Poison attack: Govt clueless

Thirty-six hours after an attempt to poison senior bureaucrats — inside the state secretariat, 40 feet away from the CM’s office — was revealed by DNA, authorities are clueless about the motive and perpetrators of the mass-murder mission.

The babus are not only reluctant to make the incident public, but they are also dithering over whether to lodge a police complaint.

Sources apprised of the government’s response to the incident said that the authorities were taking the issue very lightly and its implications could be dangerous. The fifth floor of the Block No 5 of the secretariat, where a water cooler was loaded with insecticide, is connected to Block No 1, which is used by Narendra Modi and his key cabinet colleagues. 

The mass murder attempt comes amid recent intelligence warnings that Modi faces real and current danger. As most of the senior babus remained incommunicado throughout Tuesday, an official holiday, speculations raged about the identity and the purpose of the perpetrators. The police have refused to acknowledge if any investigation was being carried out.  Some staff members of the state energy department, who witnessed the drama of the discovery of poison in the water cooler, did not rule out an insider’s job.