Modi govt doing a Congress, replacing other loyalists with own

A few hours after The Indian Express reported that the “Na khaoonga, na khane doonga” BJP regime has followed in the footsteps of the Congress-led UPA government and appointed at least 10 of its "loyal" politicians as independent directors of prized Navratna PSUs, the irreverent media Tweeter and Blogger @churumuri posed a poll-question: With Shazia Ilmi being named "independent director" of Engineers India, which of these BJP "starbhakts" should be named on ISRO?

With @shaziailmi being named 'independent director' of Engineers India, which of these BJP #starbhakts should be named on ISRO?

— churumuri (@churumuri) January 27, 2017

The options given in the poll were — Ajay Devgun, Anupam Kher, Raveena Tandon and Suresh Gopi. To check the “public sentiment” at the moment, I chose the third option. Unfortunately, more people wanted Kher, probably for his ballistic abilities. I had chosen Tandon for her key role in genre-defining films in the 1990s. But that’s not the point.

The news item reminded me of the days more than a quarter-century ago when the BJP was first getting accepted as a serious contender in the Lok Sabha elections in 1991. Enfant terrible of Sangh Parivar, KN Govindacharya, then an all-important leader of the party, waxed eloquently about his party’s prospects when a scribe butted in: “So”, the journalist asked, “you will replace the Congress?” Govindacharya laughed and said: “Arre baba, not replace, we shall be the next Congress!”

Tathastu!

In the past two years and eight months that the Modi sarkar has been in office, it has done everything that it ridiculed and criticised the Manmohan Singh regime for. The government has excessively promulgated ordinances, repeatedly misused Article 356, crushed internal and external debate within the party, cinematically secured cabinet nod for major decisions (like demonetisation) and undermined autonomous  and constitutional institutions and practices. The list can become longer but that again is not the point because it would be stating the obvious!

Tracking the BJP government after spending a good part of the career keeping tabs on the post-Nehru Congress, there is no way I can escape the conclusion that the two regimes mirror each other. If the Congress regime showered favours on the chosen few, the BJP is not much behind.

During the UPA tenure when a controversy broke out in 2005 over similar appointments, some changes were made in the criteria for “appointment of non-official (independent) directors in central PSEs”. Mention must be made that this order modified the criteria laid down by the Vajpayee government. But obviously even the UPA’s modifications allowed scope for appointing the faithful.

I presume it will be argued that Shazia Ilmi is equipped with sufficient understanding of engineering to justify being on the Board of Engineers India Ltd (EIL). Similarly, Rajika Kacheria, who runs a Skin & Hair Beauty Refinery, we will be told, has sufficient knowledge of cotton to justify being ID of Cotton Corporation of India Ltd.

I can go on listing the professional training of the names of those who were cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) this week to point out gross inconsistency in their training and the task they have to now perform. But that would be getting personal.

IDs are now appointed as per norms framed by the Corporate Governance Guidelines of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and modified criteria introduced in November 2005, holds. The DPE maintains a databank of people who wish to be considered for appointment as IDs and people who wish to include their name in the database have to send applications to the DPE.

Kacheria, when contacted by The Indian Express stated that she had been “asked to mail (my) bio-data". I sent that (bio-data) almost two months back, and then they made me sign a couple of formats, and about two days back I was told that I am a part of this thing.”

Obviously,  someone somewhere decided that she had to be appointed and got her empanelled in the DPE list. Any guesses from which corner this suggestion came?

This is particularly important because the final selection is made by a selection panel comprising the several officials and non-officials too. This establishes that unless the “right strings” have been drawn, arbitrary appointments are tough.

After it came to power the NDA had unceremoniously removed several PSU IDs who had been appointed by the UPA government. In August 2015, former ONGC chairman RS Sharma, who was a member of various task forces and government committees, wrote a note to Prime Minister Modi questioning the arbitrary orders.

It was reported that post May 2014, “an informal communication from ‘higher authorities’ had gone to government departments and ministries that all appointments on PSU boards made under the previous UPA regime would be reviewed”.

The appointment of small leaders and "connected" people demonstrates that Modi Sarkar is merely replacing loyalists of the previous regime with their own.

So, where is Parivartan?

Also read: Neither Modi nor his government likes journalists to ask questions