‘Advisors on hold to give time for political process in Bihar’

Home Secretary Dhirendra Singh has said that for the time being, the Centre did not have any plans to appoint advisors to the Bihar Governor...

Home Secretary Dhirendra Singh has said that for the time being, the Centre did not have any plans to appoint advisors to the Bihar Governor. ‘‘The current thinking is that we should try to bring the political process back on the rails and not appoint advisors to assist the Governor,’’ he told The Indian Express in an exclusive interview.

‘‘The appointment of advisors may give the wrong signal, for, we want to give time, maybe a month or two, to see if the political process, set into motion with the elections can be completed,’’ he said.

‘‘For the time being,’’ he added, ‘‘we are not searching for advisors but that decision can also be changed. Many names and recommendations have been received but, as I said, for the present, the appointments are on hold.’’

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The Home Secretary who will retire on March 31 also said that he spoke to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi the night before his proposed departure to the UK and requested him to ‘‘reconsider his decision.’’ He also cautioned him about its possible fallout in the UK and on the law and order situation back home, especially in Gujarat.

‘‘I had actually put the call to the Chief Secretary P K Lahiri but since the Chief Minister was with him at that point, I spoke to him also. I told him there could be problems both in the UK as well as back home and asked him if he would like to reconsider his decision.

Initially, what the CM told me was ‘maine man pucca kar liya hai.’’’

Singh said he later received a call from Ahmedabad informing him that the trip was off. ‘‘I do not know if the Home Minister also spoke to the Chief Minister but I thought he must be cautioned. In fact, we had already alerted the State Government and put a security drill in place keeping in mind that something untoward or unexpected could happen in London which may also lead to a tricky situation in Gujarat. The process had already been set into motion,’’ he said.

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He, however, clarified that no specific inputs or intelligence had been received by the Centre on threat to the Chief Minister during the proposed visit.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More

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