Strange Logic

Strange Logic

Arvind Kejriwal's reply to the notice served by Union Minister Virbhadra Singh — for defaming parliamentarians — is along expected lines. The RTI activist has refused to apologise for his comments. What's new is his invocation of Virbhadra Singh's descent from the royal family of Bushahar to make the point that it is not fitting of a man with "royal blood" in his veins to try to "gag the voice of the people by serving legal notices". Seems to be an interesting take from a self-appointed guardian of democracy.

Foreign Studies

The government has just called for applications from senior officials for short-term training programmes to be conducted at prestigious institutions abroad. Curiously, two of the programmes at Harvard University, both of two-weeks duration, are meant for officers in the rank of Secretary or Additional Secretary. Usually, officers of these ranks are not sent for training. Among the institutions where such programmes would be conducted are the London School of Economics, Duke University and Syracuse University. Most of the courses are of two to six weeks duration, the longest being a 74-day programme in Governance, Democratisation and Public Policy at the ISS, Geneva for which deputy secretaries, directors and joint secretaries are eligible.

Retiring Type

ASHOK Thakur, Special Secretary in the HRD Ministry, is all set to get a new assignment. The 1977-batch IAS officer is tipped to become the Tribal Affairs Secretary in place of Arvind Kumar Chugh who is due to retire soon. Thakur managed to keep a low profile in the HRD ministry even while dealing with the rather newsy IITs and IIMs and his new assignment is likely to be a quiet affair for him as well. Incidentally, Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo was not entirely happy with Chugh and is learnt to have even requested the Prime Minister for a replacement. But then it was decided to let Chugh, a 1974 batch officer, retire from that position.

... contd.

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