Dilip is considered India's foremost image management guru and resident iconoclast. He wavers between irrational exuberance and cataclysmic gloom but can be influenced at mail@dilipcherian.com
Counting on continuity As this column had hinted last month, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has indeed got a one-year extension. The appointments committee of the Cabinet has decided to extend Mr Seth’s term in the ‘interests of continuity’ in an election year. The UPA is passing through a particularly rough phase and Prime Minister Manmohan [...]
Aam Aurat next? With crucial senior appointments due soon, the rumour mills in Dilli’s babu corridors are working overtime! According to the grapevine, women power is likely to assert itself this time. Last week this column reported that Sujatha Singh, ambassador to Germany, is strongly tipped by babu-watchers to be named the next foreign secretary, [...]
Blackened by coal mess The UPA government and Union Law Minister Ashwini Kumar are at the centre of the current controversy over tweaking the CBI report to the Supreme Court on Coalgate. Understandably, a blame game is underway though it may already be too late to remedy the considerable damage that has already been done, [...]
CBI stumped The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths investigating two Maharashtra officials accused in the Adarsh housing scam have run into a wall. The state government continues to withhold permission to prosecute the two main accused, namely former BMC commissioner Jairaj Pathak and former city collector Pradeep Vyas. It is alleged that the two [...]
A warning sign Something is rotten in the state of Andhra Pradesh, and the signs are clear. Discontented with the prolonged political uncertainty and its resultant impact on governance, senior bureaucrats in the state are showing a preference for Central deputation than serving in their state. Sources say that this year at least 10 empanelled [...]
No love lost The man who could perhaps have been Gujarat’s police chief is now retired, but he has been retained as an advisor in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Kuldip Sharma – the 1976 batch IPS officer, who battled state chief minister Narendra Modi in court and in the media – was not [...]
Transfer raj Things have changed at the Railway Ministry since the days when the Trinamool Congress held sway. Ever since the Congress party took back the railway portfolio, railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has been busy removing all traces of the Trinamool from Rail Bhawan. Senior officials who were considered close to the Trinamool Congress [...]
Early birds With Home Secretary R.K. Singh set to exit in June after completing his two-year term, sarkari corridors are busy guessing the names of the probable replacements. Possible contenders include 1977 batch MP cadre IAS officer D.R.S. Chaudhary, currently steel secretary; UP chief secretary Jawed Usmani; secretary, Department of Personnel & Training P.K. Misra; [...]
Right to tell Talk in Maharashtra’s babu corridors is that only a fresh-out-of-academy babu on his first-ever posting could do this – put up a list of his assets, including bank balance and provident fund details right outside his office – while his seniors in the service still look for ways to circumvent the directive. [...]
Fact ‘n’ fiction Belying the older stereotype of the Indian Babu, the literary muse runs strong in many younger civil servants. Some of them are tempted to write analysis but most are enticed by fiction. Former IFS Pavan Varma, diplomat and ambassador Navtej Sarna, and IAS officer Upamanyu Chatterjee have an equally glittering career as [...]
