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Journalism of Courage
Official lore has it that during the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, the then Chhattisgarh chief minister and BJP leader Raman Singh mounted a bid to get a bureaucrat posted at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) repatriated to his state. The Centre, however, did not oblige, stating that it valued the official for his “experience in dealing with sensitive matters”.
It was not until 2015, a year into the new Narendra Modi-led NDA regime, that Raman Singh had his wish granted. The official BVR Subrahmanyam, the 1987-batch IAS officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre, was Monday named as the new CEO of the NITI Aayog, the Centre’s apex think tank.
Subrahmanyam’s fresh appointment came on the back of some key responsibilities that he handled under both the UPA and NDA dispensations, during which he served in the PMO, handled counter-Maoist strategy in Chhattisgarh, and oversaw the shift of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) from a state to a Union Territory (UT).
Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Subrahmanyam has an engineering degree besides holding a management degree from the London Business School. Apart from serving long stints in his cadre state, he has handled various key positions at the Centre.
Regarded among key officials “trusted” by the then PM Manmohan Singh during the UPA regime, Subrahmanyam served as the PM’s personal secretary between 2004 and 2008. This was followed by a stint with the World Bank from where he returned in 2012 to join the PMO again.
Subrahmanyam shifted to Chhattisgarh in 2015, to serve initially as a principal secretary and later as an additional chief secretary (ACS), home.
In his role as the ACS (home), Subrahmanyam is said to have worked on coordination between central and state security forces operating in Chhattisgarh’s Left Wing Extremism areas, improving their overall operational efficiency. He rolled out a Bastar Development Plan, with the state administration focusing on the building of roads in the Bastar region to ensure better mobility of forces.
“He (Subrahmanyam) was decisive and hands-on, making active participation in security meetings and doing field visits. He was receptive to ideas that could produce quick results. He liked officers who were ready to push boundaries to produce results. He also stood up for them when they would find themselves in trouble,” a state bureaucrat who worked with him said.
Subrahmanyam’s innings in Chhattisgarh was marked by ushering in an “iron hand” approach to security. It was during his tenure that controversial IPS officer SRP Kalluri, who was then Bastar Range IG, was said to have a free hand, with journalists and human rights activists being openly threatened and the Chhattisgarh police embarking on an encounter spree. A case of murder was filed against DU professor Nandini Sundar in November, 2016. Kalluri was eventually transferred out in 2017 following an attack on activist Bela Bhatia.
His seven-year stint with the PMO, including one year as a joint secretary in Modi’s office, and his track record in Chhattisgarh was said to have impressed the Centre enough to pick Subrahmanyam for the crucial job of the J&K chief secretary after the PDP-BJP government fell and the state came under the Governor’s rule.
Subrahmanyam oversaw J&K’s transition following the stripping of its special status by the Centre on August 5, 2019, handling its administration during a tumultuous period. Sources in the Union home ministry point out that he was closely involved in the planning of this whole affair and the drafting of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act.
On August 16, 2019, days after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A that granted special status to J&K, Subrahmanyam held a press conference at Sarovar Portico hotel in Srinagar. He read from a pre-written statement and did not take any questions.
“A fortnight ago some major decisions were taken with a view to promoting the long-term welfare of people of all the regions of the state (J&K) and to ensure better governance and accelerated development. Government’s approach was guided by the conviction that all-round development was the most credible solution to address separatist sentiments that were propagated by vested interests,” he had then said.
From then onwards, the chief secretary’s office became a hub of power as J&K was split into two UTs, J&K and Ladakh. Amid an unprecedented clampdown on communications and politics, Subrahmanyam was among a select group of officers steering J&K.
Other than the Governor, all meetings pertaining to law and order were led by Subrahmanyam. He accompanied National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval as he toured Kashmir and spoke to people on the streets.
In the absence of any means of communication, Subrahmanyam’s briefings at Srinagar’s media centre were the sole source of information for scores of national and international journalists working from Kashmir in the months following the revocation of its special status.
Not known to be media savvy, Subrahmanyam’s press conferences also courted controversy. His remark that “not a single soul cried” over the detention of mainstream political leaders after the scrapping of J&K’s special status sparked a row, with political leaders across the spectrum saying why he did not join politics if he was so keen on making political statements.
“The chief secretary needs to speak within his pay and grade,” the People’s Conference had then said in its official statement.
Describing Subrahmanyam as a “hard task master”, a J&K bureaucrat said, “He would himself work very hard and make everyone slog with him. His intelligence and sharpness was head and shoulders above the rest of his colleagues. He was also very organised. He probably tried too hard to micromanage things, but then he never lost the big picture.”
A home ministry official said Subrahmanyam’s capacity to quickly understand complex issues set him apart. “For the Union government, he was a person who could get things done,” the official said.
However, there had also been a buzz then about the tension between Subrahmanyam and the UT’s first Lt Governor GC Murmu, which some described as a “clash of egos”. Murmu eventually resigned in August 2020 and was appointed as the Comptroller and Auditor General.
In June 2021, Subrahmanyam was called to Delhi as the Union commerce secretary. In this role, too, he was involved in overseeing the implementation of the Centre-backed investment scheme in J&K.
