The sequence of speakers at seminar had to change at the eleventh hour when both the bureaucrats did not turn up.
In wake of the ongoing tussle between the Delhi government and bureaucracy, two top officials of the state's education department -- Director and Principal Secretary -- skipped an event on Tuesday, prompting Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to make a tongue in cheek remark on "Saas-Bahu" relationship playing out.
Both Director (Education), Saumya Gupta and Principal Secretary (Education), Punya Salila Srivastava were supposed to address a two-day seminar organised by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) on 'improving school education'. "Today all of us have gathered here to discuss issues related to education. But unfortunately, two of our top officials are not here. It reminds me of an orthodox tradition, wherein daughter-in-laws lived in a fear of their mothers-in-law who would not allow them to show their faces to their fathers-in-law."
"Our education department is witnessing a similar situation nowadays. Some people are acting like those mothers-in-law and directing the officials not to show their faces to the ministers," said Sisodia, who also holds the Education portfolio of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the Capital.
The sequence of the speakers at the seminar had to change at the eleventh hour when both the bureaucrats did not turn up. "It would have been really good if they were here. But it's alright. The education sector was neither started by them, nor us. And it's not dependent on anyone's presence. It will keep on progressing," Sisodia said.
Despite several attempts, both Gupta and Srivastava did not respond for a comment.
Sisodia, however, claimed that the official work was not being stalled amid this slug-fest. "Everything is fine at the department. All officers are working. They are just avoiding any public encounter with the ministers (at behest of their seniors)," he said.
The senior officers of the Delhi government have boycotted all the meetings and events organised by the latter from the last one week as part of their protest against the alleged attack on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by the AAP MLAs. On Monday, several senior officers had skipped a meeting of the State Road Safety Council chaired by Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.
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