ED chief shunted; more men on Jaya’s hit list may be next

Bezboruah is one of the officers on Jayalalitha’s hit list which is headed by Revenue Secretary N.K. Singh whose number also seems to be up. According to PMO sources, another round of transfers is likely tomorrow in which Singh will be shunted out of the Finance Ministry.

The orders are expected to be finalised tonight. Other officials who may be moved along with Singh include Finance Secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia, PetroleumSecretary Prabir Sengupta and Coal Secretary S. Narayanan.

The inclusion of Narayanan in the list is important as Jayalalitha is believed to have expressly demanded that he be appointed Revenue Secretary. His next posting will indicate the extent to which the BJP is ready to accommodate its temperamental ally.

Interestingly, yesterday’s appointment of P S Subramanyam as UTI Chairman also appears to be at Jayalalitha’s instigation. The sudden rash of transfers has given a new twist to the ongoing drama over the Vajpayee Government’s survival. It hints at the possibility of a compromise between the feuding partners which may give the BJP a breather. But no-one is ready to speculate how long this reprieve will last. It could be a few days; it could be longer.

The irony of the situation is that a reshuffle in the bureaucracy was on the cards anyway. BJP circles have been predicting the transfers of Bezboruah and Singh for several weeks and the Government appeared to be waiting for the budget session ofParliament to end to effect the changes.

However, by moving only when Jayalalitha was on the brink of withdrawing support to the Vajpayee Government, the BJP has given the impression that it is bending over backwards to get the AIADMK supremo to continue in the alliance. Jayalalitha holds Bezboruah and Singh responsible for the ED cases against her and has been repeatedly asking that they be moved.

According to Finance Ministry sources, she is also targeting Personnel Secretary Arvind Verma and Company Affairs Secretary T S Krishnamurthy.The fig leaf for Bezboruah’s shift is a request for his services from Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma. Bezboruah is a UT cadre officer. Verma wrote to Home Minister L K Advani asking for a “competent officer” to deal with the Capital’s growing transport problems. Clearly, the process was started some days ago with this letter.

Similarly, the search for successors to Ahluwalia and Singh was on. Both officers were widely expected to be removed soon after theVajpayee Government assumed office. They were kept on, the explanation being that the new Government did not want to disrupt the budget process.