There is rare consensus that Chief Information Commissioner (CIC)-designate Satyanand Mishra, a native of Orissa, was the best man for the job among the candidates before the three-member selection panel. The other choice was another information commissioner, Annapurna Dikshit.
As information commissioner, the first case before him was on file notings. This was an issue on which the department of personnel & training had strenuously opposed the then CIC, Wajahat Habibullah, who wanted file notings to be brought under the RTI Act.
However, when Mishra moved from the department to the Central Information Commission, his stand also changed appropriate to his new role.
He said file notings do fall under the RTI Act and had to be disclosed, point out activists, who still can’t get over the fact that the legislation is being distorted by the government to thrust bureaucrats on unwary citizens. The irony of the matter is that the job of the department of personnel & training is to reveal as little information as possible, while the role of the CIC is to disclose it in full measure.
What baffles many RTI activists is, how can someone trusted by the government for so long undergo a role reversal at the fag-end of his career and, at age 60, take a stand against the government. Mishra has said in informal conversations that he was merely doing his job: both then and now.
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A N Tiwari got the job of CIC at the age of 60 like a retirement posting. In fact, five out of the six commissioners now are former bureaucrats, not selected because of devotion to the cause of the Indian people’s right to information. They get a salary of Rs 80,000, allowances amounting to Rs 15,000, a bungalow and retirement benefits.
According to the RTI Act, the CIC should be an eminent citizen in different walks of public life, but suggests no mechanism for this selection. To his credit, Misra has won laurels as a bureaucrat.
The post of secretary to the department of personnel & training — his last position — goes to the best of bureaucrats, “someone who is a guru of them all”, as Karira puts it.
A blog on bureaucrats describes Mishra as an affable gentleman, who had no ego clashes and remained blemish-free, even when he occupied the establishment officer’s seat in Delhi, dabbling in the murky waters of large corporate players.
During his stint as secretary to the department of personnel & training, he was responsible for introducing a clause that prevented the transfer of an IAS officer before the end of his term, unless orders were specifically issued by the chief secretary that the “circumstances were exceptional”.
Mishra’s minister at the time was Suresh Pachouri, who is from Madhya Pradesh, his own cadre. Mishra was in the news then because the ministry had issued a notification that created friction between cadres by making IAS officers senior to those from the Indian Police Service. Najeeb Jung, who was his batchmate in the Madhya Pradesh cadre of the IAS, says: “He is a man of great integrity and honesty, and is the best guy for the job.”
Jung speaks from personal experience. Several years ago, when Jung was about to be transferred to erstwhile Czechoslovakia, Mishra intervened on his behalf and sent him to London School of Economics, instead.
Jung emphasised that Mishra goes out of his way to help people. He is a lover of English literature and writes poetry. He has spent a lot of time during his career in departments dealing with culture. His wife, Dhara Mishra, is also a poet.
As an information commissioner, Mishra was known for giving judicious and well reasoned orders, of being a patient listener, albeit a little lenient when it comes to handing out penalties. Whether he lives up to this top billing now remains to be seen.