Gfiles dec 2013

SP MG
EA DE
K VA
OU SA
p3 T, HA
4
M YAM
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EXPOSÉ WHEN WILL ACTION BE TAKEN
AGAINST JIGNESH SHAH? p28

December 10, 2013
VOL. 7, ISSUE 9

SUNIL PATNAIK:
IAS TO ASHRAM
FIRST STIRRINGS
p42

gfilesindia.com

GOVERNANCE
AWARDS 2013

New Paradigms

From the Editor

A

vol. 7,

ISSUE 9 | December 2013

Anil Tyagi | editor
TR Ramachandran | executive editor
Niranjan Desai | roving editor
GS Sood | consulting business editor
Rakesh Bhardwaj | editorial consultant
Arvind Tiwari | director, business development
Naresh Minocha | associate editor
Neeraj Mahajan | associate editor
Alok Jain | coordinator (maharashtra)
Ajit Ujjainkar | bureau chief (mumbai)
Harishchandra Bhat | associate editor (bengaluru)
Venugopalan | bureau chief (bengaluru)
Kh Manglembi Devi | editorial coordinator
Mayank Awasthi | reporter
Pawan Kumar | production coordinator
Sumer Singh | assistant manager, logistics
Nipun Jain | finance
Gautam Das | legal consultant
Crossmedia Solutions | edit & design
Taran Tejpal Singh | Webmaster (Design)
Dipanshu Gupta | Webmaster (Programmer)
advertising & marketing
adv@gfilesindia.com
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CONTACT — +91 9845730298
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+All information in gfiles is obtained from sources that the
management considers reliable, and is disseminated to readers
without any responsibility on our part. Any opinions or views
on any contemporary or past topics, issues or developments
expressed by third parties, whether in abstract or in interviews,
are not necessarily shared by us. Copyright exclusively with
Sarvashrestha Media Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved throughout
the world. Reproduction of any material of this magazine in
whole, or in part(s), in any manner, without prior permission, is
totally prohibited. The publisher accepts no responsibility for
any material lost or damaged in transit. The publisher reserves
the right to refuse, withdraw or otherwise deal with any
advertisement without explanation. All advertisements must
comply with the Indian Advertisements Code. Published and
printed by Anil Tyagi on behalf of Sarvashrestha Media Pvt. Ltd
at Kala Jyothi Process Pvt Ltd. E-125, Site-B, Surajpur Ind. Area,
Gautam Budh Nagar, Greater Noida-201306 U.P. (INDIA). All
disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent
courts in New Delhi only

S 2013 ends on a positive note, bringing a breath of
fresh air politically to India, it is too early to predict what
will happen in 2014. But one thing is certain–it will be a
remarkable year in our political history. It does not matter who captures ‘Delhi’ in
the parliamentary elections of 2014; it appears the politics of India will not remain
bipolar and will only become multi-polar. The elections will be very decisive,
putting an end to collusion and back-scratching of political parties and leaders.
The Delhi Assembly election results showed how the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has
opened a new window for those who would have otherwise kept on voting for
either the Congress or BJP. How the AAP will take forward the sentiment of the
common man no one knows, but it seems the common man has possibly made
up his mind to get rid of traditional political parties and their leaders. The poorest
and the youth have taken the lead and turned the tide for a possible political
change. The Delhi mandate is a fractured one and a confusing one for all political
parties. Had the AAP vote bank had any idea of its sheer numbers, I am sure the
BJP too would have been wiped off Delhi’s political map.
The five State Assembly elections have disseminated another valuable lesson
to all political parties–that there is no loyal and constant vote bank available to
them. Rajasthan is a glaring example where all AJGAR (Ahir, Jat, Gujjar, Rajput)
voters shifted to the BJP. Ashok Gehlot did not have an explanation; irrespective
of good work, people did not vote for him. In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has
to do some rethinking. This is Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s victory, no doubt, but it
is even more a reflection of Congress’ mismanagement. It has created a mess
in the State, even being unable to decide until the end who would lead it. Even
chief ministerial candidate Jyotiraditya Scindia’s citadel of Gwalior fell to the BJP.
The saffron party swept all five regions–Madhya Bharat, Mahakaushal, Vindhya
Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Bhopal. It is incumbent on the Congress to decide
clearly how long Digvijay Singh will be allowed to drive Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh’s mandate is a vindication of Raman Singh’s good
work. He fought a tough battle, but finally came out victorious. Even the death of
veteran Congressman Vidya Charan Shukla and Mahendra Karma could not help
the Congress. It is unfathomable how business houses in Chhattisgarh can carry
on their activities in naxalite-infested areas whereas the government cannot
work even to provide basic amenities to locals. This is the biggest challenge for
Raman Singh. On the other hand, Ajit Jogi and son Amit Jogi have to start afresh
in the State. The duo of Rahul Gandhi and CP Joshi took a personal initiative to
place their trust in Ajit Jogi, going against the resentment of the local Congress
leadership. Congress now has to re-strategise its plan in Chhattisgarh.
At the same time, it is not a very happy situation for Narendra Modi and his
supporters within the BJP. I am of the opinion that the results would have been
the same in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, even if Modi had not been on the
national horizon. The voters of these three States voted for their local heroes, not
Modi. It was not a mandate geared towards national politics. The five Assembly
elections are a clarion call to all stakeholders in the Indian social and political
arena to wake up for building a new India in 2014, more strong, vibrant and agile
than ever before. It will be a fitting reply to those who do not have the trust in the
wisdom of the common man.
ANIL TYAGI
editor@gfilesindia.com

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gfiles inside the government

vol. 7, issue 9 | December 2013

3

CONTENTS
6 Bric-a-Brac

LETTERS
editor@gfilesindia.com

polls & roles

10 Cover Story

governance awards: gfiles recognises
innovation and commitment

GOVERNANCE MG DEVASAHAYAM ON VK SINGH p20
YOGENDRA NARAIN ON RULES OF BUSINESS p26

November 5, 2013
VOL. 8, ISSUE 7

EXPOSÉ
LAND SHARKS
IN GURGAON
p16

28 Exposé

jignesh shah hides behind lawyers

gfilesindia.com
d

34 Governance

modi’s missing agenda

42 First Stirrings
ias officer turns monk

46 Talktime

let parliamentary committees function

49 Book Review

beyond management jargon

50 Initiative

seminar with an edge

52 inculcating values
54 My Corner

watch your words

56 Initiative

EQ differs by profession

58 Stock Doctor

watch mid-cap stocks

64 Perspective
essence of time

65 By the Way

poll woes, workstyles and more

NO ONE
DARE
ARREST
JIGNESH
SHAH!

The case of VK SIngh

FI RAT
RS H
T IKA
ST N
T
p3 IR BA
6 RI S
NG U
S

38 black money still abroad

Action required
Your cover story ‘Living Dangerously’
(gfiles, November 2013) makes
apparent the collusion between the
powers that be and NSEL scam kingpin
Jignesh Shah. There can be no other
explanation as to why he is not behind
bars as yet. I still recall the furore over
the Harshad Mehta scam in the early
nineties, and the NSEL fraud is not a
patch on that. Furthermore, the spot
exchange scam has eroded investor
confidence in the online trading
system. This is likely to take a long
time to recover. Many small investors
are now shying away from online
trading. As your story revealed, the
areas of fraud are multiple. This is a
big blow to investors’ confidence in
the market, which is already weak and
going down by the day. It is time that
the authorities take strict action
against the perpetrators of NSEL scam
or else few will believe in the
impartiality of law.
S Patel via email
Your cover story on NSEL scam shows
the depths our system of governance
has sunk to. Here is a man whose
misdeeds are out there in the open
and yet the authorities shy away from
taking any action against him. Many

4


investors would have put their hardearned money into the spot exchange
run by Jignesh Shah and his cohorts.
Only his arrest will set an example to
other fraudsters and make them think
before any wrongdoing.
C Anant via email

Thank you (‘VeekaySinghmania’ by
MG Devasahayam, gfiles, November
2013) for putting across the sequence
of events so succinctly. The words of a
politician—any politician—cannot
weigh against that of a soldier ever. It
is the soldier who is willing to lay
down his life for the country. It shows
the silliness and unthinking nature of
Indian people that they indulge in
selfish politics with gay abandon,
rather than demanding and obeying
the rule of law.
Manoj Khare on blog
An excellent article highlighting the
injustice meted out to one of India’s
top soldiers. Shame on the
government of Manmohan Singh and
his chamchas.
Ram Ohri on blog

Exposing land deals
The article ‘Where land sharks rule’
has successfully exposed largescale
corruption in land deals in Gurgaon.
Please carry on the good work.
KS Sandhu on blog
Gurgaon is a hot bed of corruption as
far as land deals are concerned. I am
glad a magazine of your repute is
taking note of this serious issue and
giving it the attention it deserves. The
black money involved in such deals
runs into huge amounts. Only if the
media acts like a watchdog will the
corrupt get wary and desist from
continuing with their shady deals.
R Menon via email

www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside th government
f es s
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the

vol
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D

5

Bric-a-brac
polls & roles

PC for Puducherry

eyes seat shift from shivganga

I

T seems the south of the country is
going to be a headache for the
Congress, and especially for
Union
Finance
Minister
Chidambaram Palaniappan, during next year’s general election.
The
grapevine
says
Chidambaram might shift from
his parliamentary constituency of
Shivganga to Puducherry. Apparently,
he wants to avoid being once again in
the tricky situation he was in during the 2009 elections, when
Shivganga had posed a tough
battle for him. This time, PC is
in no mood to hazard a risk in
a post-Manmohan Singh scenario as he could likely be the
prime ministerial candidate if Rahul
Gandhi declines the post in the event of a

narrow majority or a hung parliament. Chennai sources
say Chidambaram has assigned a market agency to study
Puducherry and pinpoint projects which can be initiated
much before the election. Complicating the issue
is the fact that GK Vasan, son of late Congress
stalwart GK Moopanar, is the president of
the Tamil Nadu Congress Party and
Chidambaram has been at loggerheads with
him for long. PC’s son, Karthik, has
sent feelers to the Puducherry
Congress Committee leaders on his father’s candidature. It remains to be
seen whether V Narayanasamy, the
Congress MP from Puducherry and a
Cabinet minister, will relinquish the seat.
He has powerful connections and
is also a follower of a powerful
Congressman (who belongs to a
different camp and may not like
PC’s shift from Shivganga to
Puducherry). A fierce battle
is on the cards.

