New Delhi: Top officials of the finance ministry have stopped retiring, it seems. At least, figuratively.
Many senior IAS and IRS officers have, after retirement from their service, been appointed to crucial and cushy positions in the government and across important institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Election Commission of India (ECI), Central Vigilance Commission(CVC), Central Information Commission (CIC) and the Finance Commission after the NDA came to power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This privilege, however, wasn’t accorded to civil servants of the finance ministry appointed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. They were, instead, shunted out to non-consequential ministries during their tenures.
For instance, then finance secretary Arvind Mayaram was shunted out to the Ministry of Minority Affairs in October 2014. Then revenue secretary Rajiv Takru was transferred to the Department of North-east Development in June 2014 and then again to the National Commission of Minorities in October 2014. G.S. Sandhu, the then financial services secretary, was shifted to the National Authority for Chemical Weapons convention in November 2014.
ThePrint looks at the former civil servants of the finance department who have retained plum jobs, even after retirement, under the Modi government.
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Shaktikanta Das
When the Modi government first came to power in 2014, Das was a secretary in the Department of Chemicals and Fertilisers after having spent over five years in the Ministry of Finance between 2008 and 2013. He had served his finance ministry stint at the Department of Expenditure and Economic Affairs.
After the Modi government shunted out then revenue secretary Rajiv Takru within weeks of coming to power, Das, an IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, was appointed to replace him. A year later in 2015, he was appointed as the secretary, Department of Economic Affairs — a post he held for two years until his superannuation in May 2017.
A few months after his retirement, Das was appointed as the G-20 sherpa by the Modi government and then went on to become a member of the 15th Finance Commission.
When RBI governor Urjit Patel abruptly resigned, Prime Minister Modi chose Das to take over the top job in December 2018. Das’ ascent to the RBI ceased the prolonged open battle between the government and the central bank over various issues, including matters such as the RBI’s reserves, curbs on banks and their capital adequacy norms.
Rajiv Mehrishi
A Rajasthan-cadre IAS officer, Mehrishi was appointed the Department of Economic Affairs secretary in October 2014. He was the chief secretary in Rajasthan but the Modi government brought him to the Centre just months after coming to power.
He served for less than a year when just days before his superannuation, he was appointed as home secretary for a period of two years. A month after he retired after his stint at the home ministry, Mehrishi was appointed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for a period of three years. His tenures ends in August 2020.
Girish Chandra Murmu
An IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Murmu is said to be close to both Modi and Amit Shah courtesy his stint in the chief minister’s office and the state’s home ministry in his parent state.
Having had multiple stints in the union finance ministry, in the Departments of Revenue, Expenditure and Financial Services, Murmu was appointed expenditure secretary in November 2018.
But a month before his retirement, Murmu was appointed to the crucial post of the lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir in October 2019, taking over the state just months after the abrogation of Article 370 by the Union government.
His five-year tenure ends in 2024.
Ashok Lavasa
An IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, Ashok Lavasa was appointed as the expenditure secretary in April 2016 by the Modi government and then was later elevated as the finance secretary. He retired after having served more than a year-and-a-half in the finance ministry.
A couple of months after his superannuation he was appointed as an election commissioner in the Election Commission of India in January 2018.
Lavasa, however, has emerged as the main voice of dissent in the Election Commission. He opposed the alleged lenient treatment towards model code of conduct violations committed by Modi and Shah in the run up to the 2019 Parliamentary elections.
He had dissented on three of the five EC decisions on complaints against Modi, and on one against Shah. He even boycotted the commission meetings, saying his presence was “irrelevant and meaningless” since his dissent was not being recorded in orders.
The opposition, however, has been costly — his wife Novel Lavasa, his sister Shakuntala Lavasa, a paediatrician, and the company in which his son Abir is a director all are facing action from the Income Tax department.
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Hasmukh Adhia
Former finance and revenue secretary, Hasmukh Adhia, was a Gujarat cadre IAS officer trusted by Modi, having worked closely with the prime minister during his days as the Gujarat CM.
Adhia first joined the finance ministry as financial services secretary in November 2014, before being appointed as revenue secretary and then being elevated as the finance secretary. He spent a total of four years in the ministry.
A yoga enthusiast, Adhia was tipped to become the cabinet secretary before being at the receiving end of a sustained campaign targeting him by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.
Adhia was, however, appointed as the non-executive chairman of the Bank of Baroda within four months of superannuating in November 2018.
