Defence breaches the PMO bastion

Backstage

Ajay Prasad's appointment as defence secretary over PMO reservations raises questions about who calls the shots in bureaucratic appointments

Rarely has the appointment of an empanelled secretary created as much of a shindig in IAS ranks as the recent announcement that Ajay Prasad, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, was being appointed defence secretary.

Prasad is a 1969 batch officer from the Himachal Pradesh cadre and has served, among his other appointments, as home secretary and tourism secretary in the state government.

At the Centre he has been posted in the ministry of textiles and later, in the defence ministry as additional secretary when Advani picked him up to serve as his OSD. The association between the two goes back to 1977 when Prasad was special assistant to Advani, who was then information minister. So in a sense, Prasad was handpicked for the job.

The rancour in the IAS is not about this. It stems from the fact that Defence Minister George Fernandes asked for Prasad by name to be made defence secretary, even though Prasad was 13th in the 1969 batch of IAS officers.

Technically, the defence secretary is the senior-most among the others of the same rank in the ministry. So in order to justify Prasad's appointment, N S Sisodia, who joined the IAS in 1968 and held the post of secretary (defence production), had to be moved out of the ministry, as also special secretary Dhirendra Singh.

George Fernandes knew about the contretemps. But it was vital for him that Prasad, who handled the management of the Tehelka episode (that saw Fernandes resign as defence minister), return to the ministry as the enquiry into the scam entered its final phase.

When Fernandes first mentioned this appointment to Advani, the deputy prime minister was noncommittal. Cabinet secretary Kamal Pandey who has served with Advani as home secretary, had made it clear that political interference in appointments would not be brooked.

There was the additional matter of the officers Prasad would be superseding. At the top echelons in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) too, there were some questions about how this would happen.

However, Advani and Fernandes finally had their way. That they could, is the issue. In the Vajpayee government the placement of secretaries has been the domain of the PMO. The two constant principals have been seniority and no post-retirement extensions (except in the case of the cabinet secretary who now serves till retirement or for at least a two-year term).

Even till the recent past, most ministers were informed, rather than consulted, over the officer they would get as their secretary. When the deputy prime minister's office was created, a new bureaucratic order came into play. Another tier was created for clearing appointments.

Ajay Prasad's appointment does not conclusively prove who calls the shots. But it does create confusion. Government sources say technically, as a secretary can be moved anywhere, the question of supersession does not arise. And it is a healthy practice to move officers to ministries where they've served earlier because it brings a degree of expertise to the table.

But given the controversy involved in Tehelka, even an officer of such unimpeachable integrity as Prasad will find himself in the eye of an unnecessary controversy. Couldn't any secretary-rank officer of the Government of India have handled the enquiry just as well, given the fact that Fernandes has won part of the battle after the Justice Phukan commission ordered technical examination of the Tehelka tapes?

Prasad is himself an affable bureaucrat. A home secretary in Himachal Pradesh doesn't have much to do. It is a relatively peaceful state in terms of law and order (the only major clashes in the state lately have been between the local populace and Tibetan settlers).

Yet in the wake of killings of foreign tourists in the Kullu valley "" which attracts more than 50,000 tourists annually "" Prasad took the initiative to mount a campaign through foreign missions abroad to reassure potential visitors that the murders (16 in the last seven years) are an aberration.

It was during his posting in the defence ministry that Prasad really shone. Military relations between India and the US had just opened up when Prasad was additional secretary in the ministry and he played a role in negotiating with the US.

It was he who ensured that the "Coffingate" scam died a swift death. His competence is indubitable which is probably why Fernandes was so keen to have him back.

But, although at that level taking recourse to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) is hardly feasible, Raisina Hill is agog with speculation that senior officers could petition CAT questioning Prasad's appointment.

For most officials, however, there's a bigger issue. Prasad's appointment does raise questions about the new bureaucratic order that is in the process of being established. Whether this is a precursor is hard to say.