Howdy's Trump Card : "Abki baar Trump Sarkar"

GOVERNANCE Does the IAS deserve to be discredited p20

STATE SCAN The slutty road to opulence in MP p26

October 2019 `200 vol. 13, issue 7

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From the Editor

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vol. 13, issue 7 | October 2019 Anil Tyagi | editor GS Sood | business editor Sheshadri Chari | roving editor Abhilash Khandekar | consulting editor Alam Srinivas | contributing editor Vivek Mukherji | contributing editor Anish Gandhi | consultant, foreign affairs Rakesh Bhardwaj | editorial consultant Sumit Bothra | Regional Head, Tamil Nadu Ramesh Sharma | bureau chief (north india) Mayank Awasthi | sub editor Nipun Jain | finance Gautam Das | legal consultant Bushchat Media | edit & design Madan Lal | webmaster Abhisshek Tyagi | director advertising & marketing Anil Sood | vice president, marketing +919811639632 PS Sural | vice president, marketing +919873243950 e-mail: asps@gfilesindia.com up: Rajeev Anand | regional head +91884 023 9980 +91 99363 58161 rajeevanandvol@gmail.com delhi: e-mail: adv@gfilesindia.com mumbai: 48/C-1, Areshwar, Mhada, S.V.P. Nagar, Andheri(W), Mumbai 400 053 Chandigarh: Jangra Complex, Opp Hotel Ramade Plaza, Ambala Chandigarh Road, Zirakpur-140107, Punjab Mobile +917888591003 e-mail: rameshsharmaemail@gmail.com Anil Tyagi, Printer & Publisher 118, 2nd floor, dda site 1, new rajinder nagar, new delhi – 110 060 +All information in gfiles is obtained from sources that the management considers reliable, and is disseminated to readers without any responsibility on our part. Any opinions or views on any contemporary or past topics, issues or developments expressed by third parties, whether in abstract or in interviews, are not necessarily shared by us. Copyright exclusively with Sarvashrestha Media Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction of any material of this magazine in whole, or in part(s), in any manner, without prior permission, is totally prohibited. The publisher accepts no responsibility for any material lost or damaged in transit. The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw or otherwise deal with any advertisement without explanation. All advertisements must comply with the Indian Advertisements Code. Published and printed by Anil Tyagi on behalf of Sarvashrestha Media Pvt. Ltd at Polykam Offset, C-138, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi 110028. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts in New Delhi only

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ilm actor Raj Kapoor is considered by many to be the biggest showman of the film industry. Now Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being hailed as the greatest showman of Indian politics. The Howdy Modi show in USA with the slogan ‘Shared Dreams, Bright Futures’ organised by the Texas India Forum, was definitely spectacular. No doubt, it has augmented the image, aura, and impact of Modi across the world not only among Indians but among US citizens also. Why is Modi emphasising on foreign relations so much? His critics say he has been building up ‘Brand Modi’ abroad. The Prime Minister is clear that with the support of the three million Indian diaspora, he can market himself much better. Strengthening these relations is a big component of his foreign policy. Modi obviously feels that the power of the diaspora should be harnessed for the growth of India and his own image. He has a mission of making India a $5-trillion economy by 2024, but this high-pitched target is tricky only through internal resources. Modi is clear that unless there is a foreign capital inflow, it will be an uphill task to accelerate India’s growth. He has been aggressively focusing on USA, Russia, Germany, France, China, Brazil, South Africa and the UK. gfiles’ cover story ‘Howdy’s Trump Card’ by our analyst Seema Guha is an endeavour to understand Modi’s foreign policy marathon. ‘Howdy Modi’ was a winwin situation for Modi and US President Donald Trump. Modi forcefully conveyed to the US administration that he has a strong ally in the US President along with an influential Indian diaspora. On his part, Donald Trump is looking for all kind of support to win the US presidential election next year. The well-off Indian community is his target and he tried to woo them by participating in the ‘Howdy Modi’ event. Modi baffled India when at the event he gave a clarion call to the diaspora “ab ki baar Trump sarkar’. World leaders have noted Modi’s vociferous support for Trump. Will this affinity with the US President transform Indian economy or not, it is to be seen.

Modi started his fourth visit to the US with a roundtable with 17 CEOs of energy companies that are together worth $1 trillion. India is Houston’s fourth-largest trading partner; trade between Houston and India averaged $4.8 billion annually and was at $7.2 billion in 2018. But there is no officiaal announcement of investment for India as an outcome of this meeting. Even Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale did not share details on why a trade package could not be concluded. The prospects of an agreement apparently unravelled due to the failure to reach an agreement on information and communications technology (ICT) products. The US wanted India to eliminate tariffs (20%) on ICT products, but India is concerned that this could open up the market to flooding by Chinese technology. The US wanted greater access to Indian markets for medical devices, such as stents and knee implants, ICT and dairy products and sought the removal of price caps in these areas. Whereas India wanted the reinstatement of preferential market access to US markets under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme, which was revoked in early June. It had also wanted facilitation of processes in agricultural product markets where it already had access (such as easier certification of food product facilities) and access in some agricultural markets (table grapes, pomegranates, for instance). Gokhale said the two sides had “narrowed their areas of difference”, and made “significant progress”. Similarly, ‘Mamallapuram-Chennai connect’ informal meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping was good for cooperation and dialogue, and so far nothing concrete has emerged. Seema Guha writes, “India has long been pushing China for opening up the market for Indian pharma and other products. Promises were made also in Wuhan, yet on the ground little has changed.”

It’s indeed a tough time. Kudos to Modi, as irrespective of the odds, the show goes on. That is the spirit of a great showman.

Anil Tyagi

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CONTENTS Cover Story

Much ado about nothing 08 bric-a-brac BPCL under the hammer; Himachal scrambles for money; Prabhu flying high bIRTHDAYs of civil servants

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Tracking: Transfers & Postings

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BY THE WAY In one day, out the other; New power centres in PMO; Finally lateral entry officials join

personality The new logistics messiah

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governance 61

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Should IAS be discredited?

book extract The Future of China-India Relations

state scan

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Honey trap scandal: MP power elite exposed

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MASTER MIND Adhir Chowdhury: A local phenomenon on a national stage

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Tweets

IAS Association @IASassociation Sep 27 Congratulations to Shri DK Jain IAS, Lokpal and Dr Ajay Kumar IAS, Secretary Defence for being amongst the Distinguished Alumnus Awardees of IIT Kanpur for 2019. Truly proud. #rolemodels IAS Association @IASassociation Sep 25 Ram Singh IAS Deputy Commr West Garo Hills, walks 10 kilometers every week to buy organic vegetables from local markets.

His initiative to avoid plastics, reduce vehicular pollution and walk towards fitness has inspired many, including other officers.

IAS Association Retweeted President of India @rashtrapatibhvn Sep 23 President Kovind meets IAS officers of the 2017 batch at Rashtrapati Bhavan; says the gap between government and people must go. Calls for enhancing use of technology to foster good governance.

IAS Association @IASassociation Sep 19 Stuff IAS officers do. Kudos to Surendra Singh IAS DM Varanasi for being calm and brave even at the risk of great personal risk while directly undertaking relief operations in flood affected areas.

IAS Association @IASassociation Sep 13 End of an Era Shri B N Yugandhar is no more.

Officers across batches have fond memories of being mentored and guided by him.

It’s a big loss for the nation and society Let’s pay our homage by continuing to be guided by his values and principles.

Deepest Condolences to his family.

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IAS Association Retweeted VicePresidentOfIndia @VPSecretariat Sep 12 Transparency and accountability must become your guiding principles at all times. They are essential elements to provide an efficient, high quality and time-bound public services. #IAS IAS Association Retweeted VicePresidentOfIndia @VPSecretariat Sep 12 I would like all of you to keep in mind four salient aspects that you should adopt as guiding principles: ‘empathy’, efficiency’, ‘impartiality’ and ‘incorruptibility’. This will enable each one of you to emerge as an effective, responsive administrator. #IAS IAS Association Retweeted VicePresidentOfIndia @VPSecretariat Sep 12 Transparency, accountability and people’s participation is important for the overall development.

Administration has to be in people’s language.

Satisfaction of people as well as satisfaction of yourself is important on what you are doing. #IAS IAS Association Retweeted VicePresidentOfIndia @VPSecretariat Sep 12 I am sure that you must have gained valuable knowledge during the “Bharat Darshan” tour when you interacted with NGOs, Urban Local Bodies, Academic Institutions, and District Administrations.

My best wishes for your future endeavours! #IAS

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Bric-a-brac ins & outs

BPCL under the hammer Reliance-Aramco deal in the offing?

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ll decks are cleared for the disinvestment of BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd). We hear the decision is going to be a somersault on the part of the Government of India, and may give final shape to the privatisation structure of the oil industry in India. All reforms in oil sector will have to answer one pertinent question: will it unburden the oil import bill or not? If not, then all amalgamation, reforms, alliance and disinvestment may prove to be just just window dressing. The Modi government had quietly repealed the legislation that had nationalised BPCL, doing away with the need to seek Parliament’s nod before selling it off to private and foreign firms. The Modi government is believed to be considering selling most of its 53.3 per cent stake in BPCL to a strategic partner. It’s estimated that disinvestment of BPCL may fetch around `60,000 crore which would also help the government meet its Rs 1.05 lakh crore disinvestment target. Sources disclosed that Reliance Industries Ltd, BP plc of UK, Kuwait Petroleum, Petronas of Malaysia, the Shell-Saudi Aramco combine and Essar Oil have expressed their interest in acquiring that stake in BPCL. Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, have, meanwhile, allegedly come to an agreement for Aramco to take a 20 per cent stake in the Indian company’s oil refining unit, a

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business valued at $75 billion including debt, in February 2019.

Fearing the consequences of BPCL disinvestment, oil sector leaders met Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at his office.

Gadkari listened to the trade union leaders and chairmen of different oil sector firms, but told them straight that he can’t bail them out as Modi is directly dealing with the issue. The buzz is that Prince Mohammed is strategically moving to improve Aramco’s worth to more than $100 billion. Aramco is planning to list 5 per cent of its shares at a $2 trillion valuation; the IPO could raise as much as $100 billion, four times the largest IPO to date. But before it moves internationally, it appears the Prince is determined to show the world that Aramco is not only a producer of oil but it has direct selling capacity. Of course, India is a hot market for him and Reliance’s Mukesh Bhai is the obvious choice, since he is known to be close to all the ruling dispensation in India. Once the disinvestment of BPCL takes shape, one can possibly imagine the might of Aramco-Reliance network in India (if the bid is won by Reliance) as BPCL operates four refineries at Mumbai, Kochi in Kerala, Bina in Madhya Pradesh and Numaligarh in Assam with a combined capacity to convert 38.3 million tonnes of crude oil into fuel. It has 15,078 petrol pumps and 6,004 LPG distributors. India has a total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes and 65,554 petrol pumps and 24,026 LPG distributors. You can do the math! g

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Himachal scrambles for money CM Thakur plans investor meet

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hat happens when a state has less income and more expenditure? Obviously, the state is in a perpetual financial crisis. Such is the case of Himachal Pradesh. The tiny state led by BJP nominated Chief Minister and Finance Minister Jai Ram Thakur is in deep financial crisis. The state has two main sources of revenue: GST (41% of revenue) and State Excise (21%).

Finance experts don’t know how to generate more revenue.

The total expenditure of the state is `44,388 crore whereas revenue is `35,024 crore. So, net deficit is `9,364 crore. There are no jobs available and Himachal Pradesh is ranked 6th among all states in unemployment.

On top of all this, it is learnt that Hindu propagandists who are influenced by Arya Samaj are thinking to make Himachal a dry state. If Himachal Pradesh is declared as a dry state (liquor free state) like Gujarat as they have done ‘smoke free’ Shimla, then the whole state which survives on tourism will be in deep trouble. The source within the BJP leadership informs that it will be a big blow on Jairam Thakur’s government and no one would dare to take such a drastic step in a hilly and cold state. When one moves around on the famous Mall Road, one can feel the impact

of recession after talking to shopkeepers, as their sales are down by a whopping 30 per cent. Still, the government is the major employer. It has a massive human resource load which is beyond the capacity of the state. Each month, government officials ask whether they are getting the salary on time. It is not gfiles analysis: even the budget office of the Himachal government itself admits that committed liabilities of a state typically include expenditure on payment of salaries, pensions, and interest payments.

A larger proportion of the state budget is allocated for committed expenditure thus crowding out other developmental expenditure. In 2018-19, Himachal Pradesh spent `21,668 crore on committed liabilities (49.67 per cent of revised estimates). States, on average, spend 39 per cent of their budget on committed liabilities.

In 2019-20, the committed liabilities of the state are `23,837 crore. This is a 10 per cent increase from the revised estimate of 2018-19. Jairam Thakur is struggling to generate resources. He has put up an investment target of `85,000 crore across different sectors and the State Government plans to hold a Global Investors Meet at Dharamshala in November. Wait and watch.

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Prabhu flying high Following Modi’s bidding

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hen Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to drop Suresh Prabhu, technocrat-turned politicians, in his first cabinet, politicians cited many reasons. Lack of mass connect is one of the oft-cited reasons for Prabhu’s exit. Prabhu led the Railway Ministry for three years and the Commerce Ministry for two years. The chartered accountant-turned politician has held several portfolios in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, too, as a representative of the Shiv Sena. Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he joined the BJP and became the Railways Minister in 2014. Prabhu even offered his resignation owing moral responsibility for a couple of rail accidents during his tenure. He was shifted to Commerce and Civil Aviation in 2017. The buzz

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within the BJP is that Prabhu should have tried to ensure more dividends to the BJP because Railways is the Ministry that connects the country. Prabhu was more like a CEO of the Ministry than a politician who also carried along the interests of his political party. Insiders tell a different story about his exit. It is learnt that Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray clearly told the BJP leadership that Prabhu should not be included in the cabinet. One can recall, Prabhu was earlier also removed at the instance of Bal Thackeray when he was Power Minister in the Vajpayee government. Regardless, Modi recognises his talent and knows what Prabhu can do for him. So, Modi has put Suresh Prabhu on Track 2 diplomatic missions and Prabhu is busy travelling abroad most of the time. g

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COVER STORY foreign policy

Much ado about

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In a new world order, dominated by a multi-polar world, India needs to establish herself strongly along with the US, Russia, Eurozone, China, and Japan. Modi’s personalised diplomacy is a huge attempt to achieve this objective. His endeavour is to leverage India’s status as an economic power to achieve political and diplomatic clout. Naturally, the spectacular extravaganza at Houston has been hailed by many as a shining feather in Narendra Modi’s cap. But as the show was watched by millions, Modi’s blatant endorsement of Trump’s candidature – Ab ki baar Trump sarkar – left diplomats and bureaucrats baffled. Diplomacy has always been a behind the scenes activity – nuanced and sensitive – and not a roll of the drums. As Prime Minister of India, Modi represents over a billion Indians and yes, he was voted back to power with a resounding majority to lead India. No, he was probably not given the mandate to support Trump. Now, diplomats and analysts the world over are keeping a close watch on his fast-paced diplomatic marathon. Implicitly, the question that begs an answer is whether India has a stake in Trump’s re-election. Can any country have a stake in another’s politics? Let us recall the noise over Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 American elections.

So what if Modi was on a stage and loud and clear – the implied effect is the same. After all the Indian diaspora in the US is over 3 million and represent a sizeable vote bank.

This at a time when Trump is fighting to extricate himself from possible impeachment, not to mention the various alleged scandals that have clouded his four-year-term.

Modi’s hurrah for Trump is sure to have a cascading effect and whether it is positive or negative in nature only time will tell. Seema Guha explores Modi’s diplomatic forays and analyses whether India has gained any leverage so far.

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COVER STORY foreign policy

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arendra Modi’s style of diplomacy was again showcased in Houston. It is audacious to replicate a personalised political rally in foreign soil, and few world leaders have the gumption to try it. However, the Indian prime minister revels in, and has perfected, this distinctive and new kind of diplomacy. Not that the entire credit should go to him. Some of the success was due to the work put in by the RSS since the Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s days to take the Hindutva message to the Indian diaspora in US and the UK. That the American-Indians could be used effectively by governments is well understood. Leading members of the Indian community had lobbied hard for the India-US civil nuclear agreement earlier.

