Of almanacs and fate of parties
Political parties organising ‘panchanga sravanam’ (reading of almanac) during Ugadi is a common feature. But siddhantis who read out the predictions for the coming year continue to confuse people.
This could be seen from the manner in which siddhantis predicted good fortunes for all the major political players, the TRS, the BJP and the Congress. Siddhanti at Pragathi Bhavan, predicted a good time for Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao claiming that all eyes in the country would be on him for some of his courageous decisions.
The almanac reader engaged by the Congress at Gandhi Bhavan was no less in eulogising the role that TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy would play in the coming days. The BJP on its part was happy with the prediction that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to return to power for the third time.
Questions are now being raised on how the same almanac predicted good times for bitter political rivals all at the same time.
Getting sandwiched
Irrespective of the causes and reasons, the gap between the Chief Minister’s office and Governor’s office in the State is all out in the open if the recent events of inauguration of the re-developed Yadadri temple or Ugadi celebrations organised by the CMO and Raj Bhavan are seen.
The Opposition Congress and BJP have alleged that the State Government has reduced the Yadadri temple event into a TRS party event, while the government officials were insisting that nobody was invited for the event but anybody could attend it.
At the Ugadi event organised at Raj Bhavan on its eve, no one from the State Cabinet or any senior officer from the State Government participated in it. In the past, it was a practice that the Chief Minister would attend the Raj Bhavan event on Ugadi eve and there are instances of Governor attending the Ugadi event at the CMO.
The other day, the Governor visited Yadadri temple only with the temple authorities present to receive the former. “It’s the officials who are getting sandwiched between the two institutions now,” said a senior officer in the protocol department.
Burning midnight oil!
Director General of Police Anjani Kumar’s late night stay in office used to be discussed among the rank and file when he was the Hyderabad Police Commissioner. The same culture is being continued by him after he was posted as Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau last December.
As a consequence, many subordinates who were habituated to leave office by the tick of 5.30 p.m. or maximum with a delay of one hour invariably end-up staying till the boss leaves the office. However, for one of Kumar’s deputies, the log-off time was not strictly observed.
The situation was similar at State Police headquarters a few years ago when senior IPS officer M Mahender Reddy was transferred and posted as DGP (HoPF) from the office of CP Hyderabad. Mr. Reddy stays in the office close to midnight and when he got to know about the arduous feeling his colleagues, including several IPS officers, experienced and ’ and desperately waited for him to leave, he passed an oral message asking them not to wait for him to go home, as he works late in the night. Officers at ACB hope even Mr. Kumar passes a similar order on the lines of Mr. Reddy.
(M. Rajeev, B. Chandrashekhar, Abhinay Deshpande)
