Power Corridors witness a week of two strong Chandrasekhars – KM and Rentala

IT WAS KM Chandrasekhar because he was undoubtedly the man of the moment in the last-minute fight to virtually save the Commonwealth Games. As a few participating nations strongly objected to the hygiene condition of the Games Village and termed the living condition as “filthy”, PM banked not on any minister, but on his B-team (Bureaucrats’ team) headed by cabinet secretary and 1970 batch Kerala cadre IAS, KM Chandrasekhar. No wonder, PM cut short his cabinet colleague and sports minister MS Gill when the latter wanted to give a presentation about the progress of the work.

Cabinet secretary specially directed his officers to hold briefing for heads of foreign missions and Press Information Bureau for foreign and Indian media about issues related to hygiene, delays and other glitches associated with the Games. The clean-up work in the Games village was done in a war-footing and everyone including those foreign missions which severely criticized the preparation only a few days ago, came out in public to say “Woh”!

That KM Chandrasekhar was the “real boss” was also indicated when Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell was asked to meet him. Fennell who was reportedly denied an appointment with the Prime Minister had a one-and-half hour long meeting with the cabinet secretary on Friday. At the direction of the cabinet secretary, all heads of missions and chiefs of bureaus of newspapers are likely to be taken to various venues on Saturday to counter the negative publicity.

The other Chandrasekhar that turned a newsmaker this week was Rentala Chandrashekhar, a 1975 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS, who formally assumed charge as the secretary in the Department of Telecommunications, a post which was held by him in addition to his substantive charge of secretary, department of information technology. A post graduate in chemistry and computer technology, R Chandrasekhar had earlier served as joint secretary in the ministries like commerce and defence.
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