g

Haryana in Hooda’s fist
cm may prepone polls

H

ARYANA Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is on a
roll. It is unprecedented that, in the run-up to elections
(assembly elections are due in October 2014), there is
little or no opposition to the ruling party. Also, even within his
party, there is no one to challenge his leadership. And it seems
he is eager to strike while the iron is hot. Rumour is rife that
Hooda may prepone the polls and hold them alongside the
general election. He is particularly upbeat after the Gohana
rally in November. Aides have told him that none else in the
Congress can collect such a massive crowd. The party’s top
leadership too has noted Hooda’s growing popularity. During
Diwali, his public relations machinery was in top gear, targetting
every Congress leader connected in any way with party affairs in
Haryana. Employees at the Congress party headquarters were
amused by the generosity of their chief minister who gifted them
suit lengths for Diwali. No one knows what was gifted to those
leaders who are in charge of Congress-ruled States and deal with
the Chief Minister on a daily basis. Anyway, it was a damn good
PR exercise, Mr Hooda!

g

6


www.gfilesindia.com

INSIDE EYE

ILLUSTRATIONS: ARUNA

Bahuguna’s days numbered
winds of change in uttarakhand

V

IJAY Bahuguna is fortunate to have survived so long as
Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. He has neither a mass
base nor MLAs backing him. In the summer, he was
perceived to have failed in handling the floods. Another shock
was son Saket Bahuguna losing the Tehri parliamentary byelection to Mala Rajyalakshmi Shah of the BJP in October.
Sources say the Congress leadership is inclined towards
replacing him. Three leaders are contenders for the post—
Harish Rawat, Minister for Water Resources, Satpal Maharaj,
and Indira Hridayesh, Finance Minister. Hridayesh is the
front-runner and was summoned by the high command last
month. The change of chief minister is likely to take place after
the Assembly election results. Wait to see who wins—a Thakur
or a Brahmin.

g

www.indianbuzz.com



7

Bric-a-brac
polls & roles

Telangana imbroglio
congress in catch-22 position

T

HE Telangana issue is driving Andhra Pradesh
politicians crazy. Seema Andhra politicians are reading
the writing on the wall while the Congress finds itself in
a Catch-22 situation. If Andhra Pradesh
remains united, the Congress is likely to be
wiped out in the State. But if it is divided,
there may be some consolation for the
party. Sonia Gandhi has assigned P
Chidambaram and Home Minister Sushil
Kumar Shinde to handle the problem while
Jairam Ramesh and S Jaipal Reddy are the
interlocutors within the party to sound out every
stakeholder. Meetings are being held day and night of
those who are pro- and anti-Telangana. Senior Cabinet
Ministers seeking to meet Sonia are instead told to meet
Chidambaram or Shinde. Chief Minister Kiran Reddy has
suggested that the Congress should take the position
that it is ready to create Telangana if the Assembly
passes a resolution favouring bifurcation of the State.
It would thus save face. But, say sources, there were no
takers for this argument in the party. A Cabinet Minister
from Andhra Pradesh is so unhappy that he has tried to get an
appointment with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for
two months. No one is heeding his
requests as Rahul is occupied with
electioneering. Now there are serious
murmurs growing within the Congress, and
the coming days will tell what shape this
undercurrent will take.

g

8


www.gfilesindia.com

(A Government of India Enterprise)

Power Transmission

ince its inception, EPI has been
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During the last 4 years, EPI has been
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■ Water Supply and Environmental
Engineering
■ Material Handling
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■ Oil and Petrochemical

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Road Projects

Grain Silos

Water Treatment Plant

EPI has contributed immensely in the
advancement of the nation and the
company is presently focusing on high
technology, consultancy and high value
projects. The company is re-establishing its
activities in the overseas market. EPI has
also diversified in the following sectors:
■ Mass Rapid Transit System
■ Renewable Energy

EPI is a uniquely integrated
engineering
company
capable
of
undertaking projects from the concept to
commissioning and performs the
following:
■ Feasibility Studies and Detailed Project
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■ Design and Engineering
■ Supply of Plant & Equipment
■ Quality Assurance
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■ Erection and Commissioning
■ Operation and Maintenance
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EPI’s composition and character makes
it ideally suited to take up execution of
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a wide spectrum of industries. Most of EPI
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Airports



9

COVER STORY

awards good governance

WORK IS
The second annual
Governance Awards of
gfiles was an occasion
to inspire thousands of
unsung public
servants to use
innovation to multiply
public resources

10


by NARENDRA KAUSHIK

I

T is not every day that the ‘muchmaligned’ steel frame of India
gets an opportunity to celebrate.
It is not every day that the minority
of the ‘faceless and anonymous’ civil
servants, who refuse to be partners in
crime with the powers-that-be, who
question the Maoists ruling the roost
in the so-called red corridor of India
and who become gamechangers by

providing succour to the poorest of the
poor, disadvantaged and the weakest
sections of society in India, are recognised and acknowledged. It is also
not every day that the media, which
treats bad news as good business and
pillories babudom for the various ills
and lacunae prevailing across India’s
length and breadth, honours the
ones who put service before self in
working for the aam aadmi, set
examples by executing lifeline

www.gfilesindia.com

WORSHIP
projects without time and cost overruns and innovate to add to the
national exchequer.
The second annual Governance
Awards of gfiles, leader of the media
segment reporting on governance
and bureaucracy in the country, on
November 30 at India International
Centre (IIC), New Delhi, was an occasion which will inspire thousands of
unsung engineers, district collectors/magistrates and police officials

www.indianbuzz.com

to reach out to the deprived, seeking
their participation in governance and
policy-making and using innovation
to multiply public resources.
The occasion, graced by serving
and retired bureaucrats such as TKA
Nair, Principal Adviser to the Prime
Minister, Shekhar Dutt, Governor of
Jharkhand, former Cabinet Secretary
Prabhat Kumar and former Chief
Information Commissioner Wajahat
Habibullah, who are admired and

PHOTOS: RAJEEV TYAGI

looked up to for their honesty, integrity and fairness, conferred the lifetime achievement award on Dr E
Sreedharan (who could not be present
due to ill health), better known as
India’s Metro Man, and seven other
civil servants for exceptional contribution in their respective fields of work.
Diplomats from at least four major
countries were also in attendance.
The eight awardees were chosen
through a meticulous process by a



11

COVER STORY


five-member independent jury, which
enjoys an unmatched and impeccable
track record and is backed by the credibility and goodwill of gfiles. Headed
by Prabhat Kumar, the jury panel
comprised former Power Secretary
Anil Razdan, former Chief Secretary
of Haryana Vishnu Bhagwan, former Secretary (Internal Security) MB
Kaushal and former Chairman and
Managing Director of IDBI Bank RM
Malla.

A

PART from Sreedharan, who is
responsible for building some of
the largest infrastructure projects of modern India, including the
Delhi Metro and the Konkan Railway,
the awardees included Abhayanand,
a 1977-batch IPS officer and current
Bihar Director General of Police, who
is considered the brain behind speedy
trial and conviction of criminals in the
state, JS Deepak, a 1982-batch Uttar
Pradesh cadre IAS officer, who is credited with scripting one of the most successful and highest revenue generating e-auctions, of the 3G spectrum in
2010, and Dr Amarjit Singh, a 1982batch Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, who
co-opted private obstetricians into the
public delivery system and initiated
a very successful Chiranjeevi Yojana
in April 2005 after seeing a pregnant
woman being carried on a pole by
two villagers.
Jayesh Ranjan, a 1992-batch
AP IAS officer and present CMD
of the Andhra Pradesh Industrial
Infrastructure
Corporation,
was
awarded for implementing the
Andhra Pradesh District Poverty
Initiative Project (APDPIP) in 2000
and thus mobilising around a crore
of people afflicted by extreme poverty
through community organisations.
Atul N Patney, a young Maharashtracadre IAS officer, received an award
for using IT to improve the health

12


Wajahat Habibullah, Pankaj Pachauri and TKA Nair at the awards function

infrastructure and quality education through the E-Vidya Project in
Naxalite-affected Gadchiroli district
in the State. Ashwani Lohani, a 1980batch Indian Railway Service officer,
was, on the other hand, conferred an
award for facilitating a turnaround
in the Indian Tourism Development
Corporation (ITDC) and Madhya
Pradesh State Tourism Development
Corporation. The 1973-batch Tamil
Nadu-cadre IAS officer, Santha Sheela
Nair, received an award for raising the
water level through mandatory water
harvesting in Tamil Nadu.
Deepak, Singh and Abhayanand
were honoured with the Exceptional
Contribution
Awards.
Ranjan,
Patney, Lohani and Nair, on the other
hand, were recipients of the Excellent
Contribution Awards.

Awards to inspire excellence
While admitting the existence of
some ‘flawed specimen with misplaced
priorities’ in the Indian civil services
and commending gfiles’ Governance
Awards, Prabhat Kumar pointed out
that there were tens of thousands of
other civil servants doing their services
in the best tradition. He felt that, after
October 2005 (Supreme Court pro-

nouncements in the 2G case), bureaucrats had become ‘scared to speak
out’. Kumar is part of the IC Centre of
Governance, a non-profit educational
trust which documents and shares
best practices. He knows that, despite
all impediments, civil servants have
stories of ‘courage, conviction, compassion and innovation’.
Lohani felt the award will give him
‘the energy and the motivation’ to
continue on a fast trajectory for the
rest of his career (five-plus years).
Jayesh Ranjan was happy to be recognised by people ‘who are still my
role models’. He was sure the award
would ‘strengthen his determination
to do more and more and rise to the
best of (his) abilities’. Singh was of the
view that there was a need to capitalise on the huge amount of resources
available outside the government.
Deepak felt assured that his principal design and technology of e-auction
would be replicated in future auctions
by the government. He felt the award
would give a fillip to good work. In her
closing remarks, Nair said that the
awards would make up for the lack of
motivation, which was one of the root
causes of underperformance in the
administrative services. g

www.gfilesindia.com

Lifetime Achievement Award

Satish Kumar, Advisor, DMRC, receives the award
from TKA Nair on behalf of Elattuvalapil
Sreedharan (inset)

Elattuvalapil Sreedharan
Principal Advisor, DMRC
For building some of
independent India’s
largest infrastructure
projects without time
and cost overruns,
while working for the
government

www.indianbuzz.com

P

OPULARLY known as the
‘Metro man’, Dr Elattuvalapil
Sreedharan is credited with
beginning work on the country’s first
Metro in Calcutta way back in 1970 as
Deputy Chief Engineer. A civil engineer, he started his career as a lecturer at the Government Polytechnic,
Kozhikode, and worked as an apprentice at Bombay Port Trust for a year.
Later, he joined the Indian Railways.
In 1963, a cyclone washed away parts
of Pamban Bridge that connected
Rameswaram to mainland Tamil
Nadu. Sreedharan restored the bridge
in 46 days, as against the target of
six months set by the Railways, and
was conferred the Railway Minister’s
award. It was under his chairmanship
that the Cochin Shipyard launched
Rani Padmini, the first ship it built.

