Gfiles September 2016

Prabhat Kumar putting retired civil servants on trial p8
MG DevasahAyam politicians bid to cash in on olympic laurels p22

September 5, 2016 `200
vol. 10, issue 6
State Scan
Dalia scam in
Madhya Pradesh
p28
gfilesindia.com
Delhi HC heard PIL arguments; judgement reserved
Aircel, Maxis, Airtel, R-Com Deal

Ananda Krishnan
ISSN 0976-2906
While the CBI &

ED have failed to
serve summons
to the accused
Ananda Krishnan,
Sunil Bharti Mittal
& Anil Ambani are
openly negotiating
with the Malaysiabased promoter of
Maxis Group.
Is India turning
into a banana
republic?
on jan bo
pv ard ok
na ha ext
ra n ra
p4 si tha ct
2 mh k
a ur
ra
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From the Editor
vol. 10, ISSUE 6 | SEPTEMBER 2016

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HEN former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao opened up the economy, he could not have dreamed that his successors, Congress Party
leaders, coalition partners, and gluttonous foreign collaborators will
not only plunder the wealth of the nation but make a travesty of the governance
system. gfiles cover story reveals alleged dubious business transactions between
Aircel, Maxis, Airtel and R-Com on spectrum sale and purchase. These deals
amount to daylight robbery of taxpayers money. The Society for Consumers
and Investors Protection (SCIP) raised this issue by filing a writ petition in the
Delhi High Court, highlighting the role of Malaysia-based absconders Ananda
Krishnan and Ralph Marshall, who are defying the summons/warrants issued
by the courts of India. Ananda Krishnans story is like that of the famous film
Godfather where Marlon Brando could not be touched by the system. The SCIP
petition raises many important issues: How different ministries and government
agencies are allowing an open business-to-business transfer from a company
whose chairman is charged with criminal activities. The way Airtel and R-Com
are dealing with Aircel-Maxis is tantamount to sucking blood from the body and
leaving the skeleton to be dealt with by the government.
The sordid saga of Aircel-Maxis raises many questions. Why is Dayanidhi
Maran still scot free? Who was the then Minister of Finance who allowed the
State Bank of India to sanction a loan of Rs 21,000 crore on leased spectrum,
a scarce national natural resource. Spectrum is akin to land; if you buy it today
and sell it after 10 years, the price multiplies. The sale of spectrum also happens like land deals, where transactions are on a 40:60 basis40 per cent
paid by cheque and 60 per cent in black. Aircels spectrum worth more than
`50,000 crore is available at throw-away prices as Ananda Krishnan is a man
in a hurry to retrieve his wealth in cash. Krishnan is 78 years old and his
family is not reportedly competent enough to hold and run the empire he allegedly built on forgery and deceit. With the emergence of two buyers, Airtel and
R-Com, and the way spectrum is being allowed to be transferred, it appears
that a powerful minister of the BJP government is supporting the deals. So,
only the players have changed, the game is still on. It is a game of grabbing
natural resources even if it means dealing with criminals and fugitives. If
Prime Minister Narendra Modis dictum of transparency and corruption-free
governance is being followed, then the government should act. First, it should
confiscate Aircels assets, including its spectrum which is on lease from the
government. Second, the sale of spectrum should be barred with retrospective effect. Third, the government should not allow any business-to-business
deal with reported criminals and their companies. Fourth, the SBI should be
directed to speed up the recovery of bad debts, the same way as the bank is
striving to do in the case of Vijay Mallya.
The governance system has to take action. The countrys natural resources
are gods gift. Nobody should be allowed to plunder and accumulate these
resources. If this is allowed to continue, the day is not far when India will be
on the road to becoming a banana republic.
ANIL TYAGI
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gfiles inside the government

vol. 10, issue 6 | September 2016

KWWSVWZLWWHUFRPJOHVPDJD]LQH KWWSVZZZIDFHERRNFRPJOHVPDJD]LQH
CONTENTS
LETTERS
editor@gfilesindia.com
05 Bric-a-Brac
akhilesh in charge, who will lead the

congress, jaitley and juniors, badnor
romps home
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LQWHUIDFHZLWKWKHEXUHDXFUDF\LVDOVRD
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Sunil Negi via blog
08 Eyes Wide Shut

protecting civil servants
10 Cover Story
spectrum scam: buyers line up to buy

leased spectrum from absconder
20 Governance
variance in application of court orders

22 the politics behind olympic medals
40 now, the task of implementing gst
28 State Scan
madhya pradesh: feasting on

malnutrition
42 Book Extract
pv narasimha rao as prime minister
50 Book Review
anatomy of the indian parliament
52 Stock Doctor
watch the bottom line
54 Perspective
dissolving the self
61 By the Way
woes of a principal secretary, danics

demands, mygov ceo, smriti goes
shopping

Bureaucratic overhaul
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Bric-a-brac
love & war
Turf
T
urff war
wars
rs iin UP
akhilesh
akhi
h lesh hold
holds the reins firmly
HERE was a time when Amar Singh as a newly elected MP used to

give out appointments
ap
when he was reportedly milking the Uttar
Prad
desh government
go
Pradesh
with the tacit support of Mulayam Singh.
Times have
h ve changed.
ha
cha
anged. Amar Singh today is furious at the shabby way the
Akhilesh Yadav govern
government is treating him. His name has been included in
the list of the visitors who
w desire to meet Akhilesh. Amar Singhs biggest asset
and liability is Jaya
J
Prada. She has stood by him during his rough
period.
period
d. It is reported that Amar Singh desires to get Jaya Prada
appointed as the Chairman of the UP Film Board, but Akhilesh
Yadav has
Ya
h his own plans. A Lucknow source informs that even
Mula
Mulayam Singhs brother, Shivpal Yadav, is not amused with
Akhilesh. There is an intense group war going on. Though
Ak
Shivpal is holding the coveted PWD ministry, Akhilesh
controls the State treasury and most of the contractors
are clamouring for payments by the department. Tipu
is the nickname by which Akhilesh is known in the
family, but clearly Tipu has become a Sultan now and
is working in his own style.
Sharing the legacy?

priyanka vs. rahul camps
S there a tussle going on amongst Rahul and Priyanka

Gandhi? The Congress leadership doesnt accept this and
will not do so in future also. The leaders, who cultivated
Rahul Gandhi, assured themselves that after winning
nning
proximity to the new boss, half their battle is won.
on.
But politics is a dynamic game; it changes very
fast. Priyanka Gandhi is going to be the new
icon in the party; an idea being spread by
Congress leaders who are not looked after by
Rahul. The brother and sister do not wish to
give an impression in the public that they have
differences on important matters. As a
consequence, Shiela Dikshit got a new lease
of life in the political arena despite her
humiliating defeat in the Delhi Assembly polls
of 2013. There was reluctance in Rahul
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Gandhi camp as, in all probability, Jitin Prasad was likely to be

the new face of the party. While it is a given that Rahul and
Priyanka,
y
, or for that matter their mother, would never allow
to surface in the public domain, the
their differences
diffe
Sandeep Dikshit-Ajay Maken confrontation is a test
Sandee
case to determine where the family stands. Party
source
sources say that Priyanka has a soft corner for the
Di
Dikshits, which has been nurtured over a span of
time. Of late, Priyanka has provided
indications of her growing interest in politics
and insiders believe that she would be
contesting the next Parliamentary pollsnot
from Rae Bareli, as was the original plan, but
from Amethi. Rahul would move to Rae Bareli,
which has been the constituency of his mother
w
and grandparentsFeroze and Indira Gandhi.
a


Jaitley ignores his MoS

are they not suited for finance?
INANCE Minister Arun Jaitley seems to be upset with

his junior ministers. He has no idea why Santosh
Gangwar and Arjun Meghwal have been sent to the
Finance Ministry, since they are more appropriate for the Law
Ministry. Gangwar is a law graduate from Rohilkhand
University while Meghwal is a promoted IAS officer who has a
law degree, a masters in political science as also has an MBA from
Philippines University. Maybe that is the reason why for
international meetings on economic matters that Jaitley cant attend
himself, he prefers to send his officers rather than his ministers for
state. A few days ago, there was an Economic Forum meeting in China,
where Jaitley preferred to send Finance Secretary Shaktikanta Das
instead of his junior ministers. It is worth noting that this is the same
Shaktikanta Das who is being targeted by Swamy for some time now.
Raje turns her face...

...but badnor scores as governor
OW would Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan have known

that the same VP Singh Badnorof Bhilwaras Badnor
constituencywhom she was openly opposing for a
second Rajya Sabha term, will get so lucky? Badnor has been
an MLA four times, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha member oncee
each; when he lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, he was
sent to the Rajya Sabha. His tenure there ended only last
month, and party heavyweights such as Rajnath Singh, Arun
Jaitley and Rajeev Pratap Rudy wanted him to get a second
tenure of the Rajya Sabha, but Raje was not in favour. As a
parliamentarian, Badnor was also the chairman of a housing
committee, and had made several friends in the Opposition too,
o,
thanks to his friendly and gentle nature. It is said he has good
personal relations with Narendra Modi as well. This Monday, when
he is sworn in as the Governor of Punjab, he will also become
in-charge of the Union Territory of Chandigarh. For Badnor, the
Central government has done away with a 32-year-old rule so
that he can become both the Governor of Punjab and the boss of Chandigarh. Though Badnor got the governorship of Punjab, but
Raje has been successful in sidelining him from active politics of the State.

www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com


EYES WIDE SHUT

bureaucracy prabhat kumar
A cruel pattern
comes to the fore
There seems to be a difference in the level of statutory protection
between civil servants in service and retired civil servants in presumption
of criminality by investigating agencies
T is a tale of two cases in quick

succession, where two senior civil
servants were put on trial for alleged
acts of corruption on the ground of
causing benefit to somebody by their
actions which, according to the CBI,
were not in public interest. That they
did not benefit themselves or their
family and friends was irrelevant.
Curiously, both the officers enjoyed
impeccable reputation for personal
integrity in the eyes of everyone who
knew them.
Both were charged under the
provision of Section 13(1)D(iii) of
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988,
which does not require any criminal
intent for proving the charge of
corruption. In my view, this provision
is specious, illogical and bizarre. It
must go.
In the entire community of civil
service, I could find only one supporter
of this mindless provision. According
to him (being a friend, he will remain
nameless), this provision must
remain to deal with undesirable and
dishonest. He considers it unwise of
the government to take steps to delete
the clause. He thinks that deleting this
provision from the statute is not in the
larger interest. According to him, PC
Act is the only legislation that allows
chargesheet and legal process against
such undesirable elements without
prior approval and without criminal

intent. Perhaps, in his learned view,

all the delinquents should be caught
only after their retirement from
service. The only other person batting
for retention of the provision is the
politician, who was instrumental in
putting this bizarre provision in the
Act in the first place.
In the instant case involving H C
Gupta, former Coal Secretary, it is
most heartwarming to see the overwhelming flow of support to him in
the trial for conspiracy and corruption
by a CBI Court. Gupta, who is known
in official circles for his almost legendary competence, uprightness and
honesty, faces these absurd charges
in the infamous coal scam. When he
moved an application in the Court
pleading for cancellation of his bail
bonds and facing the trial from jail,
all hell broke loose.

Learning about the poignant plea
made by him in the trial court, his
colleagues in the civil service could
not hold back their anger at the
system they themselves were part of.
Their remonstration was joined by
thousands of others who did not know
him directly, leading to an outpouring
of emotional support from different
sections of population; however, that
extended by the otherwise sniggering
mediapersons was incredible. To
quote from an article written by a
noted journalist, By refusing to
submit to his dehumanising charade
and refusing to feel diminished,
Gupta has shamed us all and made us
feel small in our vindictive pursuit of
partisan agendas.
Earlier, there was a similar travesty
endured by another senior bureaucrat,
who like Gupta was prosecuted for
corruption long after his retirement,
it required many appearances in
the court as an accused and lengthy
arguments in defence before the case
ended in severe strictures passed by
the Supreme Court against the CBI
of maliciously embroiling the officer
in the case.
Between the two cases, a cruel pattern clearly emerges. It applies a wholly different standard to those unfortunate civil servants who assiduously
served a previous government before
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superannuating. Why should there be

a difference in the level of statutory
protection between civil servants in
service and retired civil servants in
presumption of criminality by investigating agencies is a question raised
by two separate cases involving senior
civil servants.
A telling comment from a corporate
executive was that it is frightening to
imagine the fate of a civil servant after
serving the government diligently and
honestly for close to four decades. He
wondered whether young men and
women would still like to join the civil
services after being told about the
existence of this section in PC Act.
Strangely, the learned Supreme
Court was pleased to stay the proceedings against the former Prime
Minister and another Coal Secretary
in a similar, if not identical, matter,
but did not even accept clubbing of
all the cases arising out of the same
facts in the case of Gupta. There is
no forum of appeal for Gupta as the
trial court is reporting directly to the
Supreme Court, a senior bureaucrat
reportedly said.
Two simple consequences can flow
from the Kafkaesque charade we are
witnessing. One, the weight of public
www.indianbuzz.com
When former Coal

Secretary HC Gupta moved
an application in the Court
pleading for cancellation
of his bail bonds and
facing the trial from jail,
all hell broke loose
resentment at the treatment meted
out to Gupta under a patently unjust
and absurd provision of law may
somehow tilt the judicial process in
his favour; though it appears highly
unlikely, I would not rule it out. Two,
in the event of Gupta being convicted
of offences he never committed, the
blow on the already low civil service
morale will be incurable. The obvious fallout would be a partial or total
unwillingness of civil servants to initiate or approve of any constructive
proposal in the government.
HE Prime Minister recently said

that India needs rapid transformation instead of mere incremental progress to meet the challenges of the future. For this, the
policy makers need to reorient existing administrative systems and laws,
abandon unnecessary procedures and

adopt technology.
Rapid transformation requires
bold decisions, not only at the top
but at various decision points in the
government hierarchy. If Guptas
cases in court result in conviction, it
may be difficult for the PM to find
enthusiastic civil servants to abandon
unnecessary procedures today only
to face prosecution at CBIs hands
after years in retirement when a rival
political party takes over the reins of
the government.
Is there a palpable atmosphere
of fear among senior bureaucrats? Frankly, I do not see any,
now. Individually, they seem to be
ensconced in the comfort of the syndrome that it happens to others, not
to me. Collectively however, they
express deep concern and danger to
the civil service. In a meeting of the
association, they poured out the trepidation of being hounded by CBI after
their superannuation.
Endpoint: Should a bureaucrat be
presumed to be corrupt till proved
otherwise in a court of law? g
The writer was the Cabinet Secretary and
the first Governor of Jharkhand. He can be
reached at pkumar1511@hotmail.com


COVER STORY
spectrum investigation
Delhi HC heard PIL arguments;

judgement reserved
Ananda Krishnan selling
scamtainted
spectrum?
10

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This is the biggest scam in India that is

continuing despite intervention of the
Supreme Court. Under the supervision of
the apex court, the CBI filed a
chargesheet against Malaysia-based
Maxis and its promoter T Ananda
Krishnan and director Ralph Marshall for
forcing C Sivasankaran to sell his
company Aircel to Maxis at a price much
lower than the market price. Dayanidhi
Maran, the then Union Telecom Minister,
was involved in it. This became a part of
the 2G scam as it basically involved sale
of spectrum.
Four years later, the scam continues.
Krishnan is busy selling spectrum to
Indian Telcos, Airtel and R-Com, so that
he can get maximum value out of the
`32,000-crore empire that he created by
using fraudulent and criminal means.
The 2G spectrum that he is selling is
the same spectrum that Aircel got on
first-come-first-served basis at an
administered price. The 3G spectrum that
he is selling to Airtel was bought from
funds raised by the value of the company
created out of the 2G spectrum that he
got at a low price. In a nutshell, it is
basically Indian taxpayers money that
he is converting into his personal asset.
What is shocking is that, in the process,
he is making a mockery of the Indian
establishmentthe government, the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and
the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Consider this, for last two years, the
CBI has not been able to serve summons
to Marshall and Krishnan in Malaysia. ED
www.indianbuzz.com
has not been able to trace both of them.

But, the promoters of Airtel (Sunil Mittal)
and R-Com (Anil Ambani) are engaged in
spectrum trading with Krishnan and, in
the process, are helping the absconder.
Isnt this surprising?
Further, no one is concerned about the
huge loan that the company has taken
from a consortium of banks led by the
State Bank of India (SBI). What will
happen to the loan when Krishnan will
sell all the assets (i.e. spectrum) of the
company? How will the banks recover
their money? Thus, this is a case where
the absconder is alleged to have got
benefits worth billions of dollars. First,
he usurped a telecom company that was
allocated spectrum at an administered
price through criminal means. Then he
pledged the spectrum and got huge
loans from Indian banks. When the
Government of India initiated legal
proceedings against him, he absconded
and started selling the assets for his
personal gain.
Interestingly, the company had earlier
sold all its towers to Global Telesystems
in a deal worth more than a billion dollar.
This happened much before Krishnan
was named in the alleged scam. This
shows that his intention all through was
to exploit the Indian systemget the
company and natural assets at a low
price and sell it to Indian companies at a
higher price. On this issue, the Society
for Consumers & Investors Protection
filed a case through leading lawyer Amit
Khemka. Mukul Shukla reports.

https://twitter.com/gfilesmagazine https://www.facebook.com/gfilesmagazine vol. 10, issue 6 | September 2016
11
COVER STORY
wo years ago, the people of

India voted out the scamtainted Manmohan Singh-led
government, confident that a new
government would ensure due
investigation and punishment for
the big guns caught in corruption
scandals. The biggest UPA scam, the
2G Spectrum case, was already in the
hands of the CBI and the judiciary.
Many
anti-corruption
activists
relaxed their vigil in the belief that the
law would now take its course without
political meddling.
GFiles is among those who continue
to doggedly track the spectrum cases.
Spectrum is among the countrys
most valuable and prized resources
today. Yet, as GFiles found out, the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),
tasked with the investigation of the
scam, is being shockingly lax in
pursuing the guilty and seizing this
precious asset so that it can be used
for public good. Several of the tainted
companies and their owners are yet to
be served summons, let alone be
arrested. Their assets have not been
appropriated and they are already
selling away their shareholdings. One

estimate suggests that the spectrum
held by these companies is worth
`50,000 crore.
Worse, these companies allegedly
owe a consortium of public sector
banks, led by the State Bank of India
(SBI), about `21,000 crore borrowed
against the value of the spectrum they
possess. If they are allowed to sell

their shares, the banks may never be
able to recover this money.
Newspaper reports suggest that
the Malaysian company, Maxis
Communications Berhad, involved in
the scam has already negotiated the
sale of some 4G spectrum to Bharti
Airtel and is also negotiating to
sell/merge its wireless business with
Reliance Communications.
On August 8, 2016, the Society for
Consumers & Investors Protection
(SCIP) filed a writ petition through
prominent lawyer Amit Khemka in
the Delhi High Court, asking for
immediate action to stop the sale of
4G spectrum by Aircel Ltd and allied
companies. The PIL had been filed
against 29 persons, organisations and
companies. Among the government
authorities and regulatory bodies that
were served notice were the
Department of Telecommunications
(DOT), CBI, the Enforcement
Directorate (ED), the Securities
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and
the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India (TRAI). Prominent individuals
included former Union Minister
Dayanidhi Maran and his brother
Kalanithi Maran and Ralph Marshal,
owner of a Malaysian company. The
clutch of companies asked to respond
to the petition included Reliance
Communications Ltd and Bharti
Airtel Ltd.
The petition pointed out that the
Supreme Court, in the matter titled
Aircel Maxis scandal clock

April-May 2011:The Aircel-Maxis deal comes under the
scanner after Aircel owner C Sivasankaran lodges a complaintwith the CBI alleging that he was pressurised to sell
his stakes to Maxis.
September 2011: The Arbitral Tribunal rejects
Sivasankarans allegation regarding breach of obligation
on the part of buyers in undertaking an IPO of Aircel. The
tribunal directs him to pay Maxiss legal costs of $7.9 million, of which at least $1.4 million was paid. The award
was not challenged.
October 2011: The CBI files a case alleging that
Sivasankaran, who had applied for spectrum licence,
wascoerced into selling his companyto Maxis. It is later
alleged that the Maxis Group, which bought 74 per cent
stakes in Aircel in March 2006, invested `742 crore in Sun
12

Direct between 2007 and 2009.

May 2014:The CBI tells the Supreme Court that there
was difference of opinion between the CBI Director and the
prosecution regarding filing of the chargesheet. On reference, the Attorney General opines that there was enough
prosecutable evidence.
July 2014:Maxis Communications Berhad, on July 25,
urges Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that it be treated in a
fair manner, citing a contrary opinion by two retired Chief
Justices of India.
August 2014: The CBI on August 29 files a
chargesheet against former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi
Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran, T Ananda Krishnan,
owner of Malaysian company Maxis, Ralph Marshall, a
senior executive of the Maxis Group, and four companies,
30 Indian companies identified for scrutiny
he Enforcement Directorate is said to have identified

over 30 Indian companies for scrutiny of transactions
in connection with the ongoing investigation in the
Aircel-Maxis deal case. The agency has zeroed in on
these entities after searches conducted last December,
in coordination with the Income-Tax Department, against
Vasan Health Care and Advantage Strategic Consulting
Private Limited. Vasan Health Care and Advantage
Strategic belong to the associates of former Finance
Minister P Chidambarams son Karti.
The ED had also carried out searches on the premises
of Kartis company, Chess Global Advisory Services, in
his presence. He told the media that his businesses were
fully compliant with laws and regulations. According to a
senior official, most of the companies currently under the
ED scanner are based in Chennai. Karti has a stake in
Centre for Public Interest Litigation

& Ors. Vs Union of India & Ors, had
given specific directions to the government and the CBI to investigate
the 2G licensing scam.
Investigations had revealed that
the then Minister of Communications
and Information and Technology,
Dayanidhi Maran, had misused his

office to exert pressure on C
Sivasankaran, the owner of telecom
company Aircel Ltd, to sell his company. Approvals for several of
Sivasankarans business ventures had
been repeatedly delayed or denied
and eventually he was forced to sell
including the Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd.

