It may be just a coincidence but as political temperatures rise in election-bound Uttar Pradesh, so is the heat rising on certain ‘questionable’ bureaucratic appointments made by chief minister Mayawati. The Supreme Court has now admitted a plea challenging the appointment of a non-IAS person, Shashank Shekhar Singh as ‘cabinet’ secretary of the state. Of course, Singh’s proximity to Mayawati is not news, but the post that he now holds apparently has no precedent. According to sources, when Mayawati created this position to accommodate her close confidant through a state order, it was clarified that Singh would be at par with the state chief secretary. But due to his closeness to the chief minister, for all practical purposes, Singh wields more power than the top babu, Anoop Mishra, a 1978 batch IAS officer.
Caught in the loop
Yet another babu has unwittingly been sucked into the 2G quagmire. Nine years after he retired as telecom secretary, Shyamal Ghosh, a 1965 batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, but now a regular citizen, has been roped in by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), for allegedly favouring certain telecom companies in the allotment of spectrum during the tenure of then telecom minister Pramod Mahajan. Though CBI insists that the allotment of spectrum during Mahajan’s tenure led to a loss of Rs 508 crore, there is a growing feeling in babudom that Ghosh is being made a scapegoat. As it is, a former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura is already behind bars in the scandal. While the CBI has not made any move after raiding Ghosh’s residence, nothing can be ruled out. But the unfairness of it all rankles my tribesmen with good reason.
The great divide
The ‘class’ system is well and truly active in West Bengal’s babudom. Ever since Gautam Sanyal was appointed principal secretary to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, there is considerable heartburn in Kolkata’s Writers Building. The consternation is probably due to the fact that Sanyal, while being an equivalent to a joint secretary, is a Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officer and not a haloed IAS. According to sources, having a CSS officer occupy a senior position (conventionally held by an IAS officer) has left quite a few senior IAS babus rather upset. Apparently, the resentment runs deep since chief secretary Samar Ghosh was allegedly reluctant to appoint Sanyal because of his ‘lack of seniority’. But what Mamata wants, she usually gets. So Sanyal stays (though retired, he has been given a year’s extension).
