Caretaker Govt may see to crucial postings

Opinion within the bureaucratic and political establishment is divided on the ethics of a caretaker government filling up these important posts.

However, according to official sources, the Gujral Government is keen not to let the fact that it is merely holding the fort obstruct the decision-making process and is likely to go ahead with the appointments as and when they come up.

The sources maintained that two factors will be kept in mind while taking the decisions — one, they should be in the "national interest" and two, they should not handicap the next government which should have the freedom to make its own appointments.

One appointment the Gujral Government hopes to go through with is that of the next Cabinet Secretary. It wants to leave behind its mark by appointing the first Dalit officer, Mata Prasad, to this prized job as head of the bureaucracy.

The decision may rake up a storm as technically, Mata Prasad is not the front-runner for the post. There are two other officers ahead of him in the Civil Services list for the IAS batch of 1962 to which he belongs — Yogesh Chandra and M R Sivaraman, in that order.

The government plea is that both Chandra and Sivaraman are out of the race because they are away on deputation thereby paving the way for Mata Prasad’s elevation.

However, a section of the bureaucracy feels that promoting Mata Prasad would amount to superseding these two officers unless they are also given the rank of Cabinet Secretary in their present assignments.

For a caretaker government, these are difficult knots to untangle as it tries to steer clear of violating the Cabinet Secretariat’s recent directive not to take major policy and executive/administrative decisions in this period.

One option being considered by the Government is to appoint Mata Prasad for three months. He retires at the end of January and he could be given a two-month extension till April which would leave the next Government free to choose its own Cabinet Secretary.

Bureaucrats, on the other hand, feel the safest course for Gujral to adopt would be to give Subramanian an extension till April.

Another tangle created by the fall of the Government is the appointment of the next CBI Chief. Trinath Mishra, a 1964 batch officer, was brought into the country’s premier investigative agency as Special Director just before Gujral quit with the intention of giving him full charge on Sharma’s retirement. Now, however, Mishra’s elevation is up in the air and CBI sources feel the only way out for a caretaker government is to let Kartikeyan continue as ad hoc Chief. He retires at the end of March which is just in time for the new government to take the crucial decision of who should head the CBI.

The selection of IB Director Arun Bhagat’s successor is probably simpler. In the recent series of transfers, the way was cleared for Shyamul Dutta who was made Special Director. Although it is unusual for a government to change the IB Chief in the midst of an election, Dutta’s appointment could be explained as a "routine" decision since his immediate rivals are no longer contenders.