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Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

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All the Prime Minister's men

They are the quintessential men behind the scene. Harish Khare on the new PMO

Prithviraj Chauhan

A PRIME Minister eventually comes to be defined by the kind of officers and aides he chooses to surround himself with in the Prime Minister's Office.

It is the quality and competence of these administrative and political aides that determine whether or not a Prime Minister is able to perform his job as the country's chief political executive.

The image of an omnipotent PMO has endured since the days P.N. Haksar presided over Indira Gandhi's Office and made it the hub of political and administrative vibrancy.

T.K.A. Nair

Successive Prime Ministers have sought to downplay the role of the PMO. But with little success. The reason is simple. The Prime Minister cannot shy away from the role of the chief political executive; the governing matrix has become simply too complicated in an increasingly complex global environment to permit a bearish approach.

Manmohan Singh has no choice but to be an activist Prime Minister, even if temperamentally he may not be cut out for such a role. Part of the solution can be to put in place a bunch of tough officers.

The key job here is that of the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. For six years Brajesh Mishra relentlessly protected and promoted his principal, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's political and personal interests, and eventually became the second most powerful man in the country.

The curiosity, then, was whether Dr. Singh would want to replicate the Brajesh model. And, soon the answer was known. To begin with, the posts of Principal Secretary and the National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister were decoupled.

Then, the Prime Minister got himself an Officer on Special Duty, T.K.A. Nair, who was later formally named as the Principal Secretary, but before Mr. Nair got his formal designation, Dr. Singh had already appointed J.N. Dixit as his National Security Adviser. The signals were clear that there would no one single power centre. But will there be harmony in Dr. Singh's tripod?

Mr. Nair has a task on his hands in re-inventing a role for himself in the PMO. Like his principal, he is also a decent, mild-mannered, soft-spoken gentleman. He will probably compliment the Prime Minister's own areas of strength, economic management; many would like to reserve judgment about his skills for political management.

But having worked as the Chief Secretary in a difficult State like Punjab, he is probably no stranger to the politicians' world of intrigue and conspiracy. It will be months before it gets known whether he is capable of summoning the requisite toughness of intent and style to protect the Prime Minister from undesirable interests and individuals, yet ensure that he does not get cut off from creative and reliable informational inputs.

The second big boy in the Prime Minister Office is Mr. Dixit. Unlike Mr. Nair, he is first a Sonia Gandhi appointee. Over the last few years, Mr. Dixit has been working closely with Ms. Gandhi as part of the AICC's foreign affairs department; and, it was during this time that he earned the respect of both Ms. Gandhi and Dr. Singh. Being a lifelong establishment man he knows the ritual of institutional loyalties. He has an added advantage — a reputation of being a pugnacious man, someone who will not mind having an occasional bureaucratic scrimmage.

J.N. Dixit

Apart from his institutionalised role as the National Security Adviser in the nuclear scheme of things, he is also expected to deal with our three major intelligence agencies — the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing, and the Defence Intelligence. That means he could often find himself in conflict with the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, though both claim to be best of friends.

The third leg of the tripod is M.K. Narayanan. He is a familiar and friendly face to the Rajiv Gandhi crowd. A former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, he had worked closely with the then Prime Minister. He too was inducted into the PMO because both Ms. Gandhi and Dr. Singh wanted him to be there.

It is not yet clear whether he would have any executive responsibilities, but he will eventually become the grand adviser to the Prime Minister on how to manage our internal conflicts. He will have plenty on his plate; there is Jammu and Kashmir and the on-going dialogue process with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference; there is the entire Northeast where professional rebels and professional politicians combine to manufacture insurgency; and then, there is the Naxalite challenge in substantial parts of the country. "Mike" Narayanan should be able to get along with Mr. Dixit and Mr. Nair.

The new tripod has already accomplished something rather sensible: it has been decided to ask the former Union Home Secretary, N.N. Vohra, to continue with his rather tedious task of having a "dialogue" with various groups in Jammu and Kashmir. The tripod has shown a welcome maturity of judgment rather than allow partisanship to derail a crucial process.

M.K. Narayanan

Then, Dr. Singh has opted to have a Minister of State, Prithviraj Chavan, in his office. Mr. Chavan is known to be part of a fast vanishing breed, the thinking Congressman. These last few years when the Congress was out of power, he and few others had kept up the habit of arguing and analysing ideas and policies.

N.N. Vohra

He has obviously impressed Dr. Singh with his sincerity of purpose. As Minister of State in the PMO, it will be Mr. Chavan's job to do the political liaison with the members of the United Progressive Alliance.

A somewhat crucial voice in the PMO will belong to a quiet but effective man, Pulok Chatterjee. He will try to replicate the role that Ashok Saikia came to play in the Vajpayee PMO: the all-too-powerful assignment of an officer to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. In 1999, he was seconded to Ms. Gandhi as her Private Secretary in her capacity as Leader of the Opposition. He can thus be credited with having a dual loyalty, though not necessarily a divided loyalty.

The Manmohan PMO is almost in place and the new Government can be said to have hit the ground running. All that now remains is to get on with the business of governance.

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