From tweaking All India Service (AIS) rules and bringing an ordinance to fighting a legal battle in the Supreme Court, the Narendra Modi government has done all to keep three civil service officers — two IAS and an IRS — at the top positions.
Apart from these three, two civil service officers — an IPS and another IAS — are also in the government’s good books. Commonly called the two pillars of the government, one of them is responsible for the country’s national security and another heads and manages the highest office — PMO.
These five retired bureaucrats are often mentioned by their peers and in the bureaucratic circle as the PM’s ‘Panch Ratna’ (five precious stones) or Modi’s ‘Five Stars’. They seem ‘indispensable’ to the government, said a senior IAS officer.
These are Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor (NSA); PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to the PM; Rajiv Gauba, Cabinet Secretary; Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Union Home Secretary and ED Director Sanjay Mishra.
Even though the positions of the NSA and the principal secretary have traditionally been held by retired officers, depending on the government’s comfort and trust factors, the tenures for the cabinet secretary, home secretary and the ED director have been stretched to the longest-ever under the Modi government.
In the past governments, retired officers like Pulok Chatterjee and TKA Nair held the positions of principal secretary to the PM, while the NSA post was also held by retired IFS and IPS officers, including Shivshankar Menon and MK Narayanan — although their stint did not cross five years. Doval, however, was appointed as the NSA in 2014, got an extension for next five years in 2019 and was elevated to cabinet rank.
Mishra was appointed as the director of the ED in 2018, while Gauba and Bhalla were appointed as the cabinet secretary and home secretary in 2019. The cabinet secretary, according to the AIS rules, gets a two-year tenure, and after the end of the term, he may get two extensions, stretching the tenure of the cabinet secretary to four years, say AIS rules. However, the government amended the rules this year to give a year’s extension to Gauba, making his tenure the longest-ever in the position.
The indispensables: Gauba, Bhalla
The government does not want to disturb the equilibrium before the upcoming general elections, said a senior IAS officer in the know about issues related to extensions and appointments.
“Transfer or fresh appointment in important positions will unsettle the administrative structure. It will have a domino effect on other important positions too as other officers would then need to be pulled out of their respective ministries or departments. The government does not want that situation to emerge before such a crucial election,” said the officer.
Gauba, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, and Bhalla, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, are known to be trusted by the prime minister.
Bhalla came to Delhi on central deputation in 2010 and since then, he has been serving at the Centre. He joined the central government as the Joint Secretary of mines, minerals and coal between 2010 and 2015, and moved to the commerce ministry in 2015 as Additional Secretary. He served as Secretary, energy and power between 2017 and 2019. In 2019, he was appointed as the Union Home Secretary.
Gauba’s stint on central deputation re-started in 2016 as the Secretary to the urban development ministry, following a brief break when he held the position of Jharkhand’s Chief Secretary between 2015 and 2016, says his executive record sheet. Before returning to his cadre in 2015, Gauba served as the Additional Secretary, Union home ministry. In 2017, he was appointed as the union home secretary and in 2019, he became cabinet secretary.
Both Gauba and Bhalla have served in positions that are seen to be crucial for any government, said a retired IAS officer. Before Gauba, the UPA government amended the AIS rules and gave a year’s extension to KM Chandrasekhar. He served a four-year-long stint as the cabinet secretary between 2007 and 2011. His term was extended as the country was hosting the Commonwealth Games then.
“The AIS rules can be amended depending on the circumstances and requirements, but it has to be approved by the cabinet,” said Chandrasekhar.
The asset: Mishra
In the second week of July, the Supreme Court cancelled ED Director Sanjay Mishra’s extension and directed the government to appoint a new director from August 1. Hours after the Supreme Court verdict, Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted: “Those rejoicing over the Hon’ble SC decision on the ED case are delusional for various reasons.” This was a reaction to the celebration by some leaders from the opposition bloc.
“Powers of the ED to strike at those who are corrupt and on the wrong side of the law remain the same. ED is an institution which rises beyond any one individual and is focused on achieving its core objective – i.e. to investigate offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws,” Shah said.
He added: “Thus, who the ED director is – that is not important because whoever assumes this role will take note of the rampant corruption of a cozy club of entitled dynasts who have an anti-development mindset.”
The home minister’s tweet was self-explanatory. It was one of those rare occasions when the government publicly defended both the position and the bureaucrat. The tweet also explained how important an asset the senior IRS officer was to the government. The tweet was also a hint of the government’s decision to fight a legal battle for Mishra and defend his tenure. The move worked and the Supreme Court extended his term by two months from July.
Mishra, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, is in his fifth year as the ED director, the maximum on a post for any bureaucrat. He got a third extension last year. He is called ‘Modi’s man’ and the ‘fighter’, who remained relentlessly diligent in his effort to expose scams by senior politicians.
During his stint as the director of the ED, at least 17 senior politicians — including ex-finance and home minister P Chidambaram, deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia, ex-chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah, Tamil Nadu’s influential minister Senthil Balaji, Bengal’s senior minister Partha Chatterjee, and over a dozen IAS officers have gone behind bars. According to his colleagues, Mishra knows the minute details of every case, goes through all case documents personally and works non-stop.
The Reservations
The decision of the government retaining the officers also earned some criticism from the political and bureaucratic circle as they say that extending tenures year after year for a retired officer minimises the chances of other senior bureaucrats reaching those positions.
A senior IAS officer said, “This way, there would be just one cabinet secretary across at least seven to eight batches and one home secretary across five batches. This is unfair. But the government can amend any rule.”
The SC in July cancelled Mishra’s extension calling it ‘invalid and illegal’. However, just four days before his scheduled deadline for his term, the government moved a petition before the court, citing the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) review.
“Are you not giving a picture here that your entire department is full of incompetent people except for this one person… Is it not demoralising for the entire force that except for this one person, the entire department will collapse,” Justice Gavai asked, before extending Mishra’s tenure in ‘public interest’.
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