He retired from Indian Railways as
Member Engineering in 1990 but,
recognising his outstanding calibre,
the government appointed him CMD
of Konkan Railway. Under his stewardship, the first major project was
undertaken on a BOT (Build-OperateTransfer) basis with an organisational
structure that veered from a typical Indian Railways setup. The project had 93 tunnels over 82 km and
involved tunnelling through soft soil.
It covered a length of 760 km and had
over 150 bridges. That a public sector
project could be completed without
significant cost and time overruns
was considered an overwhelming
achievement.
He was made Managing Director of
the Delhi Metro in 2005 and the rest,
as everyone knows, is history.



13

COVER STORY


Exceptional Contribution Award

Prabhat Kumar and TKA Nair (centre) giving the award
to Abhayanand (left)

Abhayanand Director General of Police, Bihar
For contributing
successful policing
initiatives such as
speedy trial and
formation of Special
Auxiliary Police from
among retired army
officers, thereby
tremendously improving
law and order in Bihar

14


A

1977-batch IPS officer of the
Bihar cadre, Abhayanand is
also an eminent educationist of
Super 30 fame, teaching poor students
to crack the IIT JEE. He is the brain
behind the speedy trial and conviction
of criminals in Bihar. Credited for the
shift in police focus to conviction, he
believes the Arms Act is a very powerful instrument for the police to instil
fear of the law in habitual lawbreakers. As policemen themselves can be
witnesses in an Arms Act chargesheet,
there is no chance of not getting witnesses or of witnesses turning hostile.
There were a record number of convictions, including of very powerful
bahubalis or musclemen, leading to a
tremendous improvement in the law
and order situation in Bihar. In 2010
alone, 14,311 persons were convicted

in speedy trials with 37 being awarded capital punishment and 1,875
life imprisonment. As envisioned by
Abhayanand, this succeeded in instilling fear of the law in lawbreakers and
drew worldwide attention with the
Princeton Review doing a detailed
study on it.
Backed by political will in 2005,
Abhayanand came up with the idea
of recruiting retired soldiers, already
trained in weaponry and combat, to
meet the manpower shortage in the
Bihar police force especially to carry
out operations against Naxalites and
criminal gangs. Thus the Bihar government quickly recruited 5,000 exarmymen in the police force. The concept was soon taken up by other states
such as Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and
Jharkhand.

www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com



15

COVER STORY



Slovenian Ambassador Darja Bavdez Kuret gives the
award to Dr Amarjit Singh

Dr Amarjit Singh Additional Secretary, HRD Ministry
For successfully
implementing the
Safe Motherhood
and Child Survival
Programme through an
efficient public-private
partnership in the public
health sector

16


A

1982-batch IAS officer of the
Gujarat cadre, Dr Amarjit
Singh was the first person to
create an efficient public-private
partnership in the public health sector. What moved him was the sight of
a pregnant woman being carried on a
pole by two villagers. It didn’t seem
she would survive the arduous trek
to the nearest primary health centre.
Holding a PhD in the cost-effectiveness of India’s blindness control programme from the Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine, Dr Singh discovered that more than 60 per cent of
India’s newborns die within the first
28 days. India accounts for a fourth of
maternal deaths worldwide annually
because 50 per cent of the 27 million
deliveries every year are handled by
unskilled attendants.

In Gujarat, where he was posted
between 2001 and 2009, there were
only seven obstetricians in the rural
Community Health Centres while
the requirement was for 273. As
Commissioner, Health and Medical
Services, Government of Gujarat,
he initiated the Chiranjeevi Yojana
scheme in April 2005 by co-opting
private obstetricians by ensuring
them a flat fee for every 100 deliveries, a part of which was paid in
advance. The scheme thus allows
families living below the poverty line
to use either public or private health
facilities, free of cost.
The success of the scheme can
be gauged by the fact that between
January 2007 and January 2010,
4,35,047 safe deliveries were carried
out by 768 obstetricians.

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17

COVER STORY



Minister Councellor-DCM, Syria, Wael Deirki gives the
award to JS Deepak

JS Deepak Additional Secretary, Commerce Ministry
For successfully
conducting 3G auctions,
using state-of-the-art
custom-built technology
through a smooth,
fair, transparent and
participant-friendly
process that fetched
more than three times
the targetted revenue
for the Government

18


A

1982-batch IAS officer of
the Uttar Pradesh cadre, JS
Deepak is credited with scripting one of the most successful auctions
conducted by any government across
the globe—the 3G spectrum auctions,
a pioneering governance reform
in the country. Deepak, then Joint
Secretary, Telecom, and the principal officer responsible for the design
and conduct of the 3G auction, was
instrumental in designing and successfully conducting the e-auctions
in 2010 that fetched over Rs 1.06 lakh
crore for the Government—more than
three times the target of Rs 35,000
crore fixed by the Ministry of Finance
and more than five times the reserve
price. The design, highly sophisticated methodology yet extremely participant-friendly process, has since

served as the basis for subsequent
auctions held by the Government of
India. He worked for almost two years
to develop a state-of-the-art design,
using the latest technological and
security features that were custombuilt for Indian conditions, and based
on some of the most successful international auctions.
The 3G auction was highly successful and achieved all the objectives in
one stroke by obtaining a marketdetermined price, maximising revenue proceeds through a smooth, fair
and transparent process, and promoting roll-out of 3G and broadband services with all stakeholders highly satisfied. The auction has shown that a
similar mechanism could be used for
selling or allocating scarce and valuable government resources or assets.

www.gfilesindia.com

GROUP
HOUSING
PROJECT
For Civil Servants
“Commonwealth Co-operative Group Housing Society
Ltd” has been formed by a group of senior Civil Servants
by enrolling members from IAS / IFS / IPS / IFOS / IRS / IES /
Railways and other services not below the rank of Deputy
Secretary to GOI. Limited membership is also open for PSUs,
Bankers, eminent professionals such as CAs, Advocates,
Business persons and Academicians. The society has already
received more than 200 memberships. The objective of the
society (in brief) would be to make available built-up flats
/ land for construction of flats for state-of-the-art highend residential accommodation at prime locations to its
members in GURGAON / NOIDA / DELHI.

www.indianbuzz.com

For any further clarification/application form contact
Prem Gupta, Chartered Accountant
on email: cmscghs@yahoo.in or mobile: 09810137909, NEW DELHIthe government
gfiles inside

19

COVER STORY


Excellent Contribution Award

Prabhat Kumar and TKA Nair watch as Ashwani Lohani
receives his award from Chhattisgarh Governor
Shekhar Dutt

Ashwani Lohani Chief Mechanical Engineer, Northern Railway
For outstanding
contribution in Indian
tourism both at national
and state level that drew
nationwide attention
and appreciation
and won him the tag
of successful
turnaround manager

20


A

1980-batch Indian Railway
Service
officer,
Ashwani
Lohani is a gold medallist in
metallurgical engineering. A fellow
of the Institution of Engineers and
the Chartered Institute of Logistics
and Transport, he worked as the
Divisional Railway Manager of Delhi,
Director, National Rail Museum,
Director, Ministry of Tourism,
CMD, India Tourism Development
Corporation (ITDC) and MD, Madhya
Pradesh State Tourism Development
Corporation (MPSTDC). As Chairman
and Managing Director, he is credited
with having achieved the turnaround
of ITDC in year 2002-3 and of MPSTDC
in 2004-5.
Among many awards and accolades, he was conferred with the
Lifetime Achievement Award in

Tourism and Madhya Pradesh State
Tourism Award ‘Icon of Change’ in
2010. It was his efforts in extensive
branding, innovation, infrastructure development and marketing
that made MP the most attractive
tourist destination in the country
and received four National Tourism
Awards in 2008, including the award
for ‘best tourism performing state
in the country’ and three National
Tourism Awards in 2009. His name
also figured in the Guinness Book of
World Records in 1998 for reviving
the vintage Fairy Queen Express. New
Delhi Station was twice awarded the
National Tourism Award for the most
tourist friendly station and won CAG
appreciation for infrastructure work
during the CWG during his tenure as
Divisional Railway Manager of Delhi.

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21

COVER STORY



TKA Nair congratulates Atul N Patney as Prabhat Kumar
and Shekhar Dutt watch with interest

Atul N Patney PS, Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment
For successfully
conducting
parliamentary, assembly
and panchayat elections
and also ensuring
speedy and inclusive
growth of Maharashtra’s
Gadchiroli district
amidst Naxalite threats
and violence

22


A

Maharashtra cadre, Atul N.
Patney is a recipient of the
Prime Minister’s Award for effective implementation of the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme. He is credited
with having used IT for social development, improving health infrastructure and imparting quality education
through the E-Vidya project in the
remotest areas. His efforts to connect
all IT institutes in the district through
video conferencing contributed greatly to imparting technical training.
He was conferred the E-Governance
Award 2010 for launching the
E-Disaster Management Service.
Known for the best implementation
of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in
the country, in Gadchiroli district of

Maharashtra, especially in the backdrop of Naxalite threats to FRA teams
and burning of their vehicles to stop
their work, Patney effectively used
GPS in the district which otherwise
had poor Internet connectivity and
little infrastructure support.
His most notable work, carried out
under threat from Naxalites, was to
conduct parliamentary, assembly and
panchayat elections successfully by
taking innovative measures such as
launching a voters’ awareness campaign and holding Samajik Suraksha
Melas. Patney got the President’s
Award for innovative practices in
elections that were adopted as a role
model by the Election Commission
of India but was also nominated by
the state government for the Prime
Minister’s award in 2010.

www.gfilesindia.com

Indrox Global Pvt. Ltd (IGPL)
“POLLUTION ABATEMENT PLANT”

“
Maintenance of Acid regeneration plant (ARP) and Iron oxide production facilities. Indrox Global is
the only company in INDIA to take up Acid regeneration projects on turnkey basis i.e. build, operate &
maintain the Plant & is also doing the marketing of Iron Oxide.
Indrox Global Pvt. Ltd (IGPL) was set up in the year 2003 and started its operations to process the waste
pickle liquor (WPL) in the year 2004.
WPL produced by nearby steel plants to Jindal, Tata, Essar etc is treated in Indrox Global and converted into
regenerated hydrochloric acid with yield up to 99% recovery and is returned to these industries for reuse.
Indrox Global Pvt Ltd is ISO 9001:2008 certified for “Quality Management System” & ISO 14001:2004
certified for “Environmetal Management System”.
Indrox Global employs more than 60 Engineering, Production and Project personnel.
With broad spectrum of technical expertise and comprehensive in house capabilities, Indrox Global is a
leader committed to provide economical solutions with superior technology to all our customers.
Indrox Global technology offers flexibility to produce specific grades of “Iron Oxide” varying in physical
properties and chemical purity.

