GLASSHOUSE
PMO CERTIFICATION NORMS
T
hePrimeMinister’sOffice,inModi2.0,istighteningitsgripontheministries.
ThebuzzisthatthePMOisrejectingministers’recommendationsforoffice
staff,beitforpersonalsecretariesorofficersonspecialduty(OSDs).Even
recommendationsforrenewaloftenurearebeingspiked.Pendingrecommendations
includethosefromtheVicePresidentofIndia,VenkaiahNaidu,andseniorcabinet
ministersNitinGadkariandDharmendraPradhan.Giventhehighrejectionrate,the
PMOhasnowaskedthedepartmentofpersonnelandtraining(DoPT)andministers
toinformallydiscussthenamesbeforesendingthemup.Thealternativeonofferis
tochoosefromaPMO-approvedlistofofficers.
BsinHerBonnet
W
estBengalchiefminister
MamataBanerjee’s
suggestiontorenamethestate
‘Bangla’inBengali,‘Bengal’in
Englishand‘Bangal’inHindi
wasdismissedbytheCentre.
SheisnowrootingforBangla.
Itis,unfortunately,alsoBengali
slangforcountryliquor.PM
Modiwasnon-committalwhen
theTMCraisedthenameissue
inarecentmeeting.TheBJP
wantstoretain‘West’toremind
peopleofthePartition,plus
‘Bangla’couldbeconfusedwith
theneighbouringBangladesh.
WiththeBJPlookingtounseat
theTMCin2021,whatthestate
unitsayswillcarryweight.
H
yderabad-basedgodmanTridandiChinna
Jeeyarseemstohavemadeahobbyofcollecting
chiefministers.InNovember2016,Telangana
CMK.ChandrashekarRaohadinvitedhimto
inauguratehisnine-acreoffice-cum-residence,
PragatiBhavan.Morerecently,AndhraPradeshCM
Y.S.JaganmohanReddypaidhisrespectstohim,
whileB.S.Yediyurappa,determinedtocompletea
fulltermasKarnatakaCM—havingfailedtodoso
thrice—madehiswaytoJeeyar’sashramonAugust 1
tospendanightthere.
GURUTOALLCMs
TRANSFER
TALES
—Sandeep Unnithan with Anilesh S. Mahajan, Amarnath K. Menon, Sahil Joshi and Romita Datta
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
N
CP and Congress leaders
who crossed over to the BJP
are having a rough time. Possibly
used to more easygoing chief
ministers who wouldn’t turn down
an official in matters of transfers
and postings, a senior Congress
leader, recently inducted as
minister in the Devendra
Fadnavis cabinet, was taken
by surprise when told that, once
approved by the CM, the transfer
file could not be seen by anyone
else. Turns out, Fadnavis, like
Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
likes to keep a tight grip on
governance.
SUBIR HALDER
P. ANIL KUMAR