Ins and outs of power

Like most people in India, bureaucrats in the finance ministry are anxiously analysing the permutations and combinations to figure out who will form the next government. But there's an added twist to their calculations linked to the identity of the next prime minister. That's because the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, runs the government through bureaucrats and if he comes to power, as he is widely expected to do, there would be major changes, says one officer. In the finance ministry, it is believed that some senior bureaucrats who owe their jobs to the current finance minister or to United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi may be eased out as a result.