It is normal for the cadre of any political party to publicly praise their leader to the skies and deify him or her with the sole objective of catching their attention. At times, babus outdo them. The cadre of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti need to take a leaf out of the book of HMWSSB MD Dana Kishore on how to praise Minister K T Rama Rao. At an event where KTR addressed Maharashtra industrialists, the IAS officer, in his closing remarks, said that Minister KTR’s speech was ‘spellbinding’. He then recounted a private conversation he had had with his friends about KTR. He said, “Recently I met IFS batchmates at a party. They were asking ‘How come your Minister talks like this so well?’. I told them, as bureaucrats we need to have good leadership for development. KTR is team leader, whatever work Arvind Kumar, Dana Kishore, and NVS Reddy are doing, it is because of his humongous, understanding leadership”. He went on to say that he had never seen KTR with an angry face. “He just wants things to be done”, Kishore summed up dutifully. Given the impending elections, bureaucratic circles are discussing whether it was a farewell speech.
The CID chief’s priorities when it comes to clarification
After TDP president and former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu was remanded to judicial custody by the Court,the TDP has been running a campaign against CID chief Sanjay for his press statements. In a slip of the tongue during one such pressers, Sanjay misidentified Nashik as Ganga’s birthplace. A little bird told us that Sanjay wanted to give a clarification on this as it seemed to have called into question his GK. For newbies, TDP and its followers are hanging on to everything that the CID chief says and do not miss an opportunity or mince words to attack him for misstatements. A wag commented: “When TDP attacks Jagan, there are social media warriors to defend him, but officials, however, are left helpless”.
Bureaucrats form ginger group
Ginger groups are common within parties or movements. But if they are formed within a bureaucratic circle, whatever be the level of convergence of the participating members’ interests, the larger question is: Who is their target? Former AP Chief Secretary L V Subramanyam, along with a handful of retired IAS and IPS officers, has formed what they call ‘Save Democracy Forum’. They believe that democracy is peril. But the forum is yet to pinpoint where it is in peril: in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, or Delhi?That apart, the larger question is: Against whom are they joining hands? N Ramesh Kumar, who had been at logger heads with the Jagan Mohan Reddy government and was shunted out, is part of the group. So, one can imagine the target. Whoever it may, it would be interesting to see what this ginger group is up to.
Interrobang in place of interrogation
Hyderabad Commissioner of Police C V Anand, himself a cricketer, takes time out to give commentaries on cricket matches. Not far removed from interrogation, he recently shared with an interrobang: “Our team has developed the ability to let down the entire country at the most required time”. He remarked that he didnot feel like celebrating India’s win. “It has not won a single ICC Trophy, in T20, Onedayers, or the Test championships in the last ten 10 years!? Can u believe it! They do well like a flash in the pan and when the entire country is watching, they fall like 9 pins”. While India won the match, he said: “Team India, not impressed at all! U need to do more, prove it in the World Cup next month”.
Trolling no bar to transparency in social media
Trolling does not bother those who know how to take social media comments in their strike. The trick is simple: jhukna nahin. The quintessence of this among officials is CMO Secretary Smitha Sabharwal. Very active in social media, Smitha Sabharwal’s posts at times become controversial. Yet she airs her views fearlessly. Due to her sincerity even in social media posts, she has many fans and close followers, almost on par with those of cine stars and sport personalities. Some of these followers do criticise her bitterly. But Smitha Sabharwal, who does not mind sharing her private moments on social media platforms, including a reel that created a sensation recently, seems to have decided to stick to her guns, come what may.