February 5, 2015: The Marans move the Supreme
Court,challenging the 2G Special Courts decisionto summon them in the Aircel-Maxis case.
February 6, 2015:The Supreme Courtrecalls its order
refusing to entertain petitionsof the Dayanidhi Maran and
Kalanithi Maran, to quash summons in the Aircel-Maxis
case issued by the 2G Special Court.
February 9, 2015:The Supreme Courtrefuses to intervene with a summons orderissued by the 2G Special Court
to the Maran brothers.
March 16, 2015:Marans challenge thejurisdictionof
the Special CBI Court over the Aircel-Maxis deal case.
April 1, 2015:ED attaches assets estimated at `742.58
crore held by Dayanidhi Maran and Kalanithi Maran and
wife Kaveri Kalanithi.
August 3, 2015: The CBI tells a Special Court that
www.indianbuzz.com
some companies.
The over 30 entities identified by the agency are into
legal, tax and investment consultancies, healthcare solutions, logistics, estate development activities, household
goods, textiles and fast-moving customer goods. Some
companies are into tourism services, including running
hotels and resorts and providing car rentals.
ED has received details of the bank accounts of some
companies, which are being examined. Suspected
overseas financial transactions in over a dozen countries,
including the United Kingdom, Spain, Singapore and Sri
Lanka are also being probed as part of the Aircel-Maxis
deal case.
The ED had recently issued two summons to seek
some clarifications from Karti in connection with the
investigations.
100 per cent shares of Aircel Ltd and

its subsidiary companies to Maxis
Communications Berhad, Malaysia,
on December 26, 2005.
The CBI found that after Maxis
Communications Berhad took control
of Aircel Ltd and its subsidiaries, all
the pending licenses and other statu-
Malaysian authorities were not cooperating in the service

of summons against four accused in the Aircel-Maxis deal
case after which the judge issues fresh summons.
August 21, 2015:The Supreme Courtstays ED moveto
attach Sun TV assets
August 25, 2015: ED summons two directors of the
private firm, Advantage Strategic Consulting.
September 9, 2015:CBIfilesstatus report.
January 8, 2016: ED names the Maran brothers,
Kalanithi Marans wife Kaveri Maran and three others,
including two companies as accused in its chargesheet.
January 23, 2016:EDsummons Ralph Marshall, former non-executive director of Maxis Communications Bhd
in Malaysia.
February 1, 2016: Dayanidhi Maran illegally generated Rs. 742.58 cr and Kaveri Kalanithi participated in
money laundering, says ED.

13
COVER STORY
tory approvals were granted to them
by the Ministry of Communication
and Information Technology without
any further delay.
Dayanidhi
Maran
allegedly
received a kickback of `742 crore in
the form of investment in his brothers firm, Sun Direct TV Ltd. The
entire deal was sought to be concealed
and ownership of the spectrum vested
through a complicated layer of companies and subsidiary companies,
including firms based in Mauritius,
Malaysia and India.
Interestingly enough, CBI has chosen to pursue only a limited number
of those involved in this scandal
despite its massive proportions.
Initially, only the Maran brothers and
two Malaysians, Ralph Marshall,
director of Astro All Asia Networks
and Maxis Communications Berhad,
Malaysia, and T Ananda Krishnan,
Chairman, Usaha Tegas, and their
companies were named in the

chargesheet filed by the CBI before a
Special CBI Court on August 29, 2014.
Letters Rogatory for Investigation
were sent to Malaysia, but the
Malaysian authorities did not cooperate. Letters Rogatory were reportedly
Several of the tainted

companies and their
owners are yet to be served
summons, let alone be
arrested. Their assets have
not been appropriated and
they are already selling
away their shareholdings.
One estimate suggests that
the spectrum held by these
companies is worth
`50,000 crore
also sent to the United Kingdom,

Bermuda and Mauritius, but, predictably, yielded no response.
It should have been evident to the
CBI that no response would be
received from Malaysia as the earlier
Letter Rogatory sent in 2013 had
yielded no cooperation from the
Malaysian government. Yet, it chose
this route to proceed. A look at court
proceedings reflects CBIs deliberately
casual attitude. On March 16, 2015,
when none of the accused persons had
been served, CBI prayed for issuance
of summons again. The matter was
adjourned for a period of five months
to August 3, 2015. Strangely, when
it was reported that the summons
has not been received back, served
or unserved, the leading public
prosecutor again sought six months
time for serving them! On July 11,
2016, the matter was once again listed
after more than six months but no
Whodunnit?
n a bid to bring the spectrum scam guilty to justice and Communications Berhad based in Kuala Lumpur; and
prevent further fraud on the Indian people, the Society two companies based in Port Louis, MauritiusSouth
for Consumers & Investors Protection (SCIP) filed a Asia Entertainment Holdings Ltd. and Global
PIL in the Supreme Court against the following persons, Communication Services Holdings Ltd.
government authorities and regulatory bodies in India The individual respondents are former Union Telecom
Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi
and abroad:
The principal respondent is the Union of India, through Maran, Ralph Marshall of Kuala Lumpur, T Ananda
the Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DOT) Krishnan of Kuala Lumpur and Suneeta Reddy and
in the Ministry of Communication and Information Dwarkanath Reddy of Chennai.
The multiplicity of government authorities invoked, apart
Technology.
The Indian companies involved are Mumbai company from the Secretary, DOT, are the Central Bureau of
Aircel Ltd, five Chennai-based companies Aircel Tele Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate and the
Ventures Ltd, Aircel Cellular Ltd, Dishnet Wireless Ltd, Secretaries of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry
Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd and Sindya Securities and of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of
Investments Pvt Ltd and two New Delhi based companies Personnel, PG and Pensions besides the two regulators,
South Asia Communications Pvt Ltd and Deccan Digital Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the Securities
Networks Pvt Ltd besides Reliance Communications Ltd and Exchange Board of India. All these authorities stand
accused by the petitioners of negligence or, worse, in prosand Bharti Airtel Ltd.
The foreign companies are the London and Kuala ecuting the scamsters and permitting sale/alienation of
Lumpur-based Astro All Asia Networks Plc; Maxis company shares and assets including valuable spectrum.
14

Augustus Ralph Marshall
ugustus Ralph Marshall served as the Chief

Executive Officer of Astro All Asia Networks Limited
since September 2003. He was the Chief Executive
Officer of MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn, a
wholly owned subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks Ltd,
since 1995 and its Deputy Chairman. He served as the
Chief Executive Officer of Astro Group from
1994 to May 2006. Marshall has the responsibility for Tanjong group's financial management and plays a key role in the development
and implementation of its corporate objectives. He has more than 30 years experience
in Financial and General Management in UK
and Malaysia. He has been the Chairman of
Powertek Berhad since February 2007. He
serves as a Non-Independent Non-Executive
Deputy Chairman of Astro Malaysia Holdings
Berhad. He has been Executive Deputy
Chairman of ASTRO Overseas Limited
since April 2011. He serves as the NonIndependent Non-Executive Deputy Chairman of Astro
Malaysia Holdings Berhad. He served as Deputy Chairman
of Astro All Asia Networks Ltd since August 2003 and
its Director since July 2003. He has been a Director of
Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad since March 21, 2011.
He has been a Non-Executive Director of Johnston Press
PLC. He has been an Executive Director of Tanjong Public
Limited Company since February 21, 1992, and Usaha
Tegas Sdn Bhd since 1992, and primarily responsible for
providing strategic direction and investment policy decisions. He has been an active member of the management
group responsible for developing and implementing the

financial and corporate strategies of the UT Group and
its affiliates He serves as Non-Executive Director at
Powertek Berhad since April 1, 1999, Measat Global
Berhad since May 8, 2002, and Maxis Communications
Berhad since June 30, 1993. Marshall has been an
Independent Non-Executive Director of KLCC
Property Holdings Bhd since September 1,
2005. He has been a Director of Kuala
Lumpur Convention Centre Sdn Bhd, Suria
KLCC Sdn Bhd and Asas Klasik Sdn Bhd.
He has been an Independent Non-Executive
Director of KLCC Reit Management Sdn Bhd,
Manager of KLCC Real Estate Investment
Trust since December 5, 2012. He has
been a Director of London Stock Exchange
PLC since August 1991. Marshall has been
Director of MEASAT Broadcast Network
Systems Sdn Bhd since 1994 and London
International Exhibition Centre Holdings
PLC. He served as Maxis Berhad from August 7, 2009,
to July 14, 2015. He served as a Director of Tanjong
Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd. He served as a Non-Executive
Director of OUE Limited (Alternate Name: Overseas
Union Enterprise Ltd) from September 21, 2006, to
March 9, 2010. He served as a Non-Executive Director
of Summit Ascent Holdings Limited since February 8,
2002. Marshall is an Associate of Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and Wales, post qualifying in
the UK and a Member of Malaysian Institute of Certified
Public Accountants.
Dramatis
Personae
progress was made.

Finally, almost after two years of
taking cognizance of the matter, the
CBI Special Court, on August 1, 2016,
issued warrants of arrest against the
accused Astro All Asia Networks Plc,
Maxis Communications Berhad,
Ralph Marshall and T Ananda
Krishnan. On August 27, 2016, the
Delhi High Court heard SCIPs arguments and reserved its judgement.
This two-year delay in issuing
warrants of arrest (let alone actual
www.indianbuzz.com
It should have been

evident to the CBI that no
response would be
received from Malaysia
as the earlier Letter
Rogatory sent in 2013 had
yielded no cooperation
from the Malaysian
government. Yet, it chose
this route to proceed
arrest) is strange, specially as it has

given the accused time to negotiate
various deals, including the sale of the
assets of the companies involved in
the scam.
It is strange that the CBI did not
pick the low-hanging fruit by
attachment of properties of the
companies and arresting, questioning
and prosecuting Indian citizens
involved in the scam. Chennai-based
Suneeta Reddy and Dwarkanath
Reddy, who are directors of the Sindya

15
COVER STORY
Maran brothers
Delhi court on August 27 reserved order

on applications by former Telecom
Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother
Kalanithi Maran and others challenging its
jurisdiction to hear a money-laundering case
against them connected with the Aircel-Maxis
deal, arguing that the court was designated
only to hear the 2G cases.
The court had summoned them in the case Dayanidhi Maran
in February after taking cognizance of a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate in
January. Special Judge OP Saini reserved the
order forSeptember 6. Since this issue goes
to the press before this date, we are unable
to state what the order said.
The Maran brothers have also moved
bail applications in the case. The agency
has opposed their bail pleas. Opposing
their bail applications, the Directorate
through its Assistant Director Kamal Singh
said that possibility of hampering the
investigation and tampering with the evidence by the applicants may not be ruled Kalanithi Maran
Dramatis
Personae
outThe bail applications deserve to be

rejected and the question of imposition
of conditions does not even arise, the
ED said.
Taking cognizance of the complaint, the
Judge had said that he was satisfied on
perusal of the material on record that there
was enough material to proceed against the
accused persons. The complaint is a spinoff of the corruption case lodged by the CBI
in the Aircel-Maxis deal.
The complaint alleged that `742.85
crore was paid to Dayanidhi Maran by
two Mauritius-based companies through
Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd (SDTPL) and South
Asia FM Ltd (SAFL). The two companies
are owned and controlled by Kalanithi
Maran, and the money was utilised by
these companies for their business, the
complaint alleged.
K Shanmugam, MD of SAFL, SDTPL, and
SAFL, has also been named as accused in
the complaint. He has also moved for bail.
Anil Ambani
nil Ambani's Reliance Communications

(R-Com) and Aircel are said to be preparing the ground for signing an agreement for a merger of their businesses by
September first week. Terms for the merger
are said to have been finalised. The merger,
if it materialises, would lead to the formation
of the third-largest telecom operator in the
country with a subscriber base of over 196
million. At present, no regulatory approvals
are said to be required. The process for regulatory approval will begin after R-Com and
Aircel sign a definitive agreement. It may take
around 4-6 month for the merger and the combined entity
may be re-branded.
The new entity will hold spectrum across all allocated
bands for 2G, 3G and 4G services.
On the other hand, R-Com and Sistema (MTS) are in pro-
cess of merger. Sistema will hold 10 per cent

stake in the new entity that will be formed
post its merger with R-Com. In December
last, the two firms announced a 90-day
exclusivity period for the merger deal that
will exclude R-Coms tower and optical fibre
assets for which a separate sale process is
ongoing. The talks were later extended twice.
The merged entity is expected to have
`25,000-crore business from the first day of
its operation and is estimated to have Ebitda
(earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of `7,000 crore and
finance cost of about `3,000 crore. R-Com and Aircel have
had nil free cash flow for a long time but the resultant entity
is being structured in a manner to have `4,000 crore free
cash flow, which it can use for investments in network,
according to a telecom analysts.
Dramatis
Personae
16

Ananda Krishnan
ccording to Forbes, Tatparanandam Ananda

Krishnans net worth is estimated at RM44 billion,
or US$10 billion, as on May 2015 and he is the
sixth richest man in Asia.
In the global financial world, everyone knows how Dr
Mahathir Mohamad helped make Krishnan rich by milking Petronas. What many do not know is that
he transferred billions of his wealth to India
to finance a shady Maxis-Aircel deal.
But then he got caught and now the
Indian government wants him arrested and
charged and most likely jailed. And the only
person who can save him is Malaysian Prime
Minister Najib Tun Razak.
And that is why Krishnan gave 1Malaysia
Development Berhad (1MDB) a loan of RM2
billion a year ago, much to the chagrin of
Dr Mahathir. The old man wanted 1MDB to
default on its loan repayments. Krishnan,
however, wanted to curry favour (pun
intended) with the Malaysian government. And this did
not quite fit into Dr Mahathirs plans.
There are some who say that Dr Mahathir is the
main wayang and is pretending he is not pleased
that Krishnan gave 1MDB an RM2 billion loan. And this
is because Krishnan would never do anything that Dr
Mahathir does not want him to doespecially to help
save 1MDB. But then Dr Mahathir also could not afford
for Krishnan to be extradited to India and eventually put
in jail. So giving 1MDB a loan of RM2 billion is a small
price to pay to save Krishnan.
CBI is investigating Krishnan, Augustus Ralph Marshall

and their companiesMaxis Communication Berhad,
South Asia Entertainment Holding and Astro All Asia
Network PLCfor their alleged role in the Maxis-Aircel
scam. Maxis Communications Berhad, between 2007
and 2009, bought 20 per cent Kalanithi Maranowned
Sun TV Network Ltd through its subsidiaries
Astro All Asia Network and South Asia
Entertainment Network for `599.01 crore.
CBI had filed the chargesheet in the case
containing the names of 151 prosecution
witnesses and a set of 655 documents, on
which it has relied upon during its probe.
The case involves investigation in foreign
countries and in its submission in court
stated that there were sufficient grounds to
proceed against the accused named in the
chargesheet.
So far, the Centre through its
diplomatic channels has not been
able to convince the Malaysian governmenteven
though both countries have signed a Mutual Legal
Assistance Treaty (MLAT)to cooperate with the Indian
government in these serious allegations of corruption.
For months, the CBI have not been able to issue
summons to the accused in Malaysia. Compare that to
the cooperation extended by the Mauritius government
on investigating the Global Communications Services
Holdings Limited (GCSHL)a Maxis Communication
Berhad companyunder which the entire intricate buyout of Aircel took place.
Dramatis
Personae
Securities and Investments Pvt Ltd,

which currently owns 26.001 per cent
of Aircel Ltd were not even charged in
the CBI vs. Dayanidhi Maran and
Others case.
Maxis Communications Berhad,
Malaysia, through its subsidiary companies, owns 73.999 per cent of Aircel
Limited and the remaining 26.001 per
cent is owned by Sindya Securities
and Investment Pvt Ltd., through
Deccan Digital Networks Pvt Ltd.
The CBI has so far made no move to
www.indianbuzz.com
attach the shares and assets of Aircel

Ltd or any of the other companies
involved. The PIL specifically requests
the High Court to direct the CBI to initiate proceedings under Sections
105C r/w 105D-J of the CrPC for
attachment and forfeiture of shares
and all the assets of M/s Aircel Ltd as
held by M/s Maxis Communications
Berhad
through
M/s
Global
Communications Services Holdings
Ltd, (which is 100 per cent subsidiary
Company
of
M/s
Maxis
Communications Berhad) and M/s

Sindya Securities and Investments
Pvt (who has also acquired shares
in M/s Aircel Ltd and its subsidiaries
at the instance of M/s Maxis
Communications Berhad).
The matter is urgent as newspaper
reports and other documents accessed
by gfiles indicate that Aircel Ltd is in
the process of being sold to/merged
with the telecom giant Reliance
Communications Ltd. Approvals have
also been procured for the sale of 4G

17
COVER STORY
Sunil Bharti MittalAirtel's connection with Aircel
n July this year, the Telecom Ministry cleared the

`3,500-crore 4G spectrum trading deal between
service providers Bharti Airtel and Aircel. The spectrum
trading deal between Bharti Airtel and Aircel was cleared
by the telecom minister onJuly 4, an official source told
PTI. As onJuly 4, Law and IT Minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad was in charge of the Telecom
Ministry as well.
Airtel has entered into an agreement with
Aircel to acquire rights to use 4G spectrum
of Aircel in eight telecom circles of Tamil
Nadu, including Chennai, Bihar, Jammu and
Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, the NorthEast, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Airtel
was asked to surrender 1.2 Mhz spectrum
in Odisha circle for approval as it breached
the spectrum cap limit (after taking into
account Aircels spectrum). The company
has surrendered 1.2 Mhz spectrum in 1800
Mhz before the deal was cleared, the source said.
In a circle, no player can hold more than 25 per cent
of the total spectrum allocated in that particular service
area. Activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan, in a letter onJuly
8, had demanded that CBI and ED immediately freeze
spectrum held by Aircel, alleging that its Malaysian parent
Maxis will abscond if the proposed deals with Airtel and
RCom are allowed to go through. CBI has filed a detailed
chargesheet against Aircel-Maxis and its Malaysian owner
T Ananda Krishnan. Even ED has filed cases against

them and attached properties of former telecom minister
Dayanidhi Maran, but not that of Maxis, the letter said.
The Malaysia-based Maxis Communications holds 74
per cent in Aircel while the rest is with Sindya Securities
and Investments. In August 2014, CBI had
filed the chargesheet with the 2G Special
Court, alleging Maran had entered into
a criminal conspiracy with Krishnan and
forced Chennai-based telecom promoter
C Sivasankaran to sell his stake in Aircel
to Krishnan in lieu of investments by
Maxis Group in Sun Direct TV (owned by
Maran brothers).
The chargesheet has been filed against
Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi
Maran, Krishnan, Ralph Marshall (executive
of the Maxis group) and four firmsMaxis
Communication Berhad, Astro All Asia
Network, Sun Direct TV Pvt, South Asia Entertainment
Holdings in Mauritius. Bhushan cited various occasions
when courts issued summons to Krishnan, Marshall,
Maxis Communications Berhad, and Astro All Asia
Network, but there was no compliance. For a telecom
operating company, spectrum is the main asset. Maxis
should not be allowed to sell spectrum and equity unless
all the accused, Krishnan and firm Maxis comply with
summons issued by the 2G special court, Bhushan said.
Dramatis
Personae
LTD Spectrum by Aircel Ltd to Bharti

Airtel Ltd.
In April 2016, news surfaced
that Maxis Communications Berhad
had decided to sell rights to use 20
MHz 2300 Band 4G TD spectrum of
its subsidiary Aircel Ltd to Bharti
Airtel Ltd for a sum of `3,500 crore.
gfiles has accessed a letter of Bharti
Airtel, dated July 10, 2016, addressed
to the National Stock Exchange of
India Ltd, wherein it states that they
have concluded their purchase of 20
MHz 2300 Band 4G TD spectrum
from Aircel Ltd and have even
obtained the necessary approvals
18

It is strange that the CBI

did not pick the lowhanging fruit by
attachment of properties
of the companies and
arresting, questioning
and prosecuting Indian
citizens involved in
the scam
from the government.
Stock Exchange Filing reveals that
necessary approvals have been granted by the DOT for the transfer of the
said spectrum licenses. It is shocking

that while Maxis Communications
Berhad is an accused before the court
of law, DOT has allowed the transfer
of its assets.
Similarly, Reliance Communications Ltd has announced that its
wireless business in India will shortly
be combined with that of Aircel Ltd.
The PIL asked the High Court to
direct DOT, SEBI, TRAI and Foreign
Investment Promotion Board (FIPB)
to set aside approvals granted to
Reliance
Communications
Ltd
for signing a binding definitive documentation with respect to the merger
of Indian Wireless Business of

Reliance Communications Ltd and
M/s Aircel Ltd as the same is against
the public interests of the country.
Further, the Society for Consumers
& Investors Protection asked that
DOT, SEBI, National Stock Exchange
of India Ltd., TRAI and FIPB be
directed to set aside approvals granted to Bharti Airtel Ltd for the purpose
acquisition of 4G LTD Spectrum
from Aircel Ltd.
The PIL demanded that no
permissions for transfer of shares or
spectrum licenses be given by any
regulatory body until the case against
Maran and others is concluded. It also
asked for an inquiry into how the
transfer of assets of an accused
company is being allowed by the
concerned government authorities
when it is a fugitive under the law.
Raising uncomfortable questions
about the role of Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd, Sindya
Securities and Investments Pvt Ltd,
South Asia Communications Pvt Ltd
and Deccan Digital Networks Pvt Ltd
in the scam, the petition said that they
are impleaded as accused in the case
of the CBI vs Dayanidhi Maran and
others as their roles in the
commission of the crime are apparent
from the chargesheet on record and as
they are the direct beneficiaries of the
crime. It also asked for impleading of
Suneeta Reddy and Dwarkanath
Reddy on the same charges.
Apart from challenging the inaction
of the CBI, the petition also examined
the role of the Directorate of
Enforcement, arguing that it should
immediately institute an inquiry/
investigation under Sections 5 of the
Prevention of Money Laundering Act,
in respect of the shares and other
assets of Aircel Ltd obtained by
commission of offence by Maxis
Communications Berhad through
www.indianbuzz.com
What is spectrum? Why is it important for mobile telephony?