“

M/s Indrox Global Pvt. Ltd (IGPL) is the leading Indian company in Operation &

Indrox Global is
pioneer in Design,
Installation, Operation
and Maintenance of Acid
Regeneration Plant (ARP)
& Iron oxide production.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Indore Global Pvt. Ltd (IGPL), with its impressive Acid Regeneration Plant know-how, is in an excellent
position to perform multi cultural business environment and to serve clients in following capacities:
● Operation & Maintenance of Acid

Regeneration Plants
● Acid Regeneration plant on
Turnkey basis
Designing
Basic & Detailed Engineering
Equipment sourcing
Construction
Erection & Commissioning
Operation & Maintenance

● Acid Regeneration Plant on

BOO basis
Build
Own
Operate & Maintain
● Plant UP gradation and

replacement
● Marketing of Iron Oxide
● Hazardous Material

Management

NEED FOR ACID REGENERATION PLANT

● The Steel Industries producing cold rolled steel products use Picking operation for cleaning

of the steel sheets, long and flat products, to remove surface iron oxide built
up on steel.
● During Picking process, steel sheets are passed through pool of Hydrochloric acid
to remove surface impurities, before these sheets can be processed further. This
process generates waste hydrochloric acid WPL which is considered as industrial waste
and needs further treatment before disposing into the environment as per the pollution
standards. Typically, each ton of the steel pickled will produce 30-35 liters of WPL.
● Even the ETP treated effluent has been a potential hazard to the environment as the
disposed acidic water contaminate the water bodies and the landfills affect the soil.
These eventually result in unrecoverable damages to land and water bodies.
● Indrox Global designed plant is Zero discharge plant making the environment pollution-free.

The plant provides total relief from environment hazards in disposal of acidic effluents.

● Indrox Global designed ARP ensure the compliance to ISO 14001:2004
(Environmental Pollution Control and Management) viz
Section 26 of water (Prevention & control of Pollution) Act 1974
Section 21 of Air (Prevention & control of Pollution) Act 1974
Rule 5 of the Hazardous waste (Management & Handling) Rules
1989 and amendment rules 2003

● The economics of the process is promising as apart from regeneration of hydrochloric acid
with 99% chlorides recovery (that being re-used in pickling line), good quality Iron oxide
is also produced as byproduct which is used by Paint Industries and in the manufacture
of different grades of ferrites (used in magnetic and electronic components in various
industries), under material for refractories etc.

HEAD OFFICE: A-19, Ground Floor, Kailash Colony, New Delhi-110046 Pone: 011-29237845, 29237846
Fax: 011-29237849 Email: a.wadhawan@indroxglobal.com Website: www.indroxglobal.com
www.indianbuzz.com

23

PLANT: B-11, MIDC Tarapur Industrial Area, Near TMRCT, Hospital, Boisar (W) 401506, Distt. Thane (Maharashtra)
vol. 7, issue
Phone: 02525-260614/261858 Fax: 02525-261627 E-mail: indrox_tarapur@rediffmail.com 9 | December 2013

COVER STORY



Shekhar Dutt gives the award to Jayesh Ranjan with
TKA Nair on his side

Jayesh Ranjan VC & MD, AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation
For successfully
implementing social
mobilisation approach
with the support of the
World Bank to impact an
all-round improvement
in the condition of the
poorest of the poor in
Andhra Pradesh

24


A

Andhra Pradesh cadre, Jayesh
Ranjan was the all-India topper of his batch. An alumnus of Delhi
University and an MBA from IIM,
Kolkata, he earned a Master’s in
Public Management from Lee Kuan
Yew School of Public Policy, National
University of Singapore. He has done
short-term courses on Environmental
Policy Analysis, Globalisation and
Leadership, and Public Policy from
the University of Birmingham,
London School of Economics and
Harvard University, respectively.
He was awarded the World Bank’s
Social Capital Visiting Scholarship in
2002 and the British Government’s
Chevening Gurukul Scholarship in
2005 and has done international consultancy assignments for the World

Bank and UN-ESCAP.
Ranjan is credited with implementing the Andhra Pradesh District
Poverty Initiative Project (APDPIP)
in 2000 as its first Project Director
by adapting a very innovative and
community-centred approach with
extremely
encouraging
results.
Within a decade, the social mobilisation approach succeeded in mobilising
99.5 lakh poor people through community organisations. The mobilisation has been supported by the World
Bank and Government of India, and
an amount of Rs 2,500 crore has so
far been spent. The process has been
so robust that the strength of the community organisations has been recognised by the commercial banks, which
in turn extended credit to the tune of
Rs 20,000 crore to them.

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25

COVER STORY



Additional Secretary, Agriculture, Dalip Singh receives
the award from Slovenian Ambassador Darja Bavdez
Kuret on behalf of Santha Sheela Nair (inset)

Santha Sheela Nair
Vice-Chairperson,
Tamil Nadu State
Planning Commission
For successfully
implementing the Chief
Minister’s programme
of compulsory rain
water harvesting in
Chennai and other
parts of Tamil Nadu
and for contributing to
preventing the water
crisis from spiralling out
of control

26


A

Tamil Nadu cadre, Santha
Sheela Nair started her career
as Sub Collector, Dindigul, in 1975.
She is credited with having contributed to the successful implementation of the rain water harvesting
scheme announced by Chief Minister
J Jayalalithaa. Nair served as both
Chairman and Managing Director
of the Chennai Water Supply and
Sewerage Board in 1994 and later as
Secretary, Municipal Administration
and Water Supply in 2001. The Chief
Minister’s directive to make rain
water harvesting mandatory in Tamil
Nadu was implemented through a
series of appropriate measures within
a year as mandated by a newly enacted law. The government declared that
non-compliance would be met with

disconnection of water and sewer
pipes. The successful implementation helped considerably in efficient
management of the water crisis in
Chennai.
Nair also worked on an antiflooding measure by creating rain
water harvesting points in low-lying
areas. As a result, the ground water
level rose by five feet. The cent per
cent coverage of every household
and every building remains unparalleled. As Secretary to the Government
of India, Department of Drinking
Water Supply and Sanitation, she is
credited with revamping and coordinating the decades-old scheme of
Accelerated Rural Water Supply with
the National Drinking Water Policy
and a new National Rural Drinking
Water Supply Programme.

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27

EXPOSÉ
nsel scam

Operation
Cover-Up
It has been almost six months
since the National Spot
Exchange (NSEL) operations
were halted after gfiles exposed
the Rs 5,600-crore scam in June
2013. But the investigations
against Jignesh Shah—the man behind the
NSEL scam—began only after gfiles’ cover story in
September 2013. The reluctance to initiate action
against Shah continues even today, and he remains
beyond the pale of the law. He has still not been
arrested though there’s an open-and-shut case
against him. Neeraj Mahajan tries to find out the
reasons behind this cover-up and why the
government is shy of initiating action against Shah

F

ORMER CIC and Secretary,
Department of Personnel &
Training (DoPT), Satyanand
Mishra, a 1973-batch IAS officer, and
former Union Home Secretary GK
Pillai, a 1972-batch Kerala cadre IAS
officer, are no doubt capable officers
but can they perform miracles and
plug all loopholes in the Financial
Technologies ecosystem overnight?
That too, without any direct knowledge or on the ground experience
about the complexities of commodity
trading? Would their mere presence
itself tighten all loose ends and prevent all bad things from happening—

28


this is the moot question uppermost
in everyone’s minds.
The fact that the FMC and MCX
boards concurred on the appointment of Mishra as the new Chairman
of the Multi Commodity Exchange
of India Ltd was astonishing. No
less surprising was the timing of
the announcement, just a few days
after Pillai entrenched himself as
Chairman and former LIC acting
chairman Thomas Mathew took over
as vice-chairman of MCX-SX. Unlike
Mishra, Pillai was reportedly keen to
move to the private sector. Within
two months of his retirement as home

secretary, he sought the permission
of the Department of Personnel and
Training (DoPT) to join IvyCap Trust
Fund-I as their adviser. IAS officers
seeking private sector posts within a
year of retirement have to seek permission from the government.
Another
recent
development
that Financial Technologies (India)
Limited (FTIL) has tried to downplay is the decision to change its
registered address from Mumbai to
Shakti Tower-1, 7th Floor, Premises
E, 766, Anna Salai, Thousand Lights,
Chennai—600002, with effect from
December 2, 2013. Why? Even the
company officials have no answer.
Why would a company whose entire
operations are based in Mumbai or
outside India have its headquarters in
Chennai? Curiously, FTIL as we know
today was floated in Chennai by C
Subramaniam, who remained one of
the oldest shareholders on its board
before quitting in 2010.
FTIL had been in the news since

www.gfilesindia.com

five of its Directors—CM Maniar, N
Balasubramanian, R Devarajan, PR
Barpande and TC Nair quit in quick
succession. When Paras Ajmera,
the last nominee of the promoters,
resigned recently, there was speculation that Jignesh Shah had just about
lost control. But behind the façade,
Shah continues to call the shots as the
Chairman and Group CEO of FTIL.
He may be down, but not out. His
brother, Manjay Shah, and friend,
Dewang Neralla, are supporting him
as full-time directors.
The board also has former
Forward Markets Commission (FMC)
Chairman Venkat Chary, A Nagrajan,
IAS (Retd), and Justice Rajan Jodhraj
Kochar, a retired judge from Bombay
High Court, as independent directors. Chary, a retired IAS officer, has
been associated with IEX, MCX-SX
and MCX as independent director and
chairman for the last 10 years. FTIL
also holds a 26 per cent stake in MCX,
besides NSEL, FTIL and MCX are
joint promoters of the MCX-SX stock
exchange. But, all said and done, the
impact of the NSEL crisis has been that
the credibility of the FTIL group as a

whole has been affected so badly that
investors think twice before dealing
with any of the companies in its fold.
As if by design, seven of the 14 members on the MCX board today are
FMC-nominated independent directors. The new board has three former IAS officers—Satyanand Mishra,
RM Premkumar and Ravi Kamal
Bhargava, besides G Anantharaman,
who retired from IRS. Dinesh
Kumar Mehrotra, Pravir Vohra and
Santosh Kumar Mohanty are the
other FMC-nominated independent
directors. The shareholder directors on the MCX board include KN
Reghunathan (Union Bank of India),
Sanjaya Agarwal (Bank of Baroda),

