To CDC or Not to CDC is the Question
When it comes to filling key, sensitive appointments in GoI, Prime Minister Narendra Modi moves faster than a Sukhoi SU30. India’s master of surprises revels in last minute revelations and revaluations, posting his decisive decisions at the stroke of the midnight hour on relevant government websites. For the past eight months since General Bipin Rawat, India’s first ever Chief of Defence Staff, died in a chopper crash, our silo-sensitive security satraps, defence strategists, and men in uniform, both retired and serving, have been going cursor-crazy, surfing the Department of Personnel portal to find the name of his successor.
A little bird tells us that they have become a dejected and frustrated lot. Some saw themselves as prospective pashas. Some others have some vested interests. Or both.
Gen. Rawat, Modi’s trusted soldier and former village playmate of NSA Ajit Doval, became CDS the day after he retired as Army chief. He was a four star general. He was also the first Secretary, Military Affairs. He was handling procurement and overseeing convergence in the functioning of the Armed Forces.
In view of the growing border threats and the fast changing global security environment, defence watchers were expecting Modi to fill Rawat’s empty post, post haste.
Last month, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced that the process to appoint the next CDC has started. This is after the government amended the service rule and qualified even three star generals for the CDC’s job.
According to the new rules, “any serving or retired lieutenant general, air marshal and vice-admiral under the age of 62 years will be eligible for appointment to the post of Chief of Defence Staff”. Security savvy savants are baffled over the dialling down of the criteria since the CDC’s mandate is to handle all the three Service chiefs who are normally of four star rank.
Which begs the question: can a three star CDC preside over a meeting in which his seniors would just be passive participants? Or has the government reviewed the role? Rawat’s posturing and public patter had ruffled the Army establishment. He kept breaking the sacred vow of soldiers staying schtum on political affairs but also announced future policy decisions on theaterisation and the command and control system.
Scuttlebutt says senior ministers, bureaucrats and defence policy wonks have been pointing warning fingers at the resentment Rawat created by expanding his role beyond his mandate. They suggest that the new CDC must have only the limited role of inter-Services coordination so that the three chiefs have full autonomy.
Previously, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar’s name was floated for CDS, but he is yet to retire.
Other names doing the parade rounds are Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria and retired Army chief General MM Naravane. Rawat was a tough act to follow, having passed Modi’s triple test of loyalty, acceptability and professional eligibility. The search is on for such a man.
Ironically, they are searching for another Rawat. Gen Rawat is dead! Long live Gen Rawat!
Absence of Vigilance is the Price of Procrastination
A government full of itself cares little about empty slots. Talent famine stalks the sarkar as vacancies stay unfilled for months and years. For the past couple of years, GoI has gone for large scale extensions of trusted and tested bureaucrats. But filling sensitive vacancies in key bodies such as the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Law Commission is on hold because no properly qualified desirables are lurking behind the door of the corridors of power. And the fear of the opposition blocking its chosen ones in the Selection Committee is haunting the government as well.
According to its portal, the three member Commission has been functioning with just one acting head for more than a year now. Senior officers, including chiefs and directors of PSUs, cannot claim their chairs without the CVC’s green light. The Commission is expected to have one member each from the IAS, IPS and the banking sector. The current body is headed by Suresh Patel, a banker. He retires this December. Early last year, the government had invited applications for the post; the circular also asked candidates to write a 300 word essay about why they should be considered eligible. The last date for sending in resumes was June 7, 2021. Pronto, over a dozen retired IAS and IPS officers threw their hats in the ring.
The Modi government being liberal with extensions, some retiring babus from UP, MP, TN and Karnataka are haunting the offices of Sangh Parivar outfits. But even 13 months later, no Selection Committee has been convened. As per procedure, “The Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Vigilance Commissioners shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of a Committee consisting of the Prime Minister (Chairperson), the Minister of Home Affairs (Member) and the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People (Member).”
In a highly confrontationist political environment, the possibility of holding a meeting to select the new CVC and Vigilance Commissioners is very remote. The Opposition is in no mood to relent. In that, India may be left with CVC without any member after December. Eternal vigilance is the price of procrastination; files awaiting clearance have piled up higher than hope, and all new appointments are made subject to clearance later.
Extended Extensions for Overachievers?
Lutyen’s Delhi and the Khan Market Mafia are reading the tea leaves about the fate that awaits current Enforcement Director S. K. Mishra and Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana. Both are expected to retire soon. While Asthana’s last day at work is July 31, Mishra hangs up his boots in November.
Both overachievers, who enjoy the confidence of both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, were given extensions by amending the service and cadre rules.
Super cop Asthana, a Gujarat cadre IPS officer, was even allowed to change his cadre. The BJP’s Delhi comeback has been hobbled for two decades by a faceless, quarrelsome and tainted local leadership. Modi and Shah believe that the party will get its moxie back once the Centre serves up a better law and order environment and Swachch Delhi.
VK Saxena was appointed Delhi’s Lt. Governor in May to burnish the credentials of DDA, MCD and NDMC. He hit the ground running, giving AAP a run for its money. The BJP, which has been ruling MCD for almost 35 years, was expected to lose if elections were held soon.
Team Saxena-Asthana is the most powerful weapon in Modi’s quiver to make Arvind Kejriwal quiver, dent his aura and instil confidence in BJP’s despondent state cadres. Should Asthana get an extension, it will be a record for a superannuated outsider holding the Police Commissioner’s post for the longest ever term in the state’s history.
Prabhu Chawla
(prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com)
Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawla