Informed opinion

Many views and theories have been expressed about former economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram's abrupt transfer to tourism and then, equally abruptly, to minority affairs just months ahead of his retirement. What does the man himself think? Is he embittered? Philosophical? Resigned? An answer of sorts can be gleaned from his unexpected response in a closed user group to an article sharply criticising the performance of the civil service and doubting its ability to deliver economic reforms. As he wrote: "Whereas this [the article in question] captures one side of the story, there are equal number of civil servants who drive change, are ahead of the curve and have distinguished themselves in post-retirement positions. Unless you are able to discern the difference, the impression from reading it is that civil service has failed. In my opinion that is less than true and an uninformed opinion!" Touche?