Map-cutting sycophancy
The culture of sycophancy that is the sine qua non for a politician’s survival in the hurly-burly of India’s grand old party’s unique brand of politics manifested itself in Uttarakhad in great glory on the occasion of the Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s birthday reception held on April 27. However, the cynosure of the birthday grandiloquence was not related to any of the incorrigibly sycophantic Congressmen. A senior cop seemed to have stolen the show, outwitting them in the art of sycophancy and hogged the sycophantic glory full on himself.
A mammoth cake weighing 60 pound, supposedly prepared at the behest of a senior IPS officer, to be cut on the grand occasion, resembled the map of Uttarakhand. Immense pains were taken to bring it to the CM’s residence from Delhi in a refrigerated van under the escort of a sub- inspector and three constables. The hyper-active IPS saw to it that his juniors were present in full strength when the gift was to be handed over to the adorable leader.
The redoubtable CMO official who inspires awe because of his enviable proximity to the CM was seen standing in reverence. To lend the occasion with humanitarian glory, some specially-abled children were fetched in. With alert media warning the CM against indulging in the cake (map)-cutting revelry, the astute CM acted with alacrity and asked others to remove the cake. But, the question remains unanswered- would the CM acquiesce with the sycophancy-induced audacity or, at least, take some token action against the cop by way of a deterrentIJ
Riddle of Sauf
A bureaucrat who has made it a habit to generously offer sauf that is taken after a meal is over to whosoever visits him at his office. He has turned into a centre of curiosity among his visitors, particularly the scribes. The seemingly flummoxed visitors tend to explain the riddle in two ways. Either he signals them subtly to clear out soon as he minds his ‘precious’ time or most of the visitors being drunk or given to tobacco-chewing, the suave Babu offers them sauf as mouth fresheners to spare him the trouble of putting up with their bad breadth.
Star-gazing Babus
To decongest things from the Secretariat, a building known as Planning Bhawan came up in a place between police headquarter and secretariat on Subhash Road. The building was designed to provide space to the officials who were forced to work huddled together in the cramped office and also to provide adequate space for car-parking. It is a grand-looking five-floor building with a capacity to accommodate over 100 cars at a time in the basement area. However, things on the ground prove that such plans are generally conceived in the air-conditioned cocoons of the star-gazing Babus. What is found is that the entrance and exit of the basement is so wonderfully ‘specious’ that none other than a Nano- sized car can enter or exit freely. Now, the question is – how had the planning department cleared the payment to the company that was awarded with the tenderIJ More, how the planning was passed in the first placeIJ