by Harihar Swarup
An unpliable officer
THE corridor of North Block were agog with excitement following replacement of B.P. Singh as Home Secretary by a U.P. cadre officer, Kamal Pandey, and that too by a caretaker government. Why Singh was shifted after having served Home Minister L K Advani for over a year and reportedly earned his confidence? Why, after all, the choice for the second most important post, after the Cabinet Secretary, in highest echelon of bureaucracy fell on Pandey, having the reputation of an unpliable officer? These were the questions asked in hushed tones in official circles.

by Hari Shankar Vyas
BJP vs Cong — a fight to the finish
THE announcement of elections in September has given the political parties enough time to tighten their girdles. The signals emanating from both the BJP and the Congress camps seem to suggest that both are taking these elections as a decisive battle and have put all their armoury on alert.

75 Years Ago

All-India Marwari Aggarwal Mahasabha
THE All-India Marwari Aggarwal Mahasabha is holding its sixth session in Cawnpore. A grand and spacious pandal has been constructed for the purpose in the Queen’s Park. Very decent arrangements have been made for the board and lodging of the delegates.

by Harihar Swarup
An unpliable officer

THE corridor of North Block were agog with excitement following replacement of B.P. Singh as Home Secretary by a U.P. cadre officer, Kamal Pandey, and that too by a caretaker government. Why Singh was shifted after having served Home Minister L K Advani for over a year and reportedly earned his confidence? Why, after all, the choice for the second most important post, after the Cabinet Secretary, in highest echelon of bureaucracy fell on Pandey, having the reputation of an unpliable officer? These were the questions asked in hushed tones in official circles.

Going by the conjectures in the Home Ministry and the PMO, Singh paid the price for being upright and telling the Election Commission the factually correct position about practical problems in holding the mid-term poll in June. The present ruling dispensation expected that he would place before the Election Commission forcefully the government’s case for elections in June. Secondly, he gave the impression, as if, he hobnobbed with 10, Janpath while discussing security arrangements. That was, perhaps, enough to give him the marching orders.

In contrast to soft spoken and mild-mannered B.P. Singh, Kamal Pandey has the reputation of being a “tough, no-nonsense bureaucrat” and no amount of political pressure can make him pliable. Those who had worked with him say “Pandey cannot be anybody’s man”. A stickler of the rule book, he has guts to refuse outright irregular orders howsoever high might be the issuing political authority and also tell his subordinates to ignore them. It is believed in bureaucratic circles that “whenever Pandey makes an issue, it is presumed, he is right”.

Pandey’s encounters with such powerful Chief Ministers of U.P. as N.D. Tiwari and Veer Bahadur Singh have become proverbial in the U.P. secretariat; they are cited as an example of uprightness in official circles. Pandey’s colleagues often recall his clash with Shiv Nath Kushwaha, Minister for Non-Conventional Energy in the Tiwari Ministry in 1984. Kushwaha had the habit of bullying officers and deliberately creating the impression that they did not listen to the Minister.

Pandey was Secretary in the department of non-conventional energy. Kushwaha, as per his style of functioning, used to call junior officers and issue them orders directly, many of them were irregular and favoured somebody. Pandey made an issue of the Minister’s ham-handed style and issued strict instructions to officers not to obey any irregular order. Clash between the Minister and the Secretary went on for sometime and ultimately Pandey’s stand was vindicated.

In the present bureaucratic hierarchy Pandey is, perhaps, academically and administratively most brilliant. A product of Allahabad University, he topped in the IAS examination. He became an IPS officer at the young age of 20 in 1964 because the age of appearing in IAS was 21. He waited for a year and as soon he attained the age, he took the first opportunity and appeared in the IAS, setting a record. An M.Sc in Physics, he had also a stint at Harvard University having obtained the Master’s degree in Public Administration.

Fiftysix-year-old Pandey has been in Delhi since 1989. His assignments include a stint with the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Food and Chairman of the National Pharmaceuticals and Pricing Authority in the Department of Chemicals and Petro-chemicals. He held the post of Agriculture Secretary for 19 months before he was shifted to the Home Ministry.

Those who have worked with Pandey say he believes in delegation of authority, assigning specific duty to his subordinate and setting a timeframe for work to be done. While he will stand by his officers, he cannot stand shirkers, lousy and inefficient subordinates. It is believed that with Pandey on the top bureaucrat’s seat in the Home Ministry, the functioning of the police and para military forces will be streamlined.