The biggest challenge that
newly appointed MCX-SX
chairman GK Pillai faces
is to somehow convince
the investors and
stakeholders that MCX-SX
is now owned and
controlled not by FTIL, but
by institutional investors

P Paramasivam (Corporation Bank),
P Satish (Director, NABARD), AK
Prabhu (Canara Bank) and BV
Chaubal (State Bank of India).
The biggest challenge that newly
appointed MCX-SX chairman Pillai
faces is to somehow convince the
investors and stakeholders that MCXSX is now owned and controlled not
by FTIL but by institutional investors. MCX-SX’s shareholders include
18 banks and financial institutions
which hold 87.42 per cent stake.
These are IL&FS Financial Services,
IFCI, Union Bank, PNB, Corporation
Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian
Bank, OBC, Allahabad Bank, Andhra
Bank, BoI, BOB, Syndicate Bank,
HDFC Bank, SBI, United Bank,
Vijaya Bank and Axis Bank. Pillai has
a majority on his side, but whether he
will be able to translate this strength
into positive transformation remains
to be seen.
A man who could upset Pillai’s calculations is Miten Mehta—a Jignesh
Shah loyalist, who has been appointed the promoter’s nominee on the
MCX board and shareholder director of FTIL. Mehta, who till recently
was Director, Communications and
Investor Relations, of the FTIL Group
has been appointed Director, MCX.

A

ccording to the Mumbai Police’s
Economic
Offences
Wing
(EOW), some of the defaulting firms have used the money to
buy companies abroad using hawala
transactions. One such company was
the Bengaluru-based Aastha Minmet
(India) Ltd (Corporate Identity
Number U27105KA2007PLC042717),
promoted by Mohit Aggarwal and
Shilpa Aggarwal, a coal and ferrous
metal importer that owes Rs 26.5
crore to the NSEL and Rs 219.2 crore
to Juggernaut Projects, another NSEL
defaulter. Aastha Minmet allegedly

www.indianbuzz.com



29

EXPOSÉ
nsel scam

pumped in a part of this money to
acquire 100 per cent stake in Akshaj
Ventures Singapore Pte Ltd, originally incorporated as Anker Shipping
Pte Ltd under the Companies Act in
Singapore on March 12, 2011. The
name of the company was changed
to Akshaj Ventures Singapore Pte Ltd
on June 18, 2012, and it became a foreign subsidiary of the Aastha Group
on March 22, 2013. Mohit Aggarwal
was co-opted on the board along with
Ajay Chauhan and Kalyanasundaram
Maran, the original promoters of
Akshaj Ventures Singapore Pte Ltd.

B

OTH the companies even started sharing an office at 7500A
Beach Road, 08-313, The Plaza,
Republic of Singapore, 199591. The
only catch in the otherwise win-win
situation was that the Aastha Group’s
promoters allegedly did not obtain
RBI consent before ploughing the
money abroad.
It is intriguing how Aastha Minmet,
a small-time importer operating on
the NSEL, suddenly got the bright
idea of acquiring Akshaj Ventures to
use its international mining and trading contacts in Indonesia, Singapore
and Africa to import coal in bulk
from South Africa, Singapore and
Indonesia, iron ore from Mali and
Turkey and steel scrap from Hong
Kong and Belgium. The Aastha Group
also wanted to take over some Turkish
chrome ore mines and become a market leader in India. Hence, someone
suggested the option of acquiring 100
per cent stake in this well-connected
and resourceful foreign subsidiary.
When the NSEL fiasco became public, Aastha had to shelve plans for a Rs
42-crore IPO. It now transpires that
the company has been sued by Rayen
Steel Pvt Ltd under the Negotiable
Instruments Act for dishonour of
cheques worth Rs 1,09,01,250.

30


Interestingly, on July 31, NSEL
claimed that a stock of 65,250 MTs
of steel TMT bars was held by both
Aastha Minmet and Juggernaut in
Andhra Pradesh, but later Aastha’s
name vanished from the website. Once
the heat became unbearable, NSEL
had to retract and disable Aastha’s
Unique Client Codes (UCC) to prevent
it from trading on its platform.
Prithviraj Kothari, the owner of
RiddiSiddhi Bullions Ltd, allegedly
acted as a money-laundering conduit
in the DGCX, from where the margin
money collected in cash from Indian
investors for commodity trading literally vanished in thin air. Most of these
transactions were through hawala,
where only the differential profits
were calculated and settled without
any book entry.
In the hurry to set up one global
exchange after another, Shah allegedly violated many foreign exchange
laws. There are several instances of
pare trades, where MCX investors
were offered favourable positions on
international exchanges floated by the
FTIL group. Gold contracts in Bahrain,
Singapore and DGCX followed this
trend, violating foreign exchange and
money-laundering laws.
However, in its mistaken notion
about the sinner and the sinned, the

In the hurry to set up one
global exchange after
another, Shah allegedly
violated many foreign
exchange laws. There are
several instances of pare
trades, where MCX
investors were offered
favourable positions on
international exchanges
floated by the FTIL group

Mumbai Police EoW is only shaking
the leaves of the tree without digging
to chop the root cause of this mess—
Jignesh Shah. EoW officials are patting their own backs for attaching
107 properties of the “accused” in the
NSEL scam while Shah is free to do
whatever he likes in Singapore, Dubai,
Botswana and Bahrain. The FTIL and
MCX were minority shareholders
in DGCX, the Middle East’s largest,
first and only derivatives exchange
regulated by the Emirates Securities
and Commodities Authority (ESCA).
DGCX had the strategic advantage of
being located in a time zone between
Europe and the Far East. The FTIL
held two of the five nominated board
seats—Shah (Vice-chairman) and
Joseph Massey (Director). Gautam
Sashittal, another Indian, also serves
as non-executive member on the
DGCX board.
Initially,
the
Dubai
Multi
Commodity Centre (DMCC), owned by
the Dubai government, FTIL and MCX
held equal stake in DGCX in 2005.
FTIL and MCX held 40 per cent and
10 per cent, respectively, when DGCX
began operations. But in 2007, the FT
Group sold 1 per cent stake to DMCC
for Rs 60 crore and another 5 per cent
to Passport Capital, a foreign investor.
DGCX prospered due to support of
Indian bullion and diamond merchants
in the Emirates and soon became the
first bourse to offer dollar-rupee forex
trading, even before India allowed
such trading in domestic exchanges.
Shah
allegedly
transformed
DGCX into a den for illegal hawala
transactions in bullion, currency and
metals without the necessary Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) clearance.
RBI forbids Indian individuals and
companies from trading and equity
participation on foreign shores
because the Indian rupee as a currency
is not fully convertible. According to

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31

EXPOSÉ
nsel scam

Jignesh Shah (centre) had many
charmed before the Rs 5,600-crore NSEL
scam was revealed

a recent RBI circular, “It is observed
that eligible Indian parties are using
overseas direct investment automatic
route to set up certain structures
facilitating trading in currencies,
securities and commodities. Any
incidence of such product facilitation
would be treated as a contravention
of the extant FEMA regulations
and would consequently attract
action under the relevant provisions
of FEMA.”
The FTIL is understood to have
offloaded its stake in the Singapore
Mercantile
Exchange
(SMX),
launched three years ago for trading
in metals, energy, currency and
agriculture commodities. It earlier
owned SMX through its subsidiary,
Financial Technologies Singapore
Pte Ltd (FTSPL) and then sold its
stake to ICE Singapore Holdings,
an entity owned by Atlanta-based
ICE group, for US$150 million
(Rs 931 crore). Significantly, the deal
to acquire SMX—with an average
of over 8,200 contracts and daily
turnover of around $200 million—was
an all-cash transaction. According to

32


Stop Press: As we go to press, the Mumbai Police EoW has attached the
properties of Shah, Joseph Massey, Shreekant Jawalgekar and Shankarlal
Guru. This brings the total book value of 206 properties, 322 bank accounts,
Rs 171 crore cash, Rs 229.22 crore in shares and other investments besides
15 vehicles worth Rs 5.82 crore attached so far to Rs 2,580 crore. This is half
of the NSEL outstandings. But to liquidate all this, the Mumbai Police will
have to either increase the size of its malkhanaas, or engage online auction
firms like olx.com to dispose of things to recover Rs 5,600 crore due to 13,000
investors. Even now no one is talking about bringing Rs 931 crore obtained
from dilution of 100 per cent stake in the Singapore Mercantile Exchange
back to India!

informed sources, FTIL’s sudden exit
from the SMX was in all likelihood
masterminded by the Monetary
Authority of Singapore (MAS), the
financial services regulator in the
island country which has a tight
control over the affairs of the bourse
though its independent directors
on the board of SMX. In a tightly
regulated market like Singapore, MAS
has a way of subtly telling exchange
owners to do things their way or risk
losing their licence.

