IAS Jagdish Sonkar apologizes to civil servant fraternity, others for his “unintentional” act; Full text of his apology

Jagdish Sonkar (photo courtesy: Twitter)

BY NOW, you must have seen this photo in social media sites. The photo of 2013 batch Chhattisgarh cadre IAS Jagdish Sonkar while speaking to a patient in a government hospital and resting one foot on the bedrail, went viral last week, forcing the IAS Association terming the act as “shocking and unacceptable” and state chief minister Raman Singh instructing the general administration department of the state to train new officers in social behaviour and public dealing. Sonkar, who is an MBBS-turned IAS, on his part called his act as unjustifiable adding that it was “unintentional and thoroughly avoidable”. Here is the full text of his apology letter, as posted in a social media site:

Know Your Babu: IAS Smita Sabharwal’s schooling, love for Hindustani classical and her rank in UPSC

Story of  Smita Das: A 14-year-old newspaper cutting

“Smita Sabharwal: Indian 'eye candy' official sues Outlook”— was the headline of a story in BBC dot com’s Asia section after 2001 batch IAS and additional secretary to Telangana CM announced that her lawyers sent a legal notice to the news magazine which carried an illustration showing the officer walking the ramp at a fashion show with her political bosses leering at her. Senior IAS Amitabh Kant tweeted: “Well done, Smita Sabharwal! Outlook piece is in extremely cheap and poor taste. Highly derogatory.” In the past two days, there have been a lot of writings on this IAS officer including in national media. But BoI here presents 10 facts about Smita Das (she became Sabharwal after her marriage to her IPS batch-mate Akun Sabharwal), her schooling, her love for Hindustani classical and how she had cracked the UPSC exam:

As Assam burned with violence, chief secretary Jitesh Khosla was spotted enjoying an elephant ride in Kaziranga

A TV grab of Khosla's elephant ride (poor photo quality)

ON TUESDAY, Assam witnessed one of the worst massacres of the recent time when armed NDFB(S) militants cowardly fired upon innocent villagers in three districts, killing 78 people including women and children. On Wednesday, the state chief secretary and 1979 batch IAS Jitesh Khosla was spotted while enjoying an elephant ride in Kaziranga. As Khosla’s leisure trip amid bloodshed in the state was televised in local news channels, state chief minister Tarun Gogoi was forced to say that he did not...