The first act of Pandey after assuming charge in North Block was to convene a meeting of senior officers and Director-Generals of the Central Para Military forces. It was on the question of deployment of Para Military battalions B.P. Singh is stated to have been given the marching orders. In his meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner, Dr M.S. Gill, Singh was told that a four-lakh strong paramilitary forces would have to be deployed for the polls and if the Home Ministry could give a commitment that it was in a position to make the arrangement if the mid-term elections are held in June. Singh was not able to give such a blanket assurance knowing well that it was not feasible. Apparently, the political bosses were irked because linked with the time of election is the future of the ruling dispensation and as the Home Secretary he had to pay the price.

Pandey may be tougher than his predecessor but his quality of impartiality may help the larger cause.

Delhi grapevine
by Hari Shankar Vyas
BJP vs Cong — a fight to the finish

THE announcement of elections in September has given the political parties enough time to tighten their girdles. But, for the present, political activities in Delhi have suddenly come to a standstill. However, this is not to suggest that parties are taking poll preparations lightly. The signals emanating from both the BJP and the Congress camps seem to suggest that both are taking these elections as a decisive battle and have put all their armoury on alert. The RSS has put all its might behind the BJP. Right from KS Sudershan to HV Sheshadri who normally remains aloof from politics, every leader worth his name is seen working overtime to ensure victory for the BJP. These leaders themselves have taken up the cudgels to cajole the dissidents in Delhi and UP. On Thursday, Sheshadri met Madan Lal Khurana to pacify him. Before the defeat of the Vajpayee government in the Lok Sabha, the Sangh leadership was avoiding meeting Khurana and was projecting him as the bad boy in the party. Whether Sangh’s going all out is for Atal Behari Vajpayee or to stop a foreigner from coming to power, is a matter of conjecturing. Though it is also a fact that Sangh leaders have tasted the fruits of power and have liked it too.

On the other hand, Sonia Gandhi is also sparing no effort to ensure a victory for the Congress. She is taking meetings of different committees, state presidents, office bearers, CWC members, almost daily. It is widely believed at 10 Janpath that the entire Gandhi clan including Priyanka and Rahul will be pressed into election battle. The Congress has decided to play low till the Goa elections. The party strategists believe that till now the common man is divided between Vajpayee and Sonia. they are confident that after the Goa elections, this would change into the Congress versus the BJP. And then the Congress will go ahead in full steam.

State levels, the deals could strike with RJD, AIADMK, BSP, etc. While the BJP is giving emphasis on alliance and is even prepared to play second fiddle to its partners when it comes to its agenda. This suits the Congress the most. It would try to paint the BJP alliance as a loosely knit and incohesive conglomeration as against providing stability on its own. But, the Congress suffers from a big problem. While it will be depending solely on Sonia Gandhi who may not get sufficient back up from her organisation, party leaders and media, the BJP, this time is upbeat. Vajpayee is getting an unstinted and unprecedented support from the organisation, the Sangh and even from the media.

* * * *

The one-point programme of the Vajpayee government, the Sangh and the BJP is to harp on the issue of Sonia’s foreign origin. There are several people working on this issue on different fronts. George Fernandes’ call for a broader front of socialists or efforts to wobble up a fourth front are fraught with this agenda. On the other hand, filing of charge sheets against Madhav Singh Solanki and SK Bhatnagar will necessarily bring Quatrochchi’s Italian connection to the fore. According to well placed sources, this issue was discussed by a top ranking officer of the PMO with a RAW officer.

That this strategy could bear fruits for the BJP is evident from various surveys being published in different newspapers on the issue of Sonia’s foreign origins. Sonia Gandhi played into BJP’s hands by referring to this in her speech on Thursday. The BJP is poised to get advantage from this in two ways — one, the Congress plays defensive on this front, and two, this further sharpens the issue as Vajpayee versus Sonia. And this suits the BJP most.

* * * *

President KR Narayanan may have never expected it from a leader like Atal Behari Vajpayee. If he had acted under pressure from the opposition then, he has been put under pressure from no less a person than Vajpayee. Prime Minister Vajpayee, in an interview with Panchjanya, the RSS mouthpiece, has averred that President Narayanan acted under pressure when he asked him to seek a vote of confidence. They say Rashtrapati Bhavan was taken aback at the innuendo coming from Vajpayee. And it has come at a time when Vajpayee has projecting himself as a martyr. Therefore, anything he says, gets down well with the people, emotionally. While the President is reportedly not worried about the political outcome, he has definitely come under pressure now. And with the Vajpayee government asserting that it is as good as a regular government and acting more vibrantly than during its 13-month tenure, the President’s task has become all the more onerous. Though a discredited Congress is also maintaining its pressure on the President, it seems to be losing its steam fast.

