New Cab Sec....... Power & Politics/ The Sunday Standard/ May 31, 2015

New Cab Sec: Modi's Mission of Making Bureaucracy an Obedient Partner Gets Headstart

Suspense and surprise are the tools of a successful leader. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a predilection for springing surprises. Whether it is over the selection of Cabinet ministers or choosing senior civil servants for crucial posts, he has always defied the rule of predictability. When his colleagues expect him to experiment, he baffles them by opting for conventional wisdom. When they are sure he would follow convention when choosing senior bureaucrats, Modi prefers merit over experience.

Last week, when he appointed Pradeep Kumar Sinha, a discreetly low-profile IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre as the 31st Cabinet Secretary of India, the PM endorsed the seniority principle. Sinha, a 1977 batch officer, is the senior-most secretary in the Central government. For the past few weeks, corporate lobbyists, some not-so-powerful ministers and retired babus had been either lobbying for their favourites, or betting in favour of the incumbent Cabinet Secretary, Ajit Kumar Seth, getting yet another extension. Those tormented with the Gujarat phobia were spreading the rumour that only an officer from that state would be given the catbird seat. A group of influence peddlers connected with Foreign Institutional Investors had put their last greenback on an IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre.

When Modi retained Seth after coming to power, it baffled many BJP leaders since the senior bureaucrat was seen as a staunch UPA loyalist. He had never even served in any significant ministry before being handpicked by Manmohan Singh. But Seth proved his mettle for both Singh and Modi by becoming the fifth Cabinet Secretary since 1950 to last in his seat for four years. The others were Y Sukhthanker, B D Pande, B K Chaturvedi and K M Chandrasekhar. Seth was hoping to set a record of being the longest serving Cabinet Secretary by getting a six-month extension. But Modi realised that it would be setting a bad example by denying promotion to over half a dozen IAS officers who are due to retire by end of this year.

Earlier, too, many deserving candidates couldn’t become Cabinet Secretaries because Chaturvedi, Chandrasekhar and Seth were given the maximum number of extensions. Since Modi is heavily dependent on the bureaucracy for the implementation of his development agenda, he is unwilling to have a demoralised civil service queer his pitch. While he continues to fill various ministries with trusted bureaucrats, he chose Sinha to ensure continuity and stability. After spending over a year in the PM’s chair, Modi has finally realised that the success or failure of the leader of 1.25 billion people is precariously dependent on the active cooperation of over 900 secretaries, additional secretaries and joint secretaries. For the past 13 months, they have been forced to reach office before 9 am, but their productivity hasn’t increased commensurately. By nature, babus are pygmies. They are, however, capable of halting an elephant in its tracks with red tape and regulation tricks. Modi replaced over 60 secretary-level officials after the retirement of the incumbent officers, but continued with Seth since the officer was privy to the ways and means of the UPA government. It was the PM’s first encounter with the army of official mercenaries whose only object is to thrive even if the country is on the verge of an administrative chaos.

Normally, the induction of a Cabinet Secretary hardly makes important news. But ever since Modi took over, he and the PMO have been charged with excessive centralisation of power. The appointment of over half a dozen officers from the Gujarat cadre led his detractors to believe that the concept of a committed bureaucracy—which was Indira Gandhi’s hallmark—will stage a comeback. They felt the process would start with the selection of a pliable or loyal civil servant from Modi’s home state as the new Cabinet Secretary, who is considered the guardian of the 7,000-strong IAS officers. He is the one who presides over most of the selection panels, which shortlists officers for sensitive appointments. Not only does he report directly to the PM, his office too is out of bounds for even ministers and top babus, thanks to its location inside the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The most important part of his assignment is to keep records of all the meetings of the Cabinet and its committees. He is also the link between the PMO and various ministries, and serves as the eyes and ears of the PM.

Conventionally, the senior-most IAS officer is chosen as the Cabinet Secretary. But there have been a few exceptions when some PMs found the eligible ones unacceptable or undesirable. Five Cabinet Secretaries did not last for more than a year. The conflict between the PM and his Cabinet Secretary came to the fore when Rajiv Gandhi decided to remove P K Kaul, considered an Indira loyalist, from the post in 1986. Rajiv was told that Kaul was close to Arun Nehru and was working against the PM. Kaul was dispatched to Washington as the Indian ambassador. From then on, Cabinet Secretaries were picked by various PMs on the basis of their loyalty and suitability to the ruling party. Rajiv chose T N Seshan over other deserving candidates because he was considered the best instrument to handle his adversaries in the system. Seshan survived for barely a year. V P Singh, who succeeded Rajiv as PM in December 1989, replaced Seshan with Vinod Pandey within 48 hours of taking over. Pandey was one of the toughest and cleanest officers in the IAS and was instrumental in carrying out Singh’s cleansing drive against tax defaulters. But he didn’t last either. The Congress party toppled Singh’s government and installed Chandrasekhar as the PM. Pandey was given his marching orders. It was left to Manmohan Singh to restore some sanity in the system by sticking to the stability mantra and a longer tenure for the Cabinet Secretary. He, however, was also the first PM to interview various contenders for the job, revealing his flexible approach. He didn’t follow the seniority principle when he selected B K Chaturvedi as his Cabinet Secretary, who was chosen after interviews of six other candidates. Chaturvedi lasted three years, but his successors, Chandrasekhar and Seth, stayed on for four years.

