There are many Ministry secretaries now unlike in the past who refuse to carry out illegal orders given by their purohitas. 

Meanwhile, nowadays purohitas have made it a practice to tell the secretaries who refuse to be their ‘yes-men’ to go back to the ‘pool’, they say.

A story making the rounds in political and bureaucratic circles these days says that a certain secretary despite being an obedient ‘yes-man’ is about to be condemned to a ‘term in the pool’. 

A purohita with close ties to the highest echelons facing much flak over an issue related to taking on rent a big building at a massive cost to the exchequer has decided to wash his hands off by putting the entire blame on the Ministry secretary, inside sources say.

So the fall guy is expected to be ‘sentenced to a long term’ in the pool shortly. The usual hype about ‘bureaucratic bungling’ and stern action against an errant high-up will follow, they say.