New Delhi: A day after Centre appointed former home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla as Manipur governor, it called state chief secretary Vineet Joshi, a 1992 batch Manipur cadre officer, to Delhi and appointed him higher education secretary.
Joshi was sent to Manipur on 7 May last year—just 4 days after violent clashes rocked Manipur—to take charge of the situation. At the time, Joshi was heading the National Testing Agency, which conducts medical and engineering entrance exams like NEET and JEE Main.
He had replaced the then chief secretary, Rajesh Kumar. A senior central government official told ThePrint that Joshi was picked for the challenging assignment as he knew the system, having served in senior positions in the state. He was also known to have a good working relationship with Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, having served as his principal secretary in 2017 for a year.
Earlier, he had also been posted as commissioner of planning and power and the state resident commissioner. A Manipur cadre officer, Joshi started his career as deputy secretary in the state’s youth affairs and sports department.
Now over a year-and-a-half since violence erupted in the Northeastern state, Manipur continues to be on the boil with ethnic violence between the Meiteis, predominantly Hindus, and the tribal Kuki community, who are Christians continuing.
“There has been no let-up in the situation in the state. Nor has there been any substantial outreach from the state administration to bring the leaders of the two communities for talk. The state administration under Joshi has not been very effective in finding a solution to the Manipur crisis,” a senior Manipur government official who wished to not be named told ThePrint.
The move to call back Joshi at this juncture, when the situation in Manipur is volatile, has led to speculations in both Delhi and Manipur bureaucratic circles whether the Centre has some bigger plans to restore normalcy in the state.
Violence broke out in the state on 3 May last year following a tribal solidarity march organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meiteis’ demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. The conflict has since claimed 300 lives, and displaced over 60,000.
Not new to education ministry
Known to be an efficient officer, Joshi is not new to the education ministry. In his earlier central deputation, he had served as additional secretary in the Department of Higher Education.
Joshi is a BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur. He has also done a PhD from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
The post of higher education secretary fell vacant after the incumbent K. Sanjay Murthy was appointed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)