Spectrum is basically airwaves. In mobile telephony, spectrum, a natural
resource, acts as a medium for transmission of voice and data signals. There
are different bands of spectrum that are allotted for different usages. Hence,
one can say that spectrum is the backbone of mobile telephony.
What was the 2G scam?
The Department of Telecom (DOT), with A Raja as the Telecom Minister,

decided in 2008 to give spectrum to new players on first-come-first-served
basis on the prices decided in 2001. In this auction, the price of 4.4 MHz
of spectrum for providing pan-India services came out to be about `1,400
crore. The government allotted licences to new operators who had no
established credentials in mobile telephony. Some of the companies were
accused of divesting equity at significantly higher prices. Telecom firms,
mainly Unitech and DB Reality, were allegedly awarded licences arbitrarily
and granted 2G spectrum on January 10, 2008, at extremely cheap rates,
thus robbing the government of revenues.
When did the 2G scam assumed significance?
2G scam came to the notice of the public when the Comptroller and Auditor
General CAG came out with its findings that the scam caused a loss of
revenue of `1.76 lakh crore to the national exchequer.
How did CAG arrive at the presumptive revenue loss figure?

The CAG based its estimates on three primary parameters to arrive at the
loss figure of `1.76 lakh crore. These factors are inclusive of the following:
the market price determined in an auction of 3G spectrum in 2010, the price
offered by S Tel to DOT and the valuations at which at which the investors
bought stakes in these companies.
What is the Supreme Court ruling?
The Supreme Court, in a judgment on February 2, 2011, cancelled 122

2G spectrum licences granted on January 10, 2008, on the ground that
they were issued in a totally arbitrary and unconstitutional manner. The
Supreme Court also came down heavily on the FCFS policy and termed it
fundamentally flawed.
Global Holdings Ltd and Sindya

Securities and Investments Pvt Ltd.
Although the PIL did not specifically
pray for an investigation into
the size of lending by public sector
banks to the various companies
involved in the scam, it is evident that
this is a matter requiring examination
by the Reserve Bank of India or other
banking authorities, particularly as it

is reported that DOT allowed Maxis
Communications Berhad to raise
a huge loan from the banks. If the
CBI is unable to serve notices to the
company, one wonders how banks are
lending it money. Or, how a leading
company is announcing a business
merger with its subsidiary! g

19
GOVERNANCE
judiciary amit khemka
One order, many yardsticks

Subordinate courts across the country must follow the law scrupulously,
whether it is laid by one High Court or the other
T is common with CBI investigations that the agency arrests only

the main accused during the investigation stage and the chargesheets
are filed without arresting the other
accused. In some cases, none of the
accused is arrested during the investigation. When such chargesheets are
filed in court, the courts have discretion under Section 87 r/w 204 of CrPC
whether to issue summons or warrants of arrest. It is also thus common
that the courts normally only issue
summons, and not warrants, to seek
presence of such accused while taking cognizance of the chargesheets.
It is, thus, safe to conclude in such
cases that whenever CBI feels that
the accused is cooperating with the
investigationis not interfering with
the investigation; is not in any way
destroying or scuttling evidence; is
not trying to influence witnesses and
is not likely to run away it does
not arrest such an accused and files
a chargesheet. The same can also be
presumed for the Judge, who did not
choose to issue warrants and only
issued summons. It also stands to
reason that in such cases, upon
appearance of the accused against
summons, he should normally be
granted bail as there was no doubt in
the mind of investigating agency and
the Judge that the accused was likely
to cooperate during trial.
However, there are precedents
where some Judges, even in such
cases, placed an accused in judicial
custody upon his appearance pending
consideration of bail applications
20

and, in some cases, even the bail

was rejected.
Looking at these peculiar circumstances, the Delhi High Court on its
own motion took cognizance of the
issue and in a well-considered judgmentCourt On Its Own Motion Vs
Central Bureau Of Investigation [109
(2003) DLT 494]issued specific
directions to subordinate courts
about the manner in which such cases
must be handled. The High Court
concluded that circumstances in such
cases clearly showed that:
the accused had cooperated during
investigation with police;
no apprehension existed of him
committing any further offence;
his arrest was not required for
investigation of the offence;
no apprehension existed of him
tampering with evidence, or make
it disappear, or make any threat or
promise to any person acquainted
with the facts of the case so as
to dissuade him from disclosing
such facts to the court or to the
police officer;
no apprehension existed that his
presence in the court, whenever
required, cannot be assured; and,
even the court issuing summons
under Section 87 r/w Section 204
did
not
have
any
such
apprehensions.
The High Court concluded that
there was no reason in such cases for
not granting bail to the accused, who
was summoned under Section 87 r/w
Section 204. The High Court, there-
fore, gave the following directions to

subordinate courts: The Court shall,
on appearance of an accused in a
non-bailable offence who has neither
been arrested by the police/investigating agency during investigation
nor produced in custody as envisaged in Section 170, CrPC, call upon
the accused to move a bail application if the accused does not move it on
his own and release him on bail as the

circumstance of his having not been
arrested during investigation or not
being produced in custody is itself
sufficient to entitle him to be released
on bail. Reason is simple. If a person
has been at large and free for several
years and has not been even arrested
during investigation, to send him to
jail by refusing bail suddenly, merely
because a chargesheet has been
filed, is against the basic principles
www.gfilesindia.com

governing grant or refusal of bail.

The Delhi High Court, in another
matter of Lt Gen Tejinder Singh Vs
CBI, while granting bail to the accused
therein, as he was not arrested by the
police during the investigation,
observed that, While opposing the
bail application, the contention of the
learned standing counsel for the CBI
that the petitioner has retired from a
very senior position and has capacity
to influence the witnesses, does not
hold water for the simple reason that
during investigation of this case,
which continued for about two
years, CBI never complained that
the petitioner indulged in any such
activity. CBI also did not feel necessity
437 CrPC, the court cannot be oblivious of, firstly, the fact that the
Investigating Officer did not deem it
necessary to either arrest the accused
during investigation or forward him
in custody under Section 170 CrPC
while filing the chargesheet under
Section 173 CrPC; secondly, that the
court while taking cognizance did not
find the circumstances existing in
Section 87 CrPC while procuring the
appearance of the accused through
warrant of arrest that the accused
has either been absconding or is concealing himself and issued summons
for him. Ordinarily, these circumstances would be favorably disposed
in favour of the accused in granting
bail unless the magnitude of the
offence, and the punishment therefore, is very high and severe and
It is the law of the land that

when the investigating
agency does not find it fit
to arrest an accused during
investigation, then no
purpose is served by
sending the accused to
judicial custody upon filing
of the chargesheet
to arrest the petitioner and it is not

the case of the CBI that at any stage
of the investigation, any pressure
was put on the investigating agency
by the petitioner by influencing his
colleagues, who were questioned
by the CBI during investigation of
this case.
The court further said: On the
premise of aforesaid principles, it
can safely be said that while considering the application under Section
www.indianbuzz.com
there is a likelihood of the accused

interfering with witnesses.
It is, thus, quite apparent that it is
the law of the land that when the
investigating agency does not find it
fit to arrest an accused during
investigation, then no purpose is
served by sending the accused to
judicial custody upon filing of the
chargesheet, as the investigation has
already been completed.
While these judgments of the Delhi
High Court are being followed by subordinate courts in Delhi, quite often
they are not followed in other States.
For example, even in the courts at

Ghaziabad, these judgments are not
being followed. It is trite law that
judgments of all superior courts are
binding upon all lower courts and the
subordinate courts in Uttar Pradesh
are bound not only by the judgments
of the Allahabad High Court, but also
of the Delhi High Court. It would
entirely be a different situation if
there was a differing judgment of the
Allahabad High Court on the point.
But, in the absence of any such law,
Ghaziabad courts must follow the
Delhi High Court judgments.
HERE is yet another strange

aspect to this issue. The CBI,
which allowed the accused to
roam freely during investigation,
which in most cases continues for
years, suddenly starts to oppose
grant of bail to such accused after he
appears in court in response to the
summons, little realising that it were
they who did not deem it fit to arrest
the accused during the investigation.
When the investigation was complete
and the chargesheet has already been
filed, what could be the justification
for sending the accused to judicial
custody pending trial. While it is necessary that anyone who has committed offence against society must be
punished, but till such person is actually convicted, he is presumed to be
innocent. The law cannot be different
in different States of the country. If
allowing an accused to roam freely is
wrong, to secure the ends of justice,
it is also necessary to ensure that the
fundamental right of an accused to
personal liberty and fair play is not
violated. Subordinate courts have to
be vigilant and must follow the law
scrupulously, whether it is laid by one
High Court or the other. g
The writer is a senior lawyer in the
Delhi High Court.


21
GOVERNANCE
sports mg devasahayam
Dreaming of
Olympic laurels!
As for strategy, a PPP model can be combined with cluster approach, taking
advantage of the existing infrastructure and facilities
HEN
the
BJP-led
government came to power
in May 2014 with the clarion
of demographic dividend, boasting
of Indias youth power, one expected
paradigm changes in an area that
brings pride and glory to the nation
in general and youth in particular.
The best area for this was winning
an Olympic gold. As the government
completes almost half its tenure, what
we have is a lucky bronze and silver
out of a total of 974 medals, with gold

nowhere in sight. Even these were won
by two committed and hard-working
girls who have been sweating it out
for long. Men lost out even before the
races really started.
7KH QDO PHGDOV WDOO\ DW 5LR WHOOV
an interesting story. The top 22
countriesthose with double-digit
medals with a minimum of three
goldstook home a total of 702, or
72 per cent, of all medals. The top ten
are the US, Great Britain, Germany,

France, Italy, Australia, Russia, Japan
and South Korea along with China. It
is often implied that wealth and size
are the reasons for the success of these
countries. They have the facilities and
programmes in place. They are bound
to win. So goes the arguments.
This logic does not seem to hold
much water. With few exceptions,
Olympics medals are won by youth
between the ages of 15 to 29. The
Olympics silver medalist in badminton, PV Sindhu, has become cynosure of all eyes
22

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graphic below shows the medals won

per 100,000 of population in the
15-29 age-group, for 22 countries.
Tiny New Zealand (total population
4.6 million) emerges on top, with 1.8
medals per 100,000 in the relevant
age group, followed by Jamaica with
1.57 medals and Croatia with 1.43
medals. New Zealand won an astonishing 18 medals that has mostly gone
unheralded. These countries are not
the richest, they do not have the size
and muscle, their small size restricts
the depth of internal competition and
they dont have superior sports
administrators or the best of facilities.
China, despite winning 70

medals, has an extremely
low population-medal ratio.
Imagine how abominably
pathetic Indias ratio is with
almost the same population
as that of China but just
winning a silver and bronze
N this game of averages China,

despite winning 70 medals (Gold26, Silver-18, Bronze-26), has an
extremely low population-medal
ratio. Imagine how abominably
pathetic Indias ratio is with almost
the same population as that of China
but just winning a silver and bronze.
Despite this shame, at home, political leaders have taken over the medal
chase with their bluff and bluster.
From chief ministers Chandrababu
Naidu, Chandrasekhar Rao and ML
Khattar to sundry MPs and MLAs,
these worthies are looking to convert
photo-ops into political-ops. Leading
the relay pack was Andhra Pradesh
CM Naidu, who even set up a badminton game with PV Sindhu and declared
the match a draw without smashing
one shuttle!
www.indianbuzz.com
Performances of Sakshi Malik (top) in wrestling and Dipa Karmakar in gymnastics

have been appreciated by all Indians
Telangana CM Rao posed in

umpteen photos with Sindhu, smiling
sneakily at the silver medal. Rival
chief ministers showered competitive
candies on players. Rao presented
Sindhu a cheque of `5 crore while
Naidu has set aside 15 acres at the new
nature-killing rajdhani (Amaravati)

for a new badminton academy. When
it comes to Olympics champions,
such leaders are willing to run the
marathon as long as theres a selfie
moment afterwards.
Meanwhile, a 100m race is taking


23
GOVERNANCE
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Khel Ratna 2016 Award winners (from left to right) Jitu Rai, PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik
and Dipa Karmakar
place between CPM and Trinamool

over gymnast Dipa Karmakar. Wholl
felicitate her better, Mamata didi or
Manik dada? While Tripura CM
Manik Sarkar sprinted to Dipas
home, TMCs Mukul Roy will undertake some floor exercises in Agartala
when TMC felicitates her. TMC and
Left dont like dangling on parallel
bars in Tripura.
N Haryana, CM Khattar gifted `2.5

crore to Sakshi Malik. Thousands
came to see Sakshi but were treated
to hours of lecturing by an akhara of
netas. Politicians didnt notice the
disappointed crowd, because they
were busy doing kushti for the perfect
6DNVKL VHOH ,Q WKH QH[W IHZ GD\V
everything will be back to square zero
with mediocrity ruling the roost.
But Prime Minister Narendra
Modi seems to be having a long-term
plan. He has announced the setting
up of a Task Force, which will help
to plan for effective participation
of Indian sportspersons in the next
three Olympics, to be held in 2020,
24

2024 and 2028, respectively. He is

also crowd-sourcing ideas as to how
to win Olympics medals!
For once, I would turn a crowdsource. I do have some credence
as the former President of the
Chandigarh Olympic Association and
founder President of the Chandigarh
Lawn Tennis Association that has set
XSRQHRIWKHQHVW7HQQLV&RPSOH[
cum-Academy in the country. For a
while I was also Director of Sports,
Haryana. With these credentials, over
eight years ago (April 12, 2008) I took
the liberty of writing an unsolicited
letter to the then Union Minister for
Youth Affairs and Sports, Dr Manohar
6LQJK *LOO 7KH OHWWHU JLYHV VSHFLF
and workable idea for India to win
Olympics laurels. Let me reproduce
the operative content of the letter:
Hence the suggestion to rejuvenate
the Olympics sports through a
Public-Private-Participatory (PPP)
mechanism, which has already
become the in-thing in India. The
model is simple and capable of
implementation within a short
period of time.
We have Central Government
institutions and undertakings like
Army, BSF, CRPF, Railways, ports,
banks, insurance companies, ONGC,
IOC and other oil companies, NTPC,
BHEL, BSNL, SAIL, coal companies,
airlines and others with fairly good
infrastructure and manpower base.
There are equally large business
groups engaged in several industrial/
service activities. Some of these are
Tatas, Reliance, Birlas, Mahindras,
WIPRO, INFOSYS, L&T, private banks
& insurance companies, automobile,
cement, textile, information &
communication technology, real
estate & construction companies, all
of whom are making big money in a
booming economy.
Then there are the autonomous
federations for each sport functioning
under the Olympic Charter, who
have the duty and responsibility to
lay down the rules, conduct highclass competitions, select players on
merit, train them meticulously and
HOGWKHPDJDLQVWWKHZRUOGVEHVW
www.gfilesindia.com

We
have
several
State
governments, who either have
reasonable sports infrastructure or
are capable of developing these in a
short time.
We have the Union Ministry of
Youth Affairs and Sports, charged
with the duty and responsibility of
guiding and coordinating sports
development in the country at all
levels and extend support through
VSHFLFVFKHPHVDQGSURJUDPPHVVR
that the countrys youth have creative
and competitive activity in which
they can excel. The Ministry has
Sports Authority of India, reduced to
another bureaucratic add-on.
Why dont we form PPP
consortiums comprising of these
HQWLWLHV DQG DOORFDWH WKHP VSHFLF
sports and responsibilities within the
Olympic Charter, with a mandate
to rejuvenate these at all levels and
produce champions who can win
gold medals if not in 2012, at least in
2016 Olympics?
OTHING came of it and

Virender Poonia, a Dronacharya
awardee, tells us why: Our
sports policies are formulated by people who have perhaps never participated even in their schools sports
meet. And thats hurting our sports
and sportspersons the most. One has
to only see the despicable and chaotic
manner in which sports events/tournaments are organised and the rotten
ground conditions to understand the
depth of mediocrity of Indian sports!
Mediocrity at the top trickles down
to the absence of scientific coaching,
training and infrastructure thats
keeping our athletes from becoming
world beaters. In the modern sporting
world, its necessary that an athlete
starts early under a competent coach,
with access to good facilities.
Unfortunately, our athletes fall
www.indianbuzz.com
behind their competitors at the very

start of the race to become champion
athletes. Viren Rasquinha, a former
national hockey team skipper, says:
Its the combination of coaching, the
right training facilities, the right
equipment, the right doctors, physiotherapists, nutritionists, mental
trainers and the desire of the athletes
to be the best that goes into the making of a champion athlete.
An overwhelming majority of our
Political leaders have

taken over the medal
chase with their bluff and
bluster. From chief
ministers Chandrababu
Naidu, Chandrasekhar Rao
and ML Khattar to sundry
MPs and MLAs, these
worthies are looking to
convert photo-ops into
political-ops
athletes/sportspersons come from

poor and rural background. In the
small towns and villages, they start
their sporting journeys with coaching
and infrastructure that is very basic
and primitive. Most of them struggle
to get a nutritious diet, a must for
someone aspiring to be a professional
sportsperson, in their growing years.
Glaring examples of the odds these
athletes have to beat to reach the
national and international stage are
Dipa Karmakar and Lalita Babar, the
two women who gave stellar
performance at the Rio Olympics.
Babar, who hails from a dusty village
in Maharashtra, didnt even have a
pair of running shoes while she
was growing up. Karmakar, from
Agartala, started off by training in a
rickety gymnasium, using shock
absorbers from discarded scooters as
spring boards.
Even these basic facilities are now
drying up. Most district authorities
seem obsessed with developing yoga
infrastructure, because that is what
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar felicitating Sakshi Malik


25
GOVERNANCE
Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Vijay Goel, at the National Sports Day function in New Delhi with Olympians
the swamijis want. Even where good

infrastructure and facilities are
available, sports do not bloom because
it does not make careers. Motilal
Nehru School of Sports at Rai (on the
outskirts of Delhi at Sonepat) in
Haryana is a case in point. In this
school, 31 students went up to the
international level, but they gave up
later. After leaving the school, they
generally concentrate on academic
career because of lack of job
opportunities for sportsmen. This
school has 842 students from class IV
to XII. It is compulsory for each
student to adopt a game of ones
choice. The school has an athletics
stadium, swimming pool, gymnasium,
tennis, volleyball and basketball
courts, equestrian lines, football,
hockey and cricket fields and squash
courts. It is 43 years since the school
was established, yet there has not
been one Olympic medalist!
As it is, leadership in this country
in all walks of life is mediocre and of
low calibre. If the sports associations and bodies are dens of nonperforming vested interests, the
government machinery in India, both
at the Centre and the States, is no
26

better. Except earmarking a pittance

for sport development and perpetually
promising grandiose sport policies,
governments have done precious
little to genuinely promote sports and
games in the country. The Sports
Authority of India, established with
all fanfare and which is eating
up most of the sports budget, is
nothing more than a sanctuary of
bureaucratic intrigues, incapable of
even maintaining the infrastructure
and assets it has. In its present form
and style, it is futile to expect
any improvement in the working of
the sports bodies or government
departments in charge of sport.
S far as the Modi government is

concerned, it is not anybodys
case that within two years or so
it could have moulded Olympic
champions. But at least a start could
have been made. Besides talent, good
nutrition and physical fitness,
excellence in Olympics calls for
extreme focus, hard work and harsh
discipline. Basic lessons are more or
less the same as in the Army training
a sharp-shooter to hit the bulls eye:
Firm up the objective. Place the rifle
on your shoulder and grip it firm.

Align the eye, sight, aperture and
target on straight line. Focus. Press
the trigger.
Fortuitously, the BJP has within
its elected ranks two ex-Army men
who were capable of shaping talented
sportsmen as champions. One is Lt
Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore,
himself an Olympic silver medalist
in shooting, and the other is former
Army Chief, General VK Singh, an
outstanding Ranger/Commando in
his days. But, both have been wasted
out in soft assignments while sports
administration was handed over to
softy-softies!
As for strategy, the suggested
PPP model can be combined with
cluster approach, taking advantage
of the existing infrastructure and
facilities. To start with, one could
think of Chandigarh, Rai, Goa, Pune,
Hyderabad and Guwahati as possible
clusters. Details can be worked out by
genuine experts.
The time to start is yesterday, lest
Indias Olympic laurels continue to
remain a distant dream! g
The writer is a former Army and IAS
officer. Email: deva1940@gmail.com
www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com


27
STATE SCAN
dalia scam
MPs Dalia scam
Feasting on
malnourished diets
The massive misuse of central funds meant for child nutrition, unearthed
after an income-tax raid in July, threatens to overshadow the Vyapam or
Simhastha scams. The Dalia scam figures, as per initial estimates is over
`4,600 crore, and many bigwigs of the government and State
businessmen are involved in the huge loot of funds meant for providing
nutritious food to children and pregnant women. Rakesh Dixit reports.
28

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major income-tax department operation in July set

off stunning revelations as to
why Madhya Pradesh continues to
be among top two States in India in
child malnutrition despite spending
billions of rupees on public nutrition
distribution system.
Madhya Pradesh is second only to
Bihar in malnutrition with 42.8 per
cent children being severely undernourished. Worse, Infant Mortality
Rate (IMR) at 51/1000 is highest in
the State in India, according to the
2015-2016 National Sample Survey
(NSS) report.
The IT operation, carried out for
three days in 30 locations in Bhopal,
Indore and Mumbai, blew up the lid
on what has come to be known as
multi-billion Dalia scam.
Senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Digvijay Singh raised the Dalia scam
in the Rajya Sabha on August 18. He
dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi
to get the scam probed into, adding that the fund which was misused
was of the Centres Integrated Child
Development Scheme (ICDS).
The Congress will file public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme
Court to unravel the scam and
lodge an FIR against the culprits,
Singh said.
The Shivraj Singh government is
trying hard to hush-up the scam as
many powerful bureaucrats, most
notably the Chief Ministers Man
Friday SK Mishra, might land in
trouble if murky details of the rip-off
come to light.
Mishra wears many hats. He is principal secretary to the Chief Minister,
Commissioner, Public Relations
and also Managing Director of the
Madhya Pradesh Agro Industries
Development Corporation. The corporation, aka MP Agro, turned into
www.indianbuzz.com
a milch cow in 2008 after it secured

the authority from the Woman and
Child Development Department to
engage private companies for manufacturing and supplying nutritive
Dalia and readymade food packets to
Anganwadis across the State. Nearly
93,000 Anganwadis are mandated
to distribute nutrition to pregnant
women, malnourished children at
their centres. The supplied food packets are also distributed among school
children as a part of the mid-day meal.
MP Agro, along with three companiesMP Agro Nutri Food, MP Agro
Food Industry and MP Agrotonics
Limitedmonopolises the food-
The Shivraj Singh

government is trying hard
to hush-up the scam as
many powerful
bureaucrats, most notably
the Chief Ministers Man
Friday SK Mishra, might
land in trouble if murky
details of the rip-off
come to light
Principal Secretary to the CM, SK Mishra
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan
chain supply and manufacturing.

