Panthic Move
Bluestar DC is Badal’s choice replacing man who blocked SYL
S P Singh
CHANDIGARH: Political masters have changed, and the babu minions were also expected to be shuffled. Akali Dal president Prakash Singh Badal, whose blue turban has a huge huge saffron feather capping it, has preffered the name of Ramesh Inder Singh for the chief secretaryship, the topmost bureaucratic post in the state. Ramesh Inder Singh was the officer handpicked by the Indian establishment, popularly called the Centre in India (a supremely ironic term in a federal country), to be appointed the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar just hours before the Operation Bluestar was to be unleashed at the Golden Temple. The appointment became necessary because the then DC, Gurdev Singh, refused to sign on the dotted line to allow the army troops to barge into the holiest of the Sikh shrines and letting artillery into the city and the parkarma when it was common knowledge that thousands of innocents were holed in because of the gurpurab.
Gurdev Singh had no dilemma when he scribbled his resignation, gave up India's most exclusive club called Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and prepared for a life in wilderness and on the wrong side of the Indian state, Ramesh Inder Singh also had no compunctions in supervising the operation in exchange for the reward of a change of cadre.
As Badal took the oath of office on March 2 and Ramesh Inder Singh watched mesmerised, knowing that his appointment orders will be the first the new CM will sign in a few minutes, Gurdev Singh was nowhere among the crowd of thousands. He was home, no regrets. Ramesh Inder Singh had arrived, no scruples.
And see whom he replaces as he arrives: predecessor K.R.Lakhanpal. The man who came from a dalit family, studied at government schools, topped the Indian civil services examinations, built a reputation for himself as a no non-sense man and formulated for the state the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, the SYL-blocker bill which was Amarinder Singh's greatest gamble in life and something which has assured his place in history. Lakhanpal was given the charge of the Irrigation department for just a few weeks to let him have total control over the bill drafting exercise and virtually risked his job in the venture.
So there you are. An Op Bluestar supervisor DC replacing the SYL-blocker brain. A panthic government has come to power indeed!
By the way, Ramesh has already worked in the Badal's CMO in the past. Lakhanpal has decided to proceed on long leave. Senior IPS officer N.P.S. Aulakh, the acting Director General of Border Security Force, has been made the new Punjab Director General of Police. The man who fought Badals' corruption cases against Amarinder Singh with less law and more loyalty, Hardev Singh Mattewal, got the expected rewards. He is now the new Advocate General of Punjab.
Senior officers made a beeline for the Badal household in Sector 9 soon after the poll trends had become clear, and the throngs have only got bigger. Only four years ago, this house number 256 in Sector 9 of Chandigarh was considered blotted as Vigilance Bureau sleuths measured its flooring and evaluated the bathroom tiles to find out where the Badals hid Rs 3,500 crore allegedly made during their last regime.
Many officers who weren't quick to sense the change in the political scenario seemed to have abandoned the sinking ship and were seen rallying around SAD general secretary Sukhbir Singh Badal to seek his blessings for better postings.
Former Media Adviser Harcharan Bains, widely known as the prime mind behind the Akali strategy not only during the electioneering but also the entire stretch of five years in the wilderness, seems to most the likely choice for the Media Advisor's post. He kept up the opposition's tirade with his acerbic emailed press releases which have by now become legendary as he had assumed the role of a one man opposition to the five year rule of Amarinder Singh.
If only Bharat Inder Singh Chahal knew how to buy a better quill rather than raising an army of commando scribes!
A recent piece in The Tribune about Bains called him the "b(r)ains behind Badal" but the poor man is facing a rather peculiar dilemma. He is wondering whether life is worth being a media advisor to people who are convinced they don't need any advisors. It is certainly a dilemma that his predecessor heavyweight occupant of the office never faced, nor ever would. The meek are also burdened with the additional burden of scruples.
8 March, 2007