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A group of Blue members including the Secretarial One and Gentle John the other day held a postmortem on the previous regime.

They were all highly critical about the way affairs were run at that time. As the intimacy grew, they began swapping their confidences.

“I am ashamed to say this,” said the Secretarial One. “I was just a nonentity in my Ministry. The siblings and the offspring were running the show. I only had to sign the papers presented to me. I had no power even to appoint a peon of my choice.”

“I too had been receiving the same type of shabby treatment,” Gentle John recalled. “I was pulled up once for not standing up to greet the brat when he turned up at a public rally in Ratnapura.”

“But many people – villagers in particular talk highly about the former Boss. So we have to tread carefully,” a Blue senior pointed out.