From me, to me
It’s all a matter of hats! Inspector general internal security Bhaskar Rao writes to inspector general training Bhaskar Rao! Yes, that’s correct. Owing to the shortage of officers in Karnataka, IPS officer Bhaskar Rao is managing two positions, or wearing two hats. So wearing the hat of IG (internal security), he regularly corresponds with IG (training) — only the addressee is himself, wearing the other hat! If any further proof of the Kafkaesque world of bureaucracy is needed, Mr Rao would be an ideal example. But the officer himself sees no irony in the situation. He says he is doing this only to ensure that the paperwork is complete and that whoever succeeds him in either of the two positions would have all the information that is required. Sources say that the director general of police, Lalrokhuma Pachau, admits that there is a shortage of police officers in the rank of inspector general, but is unable to explain when the situation will change. In the meantime, Mr Rao seems comfortable juggling two posts.
*** CBI’s freedom call Sensing hope, the “caged parrot” is now demanding it be released from government control. The Central Bureau of Investigation has reportedly informed the Supreme Court that the government, in the coal scam case, is discriminating against the agency by not giving ex-officio powers of secretary to the CBI director. The CBI obviously believes that the only way to insulate itself from the charges of political interference hurled at it every now and then is to empower the CBI chief to place proposals directly before the minister for department of personnel and training (DoPT), without having to deal with the babus in DoPT. The present CBI chief Ranjit Sinha, many believe, sees in the Supreme Court-directed coal scam investigation an opportunity for his agency to step out of the sarkari shadow and become more autonomous, and is now pressing the issue, given that the court has taken considerable interest in the CBI’s functioning. The ball is now in the government’s court, and it remains to be seen how it reacts to this “call for freedom”.
*** Back with respect As reported in this column earlier, the reinstatement of Indian Administration Service officer Durga Shakti Nagpal by the Uttar Pradesh government was expected sooner than later. Whatever the official stand of the state government, the fact is that intense public and media pressure and the unprecedented support she received from her IAS colleagues across the country left chief minister Akhilesh Yadav no other choice. Sources claim that Ms Nagpal’s husband, IAS officer Abhishek Singh, too, met Mr Yadav and apprised him of the “facts” of the matter. But the real reason remains that the unstinted support for Ms Nagpal took the Samajwadi Party leaders by surprise and turned the tables in her favour. Already receiving flak for not doing enough to control communal clashes in the state, the party obviously does not want to complicate matters by proceeding against the IAS officer. The inquiries against her have been dropped and she will soon receive a fresh posting.
