Aditi Phadnis: A NAC for working the system

BACKSTAGE

Bureaucrats from Madhya Pradesh (MP) haven't had it so good since Amar Nath Verma became Principal Secretary to Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao "till further orders".

With Minister of State in the Department of Personnel and Training Suresh Pachauri in the nodal department, HRD Minister Arjun Singh an influential force, and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh in a position to advise the government on bureaucratic postings, it is natural that MP bureaucrats should be more equal than others.

Congress sources say Arun Bhatnagar, 1966 batch officer of the MP cadre retired at the end of June and reemployed, was a carefully considered choice for the National Advisory Council (NAC) because as someone with the seniority of the Cabinet Secretary (1966 batch), he had to be given due cognisance by the government.

That Bhatnagar had served in the rural development ministry as secretary, apart from rich experience in the ministries of food, power and telecom and a stint in the Indian mission in London as minister (economic) helped make the choice.

The NAC is a new body grafted on the "government" as the Indian Administrative Service understands it. It is seen as largely duplicating the work of the Planning Commission. However, politicians understand it differently.

They want no time being wasted on the implementation of the "people's agenda" "" especially in areas like agriculture, health, education and nutrition. They would like intervention to be formalised and inserted in government thinking as soon as possible.

The NAC, therefore, will be a fast-track mechanism that will do the "thinking" for government and will have ready solutions for these long-standing problems of Indian society.

The problem with this is that the bureaucracy will not only have to be sensitised to such shock therapy but will also have to be manoeuvred to yield space for such moves. Therefore, the member-secretary of the NAC will have to be someone capable of jolting the system into action and make it receptive to new ideas.

This, as all proactive bureaucrats know, is not easy. There is some doubt whether Arun Bhatnagar is the right person to achieve this. Throughout his tenure as food secretary, Food Minister Sharad Yadav kept asking for a plan for the modernisation of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). That never materialised.

The ministry was also unable to bust a racket by rice exporters. This involved getting rice for export from FCI with a subsidy of between Rs 2.50 and Rs 3 a kg.

Exporters claimed 25 per cent of these supplies was broken rice and sold it in the domestic market, making a cool Rs 2.50 per kg. The FCI claimed it has never provided rice than has more than 8 per cent broken grain. A really tough bureaucrat could have broken the system. The minister did so, towards the end of his tenure.

But the NAC needs a person who will comprehend government systems and be able to dismantle barriers to make governance effective. This necessarily means seniority and experience that is respected. On this score Bhatnagar should have no problem.

The NAC is perceived as the most important vehicle of change for this government. As member-secretary, Bhatnagar will be required to liaise with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which gives him powers second only to the Cabinet secretary.

How he will perceive his role and pull the levers is the issue. He could manage to have a lot of fun as well, because he will be managing a set of brilliant people considered by the rest of society as maverick in many ways.

This will involve thinking out of the box. Bhatnagar will be judged on how well he can achieve this.