Look, Gingee still in North Block

The minister may have gone but his presence is still visible in North Block. Over three weeks after he put in his papers, former minister of state for finance Gingee N Ramachandran’s nameplate still adorns his office in North Block. The locked room no: 138, four rooms from Jaswant Singh’s room no 134, still appears to wait for the minister.

CBI had caught the minister’s PA R. Perumalswamy while accepting a Rs 4-lakh bribe from an IRS officer on May 22. Ramachandran was forced to quit the Cabinet on May 23. The post of MoS is currently vacant and the buzz in the corridors of North Block: is Gingee Ramachandran returning?

Normally, establishment officials are in charge of removing the nameplates of ministers and their staff when they move from one ministry to another or exit the Cabinet. This time whether it is the department which has been caught napping or whether they have orders to wait, nobody’s saying.