Minister Dharmendra Pradhan ‘abused me, forced me’ to quit NSDC – Indian Army veteran

An Indian Army veteran who joined Skill India writes that Dharmendra Pradhan was not pleased when he was questioned in keeping with rules he had himself laid down.

A file photo of Dharmendra Pradhan | Wikimedia commons

On resigning from my first corporate job after a career in the Army, I had a choice to make out of three job offers in hand – two in my past areas of experience, with a good salary, and another that offered a lower pay and was in an area that was greenfield for me.

Without any predicament, the third one – a job with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) – was my choice as my heart and mind were in unison on the decision.

After 23 years in the Army and four years in the corporate sector, I needed something more than just a job. The circumstances the country faced about youth bulge, the NSDC promised me participation in the mission Skill India.

I was heading a prestigious project, Udaan, for Jammu & Kashmir on behalf of the Ministry of Home Affairs and, another vertical, SMART (Skill Management and Accreditation of Training centers), which is the gateway for anyone wanting to join Skill India as a training provider.

These two were in addition to other responsibilities, which were lighter. And then, there was a turn of events tearing through all that was cherished so passionately.

A spat with Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, Cabinet Minister, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), at a public event at the Constitution Club of India (unintended irony), over facilitating accreditation and affiliation to one of his known persons (or party affiliate, I am not sure) in contravention to his own guidelines issued by the MSDE, changed it all.

When I told him why his verbal orders were not doable given the guidelines, he lost his cool and started abusing me and using cuss words. Initially, I was amused at his spontaneous disparaging outpouring, but his outburst continued in full public view.

An Army man’s pride

My initial silence probably gave him the feeling that he, with his brute political power, could ride roughshod over me. He was mistaken. So were other senior functionaries, including Mr Rajesh Agarwal, joint secretary, MSDE, and Mr Manish Kumar, MD, NSDC.

They probably forgot my Army background and the fact that, we, in the armed forces, take our self-respect, pride and dignity quite seriously.

I curtly told the minister to watch his words as I had just followed the guidelines. Not anticipating such defiance to his perceived authority, he exploded in uncontrollable hysteria and ordered my immediate sacking while continuing to use cuss words.

He directed the NSDC MD to brief him with complete details the next morning (it was late in the night at the time). I was in an unwished-for situation. All the glares, including those of the guests, waiters, and my own team, at me, as if I was being ripped apart.

The 10-minute ordeal was like endless torture. I was standing perplexed for a few moments, as if stripped naked in full public view. The indignation was too much for me, especially due to the silence of my two seniors.

The minister left in a huff and I confronted both the seniors, who always espoused the advantages of team spirit, team work, honesty and morality, but in testing times, crumbled.

Next day, the MD briefed the minister. There was nothing to indicate anything wrong on my part. But then I had hurt the bloated ego of a powerful minister, so a price had to be paid. I was told that the minister was a compulsive abuser when things were not to his liking.

Not willing to give up on my dream mission so easily, I dug my heels in. Based on the directions of the NSDC MD, the head of its legal team communicated to me veiled threats about my future and my family’s well-being if I did not submit my resignation.

Not finding any sign of compliance from me, the MD, a Harvard-educated former bureaucrat, with experience of working on WASH (water supply, sanitation and hygiene) at the World Bank, and whom I held in very high esteem to the limits of idolising, called me and told me that the minister wanted my head.

Wanting to confront the minister, I sought an appointment with him through his staff. It never materialised. The MD was to travel with him for the next three days. He requested me to give him a one-line resignation letter stating the last working day as three months thence, which would be used to satisfy the minister.

I spoke to my wife, and she told me upfront, “Give anything in writing, be ready to get backstabbed”.

No leaders, only managers

Aware of the inherent risk, I still had faith in the system. The resignation letter was handed to him with the following parting words, “Sir, I am an Army man. I am showing the same confidence in you as I would have showed in my commanders during a war.”

