Who is babu blogger? A retired IAS attempts to imagine and draws a cartoon

babu blogger as imagined by an ex-IAS

FOR two and half years, there have been intense speculations about the identity of babu blogger who has broken news, spotted trends and analyzed hits and misses of India’s corridors of power. Amid the raging controversy over Indian government’s recent move to regulate online content, and social media’s continuous attack on communications minister Kapil Sibal who had announced the move, babu blogger has demonstrated how you can remain anonymous and yet become highly objective, formal and impartial.

But what’s about babu blogger’s identity? Is babu blogger a serving government officer with a passion to chronicle events of Raisina Hills? Or is he, or she, a retired babu who is well versed with power equations? Or is he/she a smart private secretary of a powerful politician? If not so, is babu blogger a female journalist with an easy access to high and mighty of Lutyen’s Delhi?

Hold your breath. Here is the first serious attempt to imagine how babu blogger looks like, and who he or she could be. And the guesswork is done by none other than a veteran ex-IAS officer. Look at this babu blogger’s caricature made by 1962 batch retired Maharashtra cadre IAS VS Gopalakrishnan who passionately sings, blogs and paints even after 16 years of retirement. Here is Gopalakrishnan’s guess: “The BB (babu blogger) is retired. So, not young looking. Wears specs (thick due to reading habits). Prefers polka-dot shirt. Hails from Bihar, worked in UP cadre and settled down in Delhi!”

babu blogger often receives emails with various guesses about who he or she could be. Everyone is convinced that babu blogger is well versed with action-packed Indian bureaucracy, and he or she is impartial and has also a nose for news. But is babu blogger an outsider, or very much a part of the Great Indian Babudom? Any guess? You can post your comments below this write-up, and also take part in BoI’s Guess Game placed at the left top corner of this site. Enjoy every moment of your visit to BoI action zone.