Nevertheless, the Vajpayee government has taken a precaution in its relationship with the President. Taking a clue from the relationship that existed between President Narayanan and I.K. Gujral as the caretaker Prime Minister, the Vajpayee government is keeping the President informed of all the decisions that could invite his ire at any point of time. The PMO not only informed the President of Vajpayee’s intention to address the nation last week, it also sent him in advance a copy of his speech. And when there was a major bureaucratic shake-up twice this week, the President was informed both times. Yet, Rashtrapati Bhavan sources aver that if at any stage it seemed the government was trying to bully the President, the things may not pass of coolly.

* * * *

For the BJP, righteousness is no longer a virtue. It has decided to shed its false inhibitions and resort to real politicking. The party has given its absolute command to the pragmatic Pramod Mahajan. Notwithstanding his total failure in saving the government from the disgrace of losing by one vote, he has now been given the task of converting this disgrace into sympathy. And if his rhetoric and happenings during the past one week are any indication, he has proved the point. They say, it was on his insistence that the government roared that it is no caretaker government and, therefore, was well within its rights to take important decisions. Right from the Prime Minister’s broadcast to the nation to the bureaucratic reshuffle, it is Mahajan who is ruling the roost. He is becoming such a dreaded person even in the opposition camps that they have to think twice before saying anything about the government.

* * * *

By appointing Mr L.K. Advani as the head of its campaign and election committee, the BJP has tried to dispel the impression about a rift between Vajpayee and Advani. They cheerfully claim that now (Lal) Krishna will be playing sarathi to Vajpayee’s chariot. Otherwise also, due to his penchant for embarking on rath yatras on slightest provocation, Advani can prove to be an ideal sarathi. But, in the process of playing Krishna, he has undermined the authority of the party president Kushabhau Thakre. But, the leaders are not sure whether Pramod Mahajan would abjure his claim to this chariot.

* * * *

When a senior police officer in Delhi learnt that another officer had become the Police Commissioner of Delhi through his contacts with a well-known burfeewallah, he too decided to try his luck through him. A deal was struck wherein a large sum was to exchange hands even before the appointment and then a monthly amount was to be fixed. Everything seemed going well. Ajay Aggarwal whose name as successor to VN Singh had been cleared by the PMO and the Home Minister and was waiting in his wings to take over got nervous. The burfeewallah had made the things bitter for him. But destiny had something else in store for the burfeewallah’s friend. The relevant file reached the wrong hands in the PMO. The officer frowned over the proposal and wanted to apprise the Prime Minister of the mischief some people were up to. But, some friends in the Race Course Road prevailed over him to bury the matter. Ajay Aggarwal is still poised to take over the reins of Delhi Police.

* * * *

With the electoral battle getting sharpened between two big parties, the smaller parties are increasingly getting marginalised and some are even on the verge of extinction. The sight of their leaders is pathetic. Of them, the most pathetic are the leaders of Janata Dal. Party President Sharad Yadav is concerned about his seat in Madhepura and is inclined to swim or sink with Laloo Yadav. Ramvilas Paswan is knocking at the doors of the Samata Party. HD Deve Gowda is busy striking an indirect deal with the Congress in Karnataka. But, poor IK Gujral is still groping in the dark. In the last elections, the Akali Dal had given him support on the Jalandhar seat. This time, it is nearly impossible. Otherwise also, Jalandhar has become a dicey seat for small parties. There are remote possibilities of Laloo Yadav offering him the Patna seat. Again, Patna seat also is no longer a safe seat for the RJD.

75 YEARS AGO
All-India Marwari Aggarwal Mahasabha

THE All-India Marwari Aggarwal Mahasabha is holding its sixth session in Cawnpore. A grand and spacious pandal has been constructed for the purpose in the Queen’s Park. Very decent arrangements have been made for the board and lodging of the delegates.

The President-elect, Seth Anandilal Poddar of Bombay, arrived today. He was led in a long procession, headed by about 200 Marwari volunteers wearing yellow turbans and a number of Shree Marwari Vidyalaya students, through the principal bazaars which were decorated with bunting and flags. He was greeted and garlanded at several places amidst shouts of jais and showers of flowers.

The procession terminated at the Marwari Vidyalaya, where the students, the headmaster and the staff gave a hearty ovation. The school building was well-illumined and decorated.

Unprecedented enthusiasm prevails in the Marwari community. A large number of delegates have arrived and are arriving. The proceedings will begin tomorrow at 1 p.m.