Delhi's IAS fraternity is up in arms over the BJP Government's tendency to pin the blame for all its failures on the civil service. Whether it was PM A.B. Vajpayee's letter to President Bill Clinton naming China as the real security threat to India; the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the Jain Commission calling for further investigation into M. Karunanidhi's role in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination; the steep hike and subsequent rollback of petroleum and sugar prices; or even the drafting of the CVC ordinance, the ministers always claim that the goof-ups occurred because of the bureaucrats.

The last straw was the leaking to the media of the name of Secretary, Personnel, Arvind Verma, as the man responsible for framing the misleading affidavit to the Supreme Court on M.K. Bezbaruah's removal. The IAS itself is expert at holding inquiries, where the blame falls on everyone but members of its own service. But in the case of the misleading affidavit, the boot is on the other foot. Itis Attorney General Soli Sorabjee who is handling the inquiry and IAS officers suspect he will pin the blame on one of them and let his own law officers go scot-free.

Several senior secretaries to the GOI who meet every Wednesday have decided to protest to both the PM and the President if Sorabjee holds only Verma guilty. Verma is particularly close to Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar, since both belong to the UP cadre and are alumni of Allahabad University. Verma, sensing trouble, has already shot off a letter of protest to Kumar.The IAS believes the real reason for the affidavit goof-up was the politicians' unseemly haste to transfer Bezbaruah. If only the Government had waited another fortnight for the CVC ordinance to be issued, Bezbaruah's removal would have looked routine rather than sinister.

Papa don't preach

The progeny of almost every prime minister -- whether Indira Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, H.D. Deve Gowda, Chandra Shekhar or I.K. Gujral have been accused of misusing their parents'position to interfere in the affairs of the state. The exception was V.P. Singh, whose sons Ajeya, a banker, and Abheya, a doctor, were kept at arm's length when their father was in power. In fact, both sons had careers abroad.

Now Ajeya, who works as a high-flying financial consultant for Leehman Brothers, has caught the political bug. Ajeya -- whose name is familiar thanks to the St Kitts affair -- is seriously contemplating joining politics, even though Singh himself thinks he is better off where he is.

Since V.P. Singh's one-time party, the Janata Dal, is practically moribund, the choice before Ajeya boils down to either the BJP or Congress. Joining the Congress seems more plausible considering that his father was once a Congressman.

Deliberately dumb?

A decade after the CBI was entrusted with investigating the Bofors case, our home-grown sleuths are still on the job. Recently, one of them called on former prime minister V.P. Singh in search of evidence that Rajiv Gandhi had actually saidthat there were no middlemen in the Bofors deal. He wondered if Singh could help him out. A perplexed Singh pointed out that Gandhi had been reported extensively in the media giving this assurance in Parliament back in 1987. The CBI man's query seems a bit like asking ``Ram kaun?'' after reading the Ramayana!

Meanwhile, it is intriguing why the Government has not bothered to complete the formalities for the confiscation of the considerable sums still lying in sealed Swiss bank accounts which the courts there have confirmed hold money paid as kickbacks in the Bofors deal.

The hip babus

Talking of bureaucrats guarding their turf, what was Prabir Sen Gupta, Secretary, Defence Production, doing at a fashion show in the capital last week? His explanation: One has to be interested in everything and achievement in fashion is good for the country because of technological and trade reasons. Maybe we need long legs in slinky dresses to walk across our deep deficit but the fact is that in New Delhi, moreand more bureaucrats are worming their way into the chatterati guest list.

It works very neatly: babus have the clout, their hosts have the glamour; babus get to be trendy, their hosts get to show off. No wonder Sen Gupta, who should be presiding over display of the Light Combat Aircraft and the MBT Arjun -- which his ministry is supposed to produce some day -- wasn't complaining. ``A bureaucrat has to be multi-faceted,'' he said.

PM & passive smoking

A common criticism of the Government is that while the world changes, New Delhi sits -- and watches it change. Otherwise how, in these health-conscious times, nobody ever thought of banning smoking on board the PM's aircraft?

Take his trip next week, it's a long flight, he's reaching the US with just a 90-minute halt at Amsterdam, the same stale air will circulate in the aircraft all the way. At the best of times, aircraft air is short on oxygen, so why subject the PM and everybody else to smoky air? Whether the Prime Minister is fit isn't thequestion, this kind of air is unsuitable even for healthy non-smokers. Certainly, the hacks and the mandarins on the flight won't mind being deprived of their puff for a few hours. And if they complain, why not tell them to make their own travel arrangements?