Holy wrath
The bustling edifice housing the State’s Babudom known as the Secretariat literally trembled at its roots on Thursday as it encountered the ‘holy’ wrath of a senior Babu. The Babu spewing fire on his inefficient subordinates was justified, as his driver was late in his arrival with the Babu readying to leave to attend a meeting. The subordinates were found stammering while they were lashed with the invectives thrown by the exasperated Babu. The hapless subordinates heaved a long sigh of relief when the enraged Babu left the Secretariat, muttering ‘curses’ on their benumbed heads. “A good riddance,” said one of them, seemingly still smarting under the hammering rage.
Down slippery slope
Babudom being a treacherous slope, there is no guarantee that a loyal Babu would be rewarded for his unflinching loyalty. This is what a senior bureaucrat is now realising to his woe. It is widely known that he had taken immense pains while over-lording the Babudom to help the State Government wriggle out of a number of stinking scams. Whenever such a scam surfaced the Government used to appoint a high- level committee being chaired by the loyal Babu to rid itself of the charges. The Babu was known for his uncanny ability to shove shoddy things under the carpet. But now, he feels he is being slighted by those whom he helped to come out ‘clean’ of the swampy cesspools. Following his retirement in July, he has been covetously eying the post of chief information commissioner of Uttarakhand. But as things stand now, another Babu, much junior to him who is set to retire in a few months, is being propped up for the post. A ruling party satrap, deemed privy to the chief minister’s office, said that the State government is skirting his appointment, citing the adamant stance of the leader of the Opposition against it. But the Babu, being a seasoned Babu, knows that it is just an excuse to keep him at bay. Very few in the Babudom know better than him that the State government hardly encounters impediment to such appointments from the Opposition if it is sufficiently willed to get things done. Even in the case of the government out to acquire tea plantation land for implementing smart city project, there has been a tacit understanding between the ruling party and the Opposition. But in case of the pliant Babu whose loyalty has assumed almost epic proportions in the Babudom, the State government is citing Opposition to spite his chances. Who should he blame for his predicament-his hostile stars or his peerless proneness to bend backwardsIJ
Muddled existence
Resentment keeps brewing among the people over the muddled identities of the chief minister’s residence and Bijapur Guest House. The latter is the place where the CM Harish Rawat has been residing since he assumed the office in February 1, 2014. Notably, in the run-up to the 2014 general election, a part of the sprawling Bijapur Guest House was shown by the State government as temporary residence of the CM, citing the fact that the chief minister’s residence was under renovation. He is still residing there though. There is an interesting story behind the CM occupying the guest house. The original residence of the CM located on the same road remains attached with an ‘inauspicious’ stigma with all the CMs preceding the present incumbent failing to complete their terms while residing in the official CM’s residence. Anyway, the confusion still persists over the identity of the CM residence. The invitations sent to the visitors, including bureaucrats, mention the venue of the meeting as chief minister’s residence on Cant Road. Everybody knows that the guest house is where the CM is residing in. But the security personnel are used to tell the visitors when the latter reach the guest house that they have mistakenly come to the guest house with the CM’s residence located a little distance away. They keep floundering in the maze of guest house/CM’s residence conundrum. They are right when they demand that CM’s residence be rid of the sticky confusion once and for all.