Dilli Ka Babu: No country for whistleblowers

The cruel fate of whistleblowers in India is not a kind one. The recent examples of Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka and Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi are still fresh in the public memory. Now another case of a whistleblower being victimised has come to light and it sounds all too familiar, even in the “achhe din” of the Modi sarkar.

The official Prakash Singh, a senior administrative officer in the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), has been transferred frequently by his seniors in the organisation for having complained to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) about “illegalities” in the laboratories of the DRDO and in the DRDO headquarters. That was back in 2008. Due to Mr Singh’s complain, a senior DRDO scientist was chargesheeted and the service of a women scientist was annulled.

That was the beginning of the official’s “harassment”. He was chargesheeted and compulsorily retired from service in 2012, at the age of 49! He however managed to get reinstated after the intervention of the then defence minister A.K. Antony. The present defence minister, Manohar Parrikar, too quashed the chargesheet against Mr Singh and ordered that his “retirement” period be considered as duty period. Surprisingly, Mr Parrikar’s orders have not made much difference to Mr Singh’s predicament. And though the minister has asked the DRDO to act against the officials who have harassed Mr Singh, there seems to be little progress in that direction.

Sordid spy tale

Spooks are the secretive sorts. The ultra-secretive Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the nation’s foreign intelligence agency, is thankfully not in the news often. Though there is hushed talk about A.K. Dhasmana, a 1981-batch IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, being named the eventual next chief of R&AW replacing Rajinder Khanna when his term comes to a close. A special CBI court has meanwhile directed the agency to probe allegations against a former R&AW chief A.K. Verma that he siphoned off secret service funds and misused the agency for personal gain. It adds gravitas to the allegations that the complainant R.K. Yadav is a former R&AW officer and has been tenaciously pursuing the case since 2009!

Mr Yadav has accused Mr Verma of embezzlement and misuse of power during his tenure as the chief spook between 1987-1990. Mr Verma has refuted these allegations and says that Mr Yadav is a “disgruntled” officer who was dismissed from service during his tenure and is merely seeking vendetta. The truth will probably be known after three months, when the CBI probe concludes. Or will it ever be known given how these organisations are structured?

Cabinet secretary steps in

In the background of Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan’s decision to exit the post at the end of his tenure in September, this is a significant development. The search for a successor to RBI deputy governor H.R. Khan will be led by a panel headed by Cabinet secretary P.K. Sinha. Earlier the panel used to be headed by the RBI governor. Dr Rajan however, will still be a member of the selection panel.

But observers caution that too much shouldn’t be read into Dr Rajan’s “demotion” in the selection panel. They cite the previous example of the appointment of a panel to find a successor to Sebi chairman U.K. Sinha last year, which too was headed by Cabinet secretary and had the secretary for economic affairs as a member.