The Eco-crat

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Attacked for having worked at the IMF and the World Bank by the Left parties, blamed for putting representatives of foreign multilateral agencies on expert groups to advise the government, yet efficient, professional and effective 8212; meet Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. A man who has been serving the Government of India for some 22 years and is now suddenly in the eye of a storm.

Starting off in 1979 as the Economic Adviser to the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance8212;a position he held for six years8212;Montek moved on through several ranks like additional secretary to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, then his special secretary, followed by a short stint as the commerce secretary before he moved back to the Finance Ministry. Yup, this man has been around for a while.

Since 1991, Montek has been what the bureaucracy calls a 8216;8216;regular8217;8217; in the finance ministry, a fact that the typical IAS-wallah finds hard to stomach especially as Montek himself is not part of their 8216;8216;blue-blooded8217;8217; service. A two-year stint as secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, the next five years as finance secretary to two heavyweight finance ministers 8212; Manmohan Singh in the Congress government and United Front8217;s P Chidambaram.

Even when the government changed with the BJP taking over the Centre, Montek, 61, stayed first as member of the Economic Advisory Council of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then as Member of the Planning Commission. Finally, he went off to the IMF.

Now it8217;s his political avatar that has taken over. It8217;s been a total style change at Yojana Bhawan, headquarters of the Planning Commission, since Montek landed two months ago. Insiders in the Commission call him a man who means business.

For the first time internal communication is on e-mail, via the LAN system between the Planning Commission boss and the other members 8212; making for a paperless office, a notion quite new to the fuddy-duddy organisation.

A man operating his own computer and sending off e-mails without calling in the steno is, to the Commission at least, an entirely novel phenomenon.

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Montek8217;s been here before, not so long ago, but as a boss, he8217;s suddenly feeling the heat. Better known for his economics than his politics, he is the PM8217;s man in the system. The Manmohan-Montek team has worked together before and started off the reform era.

So why is everybody up against a man who has literally been part of the government for ever so long? It8217;s because this time it8217;s the political overtones of the job that make it so tricky, especially since this is a coalition government with the Left playing a major role.

Or is it some hangover of old college rivalry between the Left economists gang advising the government and the Power Economic couple 8212; Montek and his wife Isher Judge Ahluwalia 8212; that has spilled over into the public domain? Delhi8217;s still speculating.

Either way, Montek8217;s survival instincts are on test here. He8217;ll need the brilliance that helped him shine at Oxford. More than that, he8217;ll need the prime minister8217;s unstinted support.