Some months ago, when the tension between the Congress party and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was at its most intense, Business Standard asked a top Congress party functionary whether Pulok Chaterji would be recalled to Delhi, cutting short his World Bank tenure.
The party’s response was gentle but firm. “We would certainly not like to give the impression that we are micro-managing the PMO” they said, essentially insinuating, ‘No.’
Now, exactly the opposite has happened. The post of Principal Secretary to the PM has been given to a man who was Sonia Gandhi’s (administrative) right hand man for nearly a decade. TKA Nair, a trusted aide of the PM has been relegated to Advisor. This is not just a real estate move. It is a change in both the nature of the PMO and hopefully, the way the government and party have been functioning.
But first, Chaterji. You can’t just walk into his room — you have to seek an appointment first. He’s not the kind of IAS officer who will entertain you, wine you and dine you with a view to how he might be able to use you. Equally, he is not a colourless bureaucrat of the variety that believes the worst thing to happen to India was a free press. Chaterji is a man who believes that right is right and wrong is wrong but will not yell from the rooftops that those are his views. Perhaps, because he is not madly ambitious, Chaterji’s career has been unspectacular.
An Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer of the 1974 batch, he was district magistrate of Sultanpur and collector in Rai Bareilly, additional resident commissioner in the UP government, executive director of the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (1999-2000) and from 2000, secretary to the leader of Opposition, Sonia Gandhi. Before that, from 1993 to 1998, he was posted to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF). Each officer in the RGF was handpicked for the job, whether it was Wajahat Habibullah or Pulok Chaterji. The RGF was Sonia’s obsession and the constant reminder of her vulnerability and widowhood. Chaterji took over the running of the RGF from Habibullah and was succeeded by Shekhar Raha. Ideas for fund-raising came from him, although in the prevailing atmosphere of the early 1990s, people donated money lavishly for anything associated with the RGF. But you needed administrative systems and Chaterji helped build them.
Few know the role Chaterji played (where he was Sonia’s secretary) in drafting the hundreds of letters that Gandhi wrote to the government and the prime minister during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. In many ways, the bricks and mortar of Sonia’s leadership in the Opposition was provided by Chaterji, whether it was through suggestions on the running of cooperatives or the rehabilitation of riot victims. He was politely unyielding before hectoring Congressmen and yet knew Sonia’s mind well enough to know whom she should meet and when. Although he was powerful, he never caused a controversy or put anyone off because he was always unfailingly polite.
When the United Progressive Alliance came to power, Chaterji became Joint Secretary in the PMO. He was later named Executive Director at the World Bank which he joined in 2009. Along with TKA Nair, he agreed that in the Commonwealth Games, Suresh Kalmadi’s role must be circumscribed or even replaced. Had Chaterji’s advice been taken then, the government may not have had so much egg on its face.
Chaterji enjoys simple pleasures. He likes driving out in the country, photography (he has a collection of cameras) and used to be spotted occasionally at the Gymkhana Club on Thursday nights, shaking a leg to the music of the 1970s. Now, no doubt all that will end.
Some things about his appointment are not clear. Will he, for example, have the rank of minister of State in PMO that all Principal Secretaries have enjoyed? If he doesn’t, he would be in the somewhat anomalous position of being the senior-most civil servant in the PMO, and yet without corresponding protocol seniority vis a vis the National security Advisor (Shivshankar Menon, who is senior to him in the civil service) or Advisor to the PM (TKA Nair is also senior to him). Rank doesn’t matter to Chaterji but in the hierarchy-conscious Indian bureaucracy it can’t be dismissed either.
In a sea of sharks, many of whom will keep on harping about divided loyalties, Chaterji will need to have his wits about him. But for a seasoned campaigner like himself, this shouldn’t be too difficult an undertaking.
