Dilli Ka Babu
In the hot seat
Raghuraman Rajan, the new chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, said bureaucracy is not foreign to him. This is good, since he’ll be surrounded by it in his new job. It may help perhaps that his father was a civil servant. But it has been a sort of convention that this position is usually accorded to an academic rather than a babu.
Sources say that Mr Rajan’s name had been green-lighted quite some time back by Pranab Mukherjee when he was finance minister. Expectations are running high but so are the challenges, which he is candid enough to admit are “serious”. At a time when investments and growth in the Indian economy have faltered significantly and economic reforms have been stalled due to lack of political consensus, the new chief economic advisor has a lot on his plate already. Observers, however, are also keen to see how Mr Rajan will help P. Chidambaram steer the floundering ship of India’s economy.
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Second innings
In a country where retirement is not the most welcome of events in a person’s life, babus in Bihar these days can’t seem to wait to get off the hook. The reason is “post-retirement” life seems far more attractive, what with plum postings that await them, especially for those who are close to the ruling dispensation.
A former Bihar chief secretary, R.J.M. Pillai, secured his post-retirement job well in advance. He is now chief information commissioner of the Bihar State Information Commission. His successor Navin Kumar, similarly, ensured that he would become the director-general of the newly created Centre for Good Governance Society.
According to sources, senior police officials and bureaucrats have benefited immensely from Nitish Kumar’s reluctance to see some of his favourite babus ride into the sunset. Others who have joined this league are former development commissioners K.C. Saha and S. Vijayraghavan, former home secretary U.N. Panjiar and Shakil Ahmed, to name a few.
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Succession drama
If rumours are to be believed, the Union home ministry proposes to extend the tenure of CRPF director-general K. Vijay Kumar by a year. Mr Kumar is slated to retire at the end of this month. If true, this move will impact several senior IPS officers who are vying for the position. Observers say that it would probably be a first case as no CRPF chief in the past has been given an extension.
According to sources, the ministry believes that appointing a new chief would impact anti-Maoist operations being undertaken by the CRPF. But the reported move has dampened the enthusiasm of senior officers from the 1976 and 1977 batches of the IPS. Still, all will be revealed soon as the matter is now with the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, which will take a decision shortly.
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