Friends,
You must have quite often heard in the mainstream media about P Chidambaram’s network at top bureaucratic levels, which acted as a shield to protect him from the long hands of the investigating agencies.
In fact, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy had alleged that late Arun Jaitley was friend of Chidambaram, and because of it, Chidambaram-appointed Shaktikant Das and Arvind Subramanian, were still holding the office of finance ministry. And, as a result, Karti Chidambaram was getting protection in a couple of money laundering cases.
This is one example, but there are many. The seventy-odd years of rule has helped Congress to build an eco-system which gives its leaders to run a shadow government, even if they are out of power. This lobby creates roadblocks at every step Narendra Modi government takes for the good of the country.
Modi took cognizance of the periodic reports of senior officers who were creating obstacles in the efforts his government to percolate the benefits of its schemes down towards its intended recipients. In other words, prime minister’s patience was fast running out with the civil bureaucracy and it was expected that time had arrived for empanelling of private experts as union secretaries.
In fact, the process of empanelling of private experts as union secretaries began in 2015. If this could happen in revenue and forest ministries, there is no reason why it should not happen in finance and defence ministries.
It did happen, but in NDA’s second term after Modi rode back to power to occupy the prime minister’s seat for the second time. The government created Chief of Defence Staff which put immediate breaks on the unbridled powers of the union defence secretary.
The Modi regime, in April 2019, introduced more lateral entries into the government, with a vengeance. For the first time, nine private sector experts were selected for appointment as joint secretaries.
Now, this effort is poised to get a further boost. The government is now planning to hire as many as 400 directors and deputy secretaries.
NITI Aayog already has recruited consultants on contracts in the past, the new posts would be at par with regular government servants. There are reportedly 54 positions out of a total of 516 for which lateral recruitment has been cleared. The new recruits will have the same designations as regular IAS officers.
One of the main functions of NITI Aayog is to coordinate with other ministries for policymaking.
This trend of breaking the monopoly of IAS officers at the top is good for the country, after all, the lateral entries is the best solution to break the eco-system, which wants India to maintain status quo in all fields.
Jai Hind
If the present RBI governor’s friendship, as alleged, was known to Subramaniam Swamy, was it not known to the PM?