The four entities function in a joint
venture where MP Agros holding is
30 per cent. Earlier, the equity share
between the corporation and companies was 51:49, which was tilted in
favour of the companies. Together,
they command an annual budget of
`1,200 crore.
The MP Agro Managing Director
has a key role in deciding which company will get what share of the fund
for manufacture and supply of prepared food. Stakes being so high, it is
no wonder that the Chief Ministers
most trusted officer has been entrusted with the task.
Before Mishra, another of Shivrajs
blue-eyed
bureaucrats,
Rakesh
Shrivastava, was the MP Agro
Managing Director till 2014. Like
Mishra, Shrivastava also held the post


29
STATE SCAN
dalia scam
Former WCD Minister, Ranjana Baghel (left), succeeded Kusum Mahadele (centre) in 2008. Former MD of MP Agro, Rakesh Shrivastava.
of Commissioner, Public Relations

as additional charge. He was subsequently sent to Gwalior as Excise
Commissioner. Recently, Shrivastava
was made Managing Director of the
MP Mandi Board.
CCORDING to those familiar

with MP Agros functioning,
the two Managing Directors in
their tenures systematically allowed
the three holding companies to thrive
at the corporations expense. In the
bargain, billions of rupees allegedly
changed hands over the last eight
years. The corruption acquired a
permanent mechanism with the
MP Agro entering into a five-year
contract with the three companies for
supply in 2012. While the companies
production and turnover increased
exponentially, MP Agros role
correspondingly reduced.
In 2005-06, MP Agros manufacturing plant in Badi, near Bhopal, produced 4,775 metric tonnes of nutritive
food. The production reduced to 1,877
metric tonnes in 2008-09. In the
same period, production of MP Agro
Nutri Food, one of the three private
30

companies, grew from 3,816 metric

tonnes to 11,019 tonnes. Other two
companies also increased their production substantially.
Ironically, while annual budget for
nutritive food continued to increase,
the plight of malnourished children in
the State deteriorated.
The budget for diets was `90.60
crore in 2004-2005. It went up year
after year to touch `1,200 crore
in 2015-16. But the annual budgetary growth miserably failed to
address malnutrition. The number
of malnourished women and children in Madhya Pradesh stands at
roughly 97 lakhs in the States 8
crore population.
Social activist Sachin

Jain says contractors
and private companies
have dominated food
supply to Anganwadis
from the very beginning
in contravention to
the Supreme Courts
2004 verdict
Given stunning enormity of the

mismatch between the budgets and
benefits to the targeted beneficiaries,
it is not difficult to surmise that political patronage from the top emboldened the two Managing Directors to
subvert the system with gay abandon.
According to sources, a group of
well-entrenched officers in the MP
Agro allegedly played the role of
facilitator for three private companies. That the group had the backing of the Managing Directors goes
without saying. Of the group, four
officers stand out from the rest.
They are MP Agro general manager
Ravindra Chaturvedi, nutrition incharge Venktesh Dhawal and ICDS
officers Akshay Shrivastava and
Harish Mathur.
Chaturvedi, who joined MP Agro in
1984 as deputy manager, has been on
the forefront in thwarting every move
to bring transparency in working of
the corporation. He was appointed
director in the contracted companies
as MP Agro representative. Despite
several department enquiries, he
enjoyed full blessing of the MDs and
acted as an interface between them
www.gfilesindia.com

GOVERNANCE
AWARDS
2016
AWARDS CATEGORIES
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
EXCEPTIONAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD
EXCELLENT CONTRIBUTION AWARD
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awards@glesindia.com
GOVERNANCE
AWARDS
2016
Saturday,
November 26, 2016
www.indianbuzz.com

KWWSVWZLWWHUFRPJOHVPDJD]LQH KWWSVZZZIDFHERRNFRPJOHVPDJD]LQH vol. 10, issue 6 | September 2016
31
AWARDEES 2012
STATE SCAN
dalia scam
Armstrong Pame, IAS,

Exceptional Contribution Award
Anil Awarup, IAS,

Jyotsna Sitling, IFS,

Ajit Balaji Joshi, IAS,

Exce
AWARDEES 2013
Jayesh Ranjan, IAS,

Excellent Contribution Award
Dalip Singh on Behalf of

Santha Sheela Nair, IAS,
Amarjit Singh, IAS,

Exceptional Contribution
Award
Ashwani Lohani, IRES

JS Deepak, IAS,
Award
GOVERNANCE A
AWARDEES 2014
Shrikar Pardeshi, IAS,

Award
Shahid Iqbal Chaudhary, IAS,

Award
KN Kumar, IAS,
Award
Amitabh Kumar, IRS,

Award
Balvinder Singh, IA
Excellent Contribut
AWARDEES 2015
S. Vijayakumar, IAS,
Award
32

Shalini Rajneesh, IAS,

Award
Jigmet Takpa, IFS,

Award
Ajay Singhal, IRRS,

Award
Meeran Chadha Borw

IPS, Excellent Contr
Award
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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Aradhana Patnaik, IAS,

Abhayanand, IPS
Award
bution
Atul Patney, IAS

2012
2013
S.K. Misra, IAS (Retd)

Lifetime Achievement Award
Satish Kumar, Advisor, DMRC

on behalf of E. Shreedharan,
Lifetime Achievement Award
2014
2015
Ved Marwah, IPS (Retd),

Lifetime Achievent Award
Anil Kakodkar,
Nuclear Scientist, Lifetime
Achievement Award
AWARDS-2016
gh, IAS,
tribution Award
a Borwankar,
Contribution
A.K. Dubey, IAS, on behalf of

K.M. Abraham, IAS,
www.indianbuzz.com
Pratibha Singh, IFS,

Rakesh Kumar Gupta, IAS,

www.glesawards.com
Rinkesh Roy, IRS,

Amulya Patnaik, IPS,

Anshul Mishra, IAS,



33
STATE SCAN
dalia scam
GOVERNANCE
G
AWARDS
2016
RECOGNISING EXCELLENCE
IN GOVERNANCE
gles awards recognises excellence in
governance by an independent jury comprising
former bureaucrats of unmatched standing
backed by the credibility and goodwill.
The aim is to recognize people with consistent
performance of the highest standards and those who
have made a major contribution to Indian Society.
An award can work wonders on the morale of the
person getting the award and motivate him/her to work even
harder and set a positive example for others to follow.
THE JURY
Sh. Prabhat Kumar,
(Former Cabinet Secretary,
Govt. of India and
Chairman of the Jury)
Sh. Anil Razdan, Sh. Vishnu

(Former Secretary
Bhagwan,
Power)
(Former Chief
Secretary Haryana)
Sh. M B Kaushal,
(Former Secretary
Internal Security)
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FOR BRANDING OPPORTUNITIES CONTACT

Mobile: +91 99111 10385; Phone: +91 11 2874 4789
Fax: +91 11 4508 2832
Email: adv@glesindia.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION,
visit www.glesawards.com
34

KWWSVWZLWWHUFRPJOHVPDJD]LQH KWWSVZZZIDFHERRNFRPJOHVPDJD]LQH www.gfilesindia.com
Present WCD Minister, Archan Citnis (left). Tainted IAS officer Tinu Joshi (right)
and the company owners. Dhawal,

who sets MP Agros agenda for food
manufacturing and supply, had
retired on June 30. But MD Mishra
retained him by reappointing him
on contract.
The July income tax raids covered
premises of Chaturvedi and Dhawal.
Raids were also conducted at the
premises of nutritive food suppliers,
Sunil Jain, Hridyesh Dixit and
Avadhesh Dixit. The Dixit brothers also
own a media group. Besides, Jain and
Dixits have also invested a substantial
sum in real estate business in the
name of Shrikrishna Devcon Private
Limited. The company has housing
projects in Indore and Mumbai.
The investigation wing seized large
volume of documents from 30
locations of MP Agro Industries, MP
Agro Nutri Foods, MP Agrotonics,
Indo Den Food, Shri Krishna Devcon
Limited, (SKDL), Global Group and
their allied companies situated in
Indore, Barwah, Bhopal and Mumbai.
Sunil Jain and Mukesh Jain are
directors in MP Agro Nutri Foods.
Avadhesh Dixit heads Global Group,
which deals in real estate. All the
www.indianbuzz.com
three families and the companies

they run have close financial ties,
documents accessed by income tax
department revealed. Together, the
three families are into three types of
businesses. Besides supplying cereals
to Anganwadis and developing real
estate projects, they have also entered
into renewable energy sector.
LTHOUGH the income tax raids

were essentially conducted
to unearth tax evasion, the
documents seized by the sleuths
turned out to be damning evidence
of the massive corruption jointly
indulged in by MP Agro bureaucrats
and the three companies.
The income tax department has
concluded its operation after making the Dixit brothers companies to
surrender `50 crore. Hridyesh alone
surrendered `5 crore after much dillydallying. But, follow-up action on the
income tax department report by the
State government is still awaited.
AK Jaisawal, director general,
investigation, Income Tax (MP),
says the department has sent information about irregularities in
From journalist
Hridyesh Dixit
to
billionaire:
quality of nutrition food to the

concerned department.
MP Agro managing director Mishra
says the corporation will act against
officers covered in the raids after the
income tax report is received. The
officersChaturvedi and Dhawal
were MP Agro nominees in the MP
Nutri Food company, whose premises were raided. Two months have
elapsed since the operation but no
action by either the State government
or MP Agro has followed.
Although the Women and Child
Development Minister, Archana
Chitins, has promised that no one
will be allowed to go scot free for


35
STATE SCAN
dalia scam
eating up the nutrition meant for

the children, her department has
not taken any initiative so far. Chief
Minister has not spoken a word on the
massive operation that blew the lid on
the Dalia scam.
Notwithstanding the governments
attempts to shield the guilty, a sordid
saga of corruption has followed in
media following the income tax raids.
The details suggest that thousands of
States children may have survived
severe malnutrition if a corrupt government had not let a nexus of politicians-bureaucrats-contractors rob
billions of rupees meant for their diets
at the Anganwadis. This has been the
tragic outcome of the wanton avarice of the nexus comprising successive Women and Child Development
(WCD) department ministers and
bureaucrats of MP Agro, besides owners of three nutritive food manufacturing companies.
HE WCD department allocated

a whopping `7,800 crore to MP
Agro to get nutritive food prepared for distribution to malnourished children through Anganwadis
over the last 12 years. MP Agro, in
turn, got the nutritive prepared in
the manufacturing units of MP Agro
Nutri Food, MP Agro Food Industry
and MP Agrotonics Limited. The chief
operators of the four entities together
allegedly compromised both quantity
and quality of the nutritive food to as
high as 60 per cent, according to an
expose by Dainik Bhaskar. Simply
put, they mutually conspired to
gobble up nearly 60 per cent of the
allocated fundroughly `4,680 crore.
Statistics of malnutrition deaths
in Madhya Pradesh for the first six
months of this year alone reflect enormity of the tragedy. Between January
1 and June 30 this year, 9,167 children
died of malnutrition in the State. A
36

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh recently raised the issue
maximum of 78,773 malnourished

children have been identified in
the tribal district of Dhar, followed
by Badwani (58,781) and Alirajpur
(40,107). Even in the State capital,
Bhopal, the number of malnourished children in the 0-6 age group is
over 26,000.
In the last six months, 587 malnutrition deaths were reported in Bhopal,
followed by Badwani (537), Balaghat
(268), Betul (332), Chhatarpur (219),
Guna (200), Jabalpur (276), Jhabua
(251), Katni (212), Morena (226),
Satna (346), Sehore (236), Seoni
(256), Shivpuri (211), Ujjain (301) and
Vidisha (341).
Many of these deaths could have
been avoided had the WCD department ensured strict monitoring of
quality and quantity of the supplied
food items.
Quality check is a mere formality.

Only recently, food packets of expired
date were recovered in Rewa district.
Food manufactured in January was
being distributed in June.
As per ICDS instructions, each
normal child is entitled to get food
worth `6. For girls, it is `8 per head
and for a malnourished child `9 per
head. But the instructions are mostly
followed in the breach for want of
strict checking mechanism.
The food supply system has a vast
network of district project officer in
each of 51 districts, 453 block level
projects and 3,100 supervisors. Each
supervisor has 25 Anganwadis under
his/her jurisdiction. They are supposed to send demand at the higher
level, based on actual requirement.
But, corruption starts from the lowest
level. For example, if an Anganwadi
www.gfilesindia.com

sends demand for one gunny sack of

food items, the demand is multiplied
by up to four times at the woman
and child directorate level in Bhopal.
Inflated demand helps fudging billing
and payments.
The practice of undersupply of the
food packets is also rampant. Suppose
two trucks of materials is despatched
from Bhopal. It will be shown as four
trucks and the directorate will make
payment for them on the basis of
forged receipts.
Another means of corruption is misreporting of children in Anganwadis.
On paper, each Anganwadi has 100
registered children, but in most of
them hardly 20 to 25 children are fed.
However, billing is made for 80-90
children. Bogus billing in transportation is yet another way to make illegal
profits. Normally, transporters rate is
`1-2 per kg of food supply. But most
of them charge as high as four times
the stipulated rates. The difference in
the billing is shared by transporters
and officials.
All bills for supply are cleared by
the directorate. Rules provide that
bills up to `2.5 crore will be cleared
by the directorate. For bills exceeding this amount, files will move to the
finance department. To avoid this,
bills of higher amount are split in such
a way that no bill exceeds the limit of
`2.5 crore and thus gets cleared at the
directorate level itself.
For a callous State government,
such an endemic malnutrition and
resultant deaths may be cold statistics. But viewed against the backdrop of the revelations that followed
the income tax raids, a chilling narrative of corruption, conspiracy
and defiance of the Supreme Court
order emerges.
Madhya Pradesh is, historically,
the most malnourished State in India.
The Government of India and the
www.indianbuzz.com
World Health Organisation (WHO)

send large funds every year under various schemes, particularly under the
ICDS, to mitigate the problem. States
WCD department also earmarks substantial amount to provide diet to
malnourished children and pregnant
mothers through Anganwadis. The
huge fund attracts contractors. The
WCD department enters into contracts with them for supplying readymade nutritive food, mostly Dalia, to
the Anganwadis. The arrangement
spawns massive loot, which contractors share with concerned politicians
and bureaucrats. Baring sporadic
complaints of corruption in the media
MP Agro, along with three

companiesMP Agro Nutri
Food, MP Agro Food
Industry and MP Agrotonics
Limitedmonopolises the
foodchain supply and
manufacturing. The four
entities function in a joint
venture where MP Agros
holding is 30 per cent
from time to time, the nexus endure.
Gradually, the corruption in centralised nutritive food supply became
too endemic across India for certain
public-spirited
non-government
organisations (NGOs) to keep quiet.
They petitioned the Supreme Court
for a directive. The apex court, in
October 2004, ruled against the
centralised, contractual system of
nutritive food supply to Anganwadis.
Instead, the court ordered State governments to deposit the fund meant
for the diet in the joint accounts of
Anganwadi workers and presidents
of self-help groups (SHGs) working
at the grassroots level.
HE court verdict jolted the

WCD officialdoms monopolistic
control over funds meant for
Anganwadis. By the time the court
verdict came, the BJP had ousted
the Digvijay Singh-led Congress
government. A new set of contractors
successfully jockeyed for nutritive
food manufacturing and supply. They
managed to make the WCD minister
sit on the Supreme Court order for
two-and-a-half years. But defiance
of the order for long was not possible
as some NGOs were warning to move
contempt petition in the Supreme
Court. Eventually, the WCD minister
implemented the court order in
January 2007, only to revert to the
old arrangement a year later. So, since
2007, the restored centralised system
has continued till the income tax raids
in July exposed the scam.
On the face of it, this narrative
looks uncomplicated. However, when
we insert dramatic personae and their
roles in it, enormity of the scam is
mind-boggling. Dixit brothers, whose
20 premises in Bhopal, Indore and
Mumbai were raided by a 300-strong
team of income tax department
sleuths, own MP Argo Nutri Food.
Situated in Mandideep, near Bhopal,
the companys turnover is said to be
`100 crore, though in the I-T sleuths
estimation it could be much higher.
Hridyesh, the billionaire owner
of several companies, had began his
career in late 1989 as a journalist with
a `450 salary in a small newspaper in
Indore. Both his father Mohanlal and
mother Shanta Devi were schoolteachers in Indore. Sauv and ambitious,
Hridyesh started to make a mark as
a reporter and, four years later, he
joined Dainik Bhaskar in Indore.
A year later, he moved to the newspapers Bhopal edition. In the State
capital, over time he made contacts
with politicians and bureaucrats. The


37
STATE SCAN
dalia scam
corrupt ecosystem in Bhopal was too

alluring for him to resist. He showed
no qualms in leveraging his burgeoning contacts to feather his nest.
In Dainik Bhaskar, Hridyesh was
a darling reporter of owner Sudhir
Agrawal. Dixit maintained his flair
for endearing himself to owners as
he moved from Bhaskar to electronic
mediafirst to Zee News and then
Sahara. The success stories of Subhash
Chandra and Subroto Roy inspired
him to become a media owner himself. By 2010, Hridyesh had earned
enough to start his own evening
paper, Pradesh Today, from Bhopal.
Today, the paper has eight editions in
MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh, Delhi and Gujarat.
It was my ambition to become a
media king and not remain just a journalist. My dream is to make my media
house number one in India with multimedia ownership, Hridyesh told a
Bhopal-based website Bichchu.com,
which did his profile sometime back.
HENOMENAL rise of an
ordinary reporter to a billionaire
media baron in two decades has
dazzled not only journalists, but also
political and bureaucratic circles.
The astonishing journey is also
reflective of the acute susceptibility
of the BJP government to corrosive
manipulation
by
unscrupulous
people. Hridyesh stands out as one
of the shrewdest manipulators of
the system.
While still a journalist, Hridyesh
had got into the supply business with
the State government. His good relations with the then health director,
Ashok Sharma, helped him enter
into the medicine supply network.
He roped in his relatively low-profile
brother, Avadhesh, into the network.
But a series of income tax raids
at the premises of those linked to a
38

multi-crore drug supply scam in 2008

forced the Dixit brothers to look for
other channels. The raids were conducted at the premises of Hridyesh,
apart from the then Home Secretary
Rajesh Rajora, the brother of the then
Health Minister, Ajay Vishnoi, health
director Ashok Sharma and many
others. Sharma, said to be Dixits
business partner in the media group,
was later dismissed.
Having been blacklisted by the
health department, the Dixit brothers
focussed on manufacturing and
supply of nutritive food. Initially
their quantum of supply order was
small. But, by and by, within a few
years, their company, MP Nutri
The nutrition budget

worth Rs 1,200 crore in
2015-16 has miserably
failed to address
malnutrition. The number
of malnourished women
and children in MP stands
at roughly 97 lakhs in the
States 8 crore population
Food, became one of the three main
suppliers of nutritive foods.
Kusum Mahadele, the then WCD
minister, played a major, if dubious,
role in ensuring that the contractors
such as Dixit brothers and others did
not lose their ride on the gravy train
following the Supreme Courts order
in October 2004 directing decentralisation of the food supply chain.
Mahadele, who is now jail minister in
the Shivraj cabinet, sat on the court
order for two-anda-half years.
In January 2007, the then leader of
opposition, late Jamuna Devi, raised
objection to the Supreme Court order
in the State Assembly. The Congress
leader, who was WCD minister in
the Digvijay Singh cabinet, protested

the provision of depositing money
for diets into the joint account of
Anganwadi workers and SHGs. Her
contention was that the government
fund could not be transferred into
the accounts of non-government persons. Jamuna Devis contention was
music to Mahadeles ears. The minister promptly promised the Congress
leader to do her bidding.
Mahadeles department implemented the ministers assurance in
the House within eight days. In her
alacrity, the minister did not bother
to put up the decision before the State
Cabinet for ratification nor did she
seek the mandatory approval from the
finance department.
Interesting, the WCD cited another
Supreme Court order to justify reverting the courts previous order for
decentralisation. The Supreme Court
www.gfilesindia.com

succeeded in getting the officer

removed using political clout.
Ranjana Baghel, who is now the
State BJP vice-president, succeeded
Mahadele in 2008 as WCD minister.
The new minister vehemently
scuttled an attempt of an ICDS officer
to bring transparency in the system.
The officer had said in a note sheet
in 2008 that supply of the food
items be handed over to districts so
that they could decide the quantum
of food distribution on the basis of
requirement from each Anganwadi
under their jurisdiction.
in 2007 had ruled that in the interest of the targeted children, it was
imperative that tenders for nutrition
supply were not invited very too often.
This order not only came handy for
the WCD department to restore the
centralised supply system, but also to
involve MP Agro in the supply chain.
Soon, MP Argo signed a contract
with the three manufacturing companies. It was also decided that MP Agro
will start its own plant, but the idea
was shelved allegedly under pressure
from the contracted companies.
Social activist Sachin Jain says
contractors and private companies have dominated food supply to
Anganwadis from the very beginning in contravention to the Supreme
Courts 2004 verdict.
Jain, who was appointed advisor to
the Supreme Court-appointed commissioners for study of malnutrition
www.indianbuzz.com
in Madhya Pradesh, points out that

his NGO had moved to the Madhya
Pradesh High Court against the WCD
departments decision to retain the
old contractual system.
On our petition, the State government assured the court that it was
ready to ensure supply of food items
through SHGs for four days in a week.
But that assurance was not followed,
Jain recalls.
As complaints about inadequate
supply from project officers at block
to district levels reached the ICDS
office, a senior officer drew the State
governments attention to irregularities in 2008. In his note sheet, the
officer pointed out the opaqueness
in the supply system. He also raised
suspicion over the dubious manner
of payments to the companies. The
note sheet created flutter in the
bureaucrat-contractor nexus, which
HE ministers angry response

to the officers request was that
he was creating obstacles in the
smooth functioning of the system.
That was the lastand unsuccessful
attempt to put the corruption-ridden
system back on track.
Tinu Joshi, the infamous IAS officer presently in jail, went a step further
in favouring the three companies.
During her tenure as Principal
Secretary of WCD department
in 2010, the tender contract was
changed as per the companys wishes.
During a meeting, she instructed the
department officials not to indulge
in politics over tender specifications.
She instructed to change the share to
30:70 from 51:49 per cent, according
to a senior official of the department.
During her tenure, the manufacturers used to test their samples in
their own labs, which as per Central
guidelines should be tested by the
Food and Nutrition Board (FNB). The
officer appointed to examine the food
quality never reported any lapses.
In February 2010, IT teams recovered `3 crore cash from the house of
Tinu and her IAS husband, Arvind
Joshi. The two officials were suspended and their services terminated.
They are currently in jail. g


