Bureaucrats don’t spare ministers

Not just the masses, even ministers at times find it tough to handle cheeky bureaucrats. minister bought furniture worth around Rs 1.25 lakh, around Rs 25,000 less than his entitlement, for his official bungalow. An official of the building construction department came and asked the minister to sign on a bill of Rs 1.47 lakh. The minister refused. The official left fuming. “But the incident reflects the audacity of the bureaucracy. The official was ready to make money even for a purchase made by a minister. Think of the plight of the common man,” said an IAS officer.

Better to play safe

The JD (U) leadership is mulling action against the MP, Lallan Singh, for his anti-party activities during the Assembly polls but he appears to enjoy considerable clout among his party MPs. He managed to get a whip issued in his favour when contesting for the post of chairman of a Parliament panel. The JD (U) MP, Mangani Lal Mandal, who is also under scrutiny for anti-party activities, issued the whip. The party sources said chief minister Nitish Kumar was furious over the development and the heat of his anger reached Delhi. Sniffing trouble, Mandal withdrew the whip pleading it was a “communication gap”. Around a dozen MPs are under scrutiny for their dubious role during the Assembly polls. “Some MPs, included in the group A by the disciplinary committee of the party, will be expelled. The MPs in the group B will be let off with a warning. Mandal does not want to move from group B to group A,” said a JD (U) insider.

Clout over

RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s name scared everyone in the bureaucracy when he was in power. Officials used to shiver when they got a call from him. Now the scenario has changed. The bureaucracy plays to the tunes of its existing political masters and a call from Lalu does not evoke the same response. “Some people still come to him to sort out police cases. Laluji rings up the officer-in-charge of the concerned police station and plead their cases. Sometimes the officers-in-charge reject his plea, stressing they have to take the permission of the local superintendent of police,” said a leader of the RJD. Even when in power, Lalu preferred to talk directly to the darogajis (officers-in-charge) but then he effect was entirely different.

Lalu in a dilemma

The election deal between the Trinamul Congress and the Congress in Bengal has put the RJD chief in a dilemma. The Left has agreed to give his party only one seat it won in the last Assembly polls. But they want Lalu to campaign intensely for them to woo the Bihari voters there. “Laluji does not want to displease the Congress and he does not want to be seen as a man who ditched the Left,” said a senior RJD leader. Of course, one place everybody would love Lalu to be in is the Assembly seat where Trinamul Congress has fielded former CBI additional director U.N. Biswas, the man who hammered at Lalu during the fodder scam investigation and got his name included in the list of accused persons.