P Chidambaram humiliated me, UD Secretary tells Kamal Nath

Urban Development Secretary Sudhir Krishna was said to have complained to UD Minister Kamal Nath that Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who hails from Tamil Nadu, humiliated him at a meeting saying he (the minister) did not understand his English. Sources present at the meeting rubbished the allegation saying the bureaucrat refused to listen to the minister’s repeated pleas that he does not fully understand Hindi and therefore, he (Krishna) should speak in English for better comprehension of the issue.

The issue at hand was a proposal from the UD Ministry regarding some changes in norms of JNNURM that appeared to be a  “deviation” from approved norms.
To sort it out, Chidambaram convened a meeting of officials from the Finance and UD ministries. During deliberations, the UD Secretary kept speaking in Hindi and English. At that point, the minister intervened requesting the Secretary to speak in English as he (Chidambaram) did not fully understand Hindi. As the Secretary continued to speak in Hindi, Chidambaram, according to sources present at the meeting,  said if Krishna was more comfortable speaking in Hindi, he would get his secretary to translate it. There was no more discussion on this.

A couple of days later, Krishna, sources said, wrote to all present at the meeting, mostly joint secretary level officials, seeking an apology that he could not be their role model at the meeting. As his letter to his juniors was becoming a topic of amusement, Krishna decided to write to the UD Minister complaining against Chidambaram. Despite repeated attempts, Krishna could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the sudden removal of health secretary Keshav Desiraju set corridors of Nirman Bhavan abuzz with speculation. Sources in the ministry say there has been no overt tension between Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Desiraju and there were no obvious reasons for his transfer barely months before elections.