RSS sees Sonia's hand in move on officials' tenure

The question of fixing the tenure of the home and defence secretary of India is now troubling the minds of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In an article published in the party magazine, The Organiser, the proposal to fix the tenure of the two secretaries is being painted as a conspiracy to appoint Information and Broadcasting Secretary Naveen Chawla as the home secretary.

The proposal was indeed discussed in the Prime Minister's Office in the first week of March but was reportedly shot down because the IAS lobby had opposed it. But that has not stopped retired IAS officer V Sundaram, the author of the Organiser article, from lambasting Chawla.

Chawla is supposed to be close to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, while his wife, Rupika, is her close friend. Chawla is due to retire on July 31, while the present home secretary, Dhirendra Singh, will retire on March 31.

The fixed-tenure rule would have given Chawla an uninterrupted reign as home secretary after he replaced Singh, the article surmises.

Sundaram does not spare the BJP-led National Democratic Front (NDA) regime either. The previous regime, he alleged, tampered with the bureaucracy to adjust loyalists and fixed a two-year tenure for the Cabinet secretary.

Sources in the Ministry of Personnel say, "The proposal was part of a slew of proposals on administrative reforms. The logic being that there would a continuity in policy," said a senior official.

The proposal had been turned down on the grounds that every alternate batch of IAS officers would have been deprived of the top three posts, the official said.

The BJP and the RSS have for long contended that the reins of government are in the hands of Sonia. This article is another in the long chain of attacks on a supposed proxy rule.

In all this, the question of who would be the next home secretary remains unanswered a week before the present incumbent is to retire.