Sinha’s unexpected elevation is a clear indication that Modi doesn’t want to open a front against the bureaucracy. For him, a tamed tiger is safer than a wounded one. With one stroke of his pen, he has made the bureaucracy an obedient partner in his venture of ensuring at least maximum governance with a yet to be minimised government.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Race Course Rouad/The Sunday Standard/June 19, 2011

The New, Inside-Out Free Market Strategy

The Planning Commission, socialism’s surviving symbol, has become the most sought after post-retirement sinecure for retired babus and market-friendly academics. The marketwallas’ new mantra: if you can’t demolish it, join it. Former Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar joined this elite group last week when he was appointed Deputy Chairperson of the Kerala Planning Board with Cabinet rank. As Cabinet Secretary, he had pushed the Prime Minister’s economic reform agenda for four years. We expected Chandrasekhar to get a better posting, but he chose to settle for a post in his home state with massive clout and access to both the Central and State governments. Ever since the Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission acquired political authority, civil servants and academics have been lobbying hard to be appointed as members. The current Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s enormous clout is the benchmark. Ahluwalia, who is the 24th Deputy Chairperson since Independence, will be breaking all records by completing a second term. He will be the first non-political person to stay in the job for a decade and also attend all Cabinet meetings as a special invitee. Barring three, all attendees are either planning ministers or politicians. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee started the practice of inviting the Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson to Cabinet meetings—Jaswant Singh and then K C Pant. Both were former Cabinet ministers and Vajpayee sought their guidance. But neither enjoyed the influence over government policy that Montek does. The commission is flooded with former World Bank officials. It is the Planning Commission that has devised and framed policies that encourages an enhanced role for the private sector at the cost of the government. Private-Public Partnership in the social sector is the most favoured instrument to boost the private sector. Taking the cue from her husband, Isher Judge Ahluwalia had accepted the deputy chairpersonship of the Punjab Planning Board in 2005 when the Congress was in power. A couple of years later, N K Singh, her former finance ministry colleague, joined Nitish Kumar’s government as the Deputy Chairperson of the Bihar Planning Board. Since all Planning Board Deputy Chairpersons are expected to attend all meetings of the Planning Commission and the National Development Council held in Delhi, the emerging New Planners Club will soon become yet another non-elected parallel power centre dictating the economic agenda.

The Chewing Gets Tough for Maken

Is Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken fighting a losing battle? Ever since he mooted legislation to reign in the sports mafia by fixing the tenure and age limit of sports administrators, an unofficial multi-party power coalition is plotting to thwart Maken. The minister’s cabinet note suggesting drastic changes in rules and regulations regarding sports body elections got a boost after the Commonwealth Games scams were exposed. Since the Government had no power to remove a sports official, the sports ministry brought in a model Bill to ensure greater transparency and accountability. The new rules will force most sports administrators to quit and hand over management to professionals. Currently, players are treated like dirt while sports managers splurge on travel and hotels abroad. Maken’s clean-up crusade has rattled many, including some senior political leaders who met recently to chalk out a strategy to counter him. But Maken is no Uma Bharti or Mani Shankar Aiyar who espoused sports reform but were forced to either withdraw or lose their jobs. Happily, both youth and his High Command appear to be on his side for now.

What’s with Thakurs and Minorities?

Most Congress leaders are baffled over the conduct and utterances of AICC General Secretary Digvijaya Singh. Even Congress allies are embarrassed with his vocal stance on minorities and Naxalites. Now a bizarre but interesting explanation for this behaviour has surfaced which says that only Thakurs with Congress backgrounds have taken up cudgels on behalf of the minorities. Since they are obsessed by religious rituals and most follow a baba or a deity, Thakurs go out of their way to prove their secular credentials in the party. It began with Thakur leaders like V P Singh and Arjun Singh. Both chased and wooed the minorities. Even former Samajawadi Party leader Amar Singh made no bones about his passion for minorities. Arjun Singh converted his HRD ministry into a major source of funding for various minority institutions and NGOs who promoted his agenda. V P Singh lost his prime ministership but didn’t compromise on his love for minorities. In fact, he firmly believed that only an upper caste Hindu can win Muslim trust as they don’t have a national leader of their own. Diggy Raja, a distant relative of both Arjun Singh and V P Singh, perhaps believes that the minority plank is the only way to stage a comeback.

Maran Paranoia Comes Full Circle

Union ministers from the DMK are paranoid about security and privacy. M K Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran avoid visiting Chennai, and are also careful about government employees who visit their offices to handle the maintenance of infrastructural amenities like telephones. Until recently, Alagiri was thinking of replacing the rotary telephone of the RAX (secret) line in his office. Since the Intelligence Bureau handles the RAX exchange, Alagiri has decided to use his fingers to make secret phone calls rather than get tapped.