There is panic in the Ministry of Home Affairs. An embarrassing lie that remained buried for the past 37 years has surfaced to put the ministry officials and the minister himself in a piquant situation.

Vikram Srivastava, a 1973 batch UP-cadre IPS officer, has been appointed as the director general of the CRPF. Six months earlier, his elder brother Raman Srivastava, a Kerala-cadre IPS, was made director general of the BSF. The trouble is they are shown to be born in a gap of five months. Raman Srivastava's birthday is shown to be October 24, 1951 while that of his younger brother Vikram on March 18, 1952, in the official records.

There were newspaper reports celebrating the success of the two brothers heading two paramilitary forces at the same time. Nobody in the home ministry checked the birth dates while releasing the bio-data. It is known to everyone that the Srivastavas are real brothers and have been shown to have been born five months apart, which is a biological impossibility.

Now, it has come to the notice of the ministry that someone is planning to file a PIL in court challenging the brothers' dates of birth. This has alarmed the officials and the minister, P Chidambaram. What if the court accepts the PIL and demands to know the embarrassing truth?

Those acquainted with the government's service rules say taking up government service on false information is a serious offence, that can lead to dismissal from service. Many wonder how for so long the fact remained undetected and neither of the brothers got their date of birth corrected in time, in case the date of birth of one of them has been incorrectly mentioned in the records.

It is now for the minister to take a call and decide whether an explanation would be sought from the brothers. Time is running out with the PIL sword hanging over the head.