A low-profile high flier

BACKSTAGE/ANIL BAIJAL

He prefers to keep a low-profile but tends to get the most high-profile assignments. Meet Anil Baijal, the newly appointed Union Home Secretary, and the 1969 batch Indian Administrative Service officer from the Union Territory cadre.

The other prominent posts that Baijal has served include that of the chairman and managing director of Indian Airlines and the CEO, Prasar Bharati Corporation.

Clearly, being low profile does not mean not being well-connected. For, the buzz in the political circles is that Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani handpicked Bajial for the home secretary's post.

Yet others in the know believe that it was Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Sushma Swaraj "" the two influential BJP leaders from Delhi "" who lobbied hard for Baijal. Consequently, he's said to have pipped IAS officers from the 1967 and 1968 (and his seniors) batch to the post.

But Baijal's bureaucrat friends, who were expecting him to become secretary civil aviation or replace Pawan Chopra as secretary information and broadcasting (I&B) when he retires in May, are quick to defend his appointment.

"He's an extremely competent officer and deserves the top post," says a senior I&B ministry official. "He's not only a stickler for rules but also has an eye for detail," he says, adding that he's not afraid of taking unpopular decisions either.

Many years back, as home secretary in Delhi administration Baijal is said to have got the media savvy cop, Kiran Bedi, removed from her post as the head of jails.

Apparently, with her new-found focus on jail reforms (read satsangs and bhajan keertan), Bedi was breaching every clause in the jail manual. With the support of the then lieutenant governor of Delhi, P K Dave, he got her sacked. "It was, by no means, a populist measure," recalls a friend.

As additional secretary in the ministry of I&B, for instance, he is said to have been the brain behind the media policy, especially, in delinking news from entertainment. Putting a 26 per cent cap on foreign equity in news, was apparently his idea, a move his successors in the ministry openly give him credit for.

That is not all. As the outgoing chairman and managing director of Indian Airlines, in 2000, he had announced a massive Rs 79-crore profit against a budgeted profit of Rs 15 crore. This was said to be in a year of sluggish traffic growth and no fare hikes. His die-hard critics in the airline, however, claimed that the balance sheet was window-dressed for the occasion.

But the government, suitably impressed with his track record and his Mr Clean image, gave him the top job at the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which was reeling under a major corruption scandal. He is said to have brought about a change in the work culture at DDA and introduced transparency in the system.

And now, as secretary in the home ministry, Baijal has an enormous task ahead. He will be called upon to handle sensitive matters on insurgency, be it Kashmir or the North-east, and Centre-State relations. He has the entire police force and the Intelligence Bureau under him.

But since the election dates were announced immediately after he took charge of the new office in February, he seems to be extremely busy making the arrangement for polls and deployment of security forces, which is why he could not make time to meet Business Standard.

A self-confessed bore (he told Business Standard earlier) and a vegetarian, Anil Baijal, 57, is likely to retire as home secretary as he has another three years of service to go.

But how the babu, who loved playing squash and tennis as a student in the Allahabad University and caught a game or two of badminton, will keep in shape in his new high-tension 24x7 job, remains to be seen. But that's probably the price to be paid for acquiring one of the country's most powerful bureaucratic assignments.