Under the ceaseless gaze of social media, it is increasingly difficult for babus to slip under the radar. Nothing escapes its stern scrutiny, as former DGP, Uttar Pradesh, OP Singh recently discovered.

The former 1983-batch IPS officer has been unwilling to surrender his official bungalow even after retirement. Many others have also done this in the past, including several politicians, as Dilli very well remembers, but Singh’s misfortune was that his reluctance to shed the trappings of his office after retirement caught the attention of social media ‘activists’ and some journalists who took no time to denounce him. Singh has been accused of leading an aristocratic lifestyle and apparently his “arrogant ways”.

At least part of the attention being devoted to Singh, now retired, is his alleged proximity to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. It is a fairly well-known fact and may account for the ‘privileges’ Singh continues to enjoy even after hanging up his boots.

But veteran babu-watchers in the capital note that Singh’s case is hardly surprising, considering how tough it is for the authorities to get posh bungalows in Lutyens Delhi vacated by VIP squatters, be they netas or babus. Singh is merely following a well-trodden path, cleared by many others before him.

Tax politics

The recent raids by income tax sleuths on a number of powerful politicians, babus and businessmen in Raipur raised many an eyebrow with observers saying that a political angle couldn’t be ruled out. Among those who were raided were former state chief secretary Vivek Dhand who is considered close to chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, and the wife of IAS officer Anil Tuteja.

Though the tax authorities remain tight-lipped on what the raids have unearthed, the whole operation was conducted rather deftly. The searches were conducted stealthily and involved nearly 200 CRPF personnel, who were brought into Raipur from other areas. The local police were kept out of the action to maintain secrecy.

According to sources, this was perhaps the first time that a retired chief secretary has been covered in a search operation by the income tax department in Chhattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh — the state from which Chhattisgarh was carved out of. The use of CRPF personnel in the raids has also been commented upon.

Garg gets ‘rehabilitated’ in AP

Former Finance Secretary SC Garg, who took voluntary retirement last year after being shunted off to the Power Ministry, is back from “retirement wilderness”. He has been appointed as adviser to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for resource mobilisation, in the rank of a Cabinet minister.

When Garg was transferred out, the buzz was that he was made the fall guy for the growing financial mess.

Certainly, it is rare for a bureaucrat as senior as Garg to be pushed out in this manner. For long, the 1983-batch Rajasthan cadre officer was the “blue-eyed boy” of the Modi sarkar. Garg was actively involved in seeking a larger pie for the government from the Reserve Bank of India’s excess capital reserves.

With this appointment, Garg is back in the power corridors. According to state Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, Garg will enjoy a two-year tenure and will also hold additional charge of managing director of AP State Financial Corporation.

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