More than 50,000 adoring NRIs packed a football stadium and feted the Indian Prime Minister. Chants of Modi, Modi, Modi rent the air, much like in a political rally in India. Saffron, the BJP colour, was evident everywhere, so was the Indian tri-colour and the US flag. The US President Donald Trump, who accepted Modi’s request to attend the event, was clearly dazzled by the spectacle. So was Britain’s David Cameron when Modi organised a similar do at the Wembeley Stadium in 2015 during his first visit as the PM to the UK. More than 18,000 BritishIndians greeted him like a rock star. His first attempt to do it in the US was in 2014, at the New York’s Madison Square Garden. While the Indian diaspora can be effectively used, it can sometimes boomerang.

The optics was great. Back home, the supporters were impressed and overjoyed. It will resonate with young India and the loyalists would take it as a proof that India had arrived in the

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Informal summit:

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he informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping spread over Friday and Saturday (October 11-12) was high on optics but low on substance. All the right noises were made by both leaders and the visuals of the two walking around Mamallapuram as well as the cultural show with the Shore temple in the background were spectacular. But beyond the easy camaraderie between Modi and Xi there was little to show for the six hours they spent together. As mentioned earlier personal relationships can deliver only up to a point.

Yes, Xi promised to once again look to narrowing the massive trade deficit between the two countries. India has long been pushing China for opening up the market for Indian pharma and other products. Promises were made also in Wuhan, yet on the ground little has changed. This time finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Chinese counterpart will be meeting at a future date to take a closer look at what can be done. Earlier talks were at the official level but perhaps ministerial talks at the direction of the PM and President would work better. That is for the future to prove.

Prime Minister Modi, extremely good at selling ideas is now talking about the Chennai Connect as follow up to the Wuhan Spirit.

It is now clear that informal summits between the two Asian leaders will now be a regular feature. The next one is expected to be held in China. These meetings, where the leaders spend quality time with each other, helps in clearing the air and is designed to dispel the distrust and misconceptions each country has about the

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Hi

:

High on optics other. That is good thing, no one can object to such meetings.

One positive that the MEA is putting out is that Kashmir was not raised. Though Kashmir is for the moment very much in focus and China has been forcefully backing Pakistan’s position, Xi did not raise it. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, briefing reporters after the summit said Kashmir did not come up as China knows it is an internal problem. Yet, days ahead of Xi’s visit to India, Prime Minister Imran Khan flew down to Beijing to brief China once again on the situation in Kashmir following the revocation of Article 370.

In the joint statement issued after the visit, China said that it was keeping a close watch on Kashmir and hoped that the issue should be resolved peacefully `` based on UN Charter, relevant UN Security Council and bilateral agreements.’’ This had needled India on the eve of talks. But India is not too concerned about China’s support for Pakistan. So long as it keeps it at the level of speaking up for its allay, New Delhi can take it. After all India has also irked China and made its position clear on going ahead with the ``Quad,’’ war games near the China border in Arunachal Pradesh and frequent statements on freedom of movement in the South China Sea with China in mind. The ``quad’’ signifies the defence co operation between India-US-Australia and Japan , the four democracies to ensure that the Indo-Pacific which includes the Indian Ocean, though which much of the world trade takes place allows for smooth movement. China regards this as containment. So both India and China know the score.

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world stage. It will play wonderfully in domestic elections for the ruling BJP. Modi was greeted back home like a conquering hero. And he himself added to the narrative that India’s prestige had risen since he took office. Although, unlike Trump, he cleverly did not take the entire credit but put it on the shoulders of the 1.3 billion people of India. “fter assuming office in 2014, I went to the UN. I went to the UN even now. In these five years, I have seen a big change. The respect for India, the enthusiasm towards India has increased significantly. This is due to the 130 crore Indians.’’ For a man who was not allowed to enter the US and several Western capitals after the 2002 Gujarat riots, being feted by Indian-Americans, with Trump in attendance, was indeed an experience.

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odi’s style of diplomacy— bear hugs with world leaders, touchy-feely approach, and personal equation with leaders such as Trump, France’s Emmanuel Macron, China’s Xi Jinping, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin—could be deemed to be a personal success, but is that where it ends? Yes, Modi can pick up the phone and talk to anyone of these leaders if necessary. But beyond that the world of diplomacy is much too complicated for personal equations to matter. It is now established that nations don’t have permanent friends, only permanent interests.

Modi broke diplomatic protocol in Houston by endorsing Trump for the 2020 presidential elections. Officials are now quibbling and pointing out it was not so. But that impression has gone out and Trump’s loyalists have seen it as an endorsement. This is a big no-no for the old school of diplomatic protocol. Possibly this was not on the

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COVER STORY foreign policy

Narendra Modi with Shinzo Abe

cards and Modi did it without taking advice from either the foreign minister or the battery of professional diplomats of the ministry. Considering that chances of Trump being impeached are growing, he could well have kept out of this debate. But Trump, angling for the India-American voters who normally back the Democrats, would have been mighty pleased.

The US trip has worked well for Modi personally, proving once more his popularity with the Indian diaspora. But beyond that what did this razzmatazz bring for the nation? Unless, of course, the CEOs he met at the Houston roundtable bring in the money and technology that India desperately needs to create jobs and get the economy back

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Modi’s style of diplomacy—bear hugs with world leaders, touchyfeely approach, and personal equation with leaders such as Trump, France’s Emmanuel Macron, China’s Xi Jinping, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin—could be deemed to be a personal success, but is that where it ends?

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Modi hugging Vladimir Putin

in shape. A trade deal that was expected, with Piyush Goel flying in to join the PM’s delegation, did not materialise.

It is unfair to quibble about it as trade negotiations are tough and Indians are known to be as hard-nosed negotiators as the Americans. The deal will happen for sure, but sometime in the future.

Modi’s confidence is soaring. The huge 300-plus mandate in the May 2019 elections despite indications to the contrary has bolstered his self belief. What wove wonderfully into the BJP’s narrative of strong leadership and hyper nationalism was the tough stand against Pakistan. The February 14, 2019, Pulwama attack and the Balakot air strike played up Modi’s image as a decisive leader, capable of not just keep-

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ing India safe but of teaching Pakistan a lesson. The days following Balakot and the dog fight the next day raised nationalistic sentiments to a new level.

This certainly helped the BJP. But there is a danger: Modi cannot allow such machismo to become overly-adventurous in dealing with the neighbour.

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cholars have tried to analyse Modi’s diplomacy during his first term in terms of Hindutva ideology. They have not, surprisingly, found any connections. In 2014, many expected Modi to inculcate a hardline agenda in foreign policy. He didn’t.

This was despite the fact that before the 2014 national election, Modi said that “my Hindutva face will be an asset when

dealing with foreign affairs with other nations”. According to Arndt Michael of the University of Freiburg (Germany), for many this statement indicated “a strict ideological, assertive foreign policy posture that put India first in all her future engagements”.

However he concluded, “Yet an analysis of five years… reveals changes in direction and scope, but no traits of strict adherence to a genuine Hindutva ideology or any ideology for that matter.” He added, “Indian foreign policy has not seen a complete or radical transformation in terms of becoming a new Hindutva-guided foreign policy.

Modi did try to connect foreign policy with Indian values by stressing civilisational and religious ties with South and

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COVER STORY foreign policy

Modi’s team Howdy

Southeast Asia, and by focusing on yoga and especially the Indian diaspora. Still, there was, in fact, continuity in Indian relationships with great powers and her extended neighbourhood.”

The first five years of Modi’s diplomacy marked an attempt to establish him firmly and strongly in the new world order. In a multi-polar world, where the US no longer has a hegemony and needs to talk as an equal with the Eurozone, China, Russia, and possibly Japan, India, supported by other emerging nations in Latin America and Africa, can play a crucial role in the near future. Modi realised that having a personal rapport with the leaders of these nations was important. For, in the future, the bonhomie could lead to key initiatives. Now that India is an intrinsic

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part of the new world order, it is time to act.

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ence, from the beginning, Modi 2.0 diplomacy was dramatically different. This time around, within months of winning the elections, the government delivered on its election promise to abrogate the special status of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state. The August 5 decision was by and large welcomed by most Indians. As Modi himself pointed out at his Houston rally, the bill was passed without a hitch in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP does not have a majority. Kashmir was divided, with Ladakh as a separate Union Territory.

For the moment, the international community has accepted India’s argu-

ment that the change of the status is an internal issue. India has told the world that terrorism directed from Pakistan was to be blamed for the situation in Kashmir. Foreign minister S Jaishankar said at a Asia Society meeting, while in New York accompanying Modi, “I think, for Pakistan, it was a country which has really created an entire industry of terrorism to deal with the Kashmir issue. .. So there is today a reaction of anger, of frustration in many ways, because you have built an entire industry over a long period of time.” He added that the problem for Pakistan “is not a Kashmir issue but a bigger issue….

Pakistan has to accept that the model which they have built for themselves no longer works.” It was yet another hint of the emergence of a new world.

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The first five years of Modi’s diplomacy marked an attempt to establish him firmly and strongly in the new world order. In a multipolar world, where the US no longer has a hegemony and needs to talk as an equal with the Eurozone, China, Russia, and possibly Japan, India, supported by other emerging nations in Latin America and Africa, can play a crucial role in the near future

This will be the gist of India’s diplomatic thrust while explaining the prevailing tense situation in Kashmir. The other related point echoed by Indian diplomats was that terrorism and the old political system in Kashmir had held the state back, and the government’s recent actions would make it prosperous. And that Kashmir is India’s internal problem, and if Pakistan stopped meddling, the situation would get back to normal.

The rest of the world, besides Pakistan and China, accepted the abolition of Article 370. While the government carefully crafted its plans to revoke it, what it has in place for the future is not known. During Modi’s recent meeting with Trump in New York, the former is said to have asked

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for time to roll out a plan of action to get Kashmir back to normal. Though none of this came out in the public discourse, it slipped through when senior State Department official Alice Wells told reporters at the sidelines of the UN General Aseembly: “We look forward to the Indian government’s resumption of political engagement with local leaders and the scheduling of the promised elections at the earliest opportunity.”

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he added, “President Trump has a strong relationship with both Imran Khan (Pakistan’s leader) and Narendra Modi. The world would benefit from reduced tension and increased dialogue between the two. US is concerned about widespread detentions in Kashmir. We hope Indian gov-

ernment will resume engagement with Kashmir leaders.” She concluded, “PM Modi made a commitment that recent changes will improve lives of Kashmiri people. We look to him to uphold that promise.” The world has given India a long rope on Kashmir but the government needs to work towards normalising the situation. Beginning a dialogue with the people is the way ahead. Amid detention and restrictions, local council elections have been announced for October 24. It will be a huge setback if the people of Kashmir fail to support it and participate in them.

Demonising Pakistan is fine for the domestic audience but India has got into a trap by constantly harping on that. New Delhi’s efforts, spurred on by a pliant media, are resulting in placing

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India and Pakistan into the sub-continental box. Since the 1991 economic reforms, and the subsequent rise of India’s economic clout, successive governments in New Delhi have worked hard to de-hyphenate the country from Pakistan. Earlier, both countries were generally clubbed together by the rest of the world. But with countries wooing India for its huge market and Pakistan getting closely associated with terror, the international community’s tendency at twining the two changed.

India was seen by the world as a rising economic power even as Pakistan was ridden with huge problems.

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uddenly, Kashmir gave Pakistan the opportunity to change the narrative. The latter is no longer regarded as a pariah state by the US and, therefore, the rest of the Western world. That Trump needs Pakistan’s support for stabilising Afghanistan is a given. It was precisely for this that the US-Pakistan thaw began. Prime Minister Imran Khan has succeeded in building goodwill for his administration with the US. And during

his speech at the UN General Assembly, Khan spoke with passion about the plight of the people in the Valley. India may have dismissed the speech as a vitriolic hate one against Modi, but it resonated with many Americans, who were aware about the lockdown in the valley through media reports.

However, one needs to mention that the Kashmir abrogation has, in a single stroke, ejected Pakistan permanently out of the equation. Kashmir is an Indian state, as any other. For the rest of the world Article 370 is not important. Unless, of course, if the Labour Party replaces Boris Johnson in the UK. Jeremy Colby went a step ahead of the US Democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders on the Kashmir issue. Colby is not just talking of human rights but Article 370 as well. The Labour Party conference in Brighton in September 2019 passed a resolution supporting intervention in Kashmir. The resolution “calls on the Labour Party, the government in waiting, to clearly and vocally support the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination and for international observers to be sent to the region

Demonising Pakistan is fine for the domestic audience but India has got into a trap by constantly harping on that. New Delhi’s efforts, spurred on by a pliant media, are resulting in placing India and Pakistan into the subcontinental box. Since the 1991 economic reforms, and the subsequent rise of India’s economic clout, successive governments in New Delhi have worked hard to de-hyphenate the country from Pakistan 16

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immediately. The resolution also calls for an intervention of the party at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).” It seems that some BritishIndians, who support the BJP, have threatened that the community would not vote for Labour, if the party insisted on restoration of Article 370. This is not a healthy sign.

So far, Modi has managed ties with China. The Wuhan informal summit succeeded in re-setting India-China ties post-Doklam. The developments in Kashmir introduced another point of friction. China has succeeded in getting the UN Security Council to take

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up Kashmir in closed door discussion at the start of the September session.

Much will depend on how the ModiXi Jinping summit goes off In October 2019. Xi will possibly not wish to rock the boat too much at a time when the US and China are in the middle of a trade war.

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he US-India relations are relatively on an upswing. At the same time, the India-US-JapanAustralia pact is being upgraded. At the sidelines of the UNGA, foreign ministers of the four Indo-Pacific quadrilateral held a meeting. China regards it as

an alliance to contain its growing military clout in the Asia-Pacific waters.

Earlier, New Delhi wanted to keep the meeting at the senior official level so as not to aggravate China. This time, however, India gave the nod for an upgrade to the ministerial meeting, in an obvious bid to check China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region.

India believes in freedom of navigation and a loose co operative defence arrangement in the Indo-Pacific (meaning the Pacific and Indian Oceans), with ASEAN nations forming the core to ensure smooth flow of trade in the

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Pacific waterways. Meanwhile, military exercises like Malabar, between US-India and Japan have been institutionalised since Modi’s first term in office. All this gives India and Modi a better handle to deal with China.

Modi’s major foreign policy success was in dealings with the Gulf sheikhdoms. He has assiduously courted both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as also Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. The Manmohan Singh’s governments began the outreach to Riyadh by inviting King Abdullah to be the chief guest on Republic Day. From his first term in office, Modi made it a point to visit the Gulf kingdoms. No other prime minister has worked so tirelessly to forge political and economic ties with the sheikhdoms. The fact that none of these Muslim countries have publicly supported Pakistan on Kashmir is a feather on the PM’s cap. This would have been impossible a few years ago.

Earlier, in any India-Pakistan stand offs, the Gulf countries spoke up on Kashmir and backed Pakistan. Modi’s personal diplomacy has changed that equation.

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uring a visit to India in February this year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said he expected investment opportunities worth more than a $100 billion in India over the next two years. And, on August 12, a week after India revoked Kashmir’s special status, Saudi state owned Aramco signed a $15 billion deal to buy 20 per cent stake in Reliance Industries. Modi was accorded the highest civilian award for his contribution to boosting ties with the UAE. Though the award was announced in April, Modi picked it up on August 24, during a short visit to the country. Relations with the Gulf Co operation countries are likely to be further enhanced.

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Back in 2014, Modi’s neighbourhood first policy was not new. South Asian countries have always been important, but enunciating it as he did with the catch phase of neighbourhood first, gave it a much needed zing. He tried it with Pakistan, but failed not because of his fault or Nawaz Sharif ’s, but because the Pakistan military had other ideas. In Nepal, Modi was a hot favourite until New Delhi decided to take up cudgels for the Indian-origin Madesis. The transport blockade that followed was a disaster. It made New Delhi unpopular.