T

HE FTIL is now planning to
raise more money by disposing of its interests in Africa, the
Middle East, India and South-East
Asia. It holds 31 per cent equity in the
Dubai Gold and Commodity Exchange
(DGCX), besides the Bahrain Financial
Exchange, Bourse Africa and Global

Board of Trade (GBOT), Mauritius.
The FTIL is also looking to sell its stake
in its exchanges in UAE, Bahrain,
Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya and
Botswana.
The tragic part of the story is that,
instead of paying off thousands of
creditors in India, the FTIL plans
to keep these sale proceeds from
overseas to repay its External
Commercial Borrowings (ECB) and
Foreign Currency Loans (FCL).
Earlier, FTIL was allowed to sell 6
per cent stake in the Indian Energy
Exchange, ostensibly to bring down its
stake to 25 per cent in order to comply
with the requirements of the Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Either way, it means that Shah’s
money—in India or abroad—is safe. It
will allegedly not be allowed to reach
the rightful owners. g

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vol. 7, issue 9 | 5 | August 2013
vol. 7, issue December

19
33

GOVERNANCE

agenda mg devasahayam

Wish list for
the wannabe

Prime Minister!
While Narendra Modi is creating an impact as the BJP’s prime ministerial
candidate, he has not yet spoken about his ‘Idea of India’

W

HEN Narendra Modi was
made the BJP’s campaign
committee chief, a leading
newspaper columnist wrote: “For the
faithful, there is no truth bigger than
Narendra Modi’s ‘destined’ future as
Prime Minister. His critics protest
that the elevation will not happen,
worry that it might happen, and agonise over what will happen when that
happens….The Gujarat Chief Minister
is admittedly a challenge the like of
which India has never seen before.”
Soon thereafter the saffron party
threw down the gauntlet by declaring
him as the prime ministerial candidate. And he is running a full juggernaut around the country adopting a
‘messiah’ mode of campaigning!
Modi is the longest-serving chief
minister of Gujarat. He is known for
his astute administrative skills and
has a record for being incorruptible.
He is credited with turning around
Gujarat’s economy and making it an
attractive investment destination for
industrialists. Modi is a compelling
orator who, as one corporate executive after another has said, offers the
best model of governance in a country
rife with corruption and red tape.
Across the nation there is a palpa-

34



ble sense of elation at the prospect
of Modi becoming Prime Minister.
According to his admirers, NaMo has
arrived in style, notwithstanding the
stiff resistance from many quarters.
For them, Delhi is finally on NaMo’s
radar and his devotees can see the
domes of South Block, which he will
hopefully occupy soon.
Fortifying this, Modi is claiming
the legacy of the ‘Iron Man of India’,
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, by reiterating the comment that has been in the
minds of many people: “Had Sardar
been the first Prime Minister of India,
the country’s destiny would have
been different.” Another association
NaMo claims is that of Jayaprakash
Narayan (JP) whom his chronicler
Sunanda K Datta-Ray, considers “as
the best Prime Minister India never
had”. Those who knew JP would agree
wholeheartedly. Modi’s involvement

There are several positive
things going for Modi. He
spoke for all of South India
when he declared at a
Chennai meeting that ‘India
is not just New Delhi’

in the Navnirman Movement of the
turbulent 1970s was deeply inspired
by none other than JP, who remained
a powerful guiding force for him.
I have known JP closely and had the
privilege of having indirectly assisted
him in achieving India’s second freedom. I have read a lot about the Sardar
and what he did to shape India as a
unified nation and position the instruments to sustain it. I entirely agree
that, had these true patriots and passionate leaders guided the destiny of
independent India in the initial years,
we would today be a true and functional democracy and not the false and
dysfunctional ‘dynacracy’ that we are!
Nevertheless, for Modi to convincingly invoke the names of these towering
titans, his agenda needs considerable
depth and width.
There are several positive things
going for Modi, though. He spoke for
all of South India when he declared at a
Chennai meeting that ‘India is not just
New Delhi’. He draws massive crowds
wherever he goes and the vibrancy at
his rallies are reminiscent of the postEmergency scenario when people of
the Indo-Gangetic belt, responding to
the battle-cry of JP, threw out Indira
Gandhi’s government in the 1977

www.gfilesindia.com

election. I have been witness to this.
What has also impressed the public is
his composure and demeanour while
addressing a massive crowd, even as
low-intensity bombs were going off
at his Hunkar rally in Patna. This is
clear demonstration of his courage in
the face of mortal danger, his presence
of mind, his leadership qualities and
forbearance.
Of late, in his own inimitable style,
‘the tea-seller’ is projecting a vision
in which bare necessities like electricity and clean water will be basic
rights and not favours from government and creating an economy that
generates real jobs is as important as
formulation of economic policies for a
rich and prosperous India. These are
not easy ideas to convey to people, but
there are signs that Modi is getting his
message through.
Be that as it may, Modi has a
long way to go and many hurdles
to cross before he occupies the high
office of the Prime Minister through
democratic means, unlike the present
un-elected surrogate of the dynastic
clan! The most formidable hurdle
is the Godhra killings (2002) and

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the wide perception that he is nonsecular. N Ram of The Hindu puts
it bluntly: “It is this unbreakable
genetic connection between 2002
and the present that makes it clear
that a Modi prime ministership would
be disastrous for democratic and
secular India.” The BJP does deny
this vociferously as being contrary
to truth. But in the public domain,
‘truth’ is not the ‘truth’, perception is
the ‘truth’!

T

HE second major hurdle is
Modi’s own creation – the
‘development model’ that he
has been ardently advocating. While
admitting that Modi has the penchant
for pursuing ‘development’ by fasttracking industrial and other projects,
many experts and economists feel his
model is not inclusive. They are of the
view that while cities and towns have
‘developed’ under Modi’s infrastructure/industrialisation pursuit, villages have mostly been left in the lurch.
His is not different from the UPA’s
FDI-driven ‘growth’ agenda, laden
with predatory and market-mad economic policies that is polarising peo-

ple into one-third ‘privileged’ class
and two-thirds ‘laggards’ living on the
crumbs that trickle down! Polarising
politics and the society is the main
charge against Modi. Polarising
the economy in addition would
be a triple whammy with adverse
consequences. Seeking to impose
this Gujarat ‘development model’
on the whole nation could result in a
backlash from the ‘laggards’.
These major hurdles apart, Modi’s
campaign itself has serious flaws. As of
now, apart from one-liners, punching
jibes, personal anecdotes, stale platitudes, satirical flings and promised
goals, there is no worthwhile content
in any of his speeches or discourses.
This is despite the fact that, never
before in the history of independent
India has there been such a dire need
for serious debate to address the gravest crises that confront the nation.
India needs to know what should be
done to set things right. These include
near-total inaction by governments in
the midst of humongous corruption;
severe compromise of energy security
by the mad pursuit of imported nuclear reactors; a complete foreign-policy



35

GOVERNANCE

agenda mg devasahayam

disaster resulting in neighbouring
countries, including tiny Sri Lanka,
humiliating us; and the Telangana
implosion and huge gaps in the working of our Constitution which have
wrecked federalism, ruined governance and removed all accountability
from our political system.

T

HE form and substance of
affirmative action to introduce social justice have left
huge segments of the population
aggrieved and angry while creating
bitter divisiveness between many
castes and communities. The economy is sinking. Prices are soaring.
Unemployment, particularly in rural
India, is mounting. Due to extractive
land policies, agriculture is perishing and food insecurity is looming.
Bereft of any ethos, urbanisation has
descended into chaotic land-lust.
The FDI-GDP mania has choked the
labour-intensive manufacturing sector, crippling skill development and
employment generation. With horrendous loot in defence procurement
and mainstream armed forces nurturing a sense of alienation, military
morale is low and national security
is under threat. There has been concerted decimation of institutions and
instruments of governance and those
that are left stand diminished and
devalued. Civil Services (IAS/IPS)
are in total disarray.
None of these burning issues threatening the stability, safety and integrity
of the nation have been meaningfully addressed by the Gujarat Chief
Minister, who could soon be ‘guiding
the destiny of the nation!’ The man
who wants to change the face of India
and the way the Republic functions
has not even talked of the ‘Idea of
India’ and ‘Philosophy of the Republic’
as defined by its Founding Fathers.
The ‘political idea’ of democracy is

36



contained in the ‘Objectives Resolution’ moved by Jawaharlal Nehru in
1948, seeking a Republic “wherein all
power and authority of the Sovereign
Independent India, its constituent
parts and organs of government, are
derived from the people”. As early as
1922, Gandhi had described ‘Swaraj’
of the declared wish of the people of
India”. Visions of these two Founding Fathers envisaged people-based
governance with a bottoms-up decision-making process that would give
everyone a place in the sun.
Structurally, India’s democracy
was to rise storey by storey from the
foundation comprising self-governing, self-sufficient, agro-industrial,
urbo-rural local communities—gram
sabha, panchayat samiti and zilla

The burning issues
threatening the stability,
safety and integrity of the
nation have not been
meaningfully addressed by
the Gujarat Chief Minister
parishad—that would form the foundation of vidhan sabhas and Lok
Sabha. These politico-economic institutions will control and regulate the
use of natural resources for the good
of the community and the nation.
Built on such a foundation is the
‘economic idea’ of equity envisaging
independent India as sui generis, a
society unlike any other, in a class
of its own that would not follow the
western pattern of mega industrialisation, urbanisation and individuation. India would be a people’s economy that would chart a distinct course
in economic growth, which would be
need-based, human-scale, balanced
development while conserving nature
and livelihoods. In a self-respecting

nation, every citizen should get the
strength, resource, opportunity and
feet and earn his/her livelihood with
honour and dignity, instead of endlessly depending on corporate trickledowns and government charity.
The philosophy of the Republic
is in the Preamble of the Constitution: “….to secure to all its citizens
JUSTICE, social, economic and
political;LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity and to promote among all its
citizens; FRATERNITY assuring the
dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation.”
These now lie in virtual ruins
and need to be rebuilt. On the
‘development’ side, instead of blindly
advocating a predatory agenda,
one should listen to what James
A Robinson and Daron Acemoglu
say in their scintillating book, Why
Nations Fail: The Origins of Power,
Prosperity and Poverty: “Inclusive
economic institutions that enforce
property rights, create a level playing
new technologies and skills are more
conducive to economic growth than
extractive economic institutions that
are structured to extract resources
from the many by the few….Inclusive
economic institutions are in turn
supported by, and support, inclusive
political institutions…”
Most of India’s ills are due to too
much of ‘government’. This needs
urgent remediation. One should
recall Thomas Jefferson’s sane
advice: “That government is best
which governs least.” The task is cut
out for ‘modi’fication’ of Narendra
Damodardas Modi, the man who
could be PM! g
(The writer is a former Army and IAS
officer. Email: deva1940@gmail.com)

www.gfilesindia.com

Thank you

SAIL

for making

GOVERNANCE
AWARDS

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2013
A Success



37

GOVERNANCE
corruption tn pandey

BLACK MONEY
No will, no way

A

FTER considerable heat in the
past regarding undisclosed
osed
incomes, black money and foreign bank accounts, the government
ment
seems to have become lukewarm on
m
these issues as the elections are comming close. There is no talk about
ut
success achieved in these areas
and the government’s strategies
and plans to make successful
dents in this sphere of great
concern to the economy of the
country, either in Parliament or
outside it.
In 2011 and the earlier part of
t
2012, considerable anxiety was
exhibited concerning black money
in the country and about those who
have amassed it in India and abroad.
It had become a hot topic for discussion in Parliament and in civil society. Somewhat in panic, the Finance
Ministry entrusted to three premier
institutions of the country the task
of simultaneously working out the
quantum of black money and giving
recommendations relating to its other
aspects. These institutions are reported to have submitted their reports in
March 2013, but they have not been
released for public discussion till now.
White paper on black money
Bowing to the vigorous demand for
a white paper on black money, the then
Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee,
issued such a paper on May 16, 2012,
to present the different facets of black
money and its complex relationship

