ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

PMs sans Power

It is a question worth finding answer to: Have our recent prime ministers, the ones who ruled from 1991 -- have they surrendered part of their power to other institutions? Like to the judiciary or the executive, for instance?

I would say that most of them did. Yes, in their own way they contributed to creating a new breed of PMs, mostly favouring the executive in the process.

The Prime Minister's Office, which was given enormous powers by Indira Gandhi, is today reduced to just a co-ordinating mechanism for various ministries. As things stand, the government cannot even transfer an officer!

Most of the politicians are blaming their own fraternity for creating such a situation. The trend, they say, was set by P V Narasimha Rao. The successive prime ministers -- H D Deve Gowda, Inder Kumar Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- followed suit. Today, the government cannot interfere in the appointment of the bosses of the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate, Doordarshan, All India Radio, the judges in high courts and the Supreme Court...

The chief vigilance commissioner will be monitoring the cases being investigated by the CBI and the ED, which, once upon a time, was the government's job.

After T N Seshan, the Election Commission has also stopped listening to the government, and is strong enough to even reverse any of its orders.

And former Prasar Bharati chief S S Gill asked the prime minister's office to take a long walk quite recently. Now most of the important ministries are going to have regulatory authorities, which will turn out to be parallel bodies of the existing set-up in the ministry.

Naturally, the politicians are worried. Quite a number of MPs are of the view that if the trend continues, then the prime minister would be left with no power whatsoever!

The present government is very concerned after the Bezbaruah episode. It is now trying to flex its muscles. Although the Supreme Court has reinstated M K Bezbaruah as the director of the ED, the government is bent upon appointing a new one as per the fresh SC guidelines set a few months ago. Thus, the department of revenue is going to write to the cabinet secretariat in a couple of days to prepare a list of candidates, not below the rank of additional secretary, to be appointed as ED director. This list would be sent to a committee headed by Chief Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal.

Under the new guidelines, the enforcement director can be appointed only by the chief vigilance commissioner. So far, this post was of the rank of joint secretary, but as per the new provisions it has been elevated to the rank of additional secretary and above.

The government was in the process of appointing a new director when the Supreme Court's order came through re-appointing Bezbaruah. A panel of candidates had been prepared.

Those who had figured in the list include three IAS officers of the 1966 batch -- Inderjit Khanna, Dipankar Basu and M Dasgupta. All of them have been elevated to the rank of special secretary in their respective departments. Which means the government needs a fresh list to be made for the post of ED director. So far, the top brass in the government is in mood to appoint any special secretary to the post -- but now their choice must be from amongst additional secretaries.

Interestingly, M K Bezbaruah will also try to stick on in his post. He is an additional secretary too, and so eligible. He belongs to the 1968 batch. The government, however, doesn't want more of Bezbaruah. Its logic is strong -- that officers senior to him, from the 1967 and '68 batches should be first accommodated.

Revenue Secretary J A Chaudhary has instructed his officials to study the SC judgment and prepare a letter to the cabinet secretariat, urging it to prepare a fresh list of candidates. The department of revenue would soon be sending this letter to Cabinet Secretary Prahabat Kumar. The names which are doing the rounds for this post include Devi Dayal, additional secretary, petroleum, G C Srivastav, additional secretary, revenue, Arun Bhatnagar, special secretary, Planning Commission, and Dhanendra Kumar, additional secretary, telecom.

Meanwhile, the officers in the department of personnel and law have been held responsible for the goof-up made while filing the affidavit in the court. The PMO is also trying to find out why, instead of Soli Sorabjee, Santosh Hegde appeared on the government's behalf. Sources in the personnel department claim that a senior officer in the PMO instructed Hegde to appear.

Rajiv Shukla