The IPS class of 1984 that’s all-powerful under Modi govt

After appointment of Samant Goel and Arvind Kumar as chiefs of IB and RAW respectively, one particular IPS batch has taken charge of most key agencies.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) headquarters in New Delhi | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: With the Modi government appointing Samant Goel and Arvind Kumar as the new Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chiefs respectively, the 1984 batch of IPS officers have become an all-powerful group in the current dispensation.

Goel and Kumar, both officers from the 1984 batch, have the rank of director general, and will take charge of their new roles on 30 June.

The two are set to join an extremely powerful group of their batchmates who head key security positions in the Narendra Modi government.

The reigning batch

Sample this: The Border Security Force (BSF) is headed by Uttar Pradesh cadre officer Rajni Kant Mishra; the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which guards the country’s frontier with China, is headed by Haryana cadre officer S.S. Deswal; the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which provides security to all government installations in the country including the airports, is headed by Bihar cadre’s Rajesh Ranjan.

But this isn’t all.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which specialises in terror investigations, is headed by Assam-Meghalaya cadre’s Y.C. Modi, while the “black cat” commando force National Security Guard (NSG), which is essentially a federal contingency force meant to counter terrorists and hijack-like incidents, is headed by Telangana cadre officer Sudeep Lakhtakia.

Finally the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is headed by Gujarat cadre officer Rakesh Asthana, who was ousted from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last year after a bitter and public standoff with his boss Alok Verma.

All these officers belong to the 1984 batch of the Indian Police Service, and enjoy the rank of director general — the highest rank for IPS officers in the country. Many of them were empanelled as DG in 2017.

While the Enforcement Directorate is headed by an officer from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), S.K. Mishra, he too belongs to the 1984 batch of civil servants.

Some of the key security agencies to not be headed by 1984 batch officers include the CBI (headed by Madhya Pradesh cadre officer Rishi Kumar Shukla) and the Central Reserve Police Force (headed by Uttar Pradesh cadre officer R.R. Bhatnagar).

Both Shukla and Bhatnagar are 1983 batch officers.

‘Senior and qualified’

“It looks like a matter of chance that all these officers are from the same batch… Being from 1984 batch means that all of them have had 35 years of service, so in that sense they are senior and qualified enough,” said retired IPS officer Prakash Singh.

“All we need to check is if there are 1982 and 1983 batch officers who are still available or have all of them retired,” Singh added.

While Singh said he could not recall if such a situation had come up where officers of the same batch are heading several security and intelligence agencies, he said it could lead to better coordination among these agencies.

“Being from the same batch can help a lot in improving coordination and understanding… Unless there are internal rivalries, of course,” he said.