The Eco-crat

Since 1991, Montek has been what the bureaucracy calls a ‘‘regular’’ in the finance ministry, a fact that the typical IAS-wallah finds hard to stomach especially as Montek himself is not part of their ‘‘blue-blooded’’ service. A two-year stint as secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, the next five years as finance secretary to two heavyweight finance ministers — Manmohan Singh in the Congress government and United Front’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 it’s his political avatar that has taken over. It’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 — 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.

Montek’s been here before, not so long ago, but as a boss, he’s suddenly feeling the heat. Better known for his economics than his politics, he is the PM’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? It’s because this time it’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 — Montek and his wife Isher Judge Ahluwalia — that has spilled over into the public domain? Delhi’s still speculating.

Either way, Montek’s survival instincts are on test here. He’ll need the brilliance that helped him shine at Oxford. More than that, he’ll need the prime minister’s unstinted support.