Sunil Jain: Eye of the storm

BACKSTAGE

Most bureaucrats are happy to spend their lives without doing much to ruffle the status quo, the logic being that if you don't do anything, you certainly can't be accused of doing anything wrong.

Though by nature not an aggressive person, the low-key 1969-batch IAS officer Ajay Prasad, has managed, one way or the other, to be in the thick of controversy.

When he was the additional secretary in the ministry of defence, the Tehelka expose broke out, later he became officer on special duty to then deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, and was once again in the news when Defence Minister George Fernandes wanted him as the defence secretary, though there were others who were senior to him.

And now, as civil aviation secretary, Prasad has to tackle the fallout of the Airbus allegations of favouritism to Boeing in the Air India purchases, and other issues such as Jet Airways getting to fly more flights abroad as well as getting its clearance to fly to the US the very day its IPO opened for subscription.

Handling Coffingate, the allegations that the ministry of defence bought sub-standard coffins during the Kargil battle in 1999, was relatively easy to handle.

While an Indian army unit in Somalia, which had first seen aluminium coffins there had reported that these cost around $64 and weighed around 18 kilos, when the coffins were ordered, they cost $2,500 apiece and were rejected by the army since they weighed 56 kilos.

Prasad happened to be in the US, and asked the army there what they would charge if India ordered coffins through them "" $2,700 plus service charges was the answer.

Prasad got this in writing and took it to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) "" he also showed the CAG that given the specifications, the weight could never have been anywhere as low as 18 kg.

The CAG withdrew its objections. While several of the other Kargil-purchase charges have been referred to the CBI, the UPA Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Parliament that the CAG had dropped 11 of the 35 audit paras on the Kargil purchases and another 21 were under discussion "" clearly Prasad's to-ing and fro-ing with the CAG on Kargil had some impact.

Like most of the successful in his tribe, Prasad chooses to go along with his minister, at least publicly.

So, now that there's a huge controversy over the Air Force aircraft made available to Justice Phukan who was investigating the Tehelka charges when Prasad was in the ministry, all that Prasad says is "the judge wanted to see the equipment he was dealing with ... the smaller stuff was shown in Delhi ... for the planes, the missiles, he had to go to Mumbai, Ahmednagar and Pune ... there was a suggestion he fly in an Air Force plane and the minister agreed".

On other purchases, such as the Denel rifle that is in the news once again, he sticks to the official line "" "each product, and its deviations (the rifle did not have a night-sight that the army originally wanted) are okayed by the armed forces, so what can the poor minister do except to agree? We're not the experts."

As for the allegations of Jet Airways getting more international flights, thanks to a particular selection criterion, Prasad says it is not true, nor does he agree that many private airlines are not getting permission to fly, and cites instances of ones that have been given the permission.

Since handling controversies, clearly, cannot be his 9 to 5 job, Prasad's other contribution in the ministry of defence was to come up with a shorter procedure for purchases that he says is as rigorous as the earlier one.

In the aviation ministry, thanks to the change in political will in the country over the past few years, Prasad has conducted successful negotiations to open the skies with various countries.

For eight years, the government in the UK refused to help Indian carriers get slots in Heathrow on the pretext that these were governed by an independent authority "" Prasad asked his counterpart if he'd help if the UK flights into India were increased 50 per cent or more.

Prasad got what he wanted. India's flights to the US, similarly, had a problem since there were restrictions on how many could stop at Paris en route, and this, too, got resolved.

The number of flights to and into China have been increased manifold, and the privatisation of the major airports is on course.

As for the smaller airports like Amritsar, Ahmedabad, and Trivandrum, consultants have already submitted their reports and within a few months, the privatisation process will start here as well; reports on seven more airports will come in by the end of the month.

By which time, both IA and AI will also be ready with their IPO plans. Hopefully, for Prasad, these won't generate a fresh round of controversy.