39
GOVERNANCE
tax reforms tn pandey
A step taken, journey ahead

Jubilation on the constitution amendment concerning GST is okay,
but much more is needed to make the law implementable
UGUST 8, 2016, the day when

GST Constitution Amendment
(122nd Amendment) Bill was
passed by the Lok Sabha (with
amendments made during the discussion in Rajya Sabha) with a majority of 423:00, is heralded as the most
important day in the history of tax
reforms in the country after 1991
when the economy was liberalised.
The Prime Minister, who intervened in the Lok Sabha debate,
described the event as a major step
towards freeing India from tax terrorism. He further said: Ek Bharat,
Shreshta Bharat is the dream of all
us. When we look at railways, post
offices, All India Services, we get the
feel of one India, now digital India,
sagarmalaall these make us aware
of one India, they strengthen that
spirit. GST is the new pearl that we are
adding to this necklace; this strengthens the spirit of India. He further
observed: Rashtra niti has triumphed over rajnitiwell said as far
as the strength and significance of the
proposed law is concerned. Even from
other fora too, there have been eloquent praise. It has been said that this
tax, when enacted, will lead to one tax,
one market, one nation, lower the rate
of tax because of avoidance of cascading impact, improve logistics, lead to
simplified tax structure, subsuming
nearly 17 Central and State taxes into
one single tax, investment would get a
boost via cheaper capital goods, manufacturing will become competitive,
tax revenues will increase because of
check on tax evasion, wider tax base
40

will ensure lower costs in tax collections, better compliance would follow, there would be protection from
cheaper imports, transparency in
working, input tax credits will reduce
burden of tax and incentivise suppliers to pay tax with a smile and greater
freedom in business would be ensured
because of online trading. GST would
provide impetus to Make in India
campaign and ease in doing business
and many other such benefits will follow. Regretfully, such (proclaimed)
benefits are not based on Indias
States would like to have

higher rates, but they have
to be convinced that high
rate cannot be a solution to
tide over financial
problemsrather the same
can be inflationary
GSTs working but on the experience
of implementation of such tax in nearly 160 countries and some of these are
merely presumptuous. The Indian
law has cleared only the first hurdle
of allowing Parliament and States to
legislate on GST. Even this process is
not complete as the GST Constitution
Amendment Bill, as passed by both
the Houses of Parliament, has to
be ratified by minimum of 16 State
Legislatures and thereafter, the same
has to be assented to by the President.
The process will not end there.
Many more exercises will be required
to be carried out. These are:
The first task, after the Presidents

assent to the Bill, is the formation
of GST Council by the President
because other tasks regarding
drafting of GST Bills, fixing of rates,
constituting of Dispute Resolution
Panel, etc., can be taken up by the
GSTC only.
The Central and State governments
will have to frame their GST laws
and get these passed by their legislatures after following the laiddown procedures.
Each government will have to
frame Rules to the respective Acts.
Each government will have to
design and create requisite infrastructural software for implementation of respective laws.
The infrastructure so created will
need to be tested and changed if
found deficient.
Officers of respective governments
will have to be trained so as to take
up the responsibilities under the
new dispensation.
Trade and business people will
have to be sensitised to adopt the
new tax.
The tasks to be carried would be
immense, including varied exercises
by the GST Council (GSTC). The
administrative mechanism to implement the Act could be planned only
after there is clarity in respect of law
and procedures.
Determination of tax rate
One rate slogan sounds well but
may have to wait for some time till the
Centre and States get acclimatised to
www.gfilesindia.com

new laws and nationwide consensus

is reached on this. This would need
educating the taxpayers and make
them favourably inclined towards the
new tax regime by highlighting the
various beneficial aspects of the GST
and motivate them to move towards
a unified rate. GSTC has to play a
vital role in this by determining a rate
which could be widely acceptable.
States would like to have higher rates,
but they have to be convinced that high
rate cannot be a solution to tide over
financial problemsrather the same
can be inflationary. GSTC, for arriving
at mutually acceptable rate, can get
experts hired for working out such
HE next aspect needing consideration, concerns exemptions.

The new law should not be burdened with large number of exemptions. Doing so, besides bringing
down the tax collection, will make the
law complicated, bring distortions in
the system, leading to pushing up of
the tax rate. The GSTC needs to be
very careful in suggesting exemptions
in the law.
The most important task concerning the GST law is constitution of
GSTC, around which the working of
GST law has to evolve. Its functioning
could lead to bottlenecks as this will
be a jumbo body comprising of FM (as
a rate. The States can be told about

the availability of input credits and
persuaded to arrive at a medium rate.
Till then, the Arvind Subramaniams
suggestions for three-tier rate of 12
per cent for essential (merit) goods,
17-18 per cent standard rate and
40 per cent on luxury (sin) goods
can be adopted for the Centre and
States. These would be in addition
to the zero rate on 54 items in CPI.
Ultimately, a single rate of 16 per cent
or 16.5 per cent can be fixed. The rate
in advanced economies is near about
16.5-17 per cent. Even in Chanakyas
Arthshastra, providing for several
taxes, the average rate works out to
nearly 16.40 per cent.
Chairman), MOS, Finance, and FMs

of various States or their nominees,
with different backgrounds, ideologies and views as members. There is
a suggestion that an opposition member may be the Vice-Chairman of the
GSTC. Arriving at a consensus in the
meetings of GSTC could be an onerous exercise. Already, AIDMK representative walked out of Lok Sabha
and Rajya Sabha at the time of voting
on the amendment bill on the ground
that the GST is an intrusion on the
sovereignty of the State despite FMs
declaration of pooled sovereignty in
the administration of GST law.
Another problem would be relating
to training of bureaucracy, who will
www.indianbuzz.com
be administering the law, and changing the mindset of those who will
be subject to such law. The exercise
for this can start immediately after
the GST Act is passed (the SGST are
expected to be on the same pattern).
Training modules for the officers and
staff administering the laws can be
arranged at the National Training
Academies of Direct and Indirect
Taxes and their regional bodies in
various States. The taxpayers can be
made aware of the new laws by holding meetings in different chambers of
commerce, trade and business associations in various States.
A note of caution may also be
sounded regarding GST. Five governments (including that of Canada)
fell in the elections following the
introduction of GST legislation. But,
in quite a few countries, it has sailed
through successfully. The deadline of
April 1, 2017, is unlikely to be met.
By optimistic estimates, it could be
said to commence from April 1, 2018.
Then, it will bounce off to an election
year. Whether the government would
be interested in such a time-frame
could be moot issue.
Passing of GST Constitutional
Amendment Bill is a big bang reform,
which will help Centre and States
trade freely with each other like WTO
countries. The objective behind this
tax is to dismantle fiscal barriers
between States and create a common
market in the country. How far its
objectives would be achieved will
depend on how the GST laws and
rules are framed and on the wisdom
and desire to advance countrys
business, trade, commerce and share
in the international markets on the
part of those who would be members
of the GSTC. They will have to rise
above regional issues in the interest of
the nation. g
The writer is former Chairman, CBDT


41
BOOK EXTRACT
prime ministers pv narasimha rao
Janardan Thakur started

his career in journalism
with the nationalist
Patna
daily,
The
Searchlight, in December
1959. In his long and
distinguished career
spanning the reign of
each Prime Minister
since Independence,
Thakur reported from
the thick of some of the
most
momentous
contemporary events at home and afarJPs
total revolution, the Emergency, the bristling
emergence of Sanjay Gandhi, the fall and rise of
Indira Gandhi and then the rise and fall of Rajiv,
the Kremlin of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan and Khomeinis revolution
in Iran, Ronald Reagans re-election in an America
swinging Right, VP Singhs ascent as a messiah
with tainted magic and the rasping run to power
of the BJP. Thakurs journalism, from the very
start, broke traditional moulds of reportage and
writing, going beyond the story that meets the
eye and into processes and personalities that
made them happen. His stories on the Bihar
famine of the mid-1960s and the manmade floods
that ravaged the State were a sensation. He was
perhaps alone in predicting defeat for Indira
Gandhi in 1977 and again singular in exposing the
corroded innards of the Janata Government that
followed. A Jefferson Fellow at the East-West
Center, Hawaii, in 1971, Thakur moved to New
Delhi as a Special Correspondent for the Ananda
Bazar Patrika group of publications in 1976. He
went freelance in 1980 and turned syndicated
columnist. In 1989-91, he was Editor of the
fortnightly Onlooker, and The Free Press Journal.
Thakur authored All The Prime Ministers Men,
probably the most successful of the crop of books
that followed the Emergency. His All the Janata
Men, the story of the men who destroyed the first
non-Congress government in New Delhi, was
equally successful.
He passed away on July 12, 1999.
42

Five years on
the razors edge
OR a politician in his seventies who had become the

Prime Minister by sheer accident to have lasted a
crises-ridden five-year term was a remarkable
achievement. Consider the circumstances in which
Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao came to the post.
Congress President Rajiv Gandhi had not even given him
a ticket for the Lok Sabha elections of 1991, and when the
Sriperumbudur tragedy occurred in the midst of the elections, Rao was at Nagpur, on way to his village in Andhra
Pradesh. Most of his belongings had already gone to
Warangal, crates full of books. He had bid goodbye to
Delhi, and to politics. He would just read, write and take
life easy. Kamal Nath was in his constituency in Chhindwara
when he got the news of Rajivs death and he had to rush
to Nagpur to persuade Rao to return to Delhi. And so a
quirk of destiny took Rao back to Delhi. Prime Ministership
was still nowhere in question.
The odds were too many. In a knee-jerk reaction, the
party which had become bonded to the Gandhis unanimously declared Rajivs widow as its president. But for
Sonia Gandhis refusal to accept the post, politics would
have taken a very different course. Luckily for the party,
yet another sympathy wave had improved its performance
in the post-Rajiv polling, and put the Congress on top of
the electoral tally, though far behind a majority.
At least half a dozen political veterans were aspiring to
be the party chief. Narain Dutt Tiwari was considered out
of reckoning because he had lost in Nainital, and Arjun
Singh still did not have the chutzpah to go for the kill, but
the Maratha chieftain Sharad Pawar had promptly thrown
down the gauntlet, and if Sonia Gandhi did not have the
influence and say in the choice of leader, would have
stayed in the race. Rajivs well-known reservations against
Pawar had much to do with Sonia opting for Narasimha
Rao, a man with a long record of loyalty to the Gandhis. He
was old and frail and had recently had a heart operation.
Besides, he had no grassroots support; he had depended
on Sharad Pawar for a safe pass to the Lok Sabha in 1989,
from Ramtek. Just the sort of party leader, they thought,
who would be dependent on Sonia Gandhi.
It was to Sonia Gandhi that he owed his position, which
had the flip side to it: right from the first day, he fell under
the shadows of 10 Janpath, a factor which cramped him
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throughout his term. Rao had started out with the dice
heavily loaded against him. One national magazine had
called him The Meek Inheritor. He himself was all too
aware of his precarious position. At his first official press
conference, a full year after he became the Prime Minister,
Rao said, India is destined to walk on the razors edge
forever and ever. One felt he was talking about his own
personal predicament as well. He remained on the the
razors edge all through the five years.
In his first year, Rao was more like a trapeze artist in a
circus, often swinging down to the middle of the canopy
not knowing whether he would fall or be given a hand by
one of the men coming in from the other sides, whether
from the Left or the Right he often did not
know. In the beginning, it was more the
Right which gave him a hand: the Bharatiya
Janata Party which was out to make the best
of Raos minority and almost until after
the Babri Masjid was torn down, he looked
quite cozy not just with the BJP but with all
the sants and mahatmas of the Sangh Parivar.
He would even sit down on his office floor
with them, and charm them with his great
devotion for Lord Ram. Rao had often been
accused of having the RSS germ inside him,
and some thought the charge was only reinforced when he slept through that cataclysmic afternoon of December 6, 1992, or in any
case moved not a little finger all the time that the Babri
Masjid, which had become the symbol of Indian secularism, was being turned into rubble. Rao may have had his
good reason for his inaction; perhaps he thought it was the
only way he could survive, and save the nation from bloodshed, but he went down in the eyes of people who valued
secularism. What was more he had given his rivals a stick
to beat him with, never mind how committed to secularism they themselves were.
After he became Prime Minister, Rao told some of his
confidants that he did not expect to last for more than a
couple of years at the outside. In just about a year came a
sea-change. His basic problem had been to establish himself as the leader of the Congress and with Rajiv Gandhis
widow casting a long shadow on the power play taking
place. During the time of the Gandhis, the party had been
transformed from a grassroots organisation to one owing
loyalty to a supreme leader.
Rao had disregarded his colleagues warnings and held
party elections after a gap of nearly 20 years. After the
elections, however, he took bizarre twists and turns. Two
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reasons could be ascribed for it: one, he felt threatened by

the alternative power centres being built up around Arjun
Singh and Sharad Pawar; and two, he realised that the
party was not ready to practise real democracy.
His pose and demeanour may have made him look stupid at times, but make no mistake about it, he was anything but that. He had all the qualities of a great survivor.
Most of all the thick skin of an aged rhinoceros. When he
came to office, he looked such a push-over, but just recall
how he lulled all his rowdy rivals into slumber with his
consensus-lullaby, how adroitly he transformed his tenuous minority into a majority. And somewhere along the
line he developed a great taste for the job, so much so that
even the humiliation of being accused by a
broker of having taken a crore from him
would not provoke him into saying a word in
protest. No Prime Minister had ever had to
live through such humiliation and calumny.
N his worst moment, he would only recite

to you some lines from the Upanishad. Rao
was certainly one of the most erudite
Prime Ministers that the country had had.
He knew about ten Indian and at least four
foreign languages, and though he was the
first Prime Minister from the South, he was
far more proficient in Hindi than most others. He was also the first Prime Minister to
be directly accused of taking bribes. A ring of scams closed
on him as he went along. One of the first to surface was the
sonscam: the doings of his son, PV Prabhakar Rao. The
phenomenal spurt in the fortunes of this 40-year-old son
of the Prime Minister had created waves in political and
business circles. In 1990, the net worth of his three financial companies was worth Rs 4,000, in 1991 it was just
under a crore, and in 1992 the company invested Rs 1.27
crore in the Rs l75-crore Goldstar Alloy and Steel Ltd., and
was set to invest Rs 14 crore in another megaproject, the
Rs 246-crore Srikakulam Paper Mills. Prabhakar Rao was
the promoter of both the projects. Where was all the money
coming from. One does not need money to start in industry, Prabhakar Rao had said blandly. If one has credibility, one can get the right finances. He had a lot of credibility: he was the son of the Prime Minister. The sharers in
the new industrial empire were some of the members of
the sprawling Rao family sons, nephews, son-in- law,
and their underlings.
Less than half way down his term, his party was getting
increasingly panicky, but Rao himself was cool as cucum-


43
BOOK EXTRACT
ber. He knew his rivals were pining to push him out, he

knew that some who were acting like his great defenders
and apologists had at least half an eye on his job. Rao knew
them all like the palm of his hand. He knew most of them
had feet of clay, and he played them deftly, one against the
other. At one point, some of the bigwigs of the party went
to 7 Race Course Road, determined to give the Prime
Minister a shock. They had decided to tell Rao that it was
high time he shed his burden that he should give up the
party presidentship and concentrate on governing the
country. Rao sat slouched in his sofa. He looked them up
and down and said, Ah! so you have come to ask me to
quit? They were all stunned, their temporarily bolstered
collective spine gave way all at once. They mumbled some
inanities, and settled down to sip some coffee.
FTER what had seemed to everyone as the demise

of the Nehru- Gandhi dynasty, Rao was supposed
to have brought democracy back to the Congress.
The process seemed to have started at Tirupati in April
1992, but after a time it got stalled, and Rao started
becoming another supremo. We asked them to elect. But
the result was that they did not want elections and they
passed resolutions authorising me to nominate
presidents... In a party like that, which leader would not
want to become the supremo?
Part of Narasimha Raos strength clearly lay in his deep
understanding of the contradictions of Indian politics and
his ability to exploit them to his advantage. He knew the
ins and outs of all the political players on the stage, their
strengths and weaknesses. In hindsight, one could see why
he had become so indispensable to Indira Gandhi and later
her son, despite the fact that neither was inclined to trust
him beyond a point. Rao had his uses as an adroit player
of political chess, and his advice was often sought on crucial matters by both the Gandhis. As in so many of the fairy
tales, Rao seemed to know which limb of which parrot he
could twist to make a particular politician cry out for life.
Of course he did not always have to make them cry. So well
had he fine-tuned his relations with most of the gentlemen
of the Opposition that while they were willing to wound,
they often restrained themselves from striking.
But strong as Rao had seemed to be, the more perceptive ones could see the possibility of a sudden implosion of
the power bag that he held. The entire country seemed to
be in a state of suspended animation. Everything had been
put on hold: elections in Kashmir, the bill to replace TADA,
the Patents Bill. Everything shelved. Survival was all. Do
nothing that might rock the boat. That was Narasimha
44

Raos motto. When Parliament sessions ended, many

wondered why at all it had sat. Nothing happened except
noise and more noise.
But if the Prime Ministers pose and demeanour make
him look stupid at times, he is anything but that. Political
scientist Asish Nandy made a memorable observation in
The Economist, Rao has the quality which is essential for
political survival in South Asia: to look stupider than you
actually are. How badly the Congress rebels miscalculated the response of Narasimha Rao! When Arjun Singh
took on the Prime Minister he perhaps thought Rao would
stay true to his known disposition and do nothing to counter the attack. He and his supporters were certainly not
prepared for the precipitate action that the Congress
President took. Rao suddenly acted against his grain and
left his enemies bewildered.
An even bigger miscalculation on the part of the rebels
was their assumption that after the reverses in the
Assembly elections, Sonia Gandhi would come out openly
into politics and take over the party presidentship. What
they obviously failed to see was that Mrs Gandhis interests
did not quite coincide with theirs. At least as long as the
party was in power. Why would she have wanted to reduce
herself from being the partys unquestioned godmother
to a leader of just a rump? Why would she open herself to
attacks from all sides?
Yet another vital point which the rebels forgot was the
essential nature of Congressmen. What kept most of the
flock together was that Rao was still very much in control
of the instruments of power and could still scatter some
crumbs from his table. What frightened even those who
were in sympathy with the rebels was that revolt would not
get them anywhere. When Arjun Singh revolted, he failed
to pull even his own bailiwick to his side, not to speak of
other states.
Knives were out in his party, but Rao had struck the
sweetest of relations with the powerful non-Congress
bosses in the states. He had strong subterranean links with
the CPM patriarch, Jyoti Basu, and if he could dance two
steps left with Basu, he could swing two steps right with
Atal Behari Vajpayee with even greater ease. And when the
UP strong man, Mulayam Singh Yadav came calling, as he
often did, the gates of 7 Race Course Road swung open like
the rocks to Ali Babas khul ja simsim. For the new Krishna
avatar of Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav, it was verily the
unrolling of the red carpet. Laloo often arrived with his
entire brood, his coy wife in tow, and what convivial gettogethers they all had.
Rao had even struck the right chord in NT Rama Rao,
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more so in his wife, Lakshmi Parvathi. Jayalalitha was

proving a bit of a pain in the neck, but Rao had let loose
some vicious hounds after her and was certain that she
would decide that discretion was the better part of valour.
With the Congress prospects in the Assembly elections
in December 1994 started looking gloomy, Rao decided
midway through the campaign to let it be known that in
case of a loss for the party, the blame would not be his. The
Congress had launched the campaign for Andhra Pradesh
and Karnataka stating in no uncertain terms that the verdict would be a referendum on the economic reforms
package of the Rao government. But as soon as bad news
started coming from the campaign trail, Rao changed his
tune. Whoever said Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka would
be a referendum on the economic reforms? These were
became the seat of another government captured by the

BJP. Narasimha Rao must have rued the passing away of
Chimanbhai Patel, the man who would be Chief Minister
no matter what party was voted to power in Gujarat.
Maharashtra was more terrible a loss, but privately Rao
must have chuckled at the snub to Sharad Pawar. The man
with the broadest gin, however, was Advani. Where else
could they go from there but Delhi? No more alliances
needed for the BJP apart from the one with the Shiv Sena
in Maharashtra, he euphorically announcedWe are
going it alone and we are going to Delhi; Narasimha Rao,
here we come!
Narasimha Raos Congress was shaking but it had to get
more jolts. With all the starry-eyed reports that the
Congress party and its votaries in the media had made
about the Bihar outcome, and despite all the road blocks
put by Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan, Laloo
Prasad Yadav had ridden home with a victory bigger than
he had ever won or dreamt of. The most pessimistic in the
Congress had been hoping they would improve their
Assembly tally of 60. The party was reduced to nearly a
third that number. Laloo Yadav summoned drummers to
his west Patna bungalow to celebrate what he called the
deafening beat the death-knell of the Congress.
A
local elections and would be decided on local issues.
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the two states which occupy
the most seats in the Lok Sabha, have consistently voted
the same party on local and national issues. Midway
through the campaign in the state, Congressmen realised
that some of the anti-Laloo Prasad Yadav sentiments could
help to raise their numbers in the assembly. That was
when Bihar Congressmen began lobbying to keep the
Prime Minister Rao out of the campaign. Candidates from
one district, which has a large section of Muslims, were
almost desperate to see to it that the Prime Minister did
not venture anywhere near: he would scare away the
Muslim voters. In another district, Congressmen were
again jubilant when they learnt Rao would not be campaigning there.
Came the assembly election results from Maharashtra
and Gujarat: saffron tides had swept the west coast. The
Congress had lost Bombays Mantralaya for the first time
since independence. Gandhinagar became something
more than just Lal Krishna Advanis Lok Sabha seat: it
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RJUN Singh took the plunge but with a lifebuoy.