He assured me that he would live up to the faith I had reposed in him. My expectations were unrealistic. Unlike in the forces, the corporate world hardly has any leaders. Yes, it can boast of very successful managers.

Even the world’s top universities and our own LBSNAA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration) cannot inculcate strength of character and leadership qualities in the best of their academically-empowered alumni.

Next evening, I received a call from NSDC MD Mr Manish Kumar, informing me that my resignation had been accepted according to my wishes and I would be relieved by 31 July 2018. That was my exit from the NSDC.

The price of speaking out

In hindsight, this turn of events was waiting to happen for some time. It was premeditated. I was not supposed to attend that event as it was not pertaining to my area of responsibility. My presence was requested by the minister’s office to discuss important procedural issues regarding upcoming guidelines. It was a trap.

The minister had not been comfortable with my continuation in the NSDC since, during a meeting, mine was the lone voice that countered one of his proposals on accreditation and affiliation based on the self-certification of training centres.

Previous experience with a similar arrangement had not been encouraging as many of those centres ended up in places like cow sheds or obscure buildings with little semblance to what was claimed in affidavits of self-assessment submitted by training partners (most of these manage to continue to be a part of the NSDC-run public- funded schemes in spite of adverse reports against them).

Both the joint secretary and the NSDC MD, who were present at that meeting and had first-hand knowledge of the previous experiment, remained silent. His displeasure was communicated to me the next day.

Many a feather had got ruffled in the skill ecosystem due to my actions as Head of Udaan. I had unearthed a scam involving big organisations – one organisation, VisionIndia or VISPL, allegedly owned by the lawmaker son of a central minister from Bihar, and others like KPMG, ApolloMedskills, MountTalent, SeBIZ, STC – in the implementation of Udaan.

Strangely, there was no indication of rot in any of the notes of my predecessors. The scheme, aimed at enabling 40,000 educated youth of J&K at a cost of Rs 750 crore, should have been a game- changer for the state. Ground realities were entirely different.

A ‘scam’ in the Valley

My deep-diving showed that most of the numbers were fake, and only existed in documents. The youth of J&K were being shortchanged by big corporates for quick money.

I raised the issue with the NSDC management. Things did not move initially. I was bluntly told that it wasn’t the NSDC’s responsibility to check corruption. My persistence forced the NSDC and the MHA to act, though painfully slow to the limits of pusillanimity.

Corporates were not happy. When all efforts to win me over with inducements for favourable closure did not bear fruit, they resorted to intimidation (I had kept my MD informed about all those offers).

Those at the helm failed to recognise that the state of J&K had sensitive security connotations too. The youth of the state, already bearing the burnt of militancy and corruption, lost opportunities, unsure of today and tomorrow, needed to be handled with sensitivity. Their well-being should be a priority for all of us. They are needed to be taken out of the vicious cycle of lack of confidence in governance, pessimism and, thus, radicalisation.

Insurgency in the state cannot be finished by the forces alone. Youth have to be on our side through positive interventions and interactions just like the spirit envisaged under Udaan.

But to quite a few in the government and corporate sector, the situation in J&K is a business opportunity as usual, and I was an impediment in their profiteering. For the NSDC top man, promotion of a joint secretary to the rank of additional secretary was more important than any corrective actions in the implementation of the scheme.

So things were temporarily buried for the promotion to happen: An example of the hollowness of a hallowed institution. However, to safeguard other selfish interests, my head had to roll.

‘Professional hara-kiri’

Even as the head of SMART, my endeavour was to create a level playing field for all, which again did not sit well with some who considered themselves more privileged. They, too, tried all the tricks in their bag, including threats to my family. But those could not deter me.

I got no positive response from my seniors when I informed them. Not to take things lying down, each one of them was confronted by me in person. Serious issues have been plaguing Skill India, like poor selection of job roles, contents, fake enrolments in RPL (recognition of prior learning) and PMKVY (Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana), quality of training, and a compromised assessment system.

