In the corridors of power, it’s often not so much what’s in a name but behind it that matters. Take the case of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is now popularly known as “Bhupi Bhai”. This people-friendly nickname has been popularized by none other than Principal Secretary M L Tayal, and his colleagues in the Haryana bureaucracy. The gesture has also served to end the British legacy under which political masters were universally addressed as “Sir”.
Tayal, an IAS officer of the 1976 batch, was Hooda’s classmate in college. A seasoned officer with a reputation for being upright and a tough taskmaster, he was not accorded his due stature under the previous political regimes. Former chief minister and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala had even charge-sheeted Tayal in a case relating to issue of a notification on July 21, 1999, reducing the security deposit for allotment of mines in Haryana.
Soon after Chautala’s defeat in the last Assembly polls and the return of the Congress to power, the opponents of Bhajan Lal (a front-runner for the CM’s post then) both in the state and at the Centre – including the Haryana business house of Jindals and Arjun Singh – installed Hooda as CM.
The new CM remembered his college pal, who is also a great golfer, and rewarded him with the state’s most powerful bureaucratic post. And Tayal reciprocated by popularizing a name bound to endear Bhupi Bhai to one and all.
Pawar’s men in slanging match
Not everyone is as gratified as the Prime Minister at the economy’s 8.5 per cent growth rate. It has put the Ministry of Agriculture under considerable strain as the agriculture sector’s growth rate is less than 2 per cent. With the refrain from the PMO downwards being “India can step up its successful growth story only if agriculture grows at a faster pace”, there is obvious stress among the bureaucrats and technocrats and it surfaced recently in an unseemly verbal duel before Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.
The minister had convened a joint meeting of his bureaucrats and technocrats to discuss streamlining agriculture policy for the coming year. Before the business of the meeting could begin, a senior technocrat of the level of secretary fired the first salvo by noting the large – and unwarranted – number of bureaucrats in the ministry. “This ministry has a secretary, five additional secretaries, 11 joint secretaries, many directors seated in the headquarters in Kursi Bhawan, oops, Krishi Bhawan,” was his seemingly jocular but barbed way of putting it.
What he was actually getting at is that agriculture, being a state subject, required bureaucrats to assume a monitoring role while transferring funds to the states for the latter to manage them. “Only three bureaucrats can do the job. Otherwise, people will keep calling Krishi Bhawan Kursi Bhawan,” he said.
The remark goaded a senior IAS officer into losing his cool and shouting that it was easy for the bureaucrats to find fault with the technocrats as well.
To this the technocrat smiled easily and replied, “Anyone can find fault with anyone. But I am talking about the structure, not individuals.” He then pointed out that every project invariably became trapped in the massive gridlock of babudom and, by the time the particular file was somehow recovered from the quagmire for final approval, the relevant crop season would be over. The same sequence would repeat itself during the subsequent crop season and so much for the much-discussed welfare of farmers which was only trapped endlessly in a vicious circle of bureaucrats’ making.
He had a point and the silence of the hapless minister before whom the exchange took place seemed to concede it.
Mulayam’s blue-eyed boys
Tales of a nexus between corrupt bureaucrats and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav have been emerging virtually every day since the Assembly elections were announced. It is said that the transfer of some suspected dishonest civil servants by the Election Commission was only the tip of the iceberg.
Those who were transferred after the election code of conduct came into force included Naveen Chandra Bajpayee, Chief Secretary, and S K Aggarwal, who held dual charge of Home Affairs and Public Works Departments (PWD) as Principal Secretary in the Secretariat. This served to show that a group of bureaucrats was guarding the interests of Mulayam and his coterie.
Soon after Congress President Sonia Gandhi criticized the poor construction of roads in Rae Bareli and Amethi – the parliamentary constituencies of herself and Rahul Gandhi – S K Aggarwal went into pass-the-buck mode and hastily dragged all his handpicked contractors to court.
Chandrama Prasad Yadav is known to be a blue-eyed boy of Mulayam and his brother, Shivpal Yadav. Whenever Mulayam has been out of power, Chandrama Prasad has managed his domestic affairs. After becoming CM, Mulayam appointed him special secretary and then promoted him as secretary in his office – overlooking the seniority of other officers. Further, Chandrama Prasad was given a year’s extension after retirement last year. When the extended term expired, he was made Officer on Special Duty in an obscure department and then brought back to the CM’s office. He reputedly enjoys a carte blanche in running the home and housing departments.
Chandrama Prasad asked the Awas Vikas Parishad (AVP), Lucknow, to allot 2,000 acres of prime land along the Sultanpur highway to a private builder, Ansals. Housing Commissioner V N Garg refused on the ground that the land was acquired from farmers for allotment to the weaker sections of society. Garg was then removed from the post and made member, Revenue Board. A Khan, District Magistrate, Gonda, replaced him and readily obliged Chandrama Prasad. The AVP employees went on strike in protest against the illegal allotment. It seems time for Chandrama Prasad to prepare for his old role as caretaker of Mulayam’s domestic affairs.
Then there is the case of Anil Kumar, Principal Secretary to the CM, was one of the 28 allottees of prime land by the Lucknow Development Authority. The issue is in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, P L Punia, having served both Mulayam and Mayawati as principal secretary, has joined the Congress after retirement and is seeking election from Barabanki. He was dumped by Mayawati after he deposed against her in the controversial Taj corridor scandal.
Patil thwarted over Home Secy
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, being from Maharashtra, obviously has a soft corner for IAS officers from his state.
When V K Duggal retired as
Home Secretary, the customary hectic lobbying began and ultimately a few names were shortlisted. According to sources, Patil summoned the Maharashtra Chief Secretary, Dr D K Shankaran, to New Delhi and asked him to be ready to take up the post.
Shankaran, who is from the 1970 batch and retired in April, returned to Mumbai and met Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh to inform him of the new assignment at the Centre. Shankaran was keen to get the post as it would get him an extension of service because the new rules stipulate a two-year tenure for the Home Secretary.
But then came a quirk of destiny in the form of the dreaded slip between the cup and lip.
Before Shankaran could secure official intimation of his new job, Madhukar Gupta, an IAS officer of the 1971 batch, arrived in North Block from Uttarakhand and whisked the chair away from under his nose.
It is said that Patil was left as much at a loss as Shankaran by the quick turn of events