Being a pragmatic politician, he did not want to
sink. He had sent a missive to Jitendra Prasada that
there was no clear cut line of action to fight communalism
and what prevailed was vagueness, ambiguity and
passivity. And yet he carefully interspersed his attack with
praise for Narasimha Rao: The firm, timely and
imaginative initiative of the Prime Miniser at Ayodhya has
diffused tensions... His attempt was clearly to position
himself as the natural leader of the party in the event of
something going amiss. But there was more to it than that.
A recurrent note of the letters he wrote in the Nehruvian
style was what many saw as the north-south divide.
The underlying message that was sought to be conveyed
to the rank and file of the party, particularly in the north,
was that the Prime Minister and Congress President was
either not alive to the challenge that the party was facing
in the northern states or he was deliberately ignoring it.
In the three crucial states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and
Madhya Pradesh, which together accounted for 179 of the
543 seats in the Lok Sabha, there had been a toboggan
slide for the party from the high of 171 in 1984 to a low
of 33 in the present House. As against this, the four southern states Andhra Pradesh, Karnatka, Kerala and Tamil


45
BOOK EXTRACT
Nadu with 129 seats, accounted for 88 Congress MPs.

The whispers that came from obvious quarters in the
Congress had it that Rao was simply not interested in the
revival of the party in the North, for if that were to happen
his own leadership could be threatened. Why would he
want to preside over the liquidation of his own empire?
Arjun Singh got nearly 3,000 xerox copies of one of his
vitriolic letters and sent them off to partymen down the
line, with a covering letter in which requested that they
send in their comments to him. He was already arrogating
to himself the functions of the Congress President, and
showing, if only obliquely, that the leadership had failed to
respond to the grave crisis facing the country. While the
call of duty rang out loud and clear, the leadership wallowed in transient expediency. What was needed was sacrifice and struggle. And so here was Arjun Singh giving the
call, let us in all humility begin the task.
UT at the first whiff of attack, Aijun Singh knuckled

under. He was at pains to explain that he had no
intention to challenge Narasimha Rao. I must be
very clear and candid on this account, he said in a quickly
arranged press interview. Neither this letter is meant for
a confrontation with the Prime Minister nor do I have any
intention to confront the Prime Minister, for the very
simple reason that all of us considered then that he is the
best amongst all others to lead the party and the
government. I still continue to believe in this.
So why did he have to strike brave postures which gave
the impression that he was ready to take on the leadership? Did it have something to do with his own personal
predicament, the Churhat Lottery Case that hung like a
sword over his head? The very suggestion cut him to the
quick: Some people feel that everyone is amenable to
browbeating and threats of insinuation. I have seen enough
in this life. It makes no difference what anyone wants to
do... Whatever Arjun Singhs motivations, the issue he
had posed was one that even some of his known detractors
could not pooh-pooh.
The Prime Minister was getting into deeper waters.
There was Ayodhya on the one hand, the securities scam
on the other. Just when the Joint Parliamentary Committee
set up to probe the securities-stock market scam, other
stink bombs exploded. One such was the Big Bull Harshad
Mehtas allegation that he had paid Rs 1 crore to Narasimha
Rao. The first instalment of Rs 67 lakh, he told a crowded
press conference at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay, he had
personally given to the Prime Minister at his Race Course
Road residence on November 4, 1991. Rao, just back from
46

a trip to Oman, sat unruffled in the eye of the storm. A

cryptic 40-word statement was all that came out later: The
PM was shocked, he had not taken the money, but he was
not going to say whether he met Harshad Mehta or not.
The storm raged on and on, but it made little difference to
the ever-pouting Rao. Not even when his partymen started
discussing his successor. He made himself steadier on the
razors edge.
What the critics of Rao forgot was that he truly represented the ethos of his party. He knew the stuff the
Congressmen were made of. Even through the worst days
of the pay-off crisis, the Prime Minister and his men were
sanguine about one thing: that the party would not corner
him on the issue of corruption. For who would cast the first
stone? If they all combined against Rao and pushed him
out, they themselves could face the same music. What if
some broker got up in Bombay and announced at a press
conference that he had paid a couple of crore to Sharad
Pawar? What if some petty chit-fund man in Bhopal got up
and gave an account of how he had helped Arjun Singh
build his marble place? Corruption may or may not be a
global phenomenon as Mrs Indira Gandhi used to say, but
it had certainly become an inalienable trait of Congressmen.
Narasimha Rao knew he was on pretty safe ground as far
as the corruption issue went. He did not even find it necessary to as much as mention the word in his address from
the ramparts of the Red Fort. He had another trump card
up which he used with telling effect. He sent off his trouble-shooter, K Karunakaran, to Rashtrapati Bhawan, at
the height of the Harshad Mehta crisis, and whatever the
President may or may not have said to Karunakaran, the
word was spread around in the Congress that the alternative to Rao would be mid-term elections.
The collective insecurity of the MPs, more than half of
whom would perhaps never see the inside of the next Lok
Sabha, did the rest. Hum to doobenge sanam, tumko bhi le
doobenge seemed to be Raos message I may well sink,
my love, but Ill take you down with me.
Let this no-confidence business be over and then well
see. A minor player on the political stage, Karunakaran
had suddenly found himself in national focus, and he was
clearly revelling in his new role. The Kerala House in New
Delhi had become the rendezvous of power-seekers and
power-brokers. Their luncheons and teas became hot
news, though what really went on behind the scene nobody
seemed to know for sure. What were the great guns of the
Congress confabulating over idli and dosa? New aspirations had risen in the hearts of Karunakarn and Vijay
Bhaskar Reddy. While appearing to play on both sides of
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the fence, now sympathising with the pro-changers and

now confabulating with Prime Minister Rao, Karunakaran
was positioning himself for the top job. And in any case
why should he work for Arjun Singh or some other aspirant from the north?
Nothing remains constant. More so politics. A week, as
they say, is a long time in politics, and the scene next week
could be very different. But at that point, the Prime
Minister seemed to have further tightened his grip on the
instruments of power. He could break, but would not
bend. Or so was the impression one carried from a visit to
No. 7 Race Course Road. It was the Prime Ministers aides
rather than the Prime Minister himself who was losing
their sleep over the Sonia factor. Many of them thought
Rao was in trouble. Rao himself did not think so. He maintained his poise and equanimity. When Arjun Singh had
started his offensive, the party dissidents were pretty certain that at some crucial juncture they would bring the
Gandhi family into the fray which in turn would send the
Prime Minister scampering for cover. Congressmen took it
for granted that both Arjun Singh and ND Tiwari were
being egged on by 10 Janpath. Though the Prime Minister
had done his best to show his deference to Sonia Gandhi
and called on her frequently, she suspected that he was out
to demolish the legacy of the Gandhi family. She believed
there was a deliberate attempt to scuttle the probe into her
husbands death. What was more, the fact that the Bofors
issue was raised every once in a while by the ministers of
the Rao government only reinforced her impression that
Rao was out to do her in.
Just before ND Tiwari resigned from the Congress
Working Committee, largely in protest against the expulsion of Arjun Singh, he confided to some of his trusted
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newspersons, albeit obliquely, that he had the blessings

of Sonia Gandhi. A taciturn lady who usually listened rather than spoke to her visitors, Sonia was said to have told
both Tiwari and Arjun Singh that they were senior leaders
and could well decide their course of action themselves.
Her words had all the seven types of ambiguities, and
even those who were supposedly close to her were puzzled
about her intentions. There were old loyalists of the Rajiv
court who hovered around her residence and came away
with all manner of information. What they were based on
nobody knew. Most visitors were lucky if they could have
a few words with the ladys loyal secretary, Vincent George.
If they were in some sort of a delegation, they sometimes
got a brief audience with the lady, which indicated that she
was keeping her options open for the future. Nothing
beyond that. It was mostly the visiting Congressmen supplicating to her: Soniaji, please save the Congress. Her
response was mostly glacial, at best a wan smile.
AOS last year in office was a nightmare for the

country. It was a year that one would have to paint
with a palette dripping with blood, and a feel for the
macabre. How else would you paint the rivulets of blood
on the face of Rajan Pillai or the beheaded Hans Christian
Ostro or the bits and pieces of flesh that had once been
Beant Singh or the blood-soaked bodies strewn on the rail
tracks of Firozabad? You would have to know how to paint
blazing fires, and fire balls crackling in the oven, for how
else would you paint Charar-e-Sharif in flames or the
mutilated body of Naina Sahni burning in the tandoor? Or
even the political back-stabbings, the gory murders of the
innocents in the posh colonies of the countrys capital?
How would you paint that bloody moon permanently
gored on the forehead of Chandraswami? Blood has to be
the primary colour of the 1995 phantasmagoria.
The stench of that year you could not paint. The stench
of burning flesh, the stench of corruption, the stench of
political deceit and decay. The year had opened with scandals and closed with scandals: the sugar scam, the havala
scandal, the telecommunication scam, the Rs.25-lakh
cheque scandal. And in between you had a surfeit of political conspiracies and revolts, strange political couplings
and miscarriages.
Politically, the year started with the Congress party still
reeling under the drubbing in Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka, and with Prime Minister Narasimha Rao looking like a push-over. In the dying days of 1994, Arjun Singh
had finally taken the plunge after a stinging attack on the
Prime Minister, and it seemed there was no way Narasimha


47
BOOK EXTRACT
Rao could last for long. Electoral defeats and revolt in

the party had brought back the Sonia enigma to the fore:
the will-she-wont-she syndrome overshadowed the
party throughout the year, without any clear answer at the
end of it.
The ruling party was in shambles. Routed in polls,
demoralised, decadent. But its leader proved he had nine
lives. Rao defied all the forecasts of astrologers and soothsayers and political pundits. The more the disarray around
him the prettier he sat. What the morrow held for him
nobody could tell, but 1995, a bloody year though it may
have been otherwise, was a great one for the Prime
Minister. The hollower his party, the taller rose his cutouts. If the year saw the Prime Ministers humiliation in
his own state, it also saw the sudden fall of the Born Again
NTR. It was a pathetic spectacle, almost like a Telugu version of a Greek tragedy, the denouement of an old patriarch so besotted with his new-found lady love that he
incurs the wrath of his kith and kin and loses his crown.
URING the year, the Prime Minister made desperate

attempts to refurbish the image of his government
and the party, but the more he shuffled his packs,
the darker became the image. It took Rao so long to remove
three of his scam-tainted ministers that the act hardly
earned him much credit. At one point he expanded his
cabinet by taking in three former chief ministers, but their
antecedents were so dubious that people only wondered
what Rao was after. He was in need of hatchetmen, of aides
who were adept in the art of buying and selling. Some he
picked simply to weaken the ranks of Arjun Singh, some to
influence the minorities, some to win over the Dalits. That
none of the Muslims he chose for the ministry were capable
of getting him any Muslim votes only showed the
hopelessness of his future. The Prime Ministers only
source of hope was the continuing disarray in the
Opposition. Talks on alliances and Opposition unity were
endless, but the more they talked the more they seemed
to disagree. But hope was kept alive. Politics, as Biju
Patnaik put it, is a dogs game. I do not rule out any
alliance with anybody.
Beginning with the murky sugar scam, the year saw the
government dragging from one scandal to another, finally
ending up with another major scam, which it was bound to
carry on to the new year. Towards the end of 1995, politics
seemed like a ticking bomb, waiting to explode.
So was Chandraswami. His palatial ashram in south
Delhi was alive with arrivals and departures of political
cronies. We shall have to finish that dirty Gujjar, declared
48

a functionary of the Swamis trust, the dirty Gujjar being

the former minister for internal security, Rajesh Pilot, who
had put fiendish obstacles in the way of Chandra Swamiji
Maharaj. Had it not been for Pilots mischief, he said,
Swamiji would have been resting in the Beverly Hill palace of Adnan Khashoggi.
The real target, the Swami said, is the Prime Minister,
Narasimharaoji. It is a very deep conspiracy to throw him
out. There are political sharks masterminding the conspiracy. Who? Ah, there are many. Sharad Pawar, for
instance, he is behind Pilots move.
Rajesh Pilot could hardly have hit closer to the Prime
Minister. Once he was certain that he was going to be
removed from the home ministry, Pilot had struck. Nobody
knew of Chandraswamis close relations with Rao better
than the internal security ministry, which had been keeping tabs on the godmans visits to 7 Race Course Road.
After the notorious criminal, Babloo Srivastava, had
revealed Chandraswamis alleged links with Dawood
Ibrahim, Rajesh Pilot had gone to the PM to seek permission to have the godman arrested. Rao was in a quandary.
Ever since he became the PM, he had done the best to show
that he had distanced himself from the swami. The law
must take its own course, he had mumbled. But behind
the scene, Pilots move caused a flutter in the dovecots, and
high-ups in the government were amazed that the PM
should be making frantic inquiries about the whereabouts
of the home secretary, Padmanabhaiah. He was abroad,
and was asked to return to India immediately.
What had given a new dimension to laffaire
Chandraswami was Arif Mohammed Khans charge that
the godman had hired an Israeli mercenary and offered to
pay him one million dollars to eliminate Rajiv Gandhi during the 1991 election. Khan was himself in desperate straits
following the CBIs raids on him in connection with the
Jain hawala case. Chandraswamis name had first figured
in the evidence of a Punjab politician, Mahant Sewa Dass,
www.gfilesindia.com

who had told the Jain Commission that the godman was
the kingpin of the plot hatched in London to kill Rajiv
Gandhi. The commission had been informed earlier about
a mercenary named Mason being hired in London by some
Indians to kill Rajiv Gandhi. But that deal was said to have
fallen through because Mason had quoted a figure far
beyond the one million dollars budgeted for the job.
The wise old man that Narasimha Rao was, he could see
that too much closeness to the dubious godman would be
bad for his image. Right from the beginning he was careful
not to be seen anywhere with Chandraswami, and the
word was spread that the swami was no longer close to the
Prime Minister. The insiders knew better. They even called
Chandraswami the Svengali of 7 Race Course Road. The
Prime Ministers last appointment of the day was usually
with the godman, and there were reports that
Chandraswami often took industrialists and politicians to
the PMs residence in the morning, before Narasimha Rao
began his day. The veil was off when the Prime Minister
put Chandraswami openly in charge of winning over the
sants and sadhus of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad during the
Ayodhya crisis. He also played the most active role, behind
the scene, in breaking up the Janata Dal, and luring
Ramlakhan Singh Yadav and others away to get the Prime
Minister a majority in Parliament.
One man who kept a day-to-day record of
Chandraswamis activities was Rajesh Pilot, though not
necessarily for the purpose of putting the godman into
trouble. Not unless he had to. Ambitious politicians like to
arm themselves for future political battles, and Pilot is an
ambitious politician, who even fancied the Prime Ministers
chair. Make me the Prime Minister and youll see what
wonders I do, was Pilots favourite dialogue with his
friends and admirers.
In 1989, Chandraswami tried hard to placate Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who had disliked him immensely.
Swami knew he would have to do something to prove his
worth to Rajiv, and what better could he do than expose
the politician who was out to finish him? So he brought
some sensational documents which showed that
Vishwanath Pratap Singhs son, Ajeya, had an illegal bank
account in St. Kitts. To prove the authenticity of these
damning documents, Chandraswami had taken the help of
his friend Narasimha Rao who was then Rajivs External
Affairs minister. When the documents were being forged
in the US, Rao had arrived in New York. He had summoned the Indian consul- general to his room at the UN
Plaza Hotel and asked him to attest the documents. Some
thought Rao had done all this at the behest of Rajiv Gandhi,
www.indianbuzz.com
but as later inquiries revealed, Rajiv had had nothing to do

with the preparation of the forged St. Kitts documents.
They were all the joint handiwork of Chandraswamy and
Narasimha Rao, the CBI asserted.
The various scams and scandals which Rao got enmeshed
in over the years will always remain a blot on his prime
ministership, but he would also be remembered for lifting
the countrys economy by the scruff to its neck and giving
it a new direction. The election in strife-torn Punjab and
the restoration of the democratic process to the state was
another feather in the wily old mans crown. Through a
clever management of contradictions, Rao brought down
the countrys temperature which had shot to alarming
heights in the late 1980s and the early 1990s.
IS biggest political success, at another level, was the

way he slowly but steadily upstaged all his principal
rivals. He demolished all the power centres, whether
it was Sonia Gandhis or Sharad Pawars or Arjun Singhs.
The one-time famous shouting brigade of 10 Janpath had
vanished into thin air, and the strongest of Rajiv-Sonia
loyalists had turned into Rao courtiers.
Narasimha Rao will perhaps go down as one of the most
cerebral Prime Ministers that India has had so far. It was
a sheer delight to see the way he could demolish the
Oppositions charges during the no-confidence motions
that he faced in Parliament, and yet he could never convince you that he was open and above board. He never
even tried to. His was just cold logic and erudition devoid
of any moral principles. Rao had mastered all the guile and
chicanery that Chanakya had taught Chandragupta, he
had taken all the leaves of Machiavellis Prince, but he
finally proved the limitations of intellect and statecraft and
political wizardry.
All these can help a leader for a time, it can even take
him to the heights of political power, but it cannot earn
him the love and respect and admiration of the people,
without which he can be just a machine politician. Rao was
good till his machine worked, but when it collapsed he was
suddenly a pathetic sight, dragged from court to court in
utter ignominy. For a Prime Minister to lose elections and
power is no big deal; even Winston Churchill had suffered
defeat at the height of his achievements. The real tragedy
of Raos political career was the way it ended: he was
denied even a ticket by the party he had ruled for five years.
Here was a great lesson for those who believe that morality
has no place in politics. g
Excerpted from Prime Ministers: Nehru to Vajpayee by
Janardan Thakur, Eeshwar Prakashan, New Delhi


49
BOOK REVIEW
by DILEEP GANDHI
non-fiction institutions
Compelling study
HE Indian Parliament - Beyond

the Seal and Signature of
Democracy is a very fascinating
book on the working and the progress
of Indian democracy. I
believe
that parliamentary democracy is
a dynamic, ever evolving concept.
There are books written from time to
time, but a book on democracy and
more so on parliament must elucidate
constitutional jurisprudence, political
philosophy and capture contemporary
as well as historical developments.
The chief merit of this book is that its
QRWRQO\DQHEOHQGRIFRQVWLWXWLRQDO
precepts, parliamentary practices as
obtaining but also documents the
DZVDQGIDLOLQJVRIRXUSDUOLDPHQWDU\
democratic system and throws open
questions for wider and deeper
UHHFWLRQVVRDVWRIXUWKHUVWUHQJWKHQ
RXUGHPRFUDWLFHGLFH
The book, a treasure of precious
information not to be found in any
single book or source, is written
in a lucid, engaging style. The
author, while tracing the genesis of
democracy from Graeco-Roman and
Westminster sources, fathoms the
roots of democratic institutions in
India in far greater antiquity, much
before its occidental evolution. The
author has quoted Vedic hymns
which refer to Sabha and Samiti
and the tradition of the true King
going to the Assembly. For instance,
there is a quote from the Atharva
Veda, we elect you to rulership, the
wide glorious quarters elect you.
Be seated on this high point ( the
throne) in the body of the state and
from there vigorously distribute
the natural wealth and material
50

Title: The Indian Parliament Beyond the Seal and Signature of

Democracy
Author: Devender Singh
Publisher: Universal Law
Publishing (2016)
Publisher: English
prosperity to the people. This hints

that originally kingship was elective
and it later became hereditary due to
the evolved rule of primogeniture. The
Upanishadic counsel was open the
door to thy people, for the obtaining
of Sovereignty. There are references
which show that an Assembly could
not start its proceedings and take
decisions without quorum. There
was provision for quorum hailers or
gana pukaraks. The King was to be
guided by the mantri parishad and
the public opinion, described as the
PXOWLEUH URSH FDSDEOH RI WDPLQJ
the lion. The chapter on Making of
the Constitution is so refreshing as
it quotes the founding fathers from
the Constituent Assembly debates
and their philosophy and vision for a

strong, prosperous and all inclusive
socio-economic
and
political
democracy without duality and
discrimination. The author has
painstakingly and imaginatively
evolved a code of duties for members
of Parliament, which perhaps no
Indian textbook has so far attempted.
Its not that MPs are not conscious
RI WKHLU XQGHQHG FKDUWHU RI GXWLHV
but certainly an attempted code
would be a constant reminder, act
as benchmark and illuminate the
electorate. The powers and functions
of parliament have been dealt with
exhaustively and authoritatively.
The devices for raising discussions
in parliament have been explained
in clear, concise and perspicuous
terms supported by tables, boxes
and examples for quick grasp. I
endorse the view that committees
bring unity out of plurality, direction
out of confusion and decision out of
discussion. I concur with the author
that a parliamentary committee is
a high tribunal of parliament where
the game is not government vs. the
opposition but between parliament
and the well-entrenched bureaucracy.
The book makes out a case for further
strengthening the committee system
as the committees bring greater sense
of participation among the members
and establish balance between the
legislative, representational and
deliberative functions of parliament
and save valuable time of both
parliament and the government.
7KH ERRN EULQJV RXW WKH QHU
nuances of the working of the
Indian Parliament, the duties of
www.gfilesindia.com

BJP leader, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi (centre), releasing the book written by Devender Singh (2nd from right)
its functionaries, its interface with

other constitutional bodies and
the Fourth Estate and the role they
play in strengthening democracy.
Parliamentary privileges have been
described, and I concur with him, a
shield rather a sword so as to protect
and uphold the dignity, authority and
the independence of parliament and
its members so that they discharge
their functions without let or
hindrance. The glossary is certainly a
value addition which would be found
immensely useful by the readers.
Overall, this an absorbing and
instructive book replete with historic
and contemporary precedents in the
parliamentary annals of India. It is
indeed a brilliant, insightful book
dealing with the powers, functions
and procedures of Parliament,
elections and electoral systems and
nature and role of political parties
www.indianbuzz.com
in a parliamentary democracy. The

author rightly claims that we are,
GHVSLWH LWV PDQ\ DZV DQG IDLOLQJV
a gold plated democracy with a gold
plated press. The introduction to the
book by Dr Murli Manohar Joshi is
a philosophical tract enshrining the
vision and the informed thinking
of an elder statesman enhancing
immensely the value of the book.
HE author has described

the intricacies of democratic
institutions,
the
dynamics
of parliamentary government, the
public perception of parliament, the
intermittent democratic disquiet
and the future of democracy itself.
Besides, the book draws attention
to the general concern about the
working of parliament, its often
obstructive politics, its highs and
the lows and the areas, including
the political perceptions across the

political divide, in need of reforms
DQGUHRULHQWDWLRQ,WVQHVWUXFWXUDO
symmetry and incisively analytical
approach makes it a lively textbook,
and a much awaited addition in the
HOGRISDUOLDPHQWDU\VWXGLHVZULWWHQ
by one who has had a long time ringside view of the working of Indian
Parliament. The author has obviously
read and assimilated a wide range of
parliamentary literature and diverse
sources and woven a commendable
narrativean anthology as much an
anatomy, of the Indian democratic
system. Its a compelling book
for scholars of constitutional and
parliamentary studies, legislators,
public servants, students and all those
who desire to study and understand
the working of the largest democracy
of the world. g
The writer is MP, Lok Sabha.


