Modi puts key man Rajiv Mehrishi in Rajnath Singh's fiefdom

Home Secretary LC Goyal's premature retirement draws parallels to the abrupt departure of former foreign secretary Sujatha Singh earlier this year

The appointment of Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi as Union home secretary has taken everyone by surprise, even bureaucrats and journalists who frequent North Block daily for news and gossip.

No one knew that incumbent Home Secretary L C Goyal, a 1979-batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer of Kerala cadre, had sought voluntary retirement. The government on Monday appointed Goyal as the chairman and managing director of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO). Set up in 1977, ITPO is the nodal trade promotion agency of the government and functions under the supervision of the commerce ministry.

The Union home secretary or HS is the most important position in the Union government by virtue of the importance of the role and the appointee has a fixed tenure of two years. As a symbol of the importance of these posts, in addition to the home secretary, those who have a fixed two-year term are only the defence and external affairs secretaries. They can be removed under two conditions — either the government cuts short their tenure as  happened in the case of former external affairs secretary Sujatha Singh, a 1976-batch officer of the elite Indian Foreign Services (IFS), or the officers opt for voluntary retirement. Goyal’s predecessor Anil Goswami had taken the second route after he left following his name came up in a CBI case.

The government curtailed the services of Singh months before her scheduled retirement. Singh had allegedly refused to take the VRS route. Many explain the government removed Singh ostensibly to make space for her successor S Jaishankar, a 1977 batch IFS officer, who was retiring in the next few days.

Now the same holds true for Mehrishi, a 1978-batch IAS, who was specially brought from Rajasthan to work in the Union finance ministry last year. Mehrishi is considered to be a close confidant of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and he was supposed to retire on August 31.

Goyal is seen as close to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. In the recent past, the finance ministry and the Union home ministry have differed on issues, including the case relating to Sun TV.

The appointment of Mehrishi has also defied another trend. The government usually prefers those officers for the post of home secretary who earlier served in the ministry in some capacity. Though Mehrishi has served in various ministries, he has never worked in the home ministry. Some see Mehrishi’s appointment as Modi exercising direct control over the country’s plum ministry.

A total 15 additional secretaries and 20 joint secretaries have been appointed in various central government ministries in Monday’s reshuffle. Senior IAS officer Atanu Purkayastha has been appointed as secretary in Central Information Commission (CIC) as part of a major senior-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the government on Monday. Senior Indian Foreign Service officer Sanjeev Kumar Singla, who is private secretary in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), was promoted to the rank of joint secretary. In another order, K Vijay Raghavan has been given additional charge of secretary, ministry of earth sciences, in place of Shailesh Nayak who relinquished the charge on Monday.

EXIT WOUNDS?

• Significantly, the news of Rajiv Mehrishi’s appointment came from the PMO, which said the prime minister has “also approved the request” of L C Goyal, a 1979 batch IAS officer from Kerala cadre, “seeking voluntary retirement from government service with immediate effect due to personal reasons”
   
• This is the third exit of a top bureaucrat before the end of tenure
   
• Monday’s development comes against the backdrop of reported controversies in the home ministry surrounding the denial of security clearance to Sun TV owned by the Maran group, issues related to an NGO headed by social activist Teesta Setalvad and the Naga accord