Neeraj Kumar Gupta
An IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, Gupta was appointed secretary in the Department of Disinvestment in January 2016 and held the post until his superannuation in April 2018.
A few months after his superannuation, Gupta was named an information commissioner in the Central Information Commission in December 2018.
Ajay Narayan Jha
An IAS officer of the Manipur cadre, Jha was appointed the expenditure secretary in 2017 and was then elevated as the finance secretary. Immediately after his superannuation in February 2019, he was appointed a member of the 15th Finance Commission replacing Das who had by then become the RBI governor.
Ratan Watal
An IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, Watal was the expenditure secretary for over two-and-a-half years from 2013 to 2016. He was one of the rare civil servants, appointed by the UPA government in the finance ministry, who managed to hold on to his post even when the Modi government assumed power.
After his superannuation in 2016, Watal was appointed as a principal adviser in the Niti Aayog for a period of five years. His tenure ends in May 2021.
Subhash Chandra Garg
An IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, Garg was secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs for two years from June 2017 to July 2019. He was also elevated as the finance secretary before he was abruptly shunted out to the power ministry.
Garg termed his exit from the finance ministry as unceremonious and opted for voluntary retirement from service effective October 2019. He was recently appointed as an advisor, resources, to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Sushil Chandra
An IRS officer, Chandra was appointed as the chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in November 2016 just days before the Modi government demonetised high-value currency notes.
As CBDT chairman, Chandra headed the tax department’s efforts to track tax evaders in the aftermath of demonetisation and was the first chairperson in the department’s history to ever get an extension.
Chandra got not one but two one-year extensions. And just months before his second extension was due to end in May 2019, Chandra was appointed as an Election Commissioner in February 2019.
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K.V. Chowdary
Chowdary, an IRS officer, was appointed the CBDT chairperson in August 2014 but superannuated after a brief three-month tenure in October 2014. Immediately after his superannuation, however, he was appointed as an advisor to the Supreme Court constituted Special Investigation Team on black money.
Chowdary, who always sports a red tilak on his forehead, was then appointed the Chief Vigilance Commissioner in June 2015, a post he held until June 2019.
As CVC, Chowdary had an eventful tenure and was drawn into the battle between the then CBI chief Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana.
Vanaja N. Sarna
An IRS officer, Sarna headed the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs between 2017 and 2018. She was at the helm of the body at the time India rolled out the goods and services tax across the country on 1 July 2017. A few months after her retirement, Sarna was appointed as an Information commissioner in the Central Information Commission.
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Governments have from time to time legislated ,under public pressure, progressive & forward looking oversight agencies. In some measure on their efficient and impartial functioning depends the strength of our democracy.But over the years government have also found ways to get round such unwanted restraints.A civil servant having passed d loyalty test of mutually hostile regimes and survived many a dog fight reaches the top.Reduced to being one quarter of a man and three quarters of moral vacuum, intellectually supple & maneuverable he comes in handy for defanging bodies like C V C , CEC , Information Commission, etc which are tools of empowerment for the people, but one supplicating incumbent heading such a body actually works to dis-empower the people. How long could the judiciary escape this best non invasive procedure of castration
Is this any different from what previous UPA governments did? Curious as to why this is being presented as a new phenomenon, while it is a long standing practice not just in the Administrative services but also very notably in the judiciary.
Politicians in the seat of Powere should not be entitiled to hold them from retiring, as they are playing with the career building of others, who are being deprived infairly but pave the movement than causing barricade/blockage, which is injustice.Politicians in power to be clipped of their wings, in the PUBLIC/ NATIONAL INTEREST. SHAME TO THE PILLARS OF NATIONAL GOVERNANCE and the citizens who elected them to power. PROTEST FOR THE UNFAIRNESS IN SEIZING OTHER BUREAUCRATS RIGHTS ? NEED FOR EQUALITIES OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS ENSHRINED IN THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION.
Instead of relying on former bureaucrats so heavily, Government should consider bringing in outside talent such as reputed engineers, economists, doctors, social scientists, management experts, legal and constitutional experts. Bureaucrats, even the retired ones are not necessarily omniscient. No job is unlearnable.
You forgot Mahendra Singh, Lokpal member
Mandarins in the Treasury are expected to deliver stellar macroeconomic management, high growth, low inflation. Perhaps they may have had some other fine qualities.