Babu blues

The Narendra Modi-led government's stern directive to ministers that all private secretary (PS) and officer on special duty (OSD)-level appointments need to be vetted by the Prime Minister's Office has given the Opposition one more opportunity to lambast the government - this time accusing it of trying to centralise power. What has given the Congress more ammunition to rap the Bharatiya Janata Party government is the prime minister's veto of Rajnath Singh's choice of private secretary, Alok Singh, a 1995 batch UP cadre officer, who has served as the PS to former foreign minister Salman Khurshid. Congress spokesperson and former Union minister Anand Sharma was quick to point out, "If the home minister of the country cannot appoint his own PS then there is little left to be said." The Congress spokesperson also rued the prospect of a "co-opted bureaucracy" under the Modi sarkar.