38


about tax evasion detected by the
Income Ta Department, but no revTax
elation is made whether such detection is because of normal functionbe
ing of the department or because
t
There has been a huge
of an special drive to catch the
any
hue and cry over black
evaders.
ev
In the white paper, a
money and foreign bank
number of legislative and
accounts in recent years.
administrative measures
were mentioned, such
Despite all the rhetoric, no
as creating a network of
concrete step has been
DTAAs and TIES, preventaken to punish the guilty
tion of money laundering
t
and benami transactions, a
judicial standards and accountability Bill, setting up of a directorate of
with policy and administrative regime criminal investigation for exchange of
in the country. It also sought to reflect information, setting up of income tax
upon the policy options and strategies units overseas, providing a GST netthat the government had been pursu- work, imparting skills to the incomeing, or the need to take up new ones tax personnel for effective action,
to address the issue of unaccounted and so on. But the outcome of these
measures is not known. What is more
money and corruption in public life.
It has been more than a year since distressing is that no efforts have
then, but the government has not been made to implement the existing
come out with any paper or report provisions. An example of this is the
on the issues, inter alia, regarding real estate sector, which is flourishing
action taken and results achieved with unabated income in tax evasion.
consequent to strategies proposed for Thus, a new white paper has become
curbing corruption and black money necessary.
through illegal and criminal activities, and those relating to repatria- Black money in real estate
It is well known that there is a
tion of such money stashed abroad.
There is also a deafening silence on high utilisation of black money in
the issues related to confidentiality of real estate deals. It is no secret that
information and about punishment a real estate deal is never finalised
inflicted on those found guilty. Of and at the value shown in the registraon, reports appear in the newspapers tion document. It may reflect 50 per

www.gfilesindia.com

cent, or sometimes even 40 per cent,
of the value determined and paid for
the sale of the land and properties.
Regretfully, the values declared for
stamp duty assessments are awfully
low compared to real values. Black
marketers find it convenient to park
their concealed income in this fastgrowing sector. Media reports show
that a large part of the alleged ill-gotten money is invested in real estate.

Ramalinga Raju, the man behind the
Satyam fraud

real estate firms—Maytas Properties
and Maytas Infra—and in buying land
in and around Hyderabad. Politicians
and their relations invest in a large
way in real estate and thus have large
stakes in such properties. But precious little has been done to tap this
sector for detection of black money
and collection of revenue, with stern
punishment to those found indulging
in such transactions for decades.

I

T was reported that in the Saradha
Group Chit Fund scam, that rocked
Kolkata sometime back, the Group
had over 100 firms, a majority of
which were in the real estate business. It was in these businesses that
the chit fund money was funnelled.
The 2G spectrum scam too involved
two large real estate firms—Unitech
and DB Realty. In 2009, Ramalinga
Raju, the disgraced founder of Satyam
Computers, had confessed to diverting funds from his information technology company to two family-run
Saradha Group’s Debjani Mukherjee
being taken to court. The group had
interests in the real estate sector

Black money generated
from various scams and
bribes find their way into
land and real estate
because one can
conveniently convert black
money into hard assets
and get a good return on
such money

Government’s acceptance
concerning real estate sector
The role of black money in real
estate transactions has been accepted
by the then Finance Minister in the
white paper:
“Due to rising prices of real estate,
the tax incidence applicable on real
estate transactions in the form of
stamp duty and capital gains tax
can create incentives for tax evasion through under-reporting of
transaction price. This can lead to
both generation and investment
of black money. The buyer has
the option of investing his black
money by paying cash in addition
to the documented sale consideration. This also leads to generation
of black money in the hands of the
recipients. A more sophisticated
form occasionally resorted to consists of cash for the purchase of
transferable development rights
(TDR). TDRs are rights for construction beyond the usual limits,
which can be transferred by the
owner. These rights can be made
available in lieu of area or land
surrendered by the owner.”
This position is continuing for years
and the government has not been able
to take any effective measure to check
the use of black money and tax the

UNI

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39

GOVERNANCE
corruption tn pandey

unaccounted money invested in this
sector. Measures taken in the past
under the IT Act, namely, Acquisition
of Immoveable Properties and
Purchase of Immoveable Properties,
have proved utter failures and no
steps have been taken thereafter.
Despite the promulgation of a new
Benami Transactions (Prohibition)
Bill, 2011, and its examination by
the Standing Committee on Finance,
this forceful instrument for checking
black money via benami deals has not
been enacted so far. What is surprising is that nobody talks of this law as
in the case of the earlier law of 1988,
which remained dormant legislation
for nearly 23 years. This shows the
non-seriousness of the government
in checking black money.

R

Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi’s case has lessons for India

EGRETFULLY, the government takes a soft stand because
it is alleged that a majority of
the political funding comes from
this sector. Because of this conflict,
many people of dubious background,
who would not be able to survive in
a regulated environment, thrive in
real estate. One of the reasons touted
for the great ability of the real estate
sector to handle cash is that no formal funding is available, or allowed,
in the country to buy land. Black
money generated from various scams
and bribes finds its way into land and
real estate because one can conveniently convert black money into hard
assets and get a good return on such
money. The money invested in real
estate appreciates quite fast and is the
preferred outlet for concealed income.
The way ahead
The Income Tax Department can
play an effective role in detection of
black money in properties. For this,
a team of investigators, well-versed
in accountancy, financial deals, engi-

40


For over a year, the
government has not come
out with any paper or
report regarding action
taken and results achieved
consequent to strategies
proposed for curbing
corruption and black
money through illegal and
criminal activities, and
those relating to
repatriation of such money
stashed abroad
neering, valuation aspects and backed
by adequate police force, is necessary
to carry out extensive surveys and
book the persons who have not disclosed investment in such properties, or have shown it at lesser figures
to avoid tax, and punish those who
have done so sternly. The Wanchoo
Committee in 1971 had recommended
that tax evaders should be debarred

from holding public office and contesting elections. But no action on the
suggestion was taken by governments
of various parties in the past, and for
obvious reasons.
Checking black money is not possible without deterrent action. Even
after so many years of income tax law,
no big tax evader has been prosecuted. In this regard, a four-year prison
sentence against the former Prime
Minister of Italy sets a good example
for the Indian authorities to follow.
An ex-Prime Minister is a far cry
in the Indian context. Even ordinary
politicians are not caught and
punished for income tax and other
fraud. Unless there is a strong will
to check black money and severely
punish those caught making it,
getting studies done regarding black
money, issue of a white paper and
making speeches and statements in
Parliament and outside are not going
to solve the problem. g
The writer is former Chairman, Central
Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT)

www.gfilesindia.com

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41

FIRST STIRRINGS
sunil patnaik

by SHAILAJA CHANDRA

I

had heard of civil servants doing
extraordinary things, but becoming a full-time servant of God was
exceptional. This, then, is the story of
an IAS officer who became a monk!
He is today the vice-president of the
Divine Life Society with its headquarters at the Sivananda Ashram in
Rishikesh. I wondered how monkhood could offer the same satisfaction
as making and implementing policy at
the national or State-level. How difficult was it to abandon the unquestioned authority he must have once
enjoyed in exchange for continuous
communication with God?
I had hazy recollections of a batchmate, Sunil Patnaik, when we were

Sunil Patnaik as an IAS officer (above)
and as Swami Nirliptananda Saraswati

doubts? Did he feel up to facing celibacy forever?
Unlike all the people I have interviewed, Swamiji read each question
and answered it exactly to the point.
But the flip side was that he did not
offer a single extra word from his side.
I, therefore, had to ask a variety of
persons to fill in the blanks.
Sunil Patnaik was the second son of
a head clerk employed in the Zilla
Parishad in Ganjam district of Odisha,
who retired as the District Inspector
of schools. Sunil’s mother was a
housewife with little schooling, but,
even so, whatever young Sunil learnt
of religion during his childhood was
from her. He had six brothers and
three sisters, but he alone pursued the
spiritual path and took renunciation

IAS officer who
became a monk!
training at the National Academy of
Administration, Mussoorie. He was a
tall, mid-complexioned Oriya—a very
quiet person and generally seen in the
company of serious thinkers.
Although he played billiards, he
remained aloof from the rest of us
talkative, talented and fun loving probationers. Several years later I learnt
that Patnaik had become a monk, but
I did not give it another thought. After
all, I had never exchanged a single
word with him. But now I needed to
talk to him. Would he be lofty and
monosyllabic? Would he be cool and
standoffish?
Once I was able to track down
Swamiji, I started by asking him (on
email) about his family background

42


and factors that influenced him to
join the IAS; also the emotions and
apprehensions he experienced when
he decided to leave prematurely. After
all, Sunil had a full 14 years of meaningful service still ahead of him when
he took the plunge. What inspired
him to join the Sivananda order of
monks? What were the requirements
for work and prayer expected of
him? Did he miss human relationships, physical comforts
and the normal aspiration for recognition?
Did severance from a
meaningful
and
promising
career leave
him
with

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www gfiles dia. om
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www.gfilesindia.com
ww.
esind a.
es ia.c

from worldly life.
After completing a Master’s from
Allahabad University, his older brother had suggested that he should try for
the IAS–until then no member of the
family had taken the competitive
exam. Around the same time, a friend
invited him to attend a satsang at a
devotee’s house and presented him
with two books on Swami Sivananda’s
teachings. One of the books stirred
something inside Sunil which compelled him to re-read it many times.
The IAS exam was over but the
interview was around the corner.
Despite his humble background,
Sunil cleared the examination and
was allotted to his home state, Odisha.
But, even as he readied himself for
training at the National Academy, the
teachings of Sivananda would resonate in his ears.
While lectures on the Constitution,
the economy and law went on, his
thoughts would keep going back to
the meaning of life. One weekend,
when the entire Academy made a beeline to enjoy city life, Sunil persuaded
cit
two friends to join him to visit the
Sivananda Ash
Ashram at Rishikesh. This
visit was a defining moment for him;
defi
but it still took 22 more years for Sunil
to join the Ashram as a permanent
Ash
inmate.
Back home, the prospect of marriage was being constantly suggested
to him. But the wall he built around
th
himself was too strong for anyone to
to
penetrate. Eventually, people just
Ev
gave up. After the initial training perit
od was ov an early posting as
over,
th
the Zonal Administrator
for the Dandakaranya
f
pr
project
gave
him
in
insights into the trials of
r
resettling tens of thous
sands of poor families
u
uprooted from former
E
East Pakistan. Later, as

www.indian
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ww n ian
ndia

Collector of Bolangir district (now
part of the KBK region of Odisha),
Patnaik had to confront conditions of
extreme scarcity which still beset the
region. Four decades later, local people remember him because he would
never use the dak bungalow beds or
fuss over clean sheets and pillows. He
would carry his own chatai, spread it
on the floor, lay his own coverlet on
top and just go to sleep.
About his own career this is what
he told me:
“I never had a strong attachment to
the service or to any particular job. I
wanted first a little free time to myself,
and ultimately to overcome all the
limitations of the self to which we are
all subject. I wanted to find perma-

Sunil’s mother was a
housewife with little
schooling, but, even so,
whatever young Sunil
learnt of religion during his
childhood was from her
nent peace, eternal happiness, and
moksha through self-realisation, or
God realisation. This was the fundamental teaching of Swami Sivanandaji
Maharaj. I never discussed the idea of
leaving the service with anyone and it
was entirely my own decision.”
I wondered what was special about
Swami Sivananda Maharaj and was
surprised to find that he had practised
medicine for 10 years in Malaysia. His
inner voice kept reminding him: medicine provides healing at an external
level; but what about the void that
exists at a spiritual level? It was then
that this practising doctor, who had
studied medicine at Tanjore, returned
to India and established the Sivananda
Ashram on the bank of the Ganga,
some three kilometres from Rishikesh.

