Direct negotiations between Modi government and CJP leaders have begun, Sonam Wangchuk has broken his fast, and one dramatic late-night move has also been made to impress the protesters. This was the removal, Thursday night, of the higher education secretary.
The protesters, who want the education minister’s head, were obviously not impressed. And here’s why it also reminded me of a tiny framed poster on a wall in my office, given to me by my daughter who knows I so adore the 1942 film, Casablanca. Even if you haven’t seen it, you’d be familiar with the expression it made immortal. That’s the character of Captain Louis Renault asking his cops to “round up the usual suspects” after a fatal shooting in Rick’s (bar). These secretarial movements are just that, a rounding up of the usual suspects.In any such crisis, the civil servants become a convenient target. Even earlier, some key people in the NTA (National Testing Agency), including its director-general Subodh Kumar Singh (IAS, Chhattisgarh cadre), had been removed after the NEET leakage in 2024. Politicians think it’s convenient. Vineet Joshi, the outgoing higher education secretary, now Panchayati Raj secretary, was the first director-general of NTA. It’s a merry musical chairs of the usual suspects.
