Transfer of Finance Secretary Subhash Garg: Scapegoat or bothersome?

In the government system, bureaucrats don't do things on their own. They do what the political leadership wants them to do. Mr Garg was no exception

Transferring a finance secretary to another ministry, which is relatively less important, is unusual. For any government official, in particular, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, becoming a finance secretary is considered to be a hard-earned achievement. The finance ministry has five secretaries. Only one of them becomes the finance secretary, who is the first among equals. Most finance secretaries don’t end their careers with superannuation; their services are used in various capacities as heads of committees or regulatory bodies and sometimes as members of other government institutions.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the Narendra Modi government’s decision on July 24 to