MP babu Stung by praise

An IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh-cadre Ajay Singh Gangwar has fallen foul of the state government when he praised former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in a recent Facebook post. Though the post was later deleted, the damage was done. On receiving a complaint, the state chief secretary Anthony de Sa transferred the babu from Barwani district where he was the collector to the state secretariat in Bhopal as deputy secretary. Mr Gangwar has been accused of violating civil service conduct rules.

The virulent reaction to an “expression of personal opinion”, as Mr Gangwar claims, is similar to the reaction against a minor infraction by another Madhya Pradesh babu who got suspended for a photograph that showed his foot resting on a bedrail in a government hospital. In the current case, Mr Gangwar’s problem is that Nehru is not exactly the flavour of the season in the days of the BJP sarkar — whether at the Centre or in Madhya Pradesh. In fact, attempts are being made to erase the Nehruvian legacy in BJP-ruled states. Praising Nehru is clearly not the thing to do when the government is run by those for whom India’s first Prime Minister is an anathema.

Dark horse wins in Himachal Last week Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh had hinted that the new chief secretary of the state could be a more junior officer than those in obvious contention. Most assumed that the chief minister was indicating that his choice was V.C. Pharka, senior IAS officer and principal secretary as to Mr Singh. It’s now come true. Mr Pharka has indeed succeeded P. Mitra as the state chief secretary.

In the process Mr Pharka, an IAS officer of the 1983-batch, has superseded six senior IAS officers, including Deepak Sanan, Ajay Mittal, Vineet Chowdhary (all of 1982 batch) and Upma Chowdhary, Bharti S. Sihag and Asharam Sihag. Had Mr Singh not publicly indicated his choice, most babu-watchers expected Mr Mittal being the senior-most to replace Mr Mitra.

But Mr Pharka, known to be close to the chief minister, turned out to be the proverbial dark horse, becoming the fifth chief secretary of the state hailing from the tribal areas.

Bassi’s new job The appointment of former Delhi police chief B.S. Bassi as member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which conducts the civil services examination, has laid to rest all sorts of rumours about Mr Bassi’s post-retirement plans. Even before his retirement in February, the buzz was that he was in the race to become chief information commissioner. But after his controversial handling of the sedition row at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the Congress strongly opposed his candidature, and the Centre dropped his name. Later, Mr Bassi’s name did the rounds as a possible candidate for governor of Uttarakhand, but that clearly didn’t work. He would, if he had been named to the gubernatorial post have succeeded a former Delhi police commissioner into that Raj Bhavan.

Mr Bassi will have a tenure of about five years until February 2021 when he attains the age of 65. Usually UPSC members are appointed for a six-year term or until they attain the age of 65 years.

After a conflict-ridden stint as Delhi police chief, where he was involved in a running battle with the AAP government led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who accused Mr Bassi of being a stooge of the Centre, life at the UPSC should be relatively more peaceful for the retired senior cop.

Love them, hate them ignore them at national peril, is the babu guarantee and Dilip’s belief. Share significant babu escapades dilipcherian@hotmail.com