The central secretariat, New DelhiHow many Malayalis are newly appointed in the central secretariat in Delhi this year? Three. Data show that about 12,000 people work there in different posts. Only when we know this do we realise that how small a number three is.
The central secretariat is the nerve centre of the country. Its buildings are situated on either side of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. They are known as north block and south block. The cabinet secretariat and other important ministries are located there. Every morning thousands of staff flow to this place on hundreds of bicycles, buses, the metro and their own vehicles.
Sreedharan Unni of Delhi Gadhakal, who died of heart attack when China attacked India, was one among them. Decisions that affect the fortune of more than 100 crore people in our country are taken in the central secretariat.
It is unbelievable that the number of Malayali candidates who got job in this great institution is only three. The number of officials in the central secretariat is increasing year after year, yet the number of Malayali officials is decreasing.
Once, visiting the central secretariat was like going to the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. From the officials who gave passes to different offices, to the peons who carried files through its long corridors, to the financial experts who burned the midnight oil to prepare the budget were Malayalis. This was the situation in the central secretariat when I went to Delhi for the first time in the sixties.
One day when I went to the central secretariat library, looking for an important official document, striding towards me with a walking stick, wearing a white dhoti, was V.K. Krishna Menon. This library is one of the biggest in the country. For some time, I was a member of its advisory committee. Ashok Koshy, a joint secretary in the external affairs ministry, was the person who recommended me for that post. Malayali officials were there in the library too. One of them gave me a copy of Thakazhi’s Thottiyude Makan to read.
The glorious period of Malayalis in north block and south block came during the rule of the previous UPA government. The prime minister’s adviser, T.K.A. Nair, national security adviser, M.K. Narayanan, foreign secretary, Shivshankar Menon, ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao, and ambassador to China, Vijay K. Nambiar, were Malayalis. This used to give us, Delhi Malayalis, a lot of confidence. Today, there is no one like that in the central secretariat. When I went to Delhi in November, I felt Malayalis there had become orphans.
How did the number of new Malayali officials come down to just three? We are people with high literacy, and we have made big gains in the field of education. Still we were shrunk to three. This is something that has to be deliberated. Because, if this situation continues, not just Delhi Malayalis, but all Malayalis will become orphans.
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