The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) succeeds where the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) failed! The CBI recently arrested central excise commissioner Anup Kumar Srivastava for his alleged role in a tax evasion case. This followed a raid by CBI on the babu’s premises earlier this month. But the curious thing about this episode is that Srivastava was already on the radar of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which had recommended that the official be transferred to a “non-sensitive” post. It’s an interesting example of the CVC’s lack of clout that its letter to the chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) to transfer Srivastava ran into a wall once it reached the finance ministry. While CBEC chief S.K. Goel and other members of the panel agreed to transfer Srivastava to Jaipur, they were stymied by other babus in the Finance Ministry. Had the CBI not arrested Srivastava, sources say, he would have in all likelihood continued at his post.

The policy freeze and dithering which have come to symbolize UPA-II have had an adverse impact on India’s diplomatic efforts. Key ambassadorial positions have been lying vacant while the Prime Minister (who approves the appointments along with the external affairs minister and the foreign secretary) has busy stamping out political bush fires. One factor that has hampered appointments to crucial ambassadorial positions is that these often involve candidates with political backgrounds.

What a way to end the year! We began with the threat of Anna’s fast and a promise to jail bharo. By the early afternoon of December 27, it was clear that Anna was a flop in Mumbai. Delhi is a city obsessed with politics; a one topic town where the pyramid ends at the top with the most powerful. Mumbai is a multi-peaked city; politics is not even the second most important hierarchy. Also as I said in my last column, repeated fasts are boring and ineffective. So it proved. The Anna Movement committed suicide on the 28th with the fast being abandoned, no jail bharo and no coherent programme.

The current housing scam involving netas, babus and scribes may cause some anxiety to the Orissa government, but it just an example of the politics of patronage found elsewhere too. For babu-watchers, a different kind of trouble is brewing for chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Apparently the government under Patnaik is unfriendly towards people with disabilities. Under [...]

The policy freeze and dithering which have come to symbolize UPA-II have had an adverse impact on India’s diplomatic efforts. Key ambassadorial positions have been lying vacant while the Prime Minister (who approves the appointments along with the external affairs minister and the foreign secretary) has busy stamping out political bush fires. One factor that has hampered appointments to crucial ambassadorial positions is that these often involve candidates with political backgrounds.

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.

RTI activists often complain about the disproportionate number of former bureaucrats who become information commissioners after retirement. Ever since the Central Information Commission came into being in 2005, the tribesmen have bagged the key posts of information commissioners and even Central Information Commissioner (CIC). The list includes such babu luminaries like Wajahat Habibullha, A.N. Tewari, Omita Paul, O.P. Kejrwal and present incumbent Satyanand Mishra, among others. But things may be changing.

Despite the current coal crisis, the search for a new chief for Coal India Limited, which accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the country’s total coal supply, will probably continue into next year. The process to replace Partha S Bhattacharya, who retired in February, has moved in fits and starts. Now, according to sources, [...]

The UPA’s deep embarrassment in the P.J. Thomas imbroglio last year, in which the government (or rather Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram) cleared his name for appointment as Chief Vigilance Commissioner while ignoring the criminal charges pending against the babu has obviously left a deep scar. Clearly wishing to avoid a horrible repeat of the scenario, the government has reformatted vigilance clearance form to be filled by babus before empanelment at the Centre.

The runaway success of the Right to Information Act (RTI) has meant that the government is flooded with applications. The Central government alone, it is estimated, receives an average 800,000 applications every year. Not surprisingly, the Central Information Commission (CIC) is reeling under the increasing work load. Currently, chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra and the five information commissioners are struggling valiantly to keep pace.