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Politics Business Expressions General Sports Leisure States 28 February 1998   Clean up this mess The biggest threat to national security is not the meddlesome neighbour one assumes to be behind every disaster. Not in the least bit. It is the Indian politician's penchant for fiddling with transfers and promotions.   The big little marchers For the residents of India, those who live in Bharat seem very far away. Yet, every now and then there comes a tale from the hinterland that the well-fed in metropolitan centres can learn from. Striking at the heart of eco-terrorism By all accounts, last week has to be one of the best that Indian industry has had in a long time in its battle against what is now called `eco-terrorism' -- the campaign run by environmentalists to prevent projects from being established. The Supreme Court struck down what is the last-but-one (right now, that is) public interest litigation against the Cogentrix power plant at Mangalore. While this one dealt with the project's impact on the environment, another petition alleging payoffs of Rs 60 crore is still pending in the Karnataka High Court. Winking at Romesh Bhandari ``One law for the CPI (M), another for the BJP!''Perhaps Basu is bound to follow the party line as any good apparatchik must. But how about Chandra Shekhar, who has no such burdens to trammel him? The former Prime Minister is a man I genuinely respect, but his position is unacceptable. Chandra Shekhar deprecates criticism of Bhandari on the ground that a Governor is an officer of the Constitution. But, judging by the snippets shown on t   The taxman milketh The Mumbai chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals requisitioned my services last week as mediator in a most unusual dispute. The city's buffaloes had complained that their owners, smarting under tax raids, were causing them untold hardship. Because the owners had refused to see reason, the buffaloes had taken their complaint to the taxmen. "The President cannot force his view" Election is time for old warhorses to revisit the route to power. Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar is back, fighting the election, making a statement or two and calling an occasional press conference. Neerja Chowdhury spoke to the Young Turk of yore as he emerges as the unlikely advocate for some old rivals. Excerpts.