Who are the 2 IAS officers Mayawati showered praise at a public rally?

Navneet Sehgal

TWO UP cadre IAS officers, 1984 batch Durga Shanker Mishra and 1988 batch Navneet Sehgal, were showered praise by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Ms Mayawati at a public rally in Lucknow on Sunday forcing many to speculate why she did it so publicly and what does it actually mean. The bureaucrats usually work behind the curtains, and it’s a rare instance that a political leader praises her babus at a public rally.

Incidentally, both Mishra and Sehgal were on Central deputation during UPA-I. Mishra, a B.Tech engineer and MBA before joining as IAS, was a joint secretary in home ministry during early days of UPA-I. He then served as Chief Vigilance Officer in Airports Authority of India between 2006 and 2009. Sehgal, both a chartered account and company secretary be profession besides being an IAS, was a personal staff of Union steel minister before joining as Mayawati’s secretary in May 2007.

Ms Mayawati praised Navneet Sehgal for his attempts to make UP getting enough power by 2014. While addressing the rally, she expressed her "deepest gratitude" to Navneet Sehgal for his good work.  A case of Neta-Babu bonhomie?

Nirupama Rao on a secret mission in Kolkata?

When India’s ambassador to US Nirupama Rao was seen with West Bengal chief secretary Samar Ghosh in Kolkata on last Saturday, there were speculations of the agenda of the meeting. Did Rao, who headed towards America after her stint as India’s foreign secretary, try to persuade Mamata’s A-team on the need to have FDI in multi-brand retail, a reform which got held up because of West Bengal chief minister’s stiff opposition. Rao told her meeting with chief secretary Ghosh, a 1977 batch IAS, was “a part of her Bharat Darshan”!