Though India never acknowledged that it was behind the blockade and

blamed the truckers who refused to travel to Nepal because of the law and order problem, Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Oli squarely blamed India. For landlocked Nepal dependent heavily on India for basics including kerosene, petrol, cooking gas and medicine, India became an object of anger. Oli turned to China.

The elections in 2017 gave Oli and the Communist coalition a massive majority. India has tried to make amends but China is now entrenched in Nepal. New Delhi has not completely lost out, but suspicion remains. Luckily for India, the terrain on the Nepal-

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Will they be sent back to Bangladesh?

Dhaka has always maintained that it will not take in deportees, unless they can prove they are from Bangladesh.

Most of those affected are poor and illiterate, and without any documents to prove whether they are Indians or Bangladeshis.

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China side of the border is extremely harsh, and transporting goods from China doubles the costs. Modi made a personal visit to Nepal soon after Oli returned to power. Special prayers were held at the Pashupatinath Nepal. Ties with Nepal are now much improved, but China remains an important player.

In the Maldives and Sri Lanka too, China’s footprints are extensive.

Luckily, in the recent past, Beijing has lost its diplomatic clout for several reasons in both the countries. None of it was India’s doing but New Delhi heaved a sigh of relief when the ties with both went back on track. Significantly,

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Modi’s first foreign visit in his second term was to the Maldives and Sri Lanka, signalling his government’s determination to re-build ties with both the island nations.

Although the compilation and updating the National Register of Citizens is not a diplomatic issue, what happens to the 1.8 million people left out of the list in Assam does become one. The exact numbers left out after the final round of appeals is likely to be much less, considering that the BJP has already made it clear that no Hindus will be deported. But what happens to the Muslims declared foreigners?

angladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised this issue with Modi when they met on the sidelines of the UNGA. The latter is said to have reassured her that Bangladesh will not be affected. So, what will be the status of those declared foreigners?

Will they be kept in camps under guard, subject to constant harassment by locals, like the fate of the Rohingyas in Buddhist majority Myanmar? Will they become the nowhere people of Assam?

To conclude, one can say that Modi has concretised India’s relations with the world powers in a multi-polar world. At a personal level, he is close to Trump and Putin. India has re-ignited the ties with Moscow, especially when the country reeled under western sanctions over Ukraine. In the case of China, there is a two-step forward, one-step backward ties. However, as long as Moscow and Washington are on New Delhi’s side, Beijing will not attempt to do something drastic to spoil the relations.

Modi’s friendship with Sheikhs changes the balance of world power, since the latter still have consider oil power and oil money to wield. Within the neighbourhood, it seems a zerosum game. Pakistan has got a revival to emerge as an international player.

Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh are close and yet quite distant in some ways. The next four years will determine if this will indeed be the Asian century. g

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Should IAS be

discredited?

There is unspoken anguish and agony among those who came into the IAS as a mission and not mercenary service. Some of them are imploding and this could turn into explosion if not promptly addressed and remedied

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n his recent book, What Ails the IAS and Why It Fails to Deliver”, NC Saxena, former Secretary to the Government of India (GoI), former secretary, Planning Commission, and former member, National Advisory Council (NAC) has come down heavily on the Service. This is what he has to say: “Despite their integrity, hard work and competence, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, who occupy almost all senior administrative positions in the states and at the Centre, have not been able to improve development outcomes for citizens. India could not achieve many Millennium Development

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Goals, particularly in hunger, health, nutrition, gender, and sanitation. India’s social indicators are today worse than poorer countries such as Bangladesh.

Besides, growth has not helped the most marginalised groups such as tribals and women. Section 46(1) of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act still places women on a par with lunatics and idiots. Of all these groups, tribals have been the worst sufferers because of anti-tribal forest policies, displacement laws, and poor governance.

“IAS officers have not been able to ensure that teachers and doctors stay in their place of postings and provide quality services. Land records are outdated with

the result that two-thirds of all pending cases in the courts are related to property disputes, which take an average of 20 years to settle. The list of beneficiaries for State programmes has huge errors of inclusion and exclusion.

“IAS officers are not able to ensure regular monthly honorarium to contractual staff, such as para teachers, rozgar sahayaks, anganwadi workers, and cooks in mid-day meal programmes.

Secretaries in the states, who belong to the IAS, often collude with the junior staff, and don’t honestly report figures on hunger deaths, malnutrition and usage of toilets, leading to an erosion of accountability. Reforms initiated failed

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to make any impact because most IAS officers resist change, or are indifferent to the poor.”

Response for this castigation from Ex-IAS Officers has been sharp.

Topping them all is the comment from Saxena’a cadre-mate and former Union Education Secretary Sushil Tripathi: “Naresh Saxena has let everyone down.

He was Deputy Director for 3 years and later Director for 4 years at the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. He trained over 10 batches and perhaps could not present a role model to follow.” Sushil has a point.

Director of the Academy is considered as the ‘Guru’ by the IAS probationers trained by him/her. Pertinent questionhas Guru Saxena terribly failed his shishyas?

Be that as it may, resignations are happening in quick succession in the IAS. In January, 2019 it was Shah Faesal of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre who

Resigning from IAS with just eight years of service is rather drastic. All four officers are in their early thirties with over 25 years of service still left and the common refrain is a sense of distress and despair. These early and principled resignations should be looked at from two dimensions —within the service and without had topped the 2009 batch. Primary reasons for his resignation were the throttling of freedom and "unabated killings" in Kashmir. In March this year he launched his own political party, the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement. Soon after the lockdown of the Kashmir Valley following the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A and reducing J&K from a state into a Union Territory he was arrested and detained in Srinagar. He is still in confinement.

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n August 2019, Kannan Gopinathan from the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre (IAS-2012) resigned stating: “We got into the service thinking that we can provide voice to people, but then we ended up with our own voice being taken away from us.” He has been bemoaning the loss of freedom of expression with particular reference to Kashmir.

Then in early September came the resignation of Sasikanth Senthil (Karnataka IAS-2009) on the ground that it would be “unethical” on his part to continue in service “when the fundamental building blocks of our diverse democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented

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manner.” He went on to call the system fascist. As if to prove him right, Karnataka BJP launched a no-holdsbarred attack calling him anti-national and a party Member of Parliament dubbed him “paid Gaddar” asking him “to migrate to Pakistan.”

Soon thereafter, Kashish Mittal, another AGMUT cadre officer (IAS2011), quit because he was being posted in Arunachal Pradesh. This was the reason given on the surface. But underneath there appears to be something more than what meets the eye. In any case, resigning from IAS with just eight years of service is rather drastic. All four officers are in their early thirties with over 25 years of service still left and the common refrain is a sense of distress and despair.

These early and principled resignations should be looked at from two dimensions—within the service and without.To understand the first, we should go back to the framing of India’s Constitution and the ‘Idea of India’ propounded by the Founding Fathers for a free nation.

The ‘political idea’ was for India’s democracy to rise storey by storey from the foundation, consisting of self-governing, self-sufficient, agro-industrial,

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It is from this ‘Idea of India’ that the governance framework for the nation emerged with IAS as its bulwark.

Adhering to and advancing the ‘Idea of India’ is the raison d'être of the IAS, covenanted in the Constitution (Article 312), a rarity among nations. With such kind of prestige and protection, IAS was to be the bastion against "convulsive politics" and "self-seeking politicians" and its mandate was to "give a fair and just administration to the country and manage it on an even keel". This service was meant to “attract the best material available in the country transgressing political boundaries.”

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urbo-rural local communities—gram sabha, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad—that would form the base of Vidhan Sabhas and the Lok Sabha.

These politico-economic institutions will control and regulate the use of natural resources for the good of the community and the nation.

Built on this foundation, the ‘economic idea’ of development envisages independent India as sui generis,

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a society unlike any other, in a class of its own that would not follow the western pattern of mega industrialisation, urbanisation and individuation. India’s would be agro-based people’s economy that would chart out a distinct course in economic growth, which would be need-based, human-scale and balanced while conserving nature and livelihoods. Such a ‘development’ process would be democratic and decentralised.

ardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the architect of this civil service.

Responding to the grave crisis created by partition and post-British administrative vacuum, he wrote to Prime Minister Nehru in April 1948 advocating the formation of independent civil service in the functioning of which "political considerations, either in its recruitment or in its discipline and control, are reduced to the minimum."

There was strong opposition from the Chief Ministers of the states and many members of the Constituent Assembly.

In his speech to this Assembly in October 1949, the Sardar thundered: "The Indian Union will go. You will not have a united India if you do not have a good All India Service which has independence to speak out its advice...."

Sardar Patel had his way and IAS was established to be the bulwark of postindependence governance.

Seven decades later exactly the opposite of what the Founding Fathers envisaged seem to have happened. ‘Idea of India’ has collapsed. Democracy is in disarray and IAS officers are forced to implement a centralised, predatory, crony-capitalist, nature-killing, land-

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grabbing and money-guzzling ‘development model’.They are unable to speak up because of a cobweb of myths and mindsets that have crippled the independence and dynamism of the service.

First and foremost is the ‘bureaucratic gagging—‘a civil servant should only be seen, not heard’. Under this anachronistic arrangement, some of India’s best minds that constitute the IAS are being throttled and wasted as mere status quo time-servers. What is worse, by remaining silent and unable to speak up against arbitrary policies and autocratic rule the conscientious among the IAS are fast losing their values, principles and personality. This is unacceptable.

The notion of ‘subservience to political masters’ envisages a meek and ‘abdicating’ role for IAS officials and therefore self-defeating. IAS has a constitutional role to play in giving honest, fair and just governance to the people, particularly those the ruling politicians do not represent. In our skewed electoral system of ‘first-past-the-post’ ruling politicians hardly represent 25-30 per cent of the people. If the IAS officials strictly observe ‘political subservience’ and surrender to the rulers-of-the-day and do their biddings without demur ‘where will the majority flee?’

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oo much of protection can reduce a person to cowardice.

This is what is happening to IAS officials—they willingly become cowards since they do not have the courage even to face a transfer or some minor inconvenience for upholding principles of honest governance. Like a ‘coward who dies a thousand deaths’, they are compromising and acquiescing every time just to keep their posts and positions safe. This is pure hypocrisy.

The practice of ‘jack-of-all-trades’,

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Seven decades later exactly the opposite of what the Founding Fathers envisaged seem to have happened. ‘Idea of India’ has collapsed. Democracy is in disarray and IAS officers are forced to implement a centralised, predatory, crony-capitalist, nature-killing, land-grabbing and moneyguzzling ‘development model’ fitting round-pegs in square holes and square-pegs in round holes, is the villain of professionalism and probity in civil service. By perpetrating non-professionalism and non-performance in governance, this feudal practice enables politicians to play favourites and gives them the unbridled power to post anybody for any job, the main criteria being their meekness and pliability!

Dismantling these archaic hangovers to make IAS vibrant and effective was the challenge for any government.

Even from top positions as Secretary to GoI, Planning Commission and Member, NAC, Saxena does not seem to have done much to take up any of this challenge. In 2014, with a sound mandate for NDA-2, one expected the PMO under the new Prime Minister to

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assume leadership position, declare an administrative crisis, rally the legislature and executive and come out with a comprehensive reform/ reconfiguration blueprint so that IAS could again become the bulwark of people-centred governance which was badly lacking!

Within days of NDA-3 taking over, Department of Personnel & Training started preparing a proposal for inducting 400 ‘domain experts’ to fill Deputy Secretary/Director post in the Central Government. This is 60 per cent of the 650 posts at this level under the Central Staffing Scheme which are currently available mostly to IAS officers

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hat was not to be and in the last five years the reverse has happened and with extreme centralisation of authority IAS has lost even the little independence it had. And like many institutions and instruments of democratic governance, IAS has also been under severe assault. First came the steep reduction of the role of IAS at the decision-making level of Joint Secretaries in GoI and replacing them with personnel from other services that have no all-India character or exposure. Then came the proposal to trash the merit list for civil services recommended by the constitutionally mandated UPSC and instead allotting service as well as cadre based on the trainee’s performance at the Academy during the short Foundation Course. Soon thereafter, through ‘lateral-entry’, nine private sector personnel were inducted as Joint Secretaries to GoI. Within days of NDA-3 taking over, Department of Personnel & Training started preparing a proposal for inducting 400 ‘domain experts’ to fill Deputy Secretary/Director post in the Central Government. This is 60 per cent of the 650 posts at this level under the Central Staffing Scheme which are currently available mostly to IAS officers. This is virtual dismemberment and nothing but choking and

strangulation of the service within!

Outside the service and in the nation at large, what Civil Rights stalwart Rajni Kothari wrote about the Emergency period is playing out mutatis mutandis: “It was a state off-limits, a government that hijacked the whole edifice of the state, a ruling party and leader who in effect treated the state as their personal estate. It was the imposition of a highly concentrated apparatus of power on a fundamentally federal society and the turning over of this centralized apparatus for personal power... It was

one big swoop overtaking the whole country spreading a psychosis of fear and terror….”

Though political despots rule the roost, it is the IAS officers, especially the younger ones, who bear the brunt and are forced to carry the can. In the event, there is unspoken anguish and agony among those who came into the IAS as a mission and not mercenary service. Some of them are imploding and this could turn into explosion if not promptly addressed and remedied.

Under these circumstances should IAS be discredited or remedied? This is a question that begs to be answered. g Writer is a former Army and IAS Officer

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Hurrah! new look!

13

years

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sex circus madhya pradesh

Honey trap

scandal

MP power elite exposed Shocking disclosures of a middle-aged woman’s perverted ingenuity has brought to the fore the debauched underbelly of bureaucracy and politics of Madhya Pradesh. Rakesh Dixit reports

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hweta Vijay Jain (48) is at the centre of the sexand-blackmail racket that was busted in Indore on the night of September 17. A former BJP youth wing office bearer from Sagar district, Shweta subverted the system virtually at will.

She started the blackmailing game alone soon after the BJP came to power 16 years ago, and, over the years, managed to attract scores of women and call girls with her magnetic charm.

Her dazzling life style and fabulous contacts in politics and bureaucracy beckoned women such as Aarti Dayal, Shweta Swapnil Jain, Barkha Soni and Monica Yadav to tread the slutty road to opulence. They had travelled quite a long risky distance.

On September 17, the women ran out of luck. A city engineer in the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), Harbhajan Singh, proved to be their nemesis. He approached the Palasia police station to lodge a complaint that two women were blackmailing him.

Singh told the police that the women had secretly recorded his ‘intimate moments’ with a girl and were threatening to make public the video if he did not cough up `3 crore. He took the name of Aarti Dayal and Shweta Jain.

The engineer had spent many nights with the girl supplied by the gang and, in lieu of that, got many work contracts awarded to Aarti’s brother. But the gang apparently was not satisfied with just that much of favour.

Following the complaint, Indore SSP Ruchi Vardhan Mishra laid a trap for the blackmailers. She asked the complainant to call the woman to Indore, promising to pay `50 lakh as first instalment of the deal.

The women identified as Aarti Dayal

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(29) and Shweta Jain fell in the trap.

They were immediately detained. Their interrogation led to four more arrests in Bhopal on the same night. They were identified as Monica Yadav (18), Shweta Swapnil Jain (39), Barkha Soni (34) and Omprakash Kori (45). All of them are in jail now.

Kori is the driver of the car which Aarti and Shweta rode in to reach Indore from Bhopal before being arrested.

Their interrogations and seizure of electronic gadgets from their possession brought forth astounding facts about the abysmal moral decadence of

nor, unspecified number of former ministers, former MPs, sitting and ex MLAs, all India service administrative and police officers, engineers and wealthy businessmen.

Never before in India had such a mind-boggling degree of greed, lust, technology, abuse of power and number of call girls so filthily combined to satiate carnal desires of so large a number of powerful ‘worthies’ at the expense of the taxpayers’ money.

Police sources say members of the racket may have minted over `100 crore in the shape of government contracts, funding to their dubious NGOs, kick-

Those caught in a compromising position with call girls include a former chief minister, a governor, unspecified number of former ministers, former MPs, sitting and ex MLAs, all India service administrative and police officers, engineers and wealthy businessmen Madhya Pradesh politics during the 15 years of BJP rule.

By all account, this has turned out to be the most sensational sex racket in India that managed to capture licentiousness of dozens of top politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen in most advanced digital gadgets including mobile phones and spy cameras. The gang used hidden cameras in lipsticks and goggles to record sexual acts.

Its targets, who were caught in a compromising position with call girls, include a former chief minister, a gover-

back in transfers and postings, not to mention direct ransom. The honeytrapped enabled the trappers to manipulate various departments under their influence with impunity.

According to a media report, Shweta confessed to having extorted `15 crore from 20 “victims.” This may be the tip of the iceberg. The racket roped in nearly 40 girls, including college students, to entertain the targets and secretly record the ‘entertainment’ for blackmailing.

Antecedents of the arrested women

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are as colourful as egregious. Most notorious of them, Shweta Vijay Jain is the most stylish one too. She had married her college time beau Vijay after a six-year-long affair against the will of her parents. Vijay, a cloth merchant in Sagar, is understood to be a partner in his wife’s crimes. He reportedly encouraged his beautiful wife to dabble in BJP politics and befriend rich and famous of the city and beyond. Over time, Shweta’s charm offensive was so pervasive that she was made an office bearer of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha. The post afforded her ample opportunities to socialise with top BJP leaders and through them IAS and IPS officers. She was said to be pretty close to getting nomination from an assembly seat in Sagar in 2013 but a video that went viral ahead of the election stymied her plan. The video purportedly has Shweta in a compromising position with her car driver. Undeterred, she campaigned for the BJP in the 2013 and 2018 assembly elections. The Congress has released her photographs on the campaign trail in Sagar.

H

owever, by and by, she realised that the ghost of the viral video will not let her live peacefully in Sagar. But her ambition to trap powerful people remained undiminished. She came to Bhopal and cast her net wider on ministers, MLAs, bureaucrats. A few journalists, particularly a regional news channel owner and the editor of a local daily, joined Shweta in fleecing the targets.

In Bhopal, she frequently mingled with people of high society in big hotels and expensive clubs for late night cocktail parties.

When the police arrested her, Shweta was living in a rented house in a posh colony of Bhopal owned by former BJP

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minister Brijendra Pratap Singh.

According to the police, Shweta lured many women and college girls by flaunting her dazzling life style which inspired them to get rich fast. She managed to get generous government largesse through her NGO. In Bhopal, Shweta got in touch with namesake, Shweta Swapnil Jain. The second Shweta had trapped a former MP who was denied re-election by the BJP as the video featuring him with her had gone viral. Ahead of the election, the state BJP leadership persuaded Shweta Swapnil Jain to leave for Dubai, lest her presence in Bhopal cast a detrimental shadow on the party’s campaign.

She lived in Dubai for 10 months.

She was living in a luxurious bungalow in a posh colony of Bhopal. It was reportedly gifted to her by a former chief minister who is no more.

The Shweta duo’s other accomplice, Aarti Dayal hails from the small town of Chhatarpur. She also runs an NGO which she fronted to extract funding

from agriculture and panchayat departments, using her connections with IAS officers and politicians in the previous BJP government.

She first deserted her husband for her paramour but this live-in relation too did not last long. She had lodged complaints against both of them for domestic violence and the cases are pending.

Barkha Soni, yet another member of the gang, was said to be in close touch with Congress politicians, including a former PCC president. Her husband, Amit Soni, was employed by the Congress in its IT cell but was sacked in June this year.

The youngest of them, Monica, is a girl from poor family of Rajgarh district who had come to Bhopal with the dream for a job but ended up as a call girl in the company of Aarti Dayal.

They were living together in a flat for the last four months.

Monica was sent to Indore engineer Harbhajan Singh in a hotel where they

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with the masterminds of the racket are either BJP politicians or bureaucrats known to be close to the previous regime.

Although the police have steadfastly refused to divulge names of the preys of the racket citing ongoing probe, the investigators have confirmed seizure of around 100 video recordings and 4,000 files containing mobile conversations, snap chats and other lurid details exchanged between the racket’s seductresses and their targets.

The Madhya Pradesh media is abuzz with shocking and salacious stories about the video-filmed sexescapades of undisclosed movers and shakers ever since the Indore police busted the racket on September 17.

Given the extreme sensitivity of the case, the state government has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the racket. State Director-General of Police Vijay Pratap Singh constituted the SIT headed by Additional Director General (intelligence) Sanjeev Shami to investigate the case were captured in a video.

The poor girl wept bitterly when produced in special court in Indore first time. Next time, she fainted and was rushed to hospital.

In view of the circumstances Monica had landed in the clutch of the racket, the police have turned her approver after getting her lodge to a complaint against the other four women.

Information provided by Monica is

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proving crucial in the investigation. She has told the police that the gang had roped in 40 other girls, mostly in similar dire need of money.

Since the racket had honey-trapped most of its victims during the previous Shivraj Singh government, the Congress is aggressive and the BJP defensive on the scandal.

Significantly, most of the persons who are said to have had connections

T

he stories are about uber rich lifestyle and amazing influencepeddling of the four of the five beautiful women caught by the police and their connections with top echelons in the corridors of power.

According to the police, the gang members first got in touch with powerful men, befriended them and later asked them to meet in hotel rooms where their associates installed hidden cameras to capture the visitors in a compromising position. These objectionable clips were then used to blackmail them.

Police have seized electronic gadgets, including spy cameras as well as mobile phones, and `14 lakh cash. The seized laptops and mobile phones contain mind-blogging collection of obscene videos, lurid chatting and talks on quidpro-quo deals between the women and their powerful connections.

Predictably, the extensive media coverage of the most sensational honeytrap racket in the state’s history has generated widespread moral outrage.

Pressure is mounting on the police to

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reveal names of the people whose intimate moments were secretly video-recorded.

What is more, a section of the ruling Congress party has given the scandal a sensational political twist by accusing the BJP of having tried to use the gang to plot the fall of the Kamal Nath government. The conflation of political blame game, juicy media coverage, public outrage and consternation in the bureaucracy over the honey-trap case has put the police in a quandary.

“True, we have seized about 100 video-tapes featuring MLAs, ex-ministers, IPS and IAS officers in compromising position with call girls. But we cannot reveal their names because there is no complaint from either side and those involved in the act are all adults. The video clips are records of consensual sex, morally obnoxious but legally tenable,” a senior police officer said.

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iven the extreme sensitivity of the case, the state government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the honey-trap and blackmail episodes involving the racket. State DirectorGeneral of Police Vijay Pratap Singh constituted the SIT headed by Additional Director General (intelligence) Sanjeev Shami to investigate the case.

However, even before the SIT got down to investigate the case, it got embroiled in controversies. Earlier, Inspector General of Police rank officer Shriniwas was named the SIT head but within hours he was replaced by Sanjeev Shami, an upright and strict IPS officer.

It is said that the DGP did not consult Chief Minister Kamal Nath before nominating Shami.

DGP VP Singh’s another decision has raised the hackle of his senior colleague and Director General of Police (cyber cell) Purushottam Sharma.

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Although the police have steadfastly refused to divulge names of the preys of the racket citing ongoing probe, the investigators have confirmed seizure of around 100 video recordings and 4,000 files containing mobile conversations, snap chats and other lurid details exchanged between the racket’s seductresses and their targets

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SIT head replaced third time On the night of October 1, Chief Minister Kamal Nath replaced Sanjeev Shami by Rajendra Kumar as head of the Special Investigative Team (SIT) that was formed to investigate the murky honey trap case. Known for his impeccable record and integrity, Sanjeev Shami had barely started probe into the case. Shami had replaced Shri Niwas Verma, an IGP rank officer, who was SIT chief for just 10 hours!.

The chief minister was reportedly unhappy over the Director General of Police (DGP) VP Singh’s decision to appoint Shami, who was ADGP in the MP Anti terrorist Squad (ATS). A day before the replacement, Nath had summoned the DGP, the chief secretary and Shami at his residence and expressed unhappiness over involvement of the ATS in the probe. “ What has ATS to do in this case? “ the chief minister reportedly asked, pointing to the fact that the team, basically involved in nabbing terrorists, was engaged in the racket’s busting operation.

Top advisors of Nath had initially pushed for Special DG cyber security, Purushottam Sharma, for the position of SIT chief, but the move was scuttled after reports that Sharma was himself associated with the five arrested women in some form.

Sharma was also removed from the post of the cyber chief and has now been posted as director, prosecution.

According to sources, Nath, by removing Shami as SIT chief, has brought the investigation under his direct control.

The Chief Minister has also reshuffled many other top IPS officers, sending ‘suspicious ones’ to insignificant posts.

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Sharma has gone public with his annoyance over the DGP’s decision to cancel lease of a flat in Ghaziabad that was hired by the cyber cell four months ago for its staffers to stay during official visits to New Delhi. Sharma has not only vented his ire over the matter in a letter to the Madhya Pradesh IPS officers association but has also put a question mark on credibility of the SIT. Sharma was earlier posted in Indore where he was known to socialise with a lot of people with dubious antecedents.

His outburst is being seen as a sign of desperation in the face of investigation.

He is not alone in the high police echelon to be upset. More than a dozen IPS officers are said to be perturbed as they know that SIT chief is a no-nonsense man. Shami says ramifications of the case in hand are too complex and vast for him to reveal names of those involved in it so soon. However, he has expressed confidence that in due course those names will not be concealed if substantial evidences of criminal nature are firmly established.

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ince consensual sex between two adults cannot be made out a crime unless there is complaint of rape from one and blackmail from the other side, the SIT is probing the scandal from the quid-pro-quo angle.

During the interrogation of the arrested women, it surfaced that they wheedled their victims into helping them get quite a large number of government tenders and contracts. After procuring contracts, Shweta and her cohorts would transfer them to wealthy contractors on substantial commissions. Meanwhile, a petition seeking directions for the court-monitored CBI inquiry in the high-profile honey-trap case was filed before Indore bench of high court on September 23.

The petitioner Digvijay Singh

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GOVERNANCE thAWARDS 2019

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presents

AWARD CATEGORIES LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT EXCEPTIONAL CONTRIBUTION EXCELLENT CONTRIBUTION SPECIAL JURY

Nominations invited

awards@gfilesindia.com

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RECOGNISING EXCELLENCE IN GOVERNANCE gfiles Foundation recognises excellence in governance by an independent jury comprising former civil servants of unmatched standing backed by 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, Former Secretary, Power

Sh. Vishnu Bhagwan, Former Chief Secretary, Haryana

Sh. MB Kaushal, Former Secretary, Internal Security

FOR BRANDING OPPORTUNITIES CONTACT Mobile: +91 98112 52493 Phone: +91 11 2874 4789 Email: awards@gfilesawards.com FOR DETAILS gfilesawards.com | gfilesfoundation.com

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Bhandari has alleged that state police would be unable to carry out fair probe into the case.

State police officers admit, off the record, that revelation of the names of powerful persons discretely filmed by the call girls is not possible, unless the high court specifically directs the police to do so.

They add that even the SIT formed to probe the case is not expected to reveal unsavoury truths in the case because doing so could raise a massive storm in the bureaucracy and politics which the Kamal Nath government with waferthin majority can ill-afford.

It suits the Chief Minister better that the sins of the honey-trapped politicians and bureaucrats remain concealed. The Congress is revelling in the perception that the scandal has rendered the BJP morally decadent and politically vulnerable as most of the victims belong to the saffron party which is wont to taking high moral ground on such matters. An unintended fallout of the scandal is that the Kamal Nath government is feeling much safer than before.

It is the first time since the Congress came to power in December last year that the BJP is on the defensive. All its bluster of toppling the “tottering” Kamal Nath government has evaporated. A visibly subdued BJP is demanding a CBI probe in the scandal, acutely aware of the fate of the Vyapam scam in which all of the party’s leaders got clean chit from the long investigation by the federal agency despite damning evidence against them.

The Congress, on the other hand, has gone to the extent of smelling BJP conspiracy to destabilise the state government with the help of sex and sleaze.

State’s law minister PC Sharma alleg-

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es that the BJP had plotted to frame several Congress MLAs through the racket’s charm to destabilise the government but failed. Another minister Govind Singh has echoed the colleague’s allegation, adding the government will not spare anyone involved in the racket, howsoever mighty he might be.

F

ormer Chief Minister Digvijay Singh claimed that the names of ministers from the previous government have cropped up in the racket but none from the present government is involved. Congress insiders say the government may not have been inclined to unearth the racket had it not been for the serious complaints reaching the Chief Minister about the growing interference of the gang in tenders and contracts. According to police sources, it is not as though the sex racket has suddenly burst out on the surface.

State intelligence agencies had been keeping a close watch on the women involved in it for years. The sleuths even

had a fair idea about who was blackmailed by whom. But, since there were no complaints and no video had gone viral, the intelligence personnel chose not to act, except piling up information about the sleazy goings-on.

They were, anyway, reluctant to mess up with the powerful people.

However, the intelligence agencies felt compelled to step up monitoring on the racket soon after a video clip of an IAS officer of additional chief secretary rank having sex with a call girl went viral two months ago. The surfacing of the video left the ruling Congress redfaced. The government immediately sent the officer on forced leave. Internal probe by the chief secretary revealed that apart from blackmailing their victims, the queens of the racket also indulged in securing government contracts for chosen ones and in transferposting business.

This revelation reportedly alerted the top brass to direct the police to act against the racket. g

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October’19

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Master Mind adhir west bengal

Adhir Chowdhury

A local phenomenon on a national stage Adhir Chowdhury, the Congress leader in this Lok Sabha, has led a controversial life. He decimated the Left in his constituency Baharampur in Bengal and soon became a strongman of the region. Charged with a number of cases, it remains to be seen how Chowdhury fares at the national level

by Diptendra Raychaudhuri

A

dhir Chowdhury is the name of a phenomenon. Two mighty Chief Ministers, Buddhadev Bhattacharya of the Left Front and Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress (popularly TMC), pulled out all the stops to crush this political ‘upstart’.. But, defying a chakravyuh of the Left parties, the 40-yearold Adhir got elected to the assembly from Nabagram constituency in 1996.

Three years later, in 1999, he took up a huge challenge by contesting from Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency, then considered unwinnable by the Congress, and since remains unbeaten for five consecutive terms.

But the phenomenon called Adhir was not limited to individual success.

By 2004, he almost decimated the Left from the district, and helped Pranab

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Mukherjee to win his first Lok Sabha election from the adjacent Jangipur constituency. For the first time since independence, all the three seats of the district were bagged by the Congress that year. For the next ten years, it was Adhir-raj in the Muslim-dominated district. Since then, Mamata Banerjee, as a Chief Minister, played havoc with Congress organisation in the district.

Her relentless fusillades have succeeded to bring Jangipur and Murshidabad seats to TMC in 2019, but Chowdhury remains unbeaten in Baharampur, that too at a time when Bengal returned only two Congress MPs. Adhir Chowdhury is a phenomena true, but a local phenomenon. His charisma is limited to his district and he leads just one of the groups of Bengal Congress, which as a whole is fighting hard to keep itself relevant in the state. Chowdhury is uncompromising, a maverick, but a little rustic too.

He never hides the fact that he never attended a college. He is a smart fighter, but not a well-informed intellectual. It is rumoured that when Sonia Gandhi first asked him to lead the Congress in Lok Sabha, he politely refused it for he is well aware of his limitations. But when it was thrust on him, he accepted it with humility, for he is not a shirker.

The national leadership of the Congress never mentored him to be a national player. He was inducted in the government of Manmohan Singh only in October of 2012, that too just as a minister of state. It is true that his faux pas as the leader of the party in Lok Sabha on Kashmir (that it is not India’s internal matter) will be remembered as one of the greatest blunders of the Congress party. But the blame lies not on him, but on those who made him the leader. If suddenly one fine morning someone entirely unprepared is asked to play the lead, he is bound to falter.

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Chowdhury is not a heavyweight leader. He never even imagined that someday he would be made the Leader of the Party in Lok Sabha. He never asked for any such high post either. Still, he will not perform badly when political issues will come up. But more complicated issues are just not his cup of tea.

In an interview, he confessed that after taking the responsibility he was quite enjoying it. But certain things cannot be acquired if one is not trained in it for a long time. Finer issues of diplomacy, security and economy belong to that category. A self-made man like Chowdhury is not expected to master

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Adhir Chowdhury is a phenomena true, but a local phenomenon. His charisma is limited to his district and he leads just one of the groups of Bengal Congress, which as a whole is fighting hard to keep itself relevant in the state

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Master Mind adhir west bengal

things that belong to that category, at least in this term of Parliament. That the Congress had to make him the leader only shows the once-mighty party’s pathetic state of affairs.

To have a glimpse of the phenomenon called Adhir Chowdhury, we have to move back three decades. That brings us to 1991, when he first contested the assembly polls. He was no great challenger then, but still the mighty Left decided to block his path then and there. They knew him of course. In the mid-70s, as a Naxalite he went to jail.

Afterwards he tried his luck with two political parties, Forward Bloc and then RSP, both Left Front partners. But the young Adhir, born in 1956, fell out with both the parties by turn, and for a while worked for CITU, the labour union of CPI(M). Soon, totally disillusioned with all the shades of Red, he joined the Congress, which had no foothold in the district at that point of time. But in 1991, he had little resource to fight the mighty Left. He lost the election.

S

oon, Chowdhury decided to make way forward as a strongman, and it attracted criminal cases against him. He raised money, often from the rich, and gave it to the needy. He formed an organisation that would be loyal to him only. Slowly his popularity started to increase. But about the time of next assembly election, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was after him, determined to put him behind the bars on criminal charges. It did not work. In 1996, Chowdhury won the assembly seat while absconding. It was rumoured that during the campaign he appeared in the night at different places, but the police had never had any idea on his whereabouts.

This victory was just the beginning.

A lot was yet to be unravelled.

After getting the first foothold,

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It is true that his faux pas as the leader of the party in Lok Sabha on Kashmir (that it is not India’s internal matter) will be remembered as one of the greatest blunders of the Congress party. But the blame lies not on him, but on those who made him the leader Chowdhury decided to make it bigger. Three years later, the young MLA decided to contest from the ‘unwinnable’ Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency. Legendary RSP leader Tridib Chowdhury represented the constituency from 1952, and was defeated for the first time in 1984, when Atish Sinha of the Congress won. That election in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination was anyhow an extraordinary

one. Tridibbabu did not contest Lok Sabha polls again, but the Left wrested the seat again in 1989. The other two Lok Sabha constituencies of the district too were with the Left since 1977.

In 1998 Lok Sabha elections, Congress was relegated to the third position in Baharampur. In 1999, as Chowdhury contested his first parliamentary poll, Congress vote share sprang from 22 per cent to 47 per cent. Of course, it was not

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the Congress but Chowdhury who won.

Over the next five years, Chowdhury rose like a meteor and pushed the Left into a corner in the district. In 2003, he led the Congress party to win 23 out of 33 Jela Parishad seats, 13 out of 26 panchayat samitis and 104 out of 254 village panchayat in Murshidabad. Such was the impact of Chowdhury that in 2004, Pranab Mukherjee succeeded to win the first ever Lok Sabha election in his long career from Jangipur Loksabha constituency of Murshidabad district. He retained it 2009. After he became President in 2012, his son Abhijit Mukherjee won the seat and retained it in 2014. As far as the third seat (Murshidabad) of the district was concerned, Congress won it too in 2004 and 2009. Thus, much before Mamata Banerjee decimated the Left in Bengal, Chowdhury achieved the same feat in Murshidabad district, a Muslimmajority district. The maverick never

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cared for the party though. Whenever Congress fielded any candidate in his district against his wishes, he fielded his near ones as independent candidates, who either won, or ensured the defeat of the official candidate.

J

ust when Chowdhury reached the peak of his glory, the tides started turning against him. In 2005, he and his wife Arpita were arrested in the murder case of a hotelier and his son. Later they got acquitted by the lower court. Very next year, Shreyashi Chowdhury, the teenager daughter of the Congress MP, died of injuries sustained after she reportedly jumped from her fifth floor apartment.

Whether it was a suicide, and if so why, never came to light. A few months later, in 2007, Arpita too tried to commit suicide. She survived that time, but the husband and wife started drifting away from each other. In January of

2019, when Arpita passed away of ailments, her body was cremated by her father and others of the family before Chowdhury reached Baharampur. A few months later, while submitting an affidavit for May, 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Chowdhury revealed the name of her second wife as Atasi Chattopadhaya Chowdhury.

Meanwhile, since 2005, Chowdhury has been arrested several times. In 2007, while on bail for the murder of the hotelier and his son, he was arrested for the murder of a panchayat pradhan.

Later, he was charged with the murder of a TMC worker in 2011. While these cases dragged on for years, Mamata decided to go whole hog for building her organisation in the district. What the Left could not do for ideological reason, could be done by the TMC: It started eating away chunks of Congress by bits. For the first time, Chowdhury looked helpless against such manoeuvres. His organisation in the district is in shatters now. Only he returned to Lok Sabha this time, while the other two seats of the district were wrested by the TMC. While Chowdhury has got a plum post for the Lok Sabha this year, he is facing the most severe political challenge of his career now. There were rumours of his joining the BJP during the run up to Lok Sabha election.

But it would not have helped him in a Muslim-dominated Baharampur constituency. Even an alliance of the Congress and TMC for the next assembly or Lok Sabha elections will not help him either, as Mamata is likely to utilise it to make him dependent on her. His best bet is TMC’s defeat in 2021 assembly polls. If the BJP comes to power in Bengal, he will be able to reclaim his lost influence. Otherwise, though it is too early to predict, he may or may not come back to Lok Sabha in 2024. g

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PERSONALITY n sivasailam

The new logistics

messiah

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by Ramesh Kumar

S Karnataka cadre officer N Sivasailam has been creating ripples with his no-nonsense approach to the critical logistics department. He’s the single window bureaucrat bluepenciling the logistics matrix to take the economy to the US$5 trillion trajectory over the next five years

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hort in size, tall in stature. That aptly sums up N Sivasailam, the first special secretary to be appointed for logistics in the Ministry of Commerce on November 2018, the special arm created for the first time by the government. Though there has been a clamor for a separate ministry of logistics to catapult the Indian economy into a much higher orbit, it took the Narendra Modi-led National Democractic Alliance (NDA) regime almost five long years to berth this longfelt need. Why this 1985 Karnataka cadre was picked for this niche slot is a million-dollar question that remains unanswered to this day.

Having said that, he has been creating ripples with his no-nonsense as well as hands-on approach to the critical department. He’s the single window bureaucrat blue-penciling the logistics matrix to take the economy to the US$5 trillion trajectory over the next five years: Circa 2024, the doubling of the present GDP. Tough call. What’s the point of fixing an easily attainable goal, he asked during our maiden meeting in his spacious Room Number 241 in Udyog Bhavan, a stone’s throw away from Parliament.

Sometime in July 2019, I received a message from him via WhatsApp group consisting of members of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT): Can we meet at 11 am the coming Monday in my office? By the way, both of us are members of this august body. He was responding to my recent posting about my road trip to Morbi in Gujarat, the ceramic capital of India, where I had gone with colleagues to find suitable highway dhabas to provide rest-

ing facility for long haul truck drivers on the Mundhra/Gandhidham-Mumbai via Rajkot or Ahmedabad stretch on the specific request of an Indian ceramic giant. The meeting lasted almost an hour wherein he wanted to understand how and why TransportMitra Services Private Limited, a start-up co-promoted by me along with an ex-Mahindra Logistics vice president, is focused on truck drivers. He felt enabling a better working environment for long haul truck drivers is quintessential as part of supply chain from the ease of doing business angle. “I have been hearing from various stakeholders, particularly the All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA), saying they have money to create wayside amenities but scouting for someone to operationalise,” he pointed out. He saw a synergy between what was needed and what was available to fulfill this crucial gap.

That explained his desire to meet me.

One of Sivasailam’s favorite statements is: logistics is not virtual, but a real business. More than the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, perhaps he understood the vitality of truck drivers to realise the US$5 trillion dream.

TransportMitra’s on-ground experience in setting up truck driver-friendly highway dhabas, particularly in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for global oil giant Exxon Mobil, convinced the Karnataka cadre officer of our utility.

What surprised me the most was the speed at which he moved in building bridges or connecting dots.

I met him on a Friday afternoon. At his request, I wrote to him the next day to take this initiative forward. Around noon, 48 hours after our meeting,

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PERSONALITY n sivasailam

my inbox saw a long mail from him addressed to the AITWA secretariat introducing TransportMitra and our dhaba adoption capabilities. Needless to say, AITWA President Mahendra Arya was on call the very next day on the basis of Sivasailam’s mail. Honestly, never seen such a fast forward action mode bureaucrat responding on a weekend.

Well, that was not the end. A week later, another mail from him was addressed to a senior office-bearer of the National Logistics Committee of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce (FICCI) introducing TransportMitra, highlighting its Dhaba Adoption prowess.

O

nce again, we were invited and inducted into that Committee to lend our support to build a better India, logistically speaking. By the by, neither AITWA nor FICCI were not unaware of TransportMitra and its promoters. Yet, it needed the good offices of the special secretary as a catalyst to knit us together. “Never underestimate the bureaucrats. They perform a lot of back-breaking good work. Side by side, they continuously upskill themselves,” says Capt. Pawanex Kohli, CEO and Advisor to the National Centre for Cold-Chain Development (NCCD) under the Ministry of Agriculture.

Contrary to general perception, they got through the Civil Service Examination, stuck to their job and rising through the ranks, they also take sabbatical to study further to enhance their skill sets. Sivasailam is no exception.

The experienced senior civil servant has a history of working in government both dealing with law enforcement and development. He handled several large projects, trade and industry, healthcare and education, rural development. The Mumbai-born bureaucrat graduated with a degree in mechanical engineer-

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ing. Then, he did a Masters in business administration and burnt the proverbial midnight oil to add a post-graduate degree in Social Policy and Planning in Developing countries from the London School of Economics. He did not stop at that. His knowledge hunger enabled him to acquire a post-graduate diploma in Intellectual Property Rights Law from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. He thinks

like a hardcore businessman, just not a paper pusher. He is skilled in Business Planning, Operations Management, Government, Feasibility Studies, and Management.

There is a huge fan club for him across India. It is no exaggeration. Why and how? Primarily, he is not stiff and rigid as bureaucrats have come to be perceived. Then, he is a no-nonsense warrior with a clear vision and mis-

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sion to take India to the higher echelons, creating the right mix of logistical tools. He minces no words and has a in your face kind of approach. Recently, I watched him from close quarters at the Indian Logistics Retreat where he was the chief guest. He busts one of the biggest myths. For long, we have been fed with the notion that the logistics cost in India is very high: pegged at 14% vis a vis 8-9% in matured economies. The fact is: 14% is the contribution of logistics to the GDP. The higher percentage to GDP should be construed as eating into an aggregate of 100% GDP.

A

The experienced senior civil servant has a history of working in government both dealing with law enforcement and development. He handled several large projects, trade and industry, healthcare and education, rural development. The Mumbai-born bureaucrat graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. Then, he did a Masters in business administration and burnt the proverbial midnight oil to add a post-graduate degree in Social Policy and Planning in Developing countries from the London School of Economics

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lesser logistics contribution to GDP, ideal and desirable, would automatically enable higher contribution from other segments. Even the existing government documents on this issue lack clarity, points out GS Gireesh, Executive Director of Indian Supply Chain Management, based out of Mumbai. Yes, Gireesh again got his fundamentals clarified, courtesy the special secretary (logistics).

“His talk was well-received,” avers S Mukundan, Head-Packaging Business Unit, TVS SCS Flexol, who attended the recent Chemlog conference in Mumbai and adding that the chemical industry was “pleased with your (Sivasailam’s} leadership that is timely and apt for their Big X growth”. Sivasailam’s ability to connect dots manifests again during his interaction with Mukundan referred above. The resident of Udyog Bhawan writes in end September: “During our interactions yesterday, there was a mention of the Logistics players in the chemical logistics sector having designated stops for their vehicles every 100 km or so from the safety and (cargo) security point of view. I suggest that this is a ‘low hanging fruit’ for certain very passionate industry experts like

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PERSONALITY n sivasailam

boree in Delhi, Sivasailam pointedly asked the big bosses assembled there as to why truck driver cabins are not air-conditioned which, in his opinion, will be beneficial all around. They responded that it would be a costly affair. Recalling that incident, he says: “They (heavy commercial vehicle manufacturers) sell each truck at `50 lakh.

Air-conditioning of cabin will cost, they admit, additional `50,000! And ... they give `5 lakh discount to potential buyers!” Ironical, isn’t it? That’s Sivasailam.

He goes for the jugular.

H His presence at conferences and workshops mean full time physical and mental presence.

He is not that kind of bureaucrat who walks out soon after the short inaugural session where he reads out his prepared text. He mostly speaks extempore with facts and figures at his fingertips.

He stays back, listens, reacts and responds

Ramesh Kumar ...and we could start it off with a bang with ... several others in the Industry. We could rope in the Oil companies as well.”

Yes, he has copied me in the mail.

Well, that is not the end of it. Continues Sivasailam: “Another matter that came up was to make things easy for the drivers. Can the forum send me a detailed

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resolution that they want the cabins airconditioned?” Given TransportMitra’s focus on improving the working and living conditions of truck drivers, to see the government via Sivasailam and us on the same page gladdens the heart.

It is pertinent to point out that at the recent Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM”) annual jam-

is presence at conferences and workshops mean full time physical and mental presence. He is not that kind of bureaucrat who walks out soon after the short inaugural session where he reads out his prepared text. He mostly speaks extempore with facts and figures at his fingertips. He stays back, listens, reacts and responds.

Each single syllable he utters from the podium or from the front rows in the logistics arena is a pearl of wisdom. No wonder, he is the most sought after by the logistics and supply chain fraternity.

The “special” in his designation suits him perfectly.

Less than a year is left to lapse before he packs his bag at the end of an illustrious career. The likelihood of retaining him as advisor in the newly minted logistics arm of commerce and industry ministry cannot be ruled out after superannuation. This is just not a wish, but something akin to an orphan finding a caring parent after a long time. The logistics fraternity is in such a situation. Prime Minister, are you listening? g The author is Co-Promoter of TransportMitra Services Private Limited and Editor of Drivers Dunia, an English quarterly focused on long haul truck drivers

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BOOK EXTRACT

india; the future of south asia

The Future of China-India Relations

by Dr Liu Zongyi

Dr Liu Zongyi is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Strategic Studies, Centre for AsiaPacific Studies and Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). His research interests mainly focus on India's Economy and Foreign Policy, China's Foreign Policy, BRICS, and G-20. In recent years, many of his papers on these subjects have been published in Chinese and over­seas journals.

Nearly 300 of his articles have been published in Chinese or English in newspapers in the last three years.

Dr Liu is a BA in Economics from Shandong University of Finance and Economics and a diploma for Chinese and American Studies from The John Hopkins University Nanjing Centre. He obtained his Master's degree and PhD in International Relations from China Foreign Affairs University. Dr Liu also researched at German Development Institute (DIE), OECD, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC, the Indian National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), and the Institute of Strategic Studies of Islamabad (ISSI) as a Visiting Fellow. He is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Strategic Studies and Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies, SIIS. More significantly in our present context, Dr Liu Zongyi is currently the Advisor on Indian and South Asian Affairs to the Government of China (Department of Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of China).

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C

hina and India are rising almost simultaneously.

Their bilateral relationship is of critical significance to the regional and world pattern, but this relationship is very complicated. With the advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in South Asia and India Ocean Region, India’s strategic suspicions of China have accumulated. Indian strategists government believe that there is some geostrategic design behind the BRI. India has adopted opposing, delaying, and hedging measures toward different parts of the initiative. Donglang (Doklam) standoff revealed India’s strategic ambition and its dissatisfaction towards China’s regional policies. India hopes to counterbalance China through strengthened strategic and security cooperation with countries including the United States (US), Japan, Australia, Vietnam, etc.

However, the Sino-Indian relationship is, in essence, a competitive symbiotic relationship. India’s China strategy must still strike a careful balance between cooperation and competition, economic and political interests, and bilateral and regional contexts. President Xi and PM Modi have reached many consensuses during Wuhan informal meeting, but India’s adjustment of policy towards China is a tactical one, not a strategic one. It is very difficult to change the mindset of India’s strategic elites who

will decide India’s policy towards China in the future.

China-India Relations: Cooperation and Disputes As two members of G20 and Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRJCS), China and India share extensive common interests on issues such as the reform of the international financial system, climate change, and international trade negotiation. Especially in

Book Name: India The Future of South Asia Rise of The New Power of Peace Edited by: Karan Kharb Turning Point Publishers Pages: 291 Price: 1195

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BUILDING RAPPORT: Pictures in this article show glimpses of the two informal summits between the two leaders: one at Wuhan (China) in April 2018 and the other at Mamallapuram recently, in October 2019.

the face of unprecedented changes in the world today as well as uncertainty and instability in the current international situation, it is necessary for the two countries to enhance cooperation against the backdrop of rising protectionism in the West, especially the ‘America First’ doctrine championed by the Donald Trump administration and the apprehensions of a China-US trade war. China and India have also cooperated on myriad regional issues like regional economic integration, the Afghanistan issue, and the crackdown on terrorism. China is one of India’s largest trading partners, and their economic collaboration will inject vigorous impetus to the Indian economy.

Admittedly, there are many unsolved questions left over by history between China and India, among which the border dispute is the biggest obstacle to the bilateral relationship. The Sino-Indian border issue is a very complex one and has been brewing since the British Imperialist invasions of India and China. In the 1960s, a military conflict erupted between China and India over territorial misunderstandings. That conflict became an excuse for India to

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rejuvenate its arms inventory culminating in India becoming a full-fledged Nuclear Power. Besides the boundary problem, other issues such as ChinaPakistan relations, Dalai Lama issue, trade deficit, and water resources issue also hinder the promotion of ChinaIndia relations. These problems force India into harbouring a deep-seated distrust towards China. Especially with the growing economic gap between China and India, some Indians are losing self-confidence gradually when they look at China. The Indian mass media and some Indian strategic scholars frequently propagate ‘Chinese incursion’ and ‘China threat’ which exposes their lack of confidence. This distrust among the two countries can be exploited by some Western countries to disrupt Sino-India relations.

B

esides, with the swelling of China’s economic activity in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, especially in recent years with theadvancement of the BRI, India’s strategic suspicions of China have aggravated.

Some Western countries have taken advantage of this to fan the flames of the

strategic competition or even confrontation between China and India. Western scholars forged and hyped China’s ‘String of Pearls Strategy’ in the Indian Ocean, and the Indian side accepted it.

India’s Attitude Towards the Belt and Road Initiative The BRI is the top-level design of China’s opening-up and its economic diplomacy in the new era. It is a geoeconomic initiative. In the report delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we can find that the BRI has both internal and external implications. Internally, the BRI is one of the concrete measures of balancing regional development, together with the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt. Externally, the BRI is the priority of making new ground in opening China further through links running eastward and westward, across land and over sea, by giving equal emphasis to ‘bringing in’ and ‘going global’, following the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration, and

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BOOK EXTRACT

india; the future of south asia

increasing openness and cooperation in building innovation capacity.

India’s position and role in the BRI are significant. India is regarded as one of the four key countries along the BRI by some Chinese experts. It is not only because of India’s population, labour resource, and a huge market but also because of India’s political influence over the South Asian and Indian Ocean countries. India’s attitude towards BRI will affect these countries’ positivity to participate in BRI, and China needs India’s cooperation on terrorism, regional stability, and security of BRI. When China initiated the twenty-first century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) in 2013, the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his national security advisor Shivshankar Menon expressed support and interest. However, the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed India’s attitude toward the MSR and BRI after he came to power.

Indian strategists and the government believe there is some geo-strategic design behind the BRI. Some Indians think that the twenty-first century MSR is just an alternative name that sounds more pleasant and is used to replace the ‘String of Pearls’ strategy. Also, some strategists regard the BangladeshChina­India-Myanmar (BCIM) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as parts of the twenty-first century MSR because both corridors lead to the Indian Ocean. India opposes CPEC and delays the process of the BCIM economic corridor and puts forward its own interconnectivity projects.

India initiated Project ‘Mausam’, Cotton Route, Spice Route, or Sagar Mala projects, and upgraded its ‘Look East’ Policy to ‘Act East’ Policy, to hedge the twenty­first century MSR. India is very active in driving Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN) and Bay of

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Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

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oreover, the Indian press has also given much coverage to the US plan to restart the New Silk Road and the Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor initiatives, both of which they claim will rival Beijing’s BRI and New Delhi will play an essential role in it. India also speeded up its cooperation with Iran and Afghanistan to build Chabahar Port and International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). One week after the forum met in Beijing, India held the 52nd Annual General Meeting of the African Development Bank Group in its west-

ern State of Gujarat. At the meeting, PM Modi pitched for an ‘Asia-Africa Growth Corridor AAGC’, in actuality a duplication of the ‘freedom corridor’ designed by his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe during his Japan visit in November 2016.

In the eyes of Indian media outlets, this Asia-Africa connectivity initiative is a counter to China’s BRI. India’s reaction toward the BRI is a part of its Indo-Pacific strategy. It has four features. First of all, India gives precedence to geopolitics over geoeconomic cooperation. Second, the Indian hedging strategy toward the BRI has very strong military and strategic implications. The BRI is an economic cooperation, and China will invest a large amount of capital along the route

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border are seen as aggressive attempts to surround India and strangle its strategic space. Given this, it is unsurprising that India’s reaction is to strike back resolutely and not allow China to gain any strategic advantage. India’s thinking was clearly reflected in its behaviour at Donglang. India orchestrated the standoff not just to guarantee the security of the Siliguri Corridor-India’s sensitive ‘chicken’s neck’ connecting its central and north­east regions, but more importantly to jeopardise China’s BRI. In this way, it can reverse its strategic disparity with China in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region and tighten its grip on small countries there. Donglang stand­off revealed India’s strategic ambition and its dissatisfaction towards China’s regional policies.

Indo-Pacific and Its Two Trends

that India cannot match. So, India is determined to adopt an asymmetrical strategy to secure a dominant position in the Indian Ocean. Third, India enforced its military and strategic coordination with the US, Japan, and some South-East Asian countries which have islands disputes with China in the South China Sea. Now, India, the US, Japan, and Australia are talking about building ‘Quad 2.0’. Last, there is a convergence of values and norms between India and western countries towards the BRI. After the BRI forum held in Beijing, Indian mass media and scholars slandered indiscriminately that the BRI violates other country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, lacks transparency, and makes States along the

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belt and road fall into the debt trap.

India demands that connectivity ‘must be based on universally recognised international norms, good governance, the rule of law, openness, transparency, and equality’. India enhanced its cooperation with the US and Japan in Sri Lanka and the Maldives to counter the BRI influence, ‘trying to wean Sri Lanka away from the debt trap created by the Chinese’.

M

y considered view is that India views the BRI and the CPEC projects as China’s measures to dominate Asia and establish its status as a global power. Chinese investment and infrastructure construction in South Asia, the Indian Ocean, and along its

‘Indo-Pacific’ has emerged as a new geopolitical term in recent years. The concept was first developed by Australian and Indian scholars in 2007 and promoted by Americans after the Obama administration put forward the strategic rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific.

With Trump administration officially launching the ‘Indo-Pacific’ strategy, the US, Japan, Australia, India, Indonesia, and some other South-Eastern Asian countries have formed their own ‘IndoPacific’ strategies, although sometimes they are not included in this term. The aim of the US ‘Indo-Pacific’ geostrategy is to balance and even contain China’s increasing influence in the Asia-Pacific region and the Indian Ocean, with the help of some countries in the region.

Now the US wants to play a leading role in integrating these countries’ IndoPacific strategy and counterbalance China’s BRI. The US places high importance on the role of India in its so-called IndoPacific strategy aimed at containing

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BOOK EXTRACT

india; the future of south asia

China. For the US and Japan, India is the ‘linchpin’ in the Indo-Pacific geostrategic system. Many Indian officials and scholars appreciate this idea.

India had thought it might improve its international status and receive financial support from the US and Japan in return for acting as a counterbalance against China and its BRI through the Pacific strategy and the ‘Quad’ grouping. The term ‘Indo-Pacific’ has appeared frequently in recent years in Modi government’s official documents.

However, the Indian government and scholars have different perspectives from the US and other countries on this point. For India, the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy should have at least three pillars: military, economic and commercial besides value, norms, and international law.

However, the US is unlikely to respect India’s national interest in its IndoPacific strategy. For the US, the IndoPacific extends from the west coast of India to the west coast of America and does not include the whole of Indian Ocean. Moreover, the Trump administration’s policies on Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and trade and climate change are all harmful to India’s development circumstances.

India also cannot get enough financial support and investment from the US and Japan to develop its infrastructure, while the advancement of the BRI in the past several years shows that China has both the willingness and capability that India needs. The US and Japan both play a double game towards China and India. It is interesting that Japan put forward the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure and the AsiaAfrica Growth Corridor in words with India while also being eager to cooperate with China on the BRI. Even on the CPEC, which is the main bone of contention between China and India, the

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Japanese ambassador to Pakistan had said that Japan might be open to helping further the project.

The US, Japan, and Australia had talked for a long time to build an alternative to the BRI in this region. And recently, the US Senate passed the Better Utilization of Investment Leading to Development, or BUILD Act, which will create a new US government agency-the US International Development Finance Corporation. The US promises to provide $60 billion to help the world’s impoverished areas to build infrastructure and develop their economy.

Will the US fulfil its promise? Only time will tell.

A

s for the Indo-Pacific strategy, what the US wants first is to build an exclusive military group ‘Quad’, because the US enjoys some advantages in the military field.

Washington changed the name of the Pacific Command to the US IndoPacific Command. On 6 September 2018, in New Delhi, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis held talks with their Indian counterparts-the incumbent External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The US and India signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) and agreed to hold joint exercises involving the Air Force, Navy, and the Army of the eastern Indian coast in 2019. The two plus two ministerial dialogue mechanism has long been established between the US and its regional allies such as Japan and Australia. With the establishment of such an arrangement between the US and India, a similar two plus two ministerial dialogue mechanism between India and Japan was established in late October when PM Modi visited Japan. It is expected

that the Australia-India strategic cooperation mechanism will also be further upgraded. If so, the formation of a quadrilateral security dialogue comprising the US, Japan, Australia, and India is not far away.

India hopes to counterbalance China through strengthened strategic and security cooperation with countries including Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. It is also reinforcing collaboration with the US. On the one hand, India hopes it could rely on the US to counterbalance China; on the

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there will be more cooperation.

In his keynote speech at the 17th Shangri-La Dialogue held in June 2018 in Singapore, the incumbent Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised more cooperation with China, calling Beijing a ‘major partner’ and praising the two countries for their maturity and wisdom in managing differences and ensuring a peaceful border. The Indian leader criticised protectionism and put forward a vision for the Indo-Pacific region that differs from New Delhi’s former policy declarations and diplomatic moves, which disappointed Western media that had anticipated the siege of China by India’s alliance with Japan and other countries.

In the speech, Modi seems to avoid referring to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with the US, Japan, and Australia. He defined the ‘Indo-Pacific’ as a geographical concept rather than a strategy.

The Wuhan Meeting and the Essence of China-India Relationship

B other, it does not want to lose strategic independence and degrade into a pawn of the US. However, as seen in the interactions between India and the US, there has been more and more convergence between India’s China strategy and the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy.

Now, in the so-called Indo-Pacific region, there are two different propositions. One underlines its geopolitical and geostrategic significance, advocating the establishment of a political, military, and value alliance from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean.

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The other demands countries within the region conduct economic cooperation, expanding the industry chains and financial networks of North East Asia to the Indian Ocean Region to provide impetus to the economy. The latter is embodied in the BRI of China. India holds a critical position in both propositions. In the first proposition, constructing an ‘Indo-Asia-Pacific’ from the geopolitical perspective may lead to military and strategic competition or conflicts, while in the second, which emphasises geo-economic significance,

oth China and India drew some lessons from the Donglang standoff in the summer of 2017, which set bilateral relations at a low ebb. On 27-28 April 2018, the incumbent Chinese President Xi Jinping held an informal meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting, which took place just over a month before the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit that Modi had decided to attend, reflects India’s urgent desire to boost relations with China.

The informal meeting also shows that China is willing to receive Modi with extraordinary treatment and that it respects India as a major power. The informal meeting was a result of China and India’s coincidence of interests in the international sphere. Xi and Modi, as the leaders of the two largest develop-

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BOOK EXTRACT

india; the future of south asia

ing countries, feel that the two countries need to deliberate on some of the longterm strategic issues embedded in their bilateral relations and international affairs. President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi reached a broad consensus on the overarching, long-term and strategic issues of global and bilateral importance. The success of Wuhan informal summit shows the essence of China-India bilateral relationship.

The author has published articles that show how the Sino-Indian rela-

and India possess similar positions in the current international system. They are beneficiaries of the current international system, but at the same time, they are constrained by this system and suppressed by the dominant power in the system. They want to improve and reform this system. So, China and India have common interests on many global issues, such as the reform of the international financial system, climate change, WTO negotiation, and so on.

China and India led the develop-

tionship is, in essence, a competitive symbiotic relationship.13 First of all, there are some competitions between China and India, mainly in geopolitics, the trade market, energy, etc., but these competitions are not necessarily cut-throat and zero-sum. China and India can cooperate if they have mutual trust. In fact, China and India do have good cooperation in many fields, such as energy and anti-terrorism.

In addition to the competition, SinoIndian symbiotic relationship can be divided into four levels: First, as two big powers that rise simultaneously, China

ment of human civilisations since ancient times but were bullied by the West in modem history. If the two emerging economies can develop their relations into an intimate partnership and a new type of major-country relations, there is great hope for the rapid rise of China and India and the revival of Asia. However, western countries may not be resigned to losing leadership and dominance over the world that have lasted hundreds of years.

As the world is undergoing profound changes, Beijing and New Delhi should ponder whether to promote the

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rejuvenation of Asian civilisations or to fall into conflict and confrontation because of the West’s conspiracy to drive a wedge between them. If China, India, and other BRICS countries failed to consolidate on these global issues, they would be crushed one by one by the dominant power in the system and lose chances to rise again forever.

S

econd, in the trilateral relations of China, India, and the US, the promotion of India’s status benefits from China’s rise. China’s development and growth is the prerequisite for India’s growth that western countries regard.

The US just wants to utilise India to counterbalance China. If there is a conflict between China and India, India would have to face the pressure from China alone, as the Donglang standoff showed. But if India surpasses China, it will definitely replace its neighbour as a target for the US. The largest source of uncertainty and instability of the world today is the US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. Over the past 30 years, India’s stalled reforms made it miss the Golden Age of Rapid Globalisation, while China successfully seized the opportunity and achieved rapid economic growth through reform and opening-up. After Modi came to power, he was quick to learn from the Chinese model and become part of the global industrial chain by promoting ‘Make in India’ and taking up comprehensive reforms. How­ever, with a wave of anti-globalisation sentimentparticularly Trump’s ‘America first’ doctrine-in recent years, the western countries have established trade barriers to restore their manufacturing.

China became the new standard-bearer of globalisation.

Third, as two neighbouring powers in Asia, both China and India need

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a peaceful and stable periphery to develop their economies. Statesmen in both countries know clearly that development is the primary task for their country, and growth requires stable and conducive circumstances.

So, it is a common task for China and India to maintain the stability of the region. This is the determinant factor that encouraged China and India to solve Donglang Standoff peacefully in 2017 summer.

At last, the Chinese and Indian economies are complementary. Since they are symbiotic, they could provide nourishment to each other for their partner’s survival and development at least in theory. Sino-Indian bilateral trade developed quickly in the past ten years, and the trade volume has surpassed US$80 billion in 2017.

Although Indians complain that there are some problems in bilateral trade structure, and the Indian trade deficit is too large, China is opening its market to Indian goods. China and India have a large room to cooperate, especially in infrastructure construction.

The Future of China-India Relations The Nonalignment 2.0 report of 2012 warned and mentioned that India’s China strategy must strike a careful balance between cooperation and competition, economic and political interests, and bilateral and regional contexts. It further added, “Given India’s current and future asymmetries in strength and influence, ‘India must grasp the essence of this balance. This may be the most important challenge for India’s strategy

Quad at the summit, the US, Japan, Australia, and India will continue to hold talks and discuss cooperation. The four-nation military alliance is the core of the Indo-Pacific strategy. India will continue its efforts to expand its IndoPacific strategy from a security network to economic cooperation, and strengthen ties with Japan, Australia, Singapore, the UK, France, and other countries.

By promoting the Asia-Africa Growth Corridors and other mechanisms to expand spheres of influence, India is

in the future.” Nevertheless, the Modi government has not achieved this balance in the past four years. The failure led to a months-long border standoff in Donglang in 2017 had brought India and China on the brink of a military conflict.

It is hard to say whether New Delhi will achieve this balance in the future.

At the Shangri-La Dialogue, Modi’s remarks about India’s role in the Indo­ Pacific region and its maritime strategy have obviously shown his ambition to expand India’s maritime power.

Although Modi did not mention the

trying to oppress China’s influence through the so-called International Laws and Rules.

President Xi and PM Modi have reached many consensuses during their informal meetings, including enhancing cooperation under the framework of BCIM and ‘China-India plus’ cooperation, but putting those consensuses into practice remains a big challenge for Modi. Diplomatic and strategic elites in India should ramp up efforts in this regard. However, a great number of them have been beset by stereotypical mindsets including the sphere of influ-

C

hina has massive amounts of capital and rich experience in the development of infrastructure, while India needs to improve the construction of infrastructure facilities but lacks finance. Sino­Indian cooperation in this field will benefit both sides. Indian senior officials have publicly welcomed Chinese investments on many occasions. Just after the Donglang standoff, in a meeting with China’s Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan in Manila, the Indian Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu called for more Chinese investment in India and said there would be ‘facilitating measures, including in SEZs [special economic zones]’. In fact, India wants to utilise China’s abundant resources.

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BOOK EXTRACT

india; the future of south asia

ence, regional hegemony, and a Cold War mentality. They are also calculative and unwilling to make even the smallest sacrifice and are adept at linking their perceived trivial losses to the bilateral ties with China. From the aspect of domestic politics, by making anti-China waves, Indian politicians can shift public attention from domestic contradictions, bolster national morale, and pull votes; and the military can get budget! From the aspect of international politics, by the same analogy, India can obtain advanced weaponry and technologies from western countries.

Therefore, the barrier to implementing those consensuses remains formidable.

F

urthermore, India’s adjustment of policy towards China is a tactical one, not a strategic one, although both the top leaders have met several times after the Wuhan informal summit, and some consensus has been implemented too. India wants to get better development opportunities and realise some domestic political goals through this shift. The most urgent task for PM Modi is the general election in 2019. As the former Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran noted after the summit, ‘Modi-Xi summit gives India the chance to expand its diplomatic options in the neighbourhood and beyond.’ The only effective instrument for managing India-China relations will be a significant, sustained and rapid development of India’s economic and security capabilities, thus narrowing the power gap between the two Asian giants.

The direction of Sino-Indian relations is determined in mid-term at least, but border issue is still a yoke in bilateral relations, although the two special representatives, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the Chinese State Councillor and Foreign

54

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Minister Wang Yi just held excellent talks on border affairs at Chengdu. The 1962 conflict had created a deep trust deficit between China and India. India had some domestic reflection on the Sino­Indian conflict of 1962 and Nehru’s policy towards China at that time, but no consensus was achieved. The Indian government never revealed to the public the Henderson-Brooks Report that summarised the reasons why India was defeated. A coherent or similar view of history will play a decisive role in the peaceful resolution of the Sino-Indian border problem. It is necessary for the Indian government to uncover the

truth of Sino-Indian boundary conflict to the Indian people; and facilitate the Chinese and Indian scholars to conduct joint research on some historical problems, to alter both sides’ longstanding misconceptions.

Today, both countries’ top leaders play the main role in the management of bilateral relations. In the future, different levels of people-to-people exchanges will be key to improving the relationship. But it is tough to change the mindset of India’s strategic elites who will decide India’s policy towards China in the future. There remains a long road ahead for China and India. g

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birthdays IAS officers’ birthdays Oct 20, 2019 — Nov 19, 2019

IAS officers’ birthdays Oct 20, 2019 — Nov 19, 2019

Manish Rastogi

Dharam Pal

TK Manoj Kumar

Rajat Kumar

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: UNION TERRITORY

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: Telangana

rastogim@ias.nic.in

pald@ias.nic.in

manojktk@ias.nic.in

kumarr91@ias.nic.in

HK Patel

Kshitij Singhal

Jivesh Nandan

Naveen Mahajan

CADRE: Gujarat

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

hk.patel@ias.nic.in

kashok.singhal@ias.nic.in

nandanj@ias.nic.in

mahajann@ias.nic.in

Brajendra Navnit

Niten Chandra

B Chandra Mohan

Raghwendra Kumar Singh

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: ORISSA

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

navnitb@ias.nic.in

nchandra@ias.nic.in

mohanbc@ias.nic.in

srkumar1@ias.nic.in

Praveen Garg

Kumar Sanjay Krishna

RH Gadhavicharan

Sameer Sharma

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

gargp@ias.nic.in

krishnak@ias.nic.in

ratankanvar.ias09@ias.nic.in

ssameer@ias.nic.in

Hemraj Bairwa

Piyush Singh

Vineet Joshi

DV Prasad

CADRE: HIMACHAL PRADESH

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA

CADRE: KARNATAKA

hemraj.bairwa@ias.nic.in

singhp7@ias.nic.in

joshiv1@ias.nic.in

prasaddv@ias.nic.in

K Rajaraman

Aravind Kumar

Sitaram Janardan Kunte

Vijoy Kumar Singh

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: PUNJAB

rajaram1@ias.nic.in

karvind1@ias.nic.in

kuntesj@ias.nic.in

singhvk5@ias.nic.in

Apoorva Kumar Singh

V Candavelou

V Vidyavathi

DH Shah

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: UNION TERRITORY

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: GUJARAT

sapoorva@ias.nic.in

candavel@ias.nic.in

vidyav@ias.nic.in

dh.shah@ias.nic.in

Atal Dulloo

Dhanalakshmi K

Nivedita Shukla Verma

Arvind Mehta

CADRE: JAMMU AND KASHMIR

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: HIMACHAL PRADESH

dullooa@ias.nic.in

kdhana@ias.nic.in

svnivedi@ias.nic.in

amehta@ias.nic.in

Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi

Hari Ramulu

Vivek Atrey

Sharat Chauhan

CADRE: JHARKHAND

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: UNION TERRITORY

cindus@ias.nic.in

ramuluh@ias.nic.in

vivek.atrey@ias.nic.in

csharat@ias.nic.in

Manoj Aggarwal

Madhumita Sinha Roy

Ashutosh Salil

Alok Nigam

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: HARYANA

aggarwlm@ias.nic.in

madhumita.sroy@ias.nic.in

ashutoshsalil.ias2010@ias.nic.in

nigama@ias.nic.in

Kamran Rizvi

Sunil M Patel

Milind Jayant Mhaiskar

Naresh Kumar

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: UNION TERRITORY

rizvik@ias.nic.in

sm.patel60@ias.nic.in

mhaiskar@ias.nic.in

kumarn5@ias.nic.in

Srikanth Banoth

M Raju

Sachin Jaiswal

Rajan Vishal

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: JAMMU AND KASHMIR

CADRE: NAGALAND

CADRE: Rajasthan

srikanthbanoth.ias09@ias.nic.in

m.raju@ias.nic.in

sachin.jaiswal@ias.nic.in

rajan.vishal@ias.nic.in

R Lalvena

M Veerabramaiah

Kalpana Mittal Baruah

Debashri Mukherjee

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: Telangana

CADRE: PUNJAB

CADRE: UNION TERRITORY

lalvenar@ias.nic.in

vbramiah@ias.nic.in

baruahkm@ias.nic.in

dmukher@ias.nic.in

20-10-1970

25-10-1963

20-10-1962

25-10-1988

21-10-1974

25-10-1965

21-10-1961

26-10-1960

23-10-1986

26-10-1976

24-10-1963

26-10-1966

24-10-1967

26-10-1971

24-10-1966

27-10-1972

24-10-1962

24-10-1963

29-10-1963

24-10-1966

29-10-1960

25-10-1981

25-10-1977

28-10-1960

29-10-1977

29-10-1962

30-10-1961

30-10-1961

31-10-1969

01-11-1984

02-11-1968

03-11-1961

03-11-1967

03-11-1967

04-11-1966

05-11-1982

06-11-1968

10-11-1990

10-11-1960

12-11-1963

13-11-1971

14-11-1968

15-11-1961

15-11-1960

15-11-1964

16-11-1964

16-11-1960

17-11-1968

18-11-1961

18-11-1963

19-11-1981

19-11-1968

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com

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birthdays IPS officers’ birthdays Oct 20, 2019 — Nov 19, 2019

IPS officers’ birthdays Oct 20, 2019 — Nov 19, 2019

Vineet Agarwal

Suman Gupta

Pramod Verma

L Bendand Lemtur

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: JHARKHAND

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: Nagaland

vagarwal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sumangupta@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

pramodverma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

l.blemtur@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

A Ravi Shankar

Shive Kumar Verma

Arvind Kumar

R Sudhakar

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: PUNJAB

CADRE: Bihar

CADRE: Tamil Nadu

vagarwal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

skverma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

arvindk@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sudhakar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

T Kandasamy

Bharat Lal Meena

Sunil Kumar Singh

G Dharmarajan

CADRE: JHARKHAND

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: Tamil Nadu

tkandasamy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

lmbharat@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sunilkumarsingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

dharmarajan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

MT Ganeshmoorthy

VC Sajjanar

Manoj Kaushik

SK Shah

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: JHARKHAND

CADRE: BIHAR

ganesamoorthy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

vcsajjanar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

manojkaushik@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

skshah@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor

Sanjay Kumar

Abhay Kumar Prasad

Viswajit Kampati

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: Telangana

shatrujeet@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

ksanjay@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

abhaykp@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

viswajit.k@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Prabhat Kumar

Ashutosh Kumar Sinha

Amit Garg

Tripurari Atharv

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: MANIPUR

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: West Bengal

prabhatkr@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

akumarsinha@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

amitgarg@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

tatharv@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Deepam Seth

Ayush Mani Tiwari

Sunil Kumar

Tenzing Loden Lepcha

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: BIHAR

CADRE: Sikkim

deepam@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

amtiwari@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sunilkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

lepcha@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Joga Umesh

Pramod Shripad Phalnikar

Tilotma Verma

Sudhanshu Kumar

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: Bihar

jumesh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

psphalnikar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

tilotma@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

skumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Biju George Joseph K

K Laxmi Narayan Rao

Vinyatosh Mishra

Millind Rambhau Bharambe

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: ORISSA

CADRE: Maharashtra

bijugeorge@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

klnrao@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

vinyatoshmishra@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

rambhau@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Navniet Sekera

Shalini Singh

Suman Bala Sahoo

G Vijay Kumar

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: AGMUT

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: Andhra Pradesh

navneet@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

shalinisingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sbalasahoo@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

gvkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Asra Garg

Sudesh Kumar

Atul Singh

Neethu Kamal

CADRE: Tamil Nadu

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: Chhattisgarh

asrag@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sudeshkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

atul_singh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

neethu.k@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Arvind Deep

J B Pandit Rao

Chhaya Sharma

Sanjay V Mane

CADRE: AGMUT

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: AGMUT

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

arvindd@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

panditrao@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

chhaya@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

svmane@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

T Suneel Kumar

Ashit Mohan Prasad

Amanat Mann

Sonia Narang

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: Uttar Pradesh

CADRE: KARNATAKA

tskumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

amprasad@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

mann@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sonia@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

20-10-1968

20-10-1968

20-10-1969

20-10-1961

21-10-1966

21-10-1967

21-10-1968

21-10-1967

22-10-1967

22-10-1971

23-10-1980

23-10-1962

23-10-1960

23-10-1972

23-10-1971

23-10-1967

24-10-1968

24-10-1972

25-10-1968

25-10-1971

26-10-1962

26-10-1967

26-10-1968

27-10-1962

28-10-1963

29-10-1960

29-10-1971

30-10-1966

31-10-1962

31-10-1976

01-11-1965

01-11-1967

01-11-1970

02-11-1965

03-11-1966

04-11-1963

04-11-1968

05-11-1971

06-11-1990

07-11-1961

08-11-1978

09-11-1979

10-11-1983

11-11-1987

12-11-1972

13-11-1982

14-11-1970

15-11-1971

16-11-1968

16-11-1983

17-11-1961

17-11-1975

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

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10/17/2019 9:19:10 AM

Lok Sabha Members Oct 20, 2019 — Nov 19, 2019

Lok Sabha Members Oct 20, 2019 — Nov 19, 2019

Sudarshan Bhagat

Devusinh Jesingbhai Chauhan

TRVS Ramesh

Anurag Sharma

BJP (Jharkhand)

BJP (Gujarat)

DMK (Tamil Nadu)

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

s.bhagat@sansad.nic.in

devusinhc.jesinbhai@sansad.nic.in

cuddaloramp@gmail.com

anurag_sharma@gmail.com

Farooq Abdullah

Gurjeet Singh Aujla

Hasmukhbhai S Patel

LS Tejasvi Surya

J&KNC (Jammu and Kashmir)

INC (Punjab)

BJP (Gujarat)

BJP (Karnataka)

iamfarooq70@hotmail.com

aujla786.gs@gmail.com

hasmukh_1160@yahoo.com

tejasvisurya55@gmail.com

Jagdambika Pal

Chirag Paswan

Ram Kripal Yadav

Jyotsna Charandas Mahant

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

LJSP (Bihar)

BJP (Bihar)

INC (Chhattisgarh)

jagdambika.pal@sansad.nic.in

office.chiragpaswan@gmail.com

ramkripal.yadav@sansad.nic.in

jmkorba04@gmail.com

Virendra Singh

Santosh Kumar Gangwar

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

virendra.singh19@sansad.nic.in

santoshg@sansad.nic.in

Amit Anil Chandra Shah

Lallu Singh

20-10-1969

29-10-1964

21-10-1937

30-10-1972

21-10-1950

31-10-1982

21-10-1956

01-11-1948

22-10-1964

01-11-1954

BJP (Gujarat)

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

amitshah.mp@sansad.nic.in

lallu.singh@sansad.nic.in

Harish Dwivedi

Bheemrao Baswanthrao Patil

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

TRS (Telangana)

harishchandra.mp@sansad.nic.in

bbpatil@sansad.nic.in

22-10-1973

01-11-1955

Kotagiri Sridhar

Rajashree Mallick

YSR Congress Party (Andhra Pradesh)

BJD (Odisha)

skotagiri@yahoo.com

rajeeshreemallickjsp@gmail.com

Pinaki Misra

Chandra Prakash Joshi

22-10-1973

03-11-1964

23-10-1959

04-11-1975

BJD (Odisha)

BJP (Rajasthan)

pinakimisra@hotmail.com

cpjoshi.mp@sansad.nic.in

Shobha Karandlaje

Jitendra Singh

23-10-1966

06-11-1956

BJP (Karnataka)

BJP (Jammu and Kashmir)

comshobhakarandlaje@sansad.nic.in drjitendras@gmail.com

Anurag Singh Thakur

Rajesh Verma

24-10-1974

06-11-1960

BJP (Himachal Pradesh)

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

hpcapresident@yahoo.com

verma.rajesh@sansad.nic.in

Adala Prabhakara Reddy

Parvesh Sahib Singh

YSR Congress Party (Andhra Pradesh)

BJP (NCT of Delhi)

adalaprabhakarreddy@gmail.com

parvesh.sahib@sansad.nic.in

Vijay Kumar Hansdak

Abhishek Banerjee

JMM (Jharkhand)

AITC (West Bengal)

vijayhansdak@gmail.com

abhishekbanerjee.mp@gmail.com

Durga Das Uikey

Anumula Revanth Reddy

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

INC (Telangana)

dduikey12@gmail.com

revanthreddy@sansad.nic.in

25-10-1948

27-10-1982

29-10-1963

07-11-1977

07-11-1987

08-11-1967

09-11-1970

11-11-1960

12-11-1957

gfiles (Oct 2019).indb 57

16-11-1990

18-11-1953

Rajya Sabha Members Oct 20, 2019 — Nov 19, 2019 Bashistha Narain Singh

KTS Tulsi

JD(U) (Bihar)

NOM. (Nominated)

bnsingh@sansad.nic.in

kts.tulsi@sansad.nic.in

MV Rajeev Gowda

Satish Chandra Misra

INC (Karnataka)

BSP (Uttar Pradesh)

rajeev.gowda@sansad.nic.in

satish.misra@sansad.nic.in

Anil Agrawal

Vinay P Sahasrabuddhe

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

BJP (Maharashtra)

dranilagrawal.mprs@sansad.nic.in

vinay.prabhakar@sansad.nic.in

Javed Ali Khan

Neeraj Shekhar

SP (Uttar Pradesh)

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

24-10-1947

29-10-1963

31-10-1962

31-10-1962

javedali.khan@sansad.nic.in

Ranee Narah 31-10-1965 INC (Assam)

ranee.narah@sansad.nic.in

Kirodi Lal Meena 03-11-1951

BJP (Rajasthan)

drkirodi.meena51@sansad.nic.in

Kailash Soni 04-11-1950

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

kailashsoni.mp@sansad.nic.in

Nazir Ahmed Laway 05-11-1963

J&K PDP (Jammu & Kashmir)

nazir.laway786@sansad.nic.in

KG Kenye

06-11-1960 NPF (Nagaland)

kg.kenye@sansad.nic.in

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com

16-11-1964

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07-11-1947

09-11-1952

10-11-1957

10-11-1968

Manish Gupta 11-11-1941

AITC (West Bengal)

manish.gupta11@sansad.nic.in

Ambika Soni 13-11-1942 INC (Punjab)

ambika@sansad.nic.in

SR Balasubramoniyan 14-11-1938

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

Mahesh Poddar 14-11-1949

BJP (Jharkhand)

mahesh.poddar@sansad.nic.in

Shambhuprasadji Tundiya 14-11-1970

BJP (Gujarat)

sb.tundiya@sansad.nic.in

Sanjay Raut 15-11-1961

SS (Maharashtra)

s.raut@sansad.nic.in

gfiles inside the government

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Tracking

President Ram Nath Kovind in a group photograph at the presentation of the Colours to Corps of Army Air Defence, at Gopalpur, in Odisha.

PK Mishra The former 1972-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed Principal Secretary to the PM Narendra Modi.

Raghvendra Singh

Justice Krishna Murari Justice Krishna Murari has been appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India.

The former 1983-batch IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, Development of Museums and Cultural Spaces (CEO-DMCS).

Justice S Ravindra Bhat

Shrikant Baldi

Justice V Ramasubramanian has been appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India.

The 1985-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre has been appointed Chief Secretary in Himachal Pradesh.

SC Gupta The 1986-batch IAS officer of the Sikkim cadre has been appointed Chief Secretary in Sikkim.

Anil Kumar Jain The 1986-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been appointed Secretary, Ministry of Coal.

Alok Tandon The 1986-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre has been appointed Industrial & Infrastructure Development Commissioner of UP.

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Justice Shripathi Ravindra Bhat has been appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of India.

Justice V Ramasubramanian

Justice Hrishikesh Roy Justice Hrishikesh Roy has been appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India.

Justice Vikram Nath Justice Vikram Nath has been appointed as Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court.

Praveen Prakash The 1994-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre has been appointed Principal Secretary to Chief Minister with full additional charge of Principal Secretary, General Administration.

SK Lohani The 1995-batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre has been appointed Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Odisha.

Munishy Moudgil The 1998-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre has been appointed Commissioner, Survey, Settlement & Land Records, Bengaluru in Karnataka.

Rajeev Ranjann The 1998-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre has been appointed DG, Fisheries in Haryana.

Gyanesh Bharti The 1998-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre has been appointed Commissioner, South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Sanjay Prasad

Diwakar Mishra

The 1986-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed State Election Commissioner for the State of Gujarat.

The 2000-batch IAS officer of the AssamMeghalaya cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary in Department of Commerce.

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10/17/2019 9:19:11 AM

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu with a group of officers of the 2017 batch of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), in New Delhi.

DN Singh

Dilip Kumar

The 2005-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre has been appointed Commissioner (Food Safety) with additional charge of Commissioner (Food Safety) of NCT, New Delhi.

The 2008-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been appointed Deputy Secretary to Governor in Madhya Pradesh.

Basant Garg The 2005-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to Som Prakash, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.

Subodh Kumar The 2010-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to DV Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Manjunath Bhajantri

cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog.

Surendra Kumar Meena The 2012-batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to Ms Renuka Singh, Minister for Tribal Affairs.

Aribam Radhabinod Sharma

Moving On: IAS officers retiring in October 2019

The 2012-batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre has been appointed Deputy Secretary, Rural Development and Water Conservation Department, Mumbai in Maharashtra.

Assam-Meghalaya

Himachal Pradesh

MN Harendira Prasad

Tanington Dkhar (1997)

Vidya Chander Pharka (1983)

Andhra Pradesh

Maharashtra

Manmohan Singh (1985)

Urvinder P Singh Madan (1983) Sunil Y Patil (2004)

D Sabitha (1988) P Manimaran (2012)

The 2015-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre has been appointed Deputy Secretary to Government, Finance Department & Chief Executive Officer, Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS) with additional charge of Managing Director, Andhra Pradesh State Kapu Welfare Development Corporation in Andhra Pradesh.

Union territory

Vivek Johri

Sheo Pratap Singh (2001) Tarsem Kumar (2002)

The 1984-batch IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been appointed Director General, Border Security Force (BSF).

Chhattisgarh Sunil Kumar Kujur (1986) Koppala Durgananda Prasad Rao (1988)

Gujarat LP Padalia (2003) SB Patel (2006)

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The 2011-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand

Tamil nadu

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Tracking Neeraj Sinha The 1990-batch IPS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Inspector General of Police in Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).

Naunihal Singh Aulakh The 1997-batch IPS officer of the Punjab cadre has been appointed IG Punjab Zone in Punjab.

B Bala Bhaskar The 1993-batch IFS officer has been appointed Dr B Bala Bhaskar has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Norway.

Godavarthi Venkata Srinivas The 1993-batch IFS officer has been Ambassador of India to the Republic of Guinea Bissau.

H Venuprasad The 1996-batch IFS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre has been appointed Senior Deputy Director, FSI, Bengaluru.

Somnath Ghosh The 1997-batch IFS officer has been appointed Officer on Special Duty Department of Defence.

Ritu Raj Singh The 1997-batch IFS officer of the AGMUT cadre has been appointed Senior Deputy Director, FSI, Dehradun.

Rakesh Kumar Jagenia The 2002-batch IFS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre has been appointed Deputy Inspector General of Forests (DIGF), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), New Delhi.

Prachi Gangwar The 2003-batch IFS officer of the Karnataka cadre has been appointed Deputy Inspector General of Forests (C), Regional Office (RO), Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF &CC), Lucknow.

Anand Kumar Prabhakar The 2004-batch IFS officer of the Odisha cadre has been appointed Deputy Inspector General of Forests (DIGF), Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

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Reshuffle of IAS officers in Himachal Pradesh Sanjay Gupta has been appointed ACS, Ayurveda, Redressal of Public Grievances and Animal Husbandry with additional charge of Financial Commissioner Appeals; C Paulrasu is Secretary, Urban Development and Town & Country Planning; Amitabh Avasthi is Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Horticulture.

Reshuffle of IPS officers in Delhi Govt Suvasha Choudhary has been appointed Additional CP, Licensing; Rajeev Ranjan has been appointed Additional CP, Special Branch; Braja Kishore Singh is Additional CP, Crime; Dheeraj Kumar has been appointed Additional, Vigilance; Suman Goyal is Additional CP, Traffic; Deepak Purhoit is DCP, West District; Atul Kumar Thakur is DCP, South District; Monika Bharadwaj is DCP, North District;Â A Koan is DCP, Outer District; Ved Prakash Surya is DCP, North-East District; Amit Sharma is DCP, Shahdara District; Rohit Meena has been appointed Additional DCP-1, Central District.

Reshuffle of IAS officers in Karnataka V Anbu Kumar has been appointed Additional Commissioner, Administration BBMP, Bengaluru; N V Prasad has been appointed Director, Directorate of Mass Education; Randeep is Additional Commissioner, Solid Waste Management, BBMP; K P Mohan Raj has been appointed Commissioner, Employment & Training; Richard Vincent D'Souza is MD, NHM Directorate of Health & Family Welfare Services; T H M Kumar is Project Director, Karnataka State Aids Prevention Society; Pallavi Akurathi is Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Expenditure Monitoring, DP & AR Elections; V Ram Prasanth Manohar is MD, Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation Limited; R Venkatesh Kumar is Deputy Commissioner, Raichur district; Sindhu B Rupesh is Deputy Commissioner, Dakshina Kannada district, Mangalore; Darshan H V is Commissioner, Kalaburagi City Corporation; Mohd Ikramulla Sharif is Chief Executive Officer, Panchayat Kolar; Anandh K is CEO, Bidar Zilla Panchayat; Pandve Rahul Tukram is CEO, Davanagere Zilla Panchayat; Bhoyar Harshal Narayanrao is CEO, Chamaraj Nagar Zilla Panchayat; Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar is CEO, Gadag Zilla Panchayat; Preeti Gehlot is CEO, Udup Zilla Panchayat; Shivashankar is MD, Karnataka State Warehousing corporation Ltd; Karee Gowda is Director, Agriculture Marketing; K S Lathakumari has been appointed Secretary, RERA.

Honnareddy N The 2008-batch IFS officer of the Tripura cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to Pralhad V Joshi, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines.

Abhay Kumar Thakur The IRS-IT officer has been appointed Finance Officer in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi.

KM Mahesh The IRS-IT officer has been appointed Private Secretary to Prakash Javadekar,

Minister for Environment, Forests, Climate Change and IB.

Shukracharya K Jadhav The IRS-IT officer of the Jharkhand cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to Raosaheb Patil Danve, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Kirti The 2014-batch IES officer has been appointed Deputy Director, Department of Higher Education.

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...by the way New power centres in PMO

W

In one day, out the other

T

here is nothing new about palace intrigues. Anything can happen, at any time and only the king knows what is happening–especially when Narendra Modi is at the helm of affairs. As per sources, no one knows what Modi is up to: his moves are closely guarded. Bhaskar Khulbe, a 1983batch IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre, was serving as Secretary to the Prime Minister. He was sanctioned a sixmonth extension in March 2019. Khulbe came into prominence when the PMO revealed the salaries of its staff.

Khulbe emerged as the highest-paid PMO man with a monthly salary of `2.01 lakh. Everybody was sure in the PMO that Khulbe would get another extension as he was hard working and understood the mindset of Mr. Modi.

Sometimes, he even used to write the Prime Minister’s speeches. He was working till the last day late into night with the Prime Minister but he quietly moved out from PMO on September 30, 2019, as his term was over. This surprised everybody. Insiders inform, that Khulbe himself did not want another extension as the fast paced work schedule of the PMO didn’t leave any time for an officer to look after family and immediate needs. There is no Secretary now as per the PMO website. Now PMO is being governed by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra. Before leaving for the day Khulbe met the PM for half an hour. He shook hands with him and exited from the PMO. Khulbe is now resting at his Lodhi Estate house.

Sources disclosed that the PM may still utilise his talent in something or the other. g

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ho is the most powerful officer in the Prime Minister’s Office after PK Mishra and PK Sinha? The question is difficult to answer as every officer in the PMO is equally important and influential. Still observing the work distribution, AK Sharma and Tarun Bajaj, both 1988-batch IAS officers from Gujarat and Haryana cadre, respectively, would tie for the distinction. Both have been allotted the work of Secretary to the Prime Minister though they will remain as Additional Secretaries. AK Sharma was in the Gujarat Chief Minister’s office since 2001 (when Narendra Modi was CM). Sharma handled industry and corporate issues besides Modi’s meetings with foreign dignitaries. He played a key role in organising the Vibrant Gujarat summits. Sharma also helped relocate the Tata Nano plant to Sanand from West Bengal’s Singur. Before coming to PMO, he was Additional Principal Secretary to the Gujarat CM. Sharma was among the first to be appointed in the Modi PMO, along with Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra. In fact, he is believed to be one of the very few officers from the Gujarat CM’s office who were in Delhi when Modi went to the President to stake claim to form the government. Sharma is also credited with changing the US’ attitude towards Modi. It is believed that the Sharma played a key role in bringing Nancy Powell, then the US ambassador to India, to Gandhinagar, for a meeting with Modi before the 2014 general elections were announced. The other officer is soft-spoken Tarun Bajaj. Bajaj has an excellent academic record and is M.Sc from London School of Economics and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. He has rich experience as a serving officer in the power, finance and tourism sectors.

He has served as Joint Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs, looking after the Insurance Sector. His importance in PMO can be gauged from the fact that Bajaj has charge of several key ministries (including the ones focused on science and technology) plus Parliament, Right to Information (RTI), Jammu & Kashmir, the Northeastern states and Haryana. In addition, he has oversight of finance, trade, corporate affairs, NITI Aayog and statistics. g

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...by the way

Finally lateral entry officials join

T

he first lateral entrants into the Government of India have finally joined work as joint secretaries across different ministries. It was an uphill task to train and acclimatise them to the mindset of working within the government. The government assigned the task of training them to the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA).

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba himself held the fort along with Bhasker Kulbe, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, 15th Finance Commission chairman N K Singh and several secretaries, sources disclosed. The task was how they can work effectively within the government.

DOPT Secretary C Chandramouli focused on the challenges a JS lateral would be facing in managing pressure, keeping conflict of interest at bay and the challenge of ‘earning respect and creating a space’. Rural Development Secretary Amarjeet Singh lectured a session on ‘dos and don’ts’ while Additional Secretary in the personnel & training department, Sujata Chaturvedi, outlined ‘a day in the life of a joint secretary’. PMO Joint Secretary Debarshee Mukherjee briefed on ‘what all a joint secretary can do?’ Special sessions were held on the system of ‘drafting’ and ‘noting’ in the government, official, correspondence rules.

Former IAS officer B S Baswan detailed the Weberian-Westminster model and tents of ‘sound public policy’. IAS officer Ravindra Kumar held a session on the Central Civil

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Services conduct rules of 1964, the need to uphold the supremacy of the constitution, political neutrality and accountability. Secretary DPIIT, Guruprasad Mohapatra, spent an entire session explain the Centre’s $5 trillion economy plan. Secretary, Drinking water and Sanitation, Parameshwaran Iyer talked of ‘bringing change at scale’. Prakash Kumar, CEO of the Goods and Services Tax Network, offered an insight into ‘disruptive transformations’. Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library Shakti Sinha did a session on how the thoughts of Gandhi and Sardar Patel impacted policy and governance in India. Arvind Gupta, former CEO of MyGoV.in, underlined the use of technology for governance.

Amitabh Kant and Bhaskar Kulbe stressed on management practices in the government.

Deepak Bagla of Invest India held forth on ‘Managing hierarchy’ within the government, explaining how to engage with Ministers and Secretaries. Vikram S Mehta emphasised the differences in lives of civil servants and private sector professionals.

Nandan Nilekani was also invited to enlighten new recruits and explain how the strengths of private sector can have large impact on governance. Chairman, Quality Council of India, Adil Zainulbhai emphasised on ‘relationship building in government’. To give a field experience, the new officials were taken on a field visit to Alwar to understand the on-ground working of a national flagship mission like Jal Shakti Abhiyan. g

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