai that’s subject to such rumours. They also circulated in the aftermath of a fire last week in North Block, which gutted two rooms of the finance ministry, about to be vacated by Pranab Mukherjee. Summer breeds not just fire, but also conspiracy theories.