51
STOCK DOCTOR
dr gs sood
Watch the earnings
OST GST, the appointment

of new RBI Governor and a
good monsoon, there is no
trigger that is likely to impact the
market significantly. The market
may, therefore, witness some profit
booking in the short to medium
term though the long-term bull
market scenario remains intact. The
market has not reacted sharply to the
announcement of new RBI governor
who is by and large expected to
follow in the footprints of Raghuram
Rajan, keeping inflation in check
as the main objective for future
policy pronouncements.
In my earlier posts, I have opined
that market may not witness any
sharp correction due to ample liquidity lying on the sidelines waiting to
come to the market in the event of
such a correction happening.
However, economic activity is unlikely to pick up owing to rising inflation
and tepid credit growth. The overall
earnings growth of around 10 per cent
YoY may not appear bad though the
increase in net profit has occurred
due to unplanned/unexpected reasons and lower costs in many cases
while volume and revenue growth has
been generally disappointing.
In view of the tardy acceleration in
earnings, the market has started looking expansive. Though mild, the earnings downgrades have started happening for FY17 and experts believe
that concrete recovery may be elusive
till FY18. As said earlier, Brexit has
started showing its impact with
Infosys by losing Royal Bank of
Scotland. The BSE mid cap PE of
more than 32 is way in excess of its
10-year average of 20. This may be a

reason to caution retail investors who
usually fancy midcaps since such high
valuations may not sustain.
Stressed assets of the banking system and overleveraged balance sheets
of the corporate sector may continue
to weigh on earnings possibilities at
the aggregate level. The pricing power
of companies generally lacked vigor
due to spare capacity and this can be
a big trigger for corporate profitability
since any expansion in volume/revenue growth will result in increase in
profits due to the benefits of operating
leverage coming into being.
International developments may
also be cause of concern with piling up
of dollar debt in the balance sheets of
firms in emerging markets, which, as

per a Bank of international
Settlements (BIS) study, makes them
vulnerable to capital outflows. Large
outflows can lead to contagion that
may adversely affect the Indian market despite India being well placed.
Chinas credit bubble, falling property
prices and massive increase in corporate debt may also have implications
for the global economy.
Small investors are advised to
exercise caution and not chase
stocks though India remains a sweet
spot. After all, how many $2 trillion
economies are growing at 7 per cent
plus rate. The Fed is also unlikely to
raise rates anytime soon in view of the
volatile global scenario. g
Stock Shop
BY
RAKESH BHARDWAJ
Redington (India)
(CMP `107)
EDINGTON recorded well-rounded

growth with Q1FY17 (usually weak
quarter for the company) revenue/PAT
being much higher than expected led
by 31 per cent YoY growth in overseas
operations that accounts for 61 per cent
share and vastly improved performance
of its Indian operations that showed 21
per cent YoY growth. The momentum is
further expected to pick up since cloud
computing (a high margin business)
will outperform and Indias tech capex
recovery and passage of GST Bill will
directly benefit the company. The firm will
also benefit immensely with improvement
in IT spends by corporates/government,
increasing Smartphone penetration,

new vendor signings, higher growth in
market share and gains due to further
geographical spread. The company is
expected to clock a revenue/EPS CAGR
of around 13-14 per cent over FY1618. The companys efficiency can be
indicated by the fact that whereas most
IT verticals have shown de-growth, the
company has in fact improved its growth
immensely. The company has also
reduced its working capital cycle by 7
days and generated positive cash flow of
`200 crore. The stock is available cheap
compared to its peers at a PE of less than
10 as against the industry PE of more
than 24. A company that has paid more
than 100% dividend is a genuine value
pick. Investors can get returns in even one
year with practically no downside risk.
The author has no exposure in the stock recommended in this column. gfiles does not accept responsibility for investment decisions by
readers of this column. Investment-related queries may be sent to editor@gfilesindia.com with Bhardwajs name in the subject line.
52

www.gfilesindia.com

STOCK DOCTOR
dr gs sood
The author has no exposure in the stock recommended in this column. gfiles does not accept responsibility for investment decisions by
readers of this column. Investment-related queries may be sent to editor@gfilesindia.com with Bhardwajs name in the subject line.
www.indianbuzz.com


53
PERSPECTIVE
devotion sadhguru
ELF-ESTEEM is a phrase much

in vogue today. While it may promote a measure of psychological well-being, it is unfortunate that
even spiritual teachers are endorsing
the concept wholeheartedly. From
an existential perspective, both self
and esteem are a problem. Both are
limited, fragile and insecure. From a
mystics point of view, if you have no
esteem, very good. If you have no self,
fabulous! For anyone on an authentic spiritual journey, the goal is not
to become special. The devotee seeks
instead to become ordinary extraordinary, in fact. And yet, devotion
offers seekers the sweetest experience
of life. Devotion is not a dissection of
life; it is a total embrace. There is no
shred of sanity involved, and no way
to recover from it.
Devotion means you have dissolved
all resistance within you so that the
divine can transpire as effortlessly as
your breath. When the divine becomes
a living force within you, it is an experience of indescribable ecstasy.
Devotees may look crazy to others,
but they are having the best time on
the planet! That is why, devotion is
the deepest form of intelligence.
There is a very beautiful story in
yogic lore. Allama Prabhu was a great
sage and key figure in the Veerashaiva
movement of Karnataka in the twelfth
century. A spiritual guide and profound being, he authored thousands
of couplets of exceptional depth and
profound mystical insight.
One day, another great mystic saint
and Shiva devotee named Goraksha
encountered Allama. Goraksha was a
yogi on the path of kayakalpa. Kaya
literally means body; kalpa means
rejuvenation. This is the ancient yogic
science of creating not just health,
vitality and longevity, but raising the
body to another dimension of consciousness altogether. Gorakshas
54

Free of all limits

yogic virtuosity had made his body as
hard and stable as a rock.
There are certain yogic practices
that entail purifying and mastering
the five elements in the human system. With advanced sadhana, one
can attain bhuta siddhicomplete
mastery over the elements. Such practitioners can live well beyond the normal span of human life. This accounts
for innumerable stories in the yogic
lore of adepts who have lived for thousands of years.
At this time, Goraksha was already
believed to be about 280 years old. He
now challenged Allama: You are considered a great yogi and Shiva devotee. Let us see what you are capable
of. Goraksha pulled out a diamondtipped sword, handed it to Allama and
said, Take this sword and strike me
on the head. See what happens.
Allamma was amused. With both
hands and with all his might, he
smashed the sword down on
Gorakshas head. Goraksha stood
there like a rock, utterly invulnerable.
The sword just bounced off his head.
Then Goraksha said, Now that you
have used this sword against me, I am
also permitted to use it against you.
Allama agreed. Goraksha picked up
the sword and slashed fiercely at

Allama. To his amazement, the sword
passed right through Allamas body.
Allama continued to stand there,
unaffected. If Gorakshas yoga had
made his body like a rock, Allamas
yoga had made his body like thin air.
Goraksha continued to swish his
sword this way and that, but it passed
through Allama time and again. Then
Goraksha had the humility to concede
defeat. I know the yoga of strength,
said the veteran yogi. But I do not
know the yoga of dissolution. And he
became Allamas disciple.
This apocryphal story illustrates a
vital point. For a devotee, vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. As a
devotee of Shi-va literally that which
is not, or no-thing Allama had dissolved into the object of his devotion.
His readiness to embrace no-thing
had made him, in fact, invincible; his
willingness to become vulnerable had
made him invulnerable. In dissolving
both self and esteem, Allama had
become free of all limitations. This is
the power that accompanies a chosen
powerlessness. g
Sadhguru, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader
(www.ishafoundation.org)
www.gfilesindia.com

birthdays
IAS officers birthdays Sept 16, 2016 Oct 15, 2016
IAS officers birthdays Sept 16, 2016 Oct 15, 2016
Mohammad Shahid
16-09-1971
Govind Mohan
Rajiv Onkarnath Jalota
Aparajita Sarangi
CADRE: SIKKIM
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: ODISHA
shahidm@ias.nic.in
mohang@ias.nic.in
jalotaro@ias.nic.in
sarangia@ias.nic.in
Madhukar Gupta
Vijay Dahiya
Mukhmeet Singh Bhatia
Sanjay Garg
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: JHARKHAND
CADRE: KERALA
guptam5@ias.nic.in
dahiyav@ias.nic.in
bhatiams@ias.nic.in
gargs2@ias.nic.in
Dayanand Kataria
Sachin Sinha
Saurabh Jain
Raj Kumar Khatri
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH
CADRE: KERALA
CADRE: KARNATAKA
katariad@ias.nic.in
sinhas3@ias.nic.in
jains7@ias.nic.in
khatrid@ias.nic.in
Dharmendra
Srivatsa Krishna
Navin Mittal
Apurva Varma
CADRE: UNION TERRITORY
CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
dharmend@ias.nic.in
ksrivats@ias.nic.in
mittaln1@ias.nic.in
vapurva@ias.nic.in
Ansuli Arya
Syed Omar Jaleel
Jyoti Buddha Prakash
Anil Kumar
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
ansuli@ias.nic.in
sojaleel@ias.nic.in
prakashjb02@ias.nic.in
kmranil2@ias.nic.in
Vikram Dev Dutt
Neerja
Kanti Lal Dande
Anurag Agarwal
CADRE: UNION TERRITORY
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: HARYANA
duttvd@ias.nic.in
neerja@ias.nic.in
dandekl@ias.nic.in
anuraga@ias.nic.in
Puneet Yadav
Bishwa Nath Sinha
Vinay Kumar
Sowjanya
CADRE: WEST BENGAL
CADRE: KERALA
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: UTTARAKHAND
ypuneet@ias.nic.in
sinhabn@ias.nic.in
kumarv4@ias.nic.in
sowjanya@ias.nic.in
Peeyush Kumar
Jayesh Ranjan
Benhur Mahesh Dutt Ekka
Himanshu Kumar
CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH
kumarp1@ias.nic.in
ranjanj@ias.nic.in
ekkabm@ias.nic.in
kumarh@ias.nic.in
Syed Ali Murtaza Rizvi
Shashi Bhushan Kumar
Aashish Srivastava
Puneet Kansal
CADRE: SIKKIM
rizvism@ias.nic.in
kumarsb@ias.nic.in
sriasish@ias.nic.in
kansalp@ias.nic.in
Vikas Gupta
AK Tiwari
M Dana Kishore
S Aparna
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: GUJARAT
guptav1@ias.nic.in
tiwariak@ias.nic.in
kishorem@ias.nic.in
aparnas@ias.nic.in
Pravin Kumar
M Srinivas Rao
Harmander Singh
TVSN Prasad
CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
CADRE: HARYANA
pravinkumar.ias@ias.nic.in
raoms@ias.nic.in
shmander@ias.nic.in
prasadtn@ias.nic.in
Sunil Barthwal
R Shangeetha
Vinod R Rao
Jyoti Arora
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: CHHATTISGARH
CADRE: GUJARAT
CADRE: HARYANA
barthwal@ias.nic.in
r.shangeetha@ias.nic.in
raovr2k@ias.nic.in
aroraj@ias.nic.in
Ashish Kumar Bhutani
Sanjay Dubey
Rakesh Gupta
Shiv Das Meena
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
dubeys4@ias.nic.in
guptar7@ias.nic.in
mshivdas@ias.nic.in
CADRE: GUJARAT
17-09-1960
17-09-1962
17-09-1965
17-09-1966
17-09-1969
18-09-1974
19-09-1973
19-09-1975
19-09-1975
20-09-1979
20-09-1965
21-09-1967
bhutania@ias.nic.in
21-09-1965
22-09-1972
23-09-1972
24-09-1968
24-09-1962
24-09-1970
24-09-1968
25-09-1967
25-09-1968
26-09-1965
27-09-1961
27-09-1977
28-09-1968
29-09-1964
30-09-1964
30-09-1977
01-10-1973
01-10-1974
02-10-1968
03-10-1971
04-10-1970
04-10-1966
05-10-1966
06-10-1962
08-10-1976
08-10-1972
08-10-1969
10-10-1970
10-10-1961
10-10-1961
10-10-1966
11-10-1967
11-10-1978
11-10-1965
13-10-1971
14-10-1963
14-10-1964
15-10-1961
15-10-1964
For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com
www.indianbuzz.com

vol. 10, issue 6 | Septmber 2016
55
birthdays
IPS officers birthdays Sept 16, 2016 Oct 15, 2016
IPS officers birthdays Sept 16, 2016 Oct 15, 2016
P Ravindranath
Sanjeev Kumar Jain
YK Gautam
Hemant N Nagrale
CADRE: KARNATAKA
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
pravindranath@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
skrjain@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
ykgautam@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
hnnagrale@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gilani
Sanjay Kumar
Naresh Kumar
Saurabh Singh
CADRE: JAMMU-KASHMIR
CADRE: ODISHA
CADRE: PUNJAB
CADRE: HARYANA
gilani@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
sanjaykumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
nareshkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
saurabhsingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Rashmi Ranjan Swain
Amitesh Kumar
Manoj Kumar Verma
Sonali Mishra
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: WEST BENGAL
rrswain@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
amiteshkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
mkverma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
sonalimishra@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Rajiv Trivedi
Deepak Ratan
Maithili Sharan Gupta
Vishal Bansal
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
rajivtrivedi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
deepakratan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
msgupta@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
vishalbansal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Ashit Kumar Panda
Charu Sinha
Alok Tripathi
AR Anuradha
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
akpanda@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
charusinha@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
aloktripati@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
anuradha@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
SS Chaturvedi
Satish Chandra Verma
Anil Kumar Gupta
Dilbagh Singh
CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA
CADRE: GUJARAT
sschaturvedi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
scverma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
akgupta@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
dilbagsingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Rajesh Khurana
Pramod Kumar
Hiren Chandra Nath
Kiran D Jadhav
CADRE: AGMUT
CADRE: TAMIL NADU
rajeshkhurana@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
pramodkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
hcnath@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
kiran@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Ravinder Kumar Singhal
Manoj Agrawal
Mahender Singh Poonia
Uday Sahay
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: GUJARAT
CADRE: WEST BENGAL
CADRE: AGMUT
rksinghal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
manojagarwal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
mspoonia@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
usahay@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Sibash Kabiraj
Jitendra Kumar Jain
Narendra Singh Bundela
Rajendra Kumar Mishra
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: PUNJAB
CADRE: AGMUT
sibashkabiraj@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
jkjain@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
nsbundela@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
rkmishra@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Virender Singh
Anil Kishore Yadav
Rajiv Ratan
Ashok Yadav
CADRE: AGMUT
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: KERALA
virendersingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
anilkyadav@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
rajivratan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
ashokyadav@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Radha Kishan Sharma
Janardan Singh
Goduguhuri Srinivasa Rao
Zulfiquar Hasan
CADRE: ODISHA
CADRE: NAGALAND
CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA
CADRE: WEST BENGAL
radhakishan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
janardhans@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
gsrao@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
zulfiquarh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Vikas Kumar Arora
Vijaya Krishna Ramisetti
Paras Nath
Dharam Chand Jain
CADRE: HARYANA
CADRE: BIHAR
CADRE: RAJASTHAN
vkarora@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
rvkrishna@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
parasnath@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
dcjain@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
RK Sahay
Mahan Bharat Sagar
Apte Vinayak Prabhakar
Sunil Kumar
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
rksahay@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
sagar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
vinayakapte@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
sunilkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
16-09-1963
16-09-1971
18-09-1964
19-09-1961
20-09-1961
20-09-1963
20-09-1969
20-09-1967
20-09-1975
22-09-1966
22-09-1966
22-09-1974
25-09-1961
25-09-1966
25-09-1969
26-09-1972
26-09-1973
27-09-1969
28-09-1962
28-09-1965
28-09-1965
28-09-1968
29-09-1969
29-09-1972
29-09-1970
30-09-1960
30-09-1961
30-09-1966
30-09-1968
01-10-1960
01-10-1960
01-10-1964
01-10-1964
01-10-1964
01-10-1974
02-10-1961
02-10-1972
04-10-1967
05-10-1969
08-10-1962
08-10-1969
09-10-1966
09-10-1971
10-10-1963
10-10-1963
10-10-1963
11-10-1961
12-10-1962
12-10-1970
15-10-1964
15-10-1963
15-10-1964
56

www.gfilesindia.com
Lok Sabha Members Sept 16, 2016 Oct 15, 2016
Rajya Sabha Members Sept 16, 2016 Oct 15, 2016
Krishnan N Ramachandran
Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri
T Subbarami Reddy
Kumari Selja
AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)
BJP (Uttarakhand)
INC (Andhra Pradesh)
INC (Haryana)
bc.khanduri@nic.in
reddy.ts@sansad.nic.in
seljaselja6@gmail.com
Rajendra Aggarwal
Md. Nadimul Haque
D Bandyopadhyay
16-09-1955
Narendra Modi
17-09-1950
01-10-1934
17-09-1943
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
02-10-1949
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
AITC (West Bengal)
AITC (West Bengal)
Arjun Charan Sethi
rajendra.agrawal@sansad.nic.in
nadimul.haque@sansad.nic.in
bandyopadhyay.d@sansad.nic.in
Arun Kumar
Ranjib Biswal
Shri Ripun Bora
RLSP (Bihar)
INC (Odisha)
INC (Assam)
dr.arunkumar@sansad.nic.in
biswalranjib@yahoo.com
ripunbora@rediffmail.com
Ajay Nishad
Balwinder Singh Bhunder
Sarojini Hembram
BJP (Bihar)
SAD (Punjab)
BJD (Odisha)
ajay.nishad@sansad.nic.in
balbirs@sansad.nic.in
sarojini.hembram@sansad.nic.in
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
V Maitreyan
Jharna Das Baidya
BJP (Rajasthan)
AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)
CPI-M (Tripura)
g.shekhawat@sansad.nic.in
maitreyan@sansad.nic.in
jharnadasbaidya@gmail.com
Shripad Yesso Naik
Manmohan Singh
Tapan Kumar Sen
BJP (Goa)
INC (Assam)
CPI-M (West Bengal)
sripadnaik@sansad.nic.in
manmohan@sansad.nic.in
tapan.sen@sansad.nic.in
Satabdi Roy (Banerjee)
CP Narayanan
Bhushan Lal Jangde
AITC (West Bengal)
CPI-M (Kerala)
BJP (Chhattisgarh)
narayanan.cp@yahoo.com
bj.jangde@sansad.nic.in
EM Sudarsana Natchiappan
Viplove Thakur
INC (Tamil Nadu)
INC (Himachal Pradesh)
emsn@sansad.nic.in
viplove.thakur@sansad.nic.in
TK Rangarajan
K Parasaran
CPI-M (Tamil Nadu)
NOM. (Nominated)
tk.ranga@sansad.nic.in
k.parasaran@sansad.nic.in
Ranjib Biswal
Rekha
INC (Odisha)
NOM. (Nominated)
18-09-1941
BJD (Odisha )
02-10-1959
ac.sethi@sansad.nic.in
Rajeev Shankarrao Satav

21-09-1974
INC (Maharashtra)
02-10-1966
rs.satav@sansad.nic.in
MI Shanavas
22-09-1951
INC (Kerala)
03-10-1967
shanavaskpcc@yahoo.co.in
Ashok Kumar Dohrey

23-09-1970
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
ashokkumar.doharey@sansad.nic.in
Sushmita Dev
25-09-1972
INC (Assam)
05-10-1969
sushmita.dev@sansad.nic.in
Devji Mansingram Patel
Vinod Khanna
25-09-1976
06-10-1946
BJP (Rajasthan)
BJP (Punjab)
devjimp@gmail.com
vkhanna@sansad.nic.in
K Ashok Kumar
Bijoya Chakravarty
27-09-1953
07-10-1939
AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)
BJP (Assam)
Hemendra Chandra Singh

29-09-1967
BJD (Odisha)
hemendra.singh@sansad.nic.in
Tapas Paul
29-09-1958
AITC (West Bengal)
tapas.paul@sansad.nic.in
Daddan Mishra
30-09-1967
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
daddan.mishra@sansad.nic.in
Mahesh Sharma
30-09-1959
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
mahesh.sharma@sansad.nic.in
04-10-1952
bijoya@nic.in
Kunwar P Singh Chandel

08-10-1973
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
kunwarps.chandel@sansad.nic.in
Sakuntala Laguri
09-10-1980
BJD (Odisha)
sakuntala.laguri@sansad.nic.in
20-09-1969
24-09-1962
21-09-1970
21-09-1944
21-09-1955
26-09-1932
28-09-1938
29-09-1947
30-09-1941
21-09-1970
01-10-1931
01-10-1955
01-10-1959
01-10-1962
02-10-1951
04-10-1943
04-10-1943
09-10-1927
10-10-1954
biswalranjib@yahoo.com
RK Sinha
22-09-1951
BJP (Bihar)
rkishore.sinha@sansad.nic.in
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

15-10-1957
BJP (Uttar Pradesh)
mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in
Thokchom Meinya
12-10-1945
INC (Manipur)
meinya@sansad.nic.in
Mausam Noor
15-10-1979
INC (West Bengal)
mausam_bnoor@yahoo.co.in
SEND YOUR GREETINGS
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57
Tracking
For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com
ARUN KUMAR
SANJEEVANEE KUTTY
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the AssamMeghalaya cadre has been upgraded
to Special Secretary, Ministry of Social
Justice.
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the

Maharashtra cadre has been upgraded
to Special Secretary, Ministry of Home
Affairs.
JAGDISH PRASAD MEENA
INJETI SRINIVAS
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the AssamMeghalaya cadre has been appointed
Special Secretary, Food Processing.
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the Odisha

cadre has been upgraded to Special
Secretary, Sports Authority of India.
JATINDER BIR SINGH
ARUN KUMAR
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the AssamMeghalaya cadre has been upgraded to
Special Secretary, Punjab & Sind Bank.

