Top job
It’s guessing time again in babudom, with the announcement of the new Cabinet Secretary expected shortly. Though Pulok Chatterjee remains a frontrunner for the position, inevitably there are several other names in the running. Among the key possibilities the prospects of Anup Mukherjee, chief secretary of Bihar, are quite good.
Some observers insist that he could well be a Pulok option. There is also considerable talk this time about a woman Cabinet Secretary, in which scenario names of finance secretary Sushma Nath and personnel secretary Alka Sirohi as likely candidates might be mentioned. No doubt, all will be revealed soon.
Curiously, talk of appointing women to high positions in government crops up often, especially after Nirupama Rao became only the second women foreign secretary. India has never had a woman Cabinet Secretary. Apparently, out of nearly 150 secretaries to the government, less than 10 are women. And with Ms Rao readying to retire herself, there is less likelihood, observers say, of another woman replacing her. Punters are betting on either Ranjan Mathai, S. Shabarwal or Alok Prasad as the likely successor. But it’s early days yet. Watch this space for updates.
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Chorus of cops
As may well be expected, cracks are beginning to appear in the upper echelons of the Gujarat police after senior officer Sanjeev Bhatt decided to take on chief minister Narendra Modi on his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. By filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court implicating Mr Modi and questioning the role of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is inquiring into the riots, Mr Bhatt has pretty much created a schism among the senior officials, besides putting Mr Modi in a spot.
But, according to observers, despite the chief minister’s famed iron-grip on the administration and his babus, it may be that Mr Bhatt is not isolated. Despite former director-general of police K. Chakravarthi questioning Mr Bhatt’s version, support for Mr Bhatt seems to be growing among his civil service colleagues. Suspended Indian Administrative Service officer Pradeep Sharma, who is facing charges in an alleged land scam himself, now desires to depose before the SIT to reveal how he was allegedly pressurised to prevent his brother, an Indian Police Service officer, from discharging his duty. But more significantly, former top cop R.B. Shreekumar has come out strongly in support of Mr Bhatt. And with home minister P. Chidambaram, too, indicating his faith in Mr Bhatt’s affidavit, it would be interesting to see who else in Gujarat will summon the courage to take on the mighty Modi.
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