Dhoni keeps CM waiting – for Income Tax Commissioner
Jharkand CM Madhu koda, his cabinet colleagues and top civil and police officials of the State were kept waiting for an hour by cricket hero Dhoni – because Dhoni was kept waiting by the Income Tax Commissioner. “Commissioner was busy at a meeting and that is why I got delayed”, explained Dhoni. Proves that he is not only a shrewd Cricketer but also a wise assessee, for the Chief Minister may go in a couple of years, not Income Tax.
Many bureaucrats get a sort of vicarious pleasure in making people wait. I was told by a retired Board Member that junior officers who worked with him and to whom he was perhaps harsh while in service, invariably make him wait outside their offices, just for the fun of it and he does not feel even slightly offended – let the babu feel his importance!
There is of course another problem – the gatekeepers. The PA or PRO or whoever is supposed to protect the boss from invading visitors don’t tell the boss that somebody is there to meet him. They decide that the boss is busy and so can’t be disturbed. Perhaps if the Commissioner was told that Dhoni was waiting for him, he would have granted an appointment – but nobody has the guts to go and tell the boss that the Nation’s top celebrity is waiting to meet him. And the waiting man was one who had already paid nearly a Crore of Rupees as Income Tax! Even as a tax payer, he deserves respect and the Commissioner should have cut short his meeting to meet his bread giver!
Indian Civil servants are neither civil nor servants!