Subramanian tipped to be Cabinet Secy

Maharashtra Chief Secretary P Subramanian has emerged as the dark horse in the race to head the bureaucracy while Additional Director IB Shyamul Dutta is tipped to head the sensitive agency.

A 1962 batch IAS officer, Subramanian is most likely to pip batchmates Yogesh Chandra and Mata Prasad to the post of Cabinet Secretary. Although he is due to retire in August this year, he will probably get a year’s extension, as has been the practice in recent years, to ensure continuity.

While Subramanian is clearly the front-runner for the topadministrative job, bureaucratic circles are not ruling out a last-minute change of heart on the part of the new BJP Government in favour of Textiles Secretary Prabhat Kumar.

Kumar, who belongs to the 1963 IAS batch, is well-known to the party. He was Home Secretary in Uttar Pradesh during the critical period in 1992 when the Ayodhya demolition took place.

BJP sources admitted that there is pressure from party circles in UP to appoint Kumar to the coveted post of Cabinet Secretary. Kumar is due to retire later this year.

The main argument against Kumar is that to give him the Cabinet Secretary’s job, the new Government will have to supercede the entire 1962 batch, thereby starting off on a controversial note.

Meanwhile, Vajpayee is believed to have indicated that he intends transferring the CBI and the Department of Personnel back to the Home Ministry as part of a limited exercise in administrative restructuring. With party president L K Advani expected to take over as the new Home Minister, theMinistry will regain its old status as number two in the government hierarchy.

Administrative control over the CBI as well as the IB plus all bureaucratic and public sector appointments will be fully restored to the Ministry which has seen its powers truncated over the decades, starting with the Indira Gandhi Government in the seventies. The preparatory exercise to break in the new Government began today. The national agenda released this morning is vital to this exercise which involves drawing up briefs for the incoming ministers on points that require immediate attention within the framework of their declared policies.

Usually this is done from an election manifesto. But this being an unusual election which saw a 13-party alliance fight on separate manifestoes, the bureaucracy had to wait for the agenda which was distributed at a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries this afternoon. Work has begun on the speech the President is to make to the joint session of Parliament next week.

While thebureaucracy was welcoming the new government, Vajpayee was in the process of finalising his cabinet in consultation with Advani tonight.

"I am ready for the job"

A senior BJP leader said Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde has taken up the issue of appointment of Subramanian with Vajpayee. "Before the swearing in ceremony, Munde will once again press for the appointment of Subramanian," the BJP leader.