It became the headquarters of the
Divine Life Society.
Continuing my interview with
Sunil, now known as Swami
Nirliptananda Saraswati, I asked him
about the time he left the service.
“I finally bid goodbye to government service and my colleagues after
23 years as an IAS officer—when I still
had 14 years of service left. My decision was not a sudden awakening, or
a call from God. I had been thinking of
making the break for several years
and as every day passed, the
teachings of Swami Sivananda were
making a deeper and deeper impression on my mind.
“I arrived at Rishikesh and stepped
into the Ashram as an ordinary sadhak. I was initiated into sanyas in
1990 when my name was changed to
Nirliptananda.”

W

HAT Swami Nirliptananda
did not tell me, however,
was that he was tutored over
the years under Swami Krishnadandji
Saraswati, himself the author of more
than 50 books and eight score religious treatises and a scholar of both
Western philosophy as well as the
philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. About
his early assignments, he told me:
“Within a few months of my joining, Swami Chidananda Maharaj, the
President of the Ashram, sent me a
telegram from South Africa, asking
me to meet him at Bombay. When I
met him, he directed me to go down
south and take charge of a 30-bedded
hospital in a village in Pattamadai village, in the Tirunelveli district of
Tamil Nadu. This was the birthplace
of Swami Sivananda Maharaj. I was
taken by surprise, but I left immediately. I ran the hospital for the next
six years before returning to Rishikesh
in 1996.”
Today, Swami Nirliptanandaji is



43

FIRST STIRRINGS
sunil patnaik

the vice-president of the Divine Life
Society. When he was younger, he
served the Ashram by supervising the
Ashram hospital, the dining hall, temples, goshalas and leprosy relief
work, and imparting instruction on
the scriptures. Today, he delivers discourses to hundreds of devotees,
attends conferences and edits two
monthly magazines. Selflessness and
a sense of duty dominate his thoughts
and speech.
“Human beings cannot exist in a
vacuum and necessarily depend on
each other. That is why it is so important to perform one’s duty. When people follow their own whims and fancies, the outcome is a clash of interest
which leads to conflict. It is, therefore,
important to realise the need to fulfil
one’s duties as a father, mother, son,
daughter, husband and wife, but also
as a part of society. At all times there
is a responsibility to God, the Creator.
It is only when an individual ceases to
be obsessed with rewards and contributes for the sake of duty that he
becomes detached from the material
world. The only way to find happiness
is through detachment because
attachment brings suffering—attachment is the root cause of suffering.”

I

asked him about the relevance of
the IAS in today’s times and this is
what he had to say:
“The IAS plays a central role in governing the country and can do a lot for
people’s welfare. Nothing prevents an
officer from doing good work until he
ruffles some vested interest.”
As the interview continued, I
became uncomfortable about asking
some personal questions. But I
persisted nevertheless.
“Do you watch television or read
books, other than spiritual teachings?
Do you play any games, visit relatives
and friends or play a musical instru-

44


Today, he delivers
discourses to hundreds of
devotees, attends
conferences and edits two
monthly magazines.
Selflessness and a sense
of duty dominate his
thoughts and speech
ment? What is the food like? What
kind of clothes do you own and how
often can you replace them?” were
some of my questions. This is what
I learnt:
“My life in the Ashram is like this. I
usually get up around 4 am. After a
wash, I sit in prayer doing jap and
meditation until 6 o’clock. Once I
have bathed, I perform yogasanas
and recite hymns. I have breakfast in
my room at 8 o’clock, consisting of
something light and tea. I go to the

office until 11 am, meet visitors or
undertake Ashram work. Lunch is
between 11 and 12 noon and dinner at
8 pm. I eat both meals in my room
and we get dal or sambar, a curry,
chapati and buttermilk. Khichadi is
served at night. In the evening I do
some light exercise followed by
prayer, jap and meditation. In the
afternoons and after dinner I check
emails and attend to correspondence.
I read a spiritual book before going to
bed at about 10 pm. Most of my free
time goes in sadhna.”
And then he added, almost with
child-like innocence:
“I already have two pairs of clothing and can have more if I need. I visit
friends and family on special occasions. I generally do not watch television. On special occasions the devotees bring home-cooked paneer or
halwa to the dining hall, which we all
enjoy. We are allowed to keep small

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Swami Nirliptananda giving a
discourse to devotees

offerings and can use them for personal expenses. I travel to many countries as assigned because there are
several Sivananda centres in the
world.” I learnt purely by accident
that Swamiji continues to be a pensioner under the All India Service
Pension Rules. The sum is not insubstantial but true to character, it goes
to the Ashram.
“What is your message for civil
servants?” I asked. His response
sounded harsh, but perhaps some of
us need plain speaking.
“God will punish civil servants who
use their position for personal gain in
violation of ethical norms. These people will have to reap the consequences
of what they sow. It is not right to get
attached to government position and
privileges as attachment becomes the
cause of sorrow. Like all things shortlived, these too are perishable. To find
lasting peace and happiness one has

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‘God will punish civil
servants who use their
position for personal gain
in violation of ethical
norms,’ says Swami
Nirliptananda, when asked
for his message to civil
servants
to cultivate devotion to God and also
work without expecting anything in
return. Pride, lust, anger, greed,
hatred and selfishness ruin life.
Meditation quietens the mind and
helps one to realise God. It is necessary, therefore, to always remember
God which alone can bring lasting
happiness.”

S

EVA Ram Sharma, a retired
IAS batchmate who was instrumental in bringing me in con-

tact with Swamiji, was the Home
Secretary in the Delhi Government
when he retired. For the last score of
years he hosts Swamiji on his occasional visits to Delhi and prostrates
before him like every other devotee.
“Swami Nirliptananda is a true
monk,” he says, his eyes shining with
fidelity. Sharma’s wife, Sarita, herself
an accomplished Hindi writer (she
writes under the penname Saryu),
added this:
“I am amazed at how devotees
come with so many problems—
nothing extraordinary but critical for
the person seeking Swamiji’s advice.
Whether it is about estrangement
from children, relationship between
husband and wife, or tussles in the
office, Swamiji listens for as long as
the devotee speaks and never interrupts. Only when the whole story is
told, does he advise the disciple,
speaking in a very personal, constructive and direct manner. What he says
always has the desired effect. It is
remarkable to watch this every time.”
Seva Ram told me that 45 years ago,
when they were just probationers at
the Academy, Sunil had taught him a
shloka from the Bhagvad Gita which
resonates in his ears even today:
“One who treats friends and
enemies equally, balanced in
honour and disgrace, heat and
cold, happiness and anguish, free
from attachment, unconcerned
about blame and praise,
controlled in speech, content,
without any fixed residence,
even-minded and engaged in
devotional service, such a person
is dear to Me.” g
More stories written by Shailaja Chandra
at over2shailaja@wordpress.com



45

TALKTIME

parliament devender singh

Parliamentary committees

Sentinels of
accountability
B

y the very nature of its composition, Parliament cannot
mount an unremitting and effective vigil over the entire spectrum
of governance. Parliaments across
the globe, therefore, transact a great
deal of business through committees. The Indian Parliament has developed a well-knit committee system, encompassing within its arch
of scrutiny not only all ministries,
departments and organisations of
the government, but also vulnerable
social groups like SCs, STs, OBCs,
women, and so on.
correspondent Kh Manglembi Devi interviewed Devender Singh, Joint
Secretary, Lok Sabha Secretariat,
who has serviced important committees of Parliament, including the
oldest and one of the most prestigious
committees, the PAC, for over two
decades and worked under eminent
parliamentarians/chairmen like AR
Antulay, ND Tiwari, Shivraj Patil,
Somnath Chatterjee, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Sardar Buta Singh, Murli
Manohar Joshi and many other
veterans. He is also a faculty member of the Bureau of Parliamentary
Studies and Training and the Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies and a domain scholar.
Excerpts from the interview:

Devender Singh, Joint Secretary, Lok Sabha Secretariat

Bills are referred to some committee or the other for examination, forcing the government in
some case, to promulgate an ordinance. Does it not amount to
abdicating or impeding the functions of Parliament?

-

-

-

The core function of Parliament
is to make laws. But of late, all

46


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-

-

What are the powers and
privileges of Parliamentary
committees? Can a committee
force attendance of a witness
and punish them for nonappearance?

What are the consequences
if a witness prevaricates, or
gives incorrect or misleading
information to a committee?

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

A committee is composed on
the principle of proportional
representation
of
political
parties in Parliament. How does
a committee build consensus
and when can a note of dissent
be appended to a report?
-

-

-

-

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mittees? Do they not duplicate
the work of Parliament and conduct scrutiny of the Executive
ad nauseam, often leading to
administrative paralysis?



47

TALKTIME

parliament devender singh

A file photo of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in session, under the chairmanship of ND Tiwari

-

-

-

-

-

-

Please throw some light on
how the committees work with

-

The PAC is examining the reports
of the CAG on allocation of coal
blocks,
the
Commonwealth
Games,
Adarsh
Society,
Westland helicopter deal, and
so on. When will the PAC be
able to present the report to
Parliament?

-

g
-

48


(The views expressed are personal)

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