All these issues were raised with the management and people concerned in writing and at various in-house meetings during my tenure with the NSDC. This was unacceptable to the minister and the management as any contrary views are considered blasphemous nowadays.

Going public on this issue can be professional hara-kiri. Many of you who are reading this would call it an act of frustration. No, it is not. Some incidents, however bitter they are, need to be told and retold, especially if these have a bearing on issues as serious as engaging with the youth of our most sensitive state i.e. J&K.

In the last nine months, I got four offers, all from reputed corporates, but they suddenly evaporated as soon as I shared with them the reasons behind my resignation from the NSDC.

I could have made up something else. Many well-wishers told me so. It is my firm belief and conviction that any relationship on falsehood is doomed. I decided to put the details in the public domain for any future employers to be aware of the reality before they start considering me as a candidate and also for anyone to contest if they feel I have written falsehood.

Another reason was to stop the rumour mills from grinding more stories. It is quite painful that these rumours come from the top management/coterie around them. There had been a sudden exodus from the NSDC after the present dispensation took over.

The reason oft quoted was adverse conduct reports from intelligence agencies against those individuals. When similar rumours started surfacing about me, it was in everybody’s interest to go public. No one should be allowed the pleasure and liberty to assassinate anyone’s character.

‘No regret’

Skill India is an unfinished mission for me. There is, however, no regret for any of my actions during my stint with the NSDC and no animosity with anyone. Each one of us has his/her own moral compass. My moral compass continues to guide me. During my tenure at the NSDC, I tried to work within the limited elbow room available and was successful in bringing many positive changes.

The corrupt did not have a free run in my areas of responsibility and they were taken head on.

There were a lot of learnings from many well-meaning, motivated and aware youngsters who worked with me and the people I met. I came out of the NSDC with lots of work satisfaction, thanks to the diversity of issues that came up every day.

It gave me immense exposure to the social development sector and made me aware of the gestation period before such welfare measures start showing improvements on the ground in a country as diverse as ours. These necessarily require behavioural change in society. But the gestation period can be unending in case of lack of conviction and adulterated morality of implementing agencies. I would never be on the side of such adulterations and corruption of silent indulgences.

Why is Skill India off the list of achievements of the ruling dispensation in an election year? Why do most of the welfare schemes in our country fail to optimise? The reasons are not difficult to fathom.

While espousing strict measures that need to be taken to stop the leakage, PM Modi has so often alluded to Rajiv Gandhi’s comment that only 15 paise of Re 1 reaches the masses.

Organisations like the NSDC are bestowed with a huge mandate. Such organisations must not be allowed to fail. The onus of this is on its top management. They should not only be essentially just and responsive, but should also seem to be so.

I am not an activist, just a common Indian. I am not here to garner sympathy, or complain, but just to lay bare some harsh realities.This article is not against any individual, and not an issue between a victim and a tormentor either.

It is against a system and the mindset that permeates thereon. It is meant to make some people feel disturbed, so disturbed that they may at some time introspect as to how they allowed things in their control to reach such a stage.

Easy options are always available to us all – keep silent, be part of the system, keep everyone happy through reciprocal relationships. But each one of us has to face our own self some day. Dignity, pride and self-respect are precious. As a born optimist with belief in the goodness of human beings, I am sure, it will turn towards the better some day.

Things are waiting for an opportune time, which is just a turn away. That day, the cost paid would seem to be very low, and the mind would be at peace. “This too shall pass.”

This article in no way is a political statement against any party. It is against a mindset so increasingly seen in today’s politicians and others in high places. It is to highlight why most well-meaning schemes fail. It is for the nation I love so dearly. It is for youth of these country who are searching for elusive jobs among fancy names. It is for each Kashmiri youth that got radicalised and the soldier who died fighting terrorism. It is to tell them that we failed them due to our hunger for money.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn.