A king, princess and the coup
“They have stirred a hornet’s nest,” sighed a source with an ear to the ground. The topic of discussion was, of course, the talk of the town: The riveting palace coup at the Trust of Andhra’s famous royal dynasty. It appears there is unease in the ruling camp over the possible repercussions of the coup d’etat. “For one thing, it may not stand legal scrutiny. Secondly, they may end up tasting the wrath of the highly-respected Raju gari’s well-wishers, friends and admirers,” the source reasoned. Which leaves us with the million-dollar question: What is the reason for the government move? “Maybe, a Delhi courtier’s request, and the estranged princess’ prayers moved the Chief. Or he may have smelt a rat on the board. Loguttu Perumallakeruka!”
Mysterious are their ways
We have to give it to them. In or out of power, TDP leaders are indefatigable. Unable to cope with the sheer number of their press conferences (PCs), some overworked hacks, we have heard, approached the Deputy Chief of the party. Could he please ask his colleagues to reduce the number of PCs? To his credit, the leader sent word to the Knowledge Centre. Lo and behold!! The next day, the number.... went up!
Babus will be babus
What could possibly dampen the ‘energy’ of the Chief whose sheer tenacity even made his arch-rival concede in private that the former was indeed a fighter? Debts! Grapevine has it he threw up his hands in despair at the shocking state of the power sector. The ever-resourceful babus surely know how to make a Power-Point presentation. Didn’t Sir Humphrey Appleby say, “Politicians thrive on charisma and certainty. Very few have the former and we must always deny them the latter!”
Adept at adapting
Bureaucrats are a different species altogether. One senior official, perceived to be close to the previous government, had been on the bench for months after the change of guard. His well-wishers have been busy explaining to one and all how their boss helped avert several ‘missteps’ of his former boss. The man himself was recently found expounding the new Chief’s vision with gusto leaving the hacks rolling their eyes.
— Kalyan Tholeti, Jayanth P - email: expressvij@newindianexpress.com