Rajasthan cadre has been upgraded to
Special Secretary, Rural Development.
PREETI SUDAN
BHARATI SIHAG
Special Secretary, Child Development.

Himachal Pradesh cadre has been
upgraded to Special Secretary, Steel.
ASHA RAM SIHAG
DINESH SHARMA
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the Himachal

Pradesh cadre has been upgraded to
Special Secretary, UPSC.
Special Secretary, Finance.
YUDHVIR SINGH MALIK
R SRIDHARAN
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the Haryana

Secretary, Niti Ayog.

Karnataka cadre has been upgraded to
Special Secretary, Mines.
KP KRISHNAN
RAJANI RANJAN RASHMITHE

Karnataka cadre has been upgraded to
Special Secretary, Land Resources.

Manipur cadre has been upgraded to
Special Secretary, Environment.
Moving On: IAS officers retiring in September 2016

ANDHRA PRADESH
T Vijayakumar (1983)
BIHAR
Vijay Prakash (1981)
DELHI
Rajiv Gupta (1979)
GUJARAT
JK Astik (2003)
HIMACHAL PRADESH
SS Ghonkrokta (2002)
KERALA
T Bhaskaran (2004)
KARNATAKA
NM Panali (2004)
58

MADHYA PRADESH
Manish Kumar Shrivastava (1995)

Vinod Singh Baghel (1997)
Kailash Chand Jain (2000)
THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS HAVE

BEEN EMPANELLED AS SECRETARY
OR SECRETARY EQUIVALENT AT
THE CENTRE
ASHWANI LOHANI, 1980 batch of
Indian Railway Service of Mechanical
Engineering (IRSME)
PRASENJIT MUKHERJEE, 1980 batch
of Indian Audit and Accounts Service
ANANYA RAY, 1980 batch of IRS
(Customs and Central Excise)
DEEPAK SHETTY, 1980 batch of IRS
(Customs and Central Excise)
AK GOYAL, 1981 batch of Indian
Forest Service (IFoS), Kerala cadre
RAKESH JAIN, 1981 batch of Indian
Audit and Accounts Service
HINDUPUR PRADEEP RAO, 1981
batch of Indian Audit and Accounts
Service
ALKA PANDA
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the Odisha
Secretary, BIS.
ANJALI PRASAD
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the Uttarakhand
Secretary, WTO.
BHAGWATI PRASAD PANDEY

The 1983-batch IAS officer of the Uttarakhand
Secretary, Power.
HARJIT SINGH ARORA

The 1981-batch officer of the Indian Air Force
has taken charge as Director-General, Air
(Operations).
ARUN SINGHAL
TRIPURA
The 1987-batch IAS officer of the Uttar

Pradesh cadre has been appointed Joint
Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare.
UTTAR PRADESH
NIKUNJA KISHORE SUNDARAY
SIKKIM
Durga Prasad Sharma (1999)

Nabanita Roy (2000)
Vyasji (1982)
Anil Kumar Gupta (1979)
Shankar Agarwal (1980)
Ram Prasad Goswami (1999)
Sandeep Kumar Sharma (2000)
Damyanti Dohre (2002)
Anil Kumar Agarwal (1981)
The 1987-batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre

has been appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry
of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises.
DHARITRI PANDA
The 1987-batch IAS officer of ICAS cadre
has been appointed Additional FA & Joint
Secretary (Finance), Ministry of Defence.

www.gfilesindia.com
ARAMANE GIRIDHAR
The 1988-batch IAS officer of the Andhra
Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat.
ALI RAZA RIZVI

The 1988-batch IAS officer of the Himachal
Secretary, Department
of Commerce.
RAJIT PUNHANI
The 1991-batch IAS officer of the Bihar
cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary,
Ministry of Labour & Employment.
THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS HAVE BEEN EMPANELLED AS ADDITIONAL

SECRETARY OR ADDITIONAL SECRETARY EQUIVALENT AT THE CENTRE
NAGESH SINGH, 1982 batch of Indian Economic Service (IES)
SUJATA PRASAD, 1983 batch of Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS)
ASHOK PAI, 1983 batch of Indian Forest Service (IFoS), Uttarakhand cadre
SUDHA KRISHNAN, 1983 batch of Indian Audit and Accounts Service
MEENAKSHI GUPTA, 1984 batch of Indian Audit and Accounts Service
VANDANA SHARMA, 1984 batch of Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS)
ANURADHA MITRA, 1984 batch of Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)
SANJIV MITTAL, 1984 batch of Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)
RAJNISH KUMAR, 1984 batch of Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)
V VENUGOPAL, 1984 batch of Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)
ASHOK KUMAR DASH, 1984 batch of Indian Postal Service (IPoS)
K C SAMARIA
Assam-Meghalaya cadre has been
appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of
Minority Affairs.
SANJAY KUMAR
The 1995-batch IAS officer of the Telangana
Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty
Alleviation (HUPA).
LAV AGARWAL
The 1996-batch IAS officer of the Andhra
Secretary, Department of Health & Family
Welfare.
RAKHEE GUPTA BHANDARI

The 1997-batch IAS officer of the Punjab
Ministry of Minority Affairs.
B NAVNIT
Prime Ministers Office (PMO).
V SHESHADRI
Prime Ministers Office (PMO).
SYED ALI MURTAZA RIZVI

Cabinet Secretariat.
SUDHIR KUMAR
The 1999-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT
Department of Health & Family Welfare.
www.indianbuzz.com
THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS HAVE BEEN EMPANELLED AS DIRECTOR GENERAL

OR DIRECTOR GENERAL EQUIVALENT AT THE CENTRE
SURESH ARORA, 1982 batch of IPS, Punjab cadre
NEELAMANI N RAJU, 1983 batch of IPS, Karnataka cadre
RISHI KUMAR SHUKLA, 1983 batch of IPS, Madhya Pradesh cadre
RAJIV RAI BHATNAGAR, 1983 batch of IPS, Uttar Pradesh cadre
RANJIT KUMAR PACHNANDA, 1983 batch of IPS, West Bengal cadre
AK PATNAIK, 1983 batch of IPS, Gujarat cadre
SUDHIR PRATAP SINGH, 1983 batch of IPS, Rajasthan cadre
SK SINHA, 1983 batch of IPS, Bihar cadre
OM PRAKASH SINGH, 1983 batch of IPS, Uttar Pradesh cadre
RINA MITRA, 1983 batch of IPS, Madhya Pradesh cadre
GIRDHARI NAIK, 1983 batch of IPS, Chhattisgarh cadre
THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS HAVE BEEN EMPANELLED AS JOINT SECRETARIES

AT THE CENTRE
ASHUTOSH AGNIHOTRI, 1999 batch of IAS, Assam cadre
GULZAR NATARAJAN, 1999 batch of IAS, Andhra Pradesh cadre
SONMONI BORAH, 1999 batch of IAS, Chhattisgarh cadre
AJAY BHADOO, 1999 batch of IAS, Gujarat cadre
PUSHPENDRA RAJPUT, 1999 batch of IAS, Himachal Pradesh cadre
AMANDEEP GARG, 1999 batch of IAS, Himachal Pradesh cadre
M BEENA, 1999 batch of IAS, Kerala cadre
SUBODH YADAV, 1999 batch of IAS, Karnataka cadre
RICHA BAGLA, 1999 batch of IAS, Maharashtra cadre
KUNAL KUMAR, 1999 batch of IAS, Maharashtra cadre
ATUL NILKANTHA PATNE, 1999 batch of IAS, Maharashtra cadre
PAWAN KUMAR SHARMA, 1999 batch of IAS, Madhya Pradesh cadre
SHUBHA SARMA, 1999 batch of IAS, Odisha cadre
BHASKAR JYOTI SARMA, 1999 batch of IAS, Odisha cadre
BHAWNA GARG, 1999 batch of IAS, Punjab cadre
NILKANTH S AVHAD, 1999 batch of IAS, Punjab cadre
AJOY SHARMAM, 1999 batch of IAS, Punjab cadre
MUGDHA SHARMA, 1999 batch of IAS, Rajasthan cadre
BRAJENDRA NAVNIT, 1999 batch of IAS, Tamil Nadu cadre
P GURUPRASAD, 1999 batch of IAS, Uttar Pradesh cadre
RAVINDER, 1999 batch of IAS, Uttar Pradesh cadre

59
Tracking
For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com
ASHISH CHATTERJEE
cadre has been appointed
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum &
Natural Gas.
ANSHU SINHA
Maharashtra cadre has been appointed
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information &
Broadcasting.
E RAMESH KUMAR
The 1999-batch IAS officer of the Madhya
Pradesh cadre has been appointed
Joint Secretary, Department of Animal
Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries.
NAVDEEP RINWA
RESHUFFLE OF IAS OFFICERS IN HARYANA

7KHIROORZLQJ,$6RIFHUKDYHEHHQJLYHQQHZSRVWLQJVLQ+DU\DQDSURESH KUMAR
GOYAL KDVEHHQDSSRLQWHG6HFUHWDU\+RPH,,'HSDUWPHQWDQG-RLQW&RPPLVVLRQHU
Gurdwara Elections and Director, Renewable Energy as also Secretary, Lokayuka;
WAZEER SINGH GOYAT KDVEHHQSRVWHGDV'LUHFWRU:HOIDUHRI6FKHGXOHG&DVWHV
DQG%DFNZDUG&ODVVHV+DU\DQDDQG6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\:HOIDUHRI6FKHGXOHG&DVWHV
and Backward Classes; ASHIMA BRAR KDVEHHQSRVWHGDV6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\
Finance, and Director, Renewable Energy; SAKET KUMAR KDVEHHQDSSRLQWHG
'LUHFWRU7HFKQLFDO(GXFDWLRQDQG6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\SANJEEV VERMA as Director,
6RFLDO-XVWLFH (PSRZHUPHQWDQG6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\ANITA YADAV as Director,
6WDWH7UDQVSRUWDQG6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\RAJNARAYAN KAUSHIKDV'HSXW\
Commissioner, Mahendragarh at Narnaul; ADITYA DAHIYA as Commissioner,
0XQLFLSDO&RUSRUDWLRQ.DUQDODQGPRIYANKA SONIDV$'&FXP&(2'5'$
Karnal.
RESHUFFLE OF IAS OFFICERS IN UP

7KHVHRIFHUVKDYHEHHQWUDQVIHUUHGDQGSRVWHGWRGLIIHUHQWSODFHVLQ8WWDU3UDGHVK
PK MAHANTIKDVEHHQDSSRLQWHG3ULQFLSDO6HFUHWDU\$QLPDO+XVEDQGU\MUKUL
SINGHALLV3ULQFLSDO6HFUHWDU\3ODQQLQJDQG6HULFXOWXUH+DQGLFUDIWVDQG7H[WLOHV
INDRAVIR SINGH YADAVLV0HPEHU-XGLFLDO5HYHQXH%RDUGGAURAV DAYAL
KDVEHHQDSSRLQWHG'0$JUDRAJSHEKHAR is DM, Bareilly; SATYENDRA SINGH
is DM, Lucknow; ANUP KUMAR YADAVLV9LFH&KDLUPDQ/XFNQRZ'HYHORSPHQW
Authority; SOMYA AGRAWALLV6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\$JULFXOWXUH3URGXFWLRQ
SURENDRA SINGH is DM, Unnao; RAJESH KUMAR SINGHLV6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\
Agriculture Production Commissioner; KANCHAN VERMALV'00LUMDSXUPRITI
SHUKLALV6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\3:'RAM VISHAL MISHRALV'0%DOUDPSXU
VIVEKLV9LFH&KDLUPDQ.DQSXU'HYHORSPHQW$XWKRULW\SURENDRA KUMAR is
DM, Ambedkar Nagar; KARAN SINGH CHAUHANLV6SHFLDO6HFUHWDU\$JULFXOWXUH
Production Commissioner; SURESH KUMAR SINGH is DM, Bhadoi; CHANDRA
VIJAY SINGHLV9LFH&KDLUPDQ-KDQVL'HYHORSPHQW$XWKRULW\DQGNAVNEET
SINGH BAHALKDVEHHQSRVWHGDV&'2-KDQVL
The 1999-batch IAS officer of the Uttar

Secretary, Health and Family Welfare.
VG REDDY
The IRSEE officer has been appointed
as DDG, UIDAI under the Ministry of
Electronics & Information Technology.
DILIP SHARMA
The IRS-IT officer has been appointed
as Director General, Election Commission
of India
PD GUPTA
The former officer has been appointed
as Vice Chancellor of the Homi Bhabha
National Institute (HBNI), Mumbai for a
period of five years
Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation

Limited (IRCTC), Delhi.
appointed Director in the Central

Vigilance Commission (CVC), Delhi.
RAJBIR SINGH PANWAR
RAVINDRA PRABHAKAR MARATHE
RAVI SHANKAR
The 1991-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat

cadre has been appointed Private Secretary
to Mansukhbhai L Mandaviya, Union
Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers.
The former ED, Bank of India, has

been appointed as MD & CEO, Bank of
Maharashtra, with effect from October
1, 2016.
MANJULA CHELLUR
SBL MISRA
The 1995-batch lFS officer, currently

Deputy Chief of Mission in Embassy of
India, Rome, has been appointed the
next High Commissioner of India to the
Republic of Uganda.
The Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court

has been transferred and posted as Chief
Justice of the Bombay High Court.
The1980-batch IFS officer of the Andhra

Pradesh cadre has been appointed
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests
(PCCF) in Andhra Pradesh.
KS JHAVERI
The Judge of the Gujarat High Court has
been transferred and posted as Judge of the
Rajasthan High Court.
SUDHIR KUMAR
The 1989-batch CISF officer has been
appointed Chief Vigilance Officer in Indian
60

PAWAN KUMAR BAJAJ

The ED of the Indian Overseas Bank has
been appointed MD & CEO, United Bank
of India.
RAMAWATAR MEENA
The 1998-batch ITS officer has been
NAGESH SINGH
The 1982-batch IES officer has been
transferred and posted as Chief
Economic Adviser, Rural Development,
Ministry of Rural Development,
Government of India.
RADM VIPINI KUMAR SAXENA

The officer has been selected for the post
of Chairman-cum-Managing Director,
Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers
Limited (GRSE) at a PESB meeting.

www.gfilesindia.com
...by the way

DANICS maange more...
n the last one month, two sets of officersone from

DANICS (Delhi Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil
Service) and another from the Central
Secretariat Servicesmet
Servicesme MoS in PMO
and personnel ministry Jitendra Singh
to narrate their woes, demanding
d
quick
and sound solutions. For
F example, the
2008 batch DANICS officers
of
who have
competed eight years of service are
now eligible to be inducted
ind
into the
IAS, but the
the irony
irony is that
t
even 1989
batch DANICS
DANI
N CS are yet to be IAS
NI
officers. The officers
o ficers expressed
of
ex
concern
about the acute stagna
stagnation in DANICS
services which, they alleged,
all
not only
leads to financial loss but also
denies career growth. Many of
the officers even
ev retire without
to be IAS at
getting a chance
cha
all. SC and ST officers are
the worst affected
a
because
many of them join
man
the service late due
th
to the age
relaxation
re
available to them.
av
DANICS officers
D
are posted on
a
crucial
administrative
assignments in
the Union
Territory areas of
Delhi, Daman, Diu, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Andaman
and Nicobar and Lakshadweep. The members of the
delegation further explained to the minister that they
were performing their duties in arduous and difficult
situations, but feeling disillusioned because of delay in
their career progression. g
www.indianbuzz.com
Meet Gaurav Dwivedi
rime Minister Narendra Modi had his first Obamastyle Townhall when he answered questions ranging
from tourism, smart cities and foreign policy to selfstyled cow protectionism. The event, organised by
MyGova platform created to build partnership
between citizens and the governmentwas televised
live, and was highly appreciated across the board. But
who was the man behind the? The MyGov Townhall
event was brilliantly executed by none other than IAS
officer, Gaurav Dwivedi who is CEO of My Gov. The
Townhall meeting as a concept is quite common in
western countries where heads of states or CEOs take
questions directly from an audience and interact with
common people with no interface in-between. But it
hall ever addressed by
was the first Townhall
an Indian Prime Minister. Hailing from
year-old Dwivedi did
Uttar Pradesh, 43-year-old
his schooling from Apeejay School
Noida and college from Hindu College,
Delhi. He is an M.Sc
Sc in anthropology
from Delhi University.
sity. Later, he did a
course on project appraisal and risk
management from Duke Center
for International Development
(DCID), Duke University,
versity,
USA. Dwivedi started
ted his
career in IAS as an
n
assistant collector
in Kerala before
moving to
Chhattisgarh. Among other postings, he worked as
Managing Director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing
Mandi Board and later as Joint Chief Electoral Officer
in the state. Between 2009 and 2012, Dwivedi worked
as Deputy Director in the Lal Bahadur Shastri National
Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) located in
Mussoorie. After that, he moved to New Delhi and
joined as a Deputy Director in the Department of
Information and Technology under the Ministry of
Communications. Since September 2014, Dwivedi has
been serving as the CEO of MyGov. g


61
...by the way
Watching eyes
Smritis Rs 8 lakh Ganesha
hen the Textile Minister has issues with a

secretary in her ministry, the latter thinks it
wise to leave the place for better opportunities.
Sources close to the ministry say that one day the
minister went to Cottage Industries, which comes
under the aegis of the ministry, and bought saris
worth several thousand. She also liked an idol of
Ganesha, which according to sources cost Rs 8
lakh. It is said that the ministers personal staff sent
the bills for payment to her secretary. They also say
that Ms Secretary didnt like this and retorted that
there was no way the bill could be passed. To this,
Ms Minister replied saying the textile minister has
full right to wear good clothes. Things got so heated
between the two that it is said that the Secretary
complained about this to the Cabinet Secretary. We
are waiting for action. g
62

hat should a PS to Chief Minister accomplish,

when he is being hounded by the CMs acolytes
and party appointed government officials. Its a tricky
situation for an officer who is working on the most
coveted post of the state. There is, indeed, a PS to CM
who is smart, intelligent, vibrant but most of the time
upset and worried, though he has the confidence of
the CM but the party cadre and parent organisation of
the party workers keep hounding him. The PS to CM
needs privacy as his work is very delicate and he has
to clear hundreds of files in a day. The PS is the Man
Friday of any state chief minister and is mostly an
IAS officer barring some exceptions. His words and
ed to
orders are considered
be the orders of the
chief minister. In
fact, after the
Chief Ministers
room or home,
the maximum
number of
visitors can be
seen outside the
office of the PS to CM.
M.
The said PS to CM of a
north Indian state iss grappling with many
problems as the Chief Minister is new to the
administrative setup. The political appointees in the
Chief Ministers Secretariat are novices but they are
politically shrewd. The CM desires to control the state
with the help of the political appointees. To facilitate
this, the CM has got allocated a house adjacent to his
official residence and made arrangements for all
politically appointed officials to operate from the said
house. So the poor PS to CM has to tolerate political
appointees in his office room most of the time. The
Chief Minister seems to be forgetting that the system
works on the trust and if the PS does not have the
trust of the CM, the message goes down the line
diluting the authority of the government. g
www.gfilesindia.com

10
th
POLITICS
SON RISE IN
CONGRESS p34
years
years
GOVERNANCE
FERTILISERS: WRONG
MEDICINE p26
February 20
201
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INTERVIEW
AIR CHIEF
NAK BROWNE
p22
gfilesindia.com
IISRAEL
IINDIA
Thanks
BJ PO
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JN ER S
p3 AT T
8
H O
PETITION
P
ETITION IN PUBLIC INTEREST
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EREST SUBMITTED
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THE
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REGARD
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AND
AN
ND ROBBER
COURT
THE
GREAT
ROBBERY IN HARYANA.
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HOODA ALONG WITH HIS CRONIES
S PLUNDERED
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HAR
HOW
IN HIS
YEARS
9Y
YE
EARS OF RULE. p10
Kunal Bhadoo
Hoodas son-in-law
Kabul Chawla
KP Singh
Owner, BPTP
Owner, DLF
JAPAN
ABEPLOMACY
JEFF KINGSTON
p76
gfilesindia.com
Haryanas
De facto
Chief
Ministers?
A
p6 M
8
Venod Sharma
Congress MLA, Ambala
February 10, 2014 `

Febr
VOL. 7, ISSUE 11
Sameer Gehlaut
Arvind Walia
Anil Bhalla
Owner, Indiabulls
Owner, Ramprastha
Owner, Vatika Builders
M
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RA DE
CE VA
F O SA
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PM Y
Year
Begins
BHAI
B
BHAI?
B
63
Regn.No.DL(C)-14/1161/2016-2018 Licence No. U(C)-03/2016-17,

Licence to post without prepayment Posted on 7th & 8th of every month at SPM SRT Nagar,
Post Office, New Delhi 110055 R.N.I. No: DELENG/2007/19719.
`200, vol. 10, issue 6 | Date of Publication: 5/9/2016 | Pages 64
64

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Prabhat Kumar putting retired civil servants on trial p8

MG DevasahAyam politicians bid to cash in on olympic laurels p22

Delhi HC heard PIL arguments; judgement reserved

Aircel, Maxis, Airtel, R-Com Deal

While the CBI &

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