Monday Mirchi: Unfounded speculations, premature rejoicing

A purely personal meeting that Giridhar Aramane, 1988 batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre who took over as the Defence Secretary on November 01, 2022, had with AP Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy the other day triggered unfounded speculations that he is going to be the next Chief Secretary. Yours truly gathered that Giridhar had met Jagan to invite the Chief Minister for his daughter’s marriage. A valid question that rumour-mongers missed is: ‘Why would a defence secretary — reporting directly to the President, the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister – take himself down by accepting CS post?’ It is a different matter that bureaucratic circles in AP, carried away by wild rumours, are prematurely rejoicing over ‘the impending return of the officer as CS’.

Reddy tag no longer a liability
A little bird told us that, as things stand, Special Chief Secretary to Chief Minister KS Jawahar Reddy and Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, are among the frontrunners in the race for the CS post. Contrary to reports in a section of the press, in the case of Jawahar Reddy, his ‘Reddy’ tag is no longer an issue for the powers that be. That apart, the grapevine has it that Andhra Pradesh cadre senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi, another strong contender for the post, has many more years of service left, compared to Jawahar Reddy and Poonam Malakondaiah. So, she may have to bide her time. In any case, the chances of others in the race for CS post such as Neerabh Kumar Prasad and R Karikal Valaven are bleak.

No Shave November for Jayesh
Jayesh Ranjan is sporting a salt and pepper look. It was during the Covid pandemic that many of the bureaucrats were seen with beard. Despite normalcy, it has been No-Shave November. During the annual month-long campaign, participants forgo grooming to raise awareness for cancer. Funds that would normally go toward monthly hair maintenance are instead donated to cancer foundations. Jayesh seems to have taken part in the annual event, going by available pictures from those taken a month ago to the ones taken of late.

Sorry, but who is sharing?
A la continuing leaks to media of videos of ‘treatment’ being given in jail to AAP Minister Satyendar Jain despite the undertaking given to the court by the ED against any such leaks, opposition and media houses are puzzled as to how certain details of SIT probe are getting leaked in the case relating to poaching of four TRS MLAs. CV Anand, who heads the SIT, has a stock reply to pointed media queries on this: ‘sorry’. The local media is disappointed that, barring TRS mouthpieces, nobody gets information from the inside track. Still, they appreciate CV Anand for being genuinely apologetic. No response is something that irks media more than anything else. A seasoned IPS officer, Anand knows how to maintain relations. Some media circles believe that the Chief Minister’s Office is releasing everything to TRS mouthpieces. Their grouse against the brains or advisors who came up with these calculated leaks is that the powers that be could rather leak juicy bits from the probe to the entire media, instead of sharing them with a few papers.

Something is better than nothing
Greeting people on the Constitution Day may have been a difficult choice for Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, considering that he has called for a debate to help rewrite the country’s basic statute so as to bring it in sync with the times. On Samvidhan Divas, after celebrations were over, late in the night officials released a press note. The note came around 9:50 pm in WhatsApp and after 10:00 pm via email. The buzz is that officials had no clue when and whether to release such a note. Finally the view that not greeting people could be seen as disrespect to BR Ambedkar, thereby giving grist to the mill of opposition parties, prevailed among debating eggheads and the note was finally released. Well, they say ‘something is better than nothing’.