Vol. 6 | issue 7 | August 2012
MANDARIN MATTERS
intrigue shailaja chandra
Minister’s Rotten Pupil
One
Union Health Minister wanted to build a model hospital in his
constituency. His Secretary, who had no post-retirement sinecure in
sight, was sulking. He sent a long hand-written note to say why the
model hospital idea was “outside Central Government policy and could not
be supported”.
Weary
of constant stone-walling, the Minister found another ploy to garner
support. He began summoning the four Joint Secretaries under him,
hopeful that they might be more amenable. On such occasions, he lost no
time in reminding us that the Secretary would soon retire while he would
continue.
One
evening, it was my turn to be singled out. He had just told me that I
had the makings of a Cabinet Secretary. My only failure was that I did
not know how to ‘exercise authority’.
‘I
will show you how to apply the power you have,’ he said. A few minutes
later, the secretary will come to see me. You please don’t get up. I
will ask you to keep sitting. I want you to watch what happens. And take
a lesson from that.’
At
exactly 6 pm, there was a sharp knock and the Health Secretary (let me
call him Sharma) walked in, with long purposeful strides with a ramrod
straight spine. Quite the pukka sahib!
‘Yes, Mr Sharma, you wanted to see me? All is well I hope?’ queried the Minister, his gold rimmed glasses and diamond kurta buttons glinting under the glare of two score neon lights.
‘All
is quite well, Sir,’ replied the Secretary, as he cleared his throat
–something he always did when he wanted to emphasise a point. He looked
down at the jottings in his notebook.
‘Sir
you will be very happy to know that the Planning Commission has agreed
to your request and our budget has been raised by 10 per cent. It was
your letter that did the trick. Remember you had added a sentence? Well,
that made all the difference. That, Sir, was a superb stroke on your
part!’...........READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment