A K Bhattacharya: The search continues

This time, the PM has less choice when it comes to selecting bureaucrats for key jobs

This time round, Manmohan Singh has less choice when it comes to selecting bureaucrats for key jobs.

As finance minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government, Manmohan Singh took little time in asserting himself, particularly when it came to appointing senior officials in key positions.

Stepping into North Block in June 1991, he had inherited a finance ministry that had S P Shukla as finance secretary, K P Geethakrishnan as expenditure secretary, P K Lahiri as revenue secretary and Deepak Nayyar as chief economic advisor. Six months later, it was a new-look finance ministry.

There were no immediate changes though and Dr Singh presented his first budget in July with a team that he had inherited from his predecessor. By December 1991, however, the top team underwent a major change. K P Geethakrishnan became the finance secretary in charge of the revenue department, Shukla was moved out of the finance ministry, Lahiri was sent to Asian Development Bank in Manila and Nayyar quit. Most significantly, the government appointed Montek Singh Ahluwalia (who was then the commerce secretary) secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs and economist Ashok Desai was appointed the chief consultant.

In the next round of changes, public finance expert Raja Chelliah was asked to work as an advisor to the finance minister and review the government’s taxation policies. Ahluwalia became the finance secretary after the government nominated Geethakrishnan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an executive director on its board. The government also appointed M R Sivaraman, a competent IAS officer, as the new revenue secretary. Shankar Acharya was brought in as the chief economic advisor, while Y Venugopal Reddy and N K Singh, both IAS officers at that time with a wealth of experience behind them, were given senior positions of responsibility and entrusted with key assignments.

When he became prime minister in May 2004, Dr Singh again brought about swift changes in the top civil servants around him in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). In less than a week, T K A Nair was made the principal secretary in the PMO. At that time, Nair was heading the Public Enterprises Selection Board. Kamal Pande’s tenure as the cabinet secretary was truncated and in his place, B K Chaturvedi, another IAS officer, was given a three-year tenure. Within weeks, J N Dixit was made the National Security Advisor (NSA), Sam Pitroda made chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and Prahlad Basu appointed the chairman of the Board for Restructuring Public Sector Enterprises. A couple of years later, Basu quit and Nitish Sengupta, a retired IAS officer, succeeded him. A little while earlier, Dixit died and M K Narayanan took charge as the new NSA.

Looked at any way, this is an enviable record. With little difficulty and in a short time, Dr Singh has always managed to put together a talented and reasonably competent team (barring of course a couple of obvious exceptions) to help him discharge his official responsibilities — be it as finance minister or as prime minister. Does Dr Singh retain that charm and skill even five years later, when he begins his second stint as prime minister?

The question arises as Dr Singh’s second term as prime minister has so far been marked by continuation of the tenure of almost all his key advisors. Civil servants have held the view that the benefits the government is likely to derive from continuity in administration may be outweighed by the demoralisation it would cause to those officers who may be waiting for an opportunity to serve the government at the top.

The counter view to this argument is that the prime minister perhaps has very limited options in putting in place a fresh team of officials at the helm. There are serious questions on the quality and adequacy of the overall talent pool that the prime minister can tap at this time. The prime minister is credited with having decided on only one significant new appointment since he began his second term as prime minister. He made sure that Rahul Khullar (who was Dr Singh’s private secretary in the early 1990s) was shifted from the disinvestment department to the commerce ministry as its new secretary.

So, Dr Singh may still retain his skill to identify competent officers and create a new team. But his real challenge is to find suitable officers with requisite experience to head different departments, particularly in economic ministries and take steps to ensure that the government’s talent pool continues to throw up competent officers.