23 August 2000

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Union Power Minister P Rangarajan Kumarmangalam, who died in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) early morning of Wednesday at 4.40 after 11 days of doctors' struggle to pull him out of coma, was under acute mental agony and stress that destroyed the will power needed in such cases for revival.

And, the blame for this agony should be apportioned to a large extent on the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Brijesh Mishra and also to some extent on Ashok Saikiya, who is a joint secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, for giving continual pinpricks to Rangarajan or Ranga as he used to be called affectionately by one and all.

He was certainly suffering from multiple ailments including blood cancer that aggravated in the past four months, but family members say the root cause of the sleepless nights he spent for long was the rude shocks he got from phone calls he used to receive at most unexpected hours from Mishra and Saikiya.

( His body was shifted to his official residence at Aurangzeb Road around 9.30 AM and among the early visitors was Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The cremation was held in the evening instead of around noon because of non-availability of Vajpayee earlier as he was busy with the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister.)

Since now Ranga is no more, it can be disclosed that the last "cruel" call that he received from Mishra was in the early morning of Friday, August 11, a day before his hospitalisation, announcing that he is to be moved out of the Power Ministry and he can give his choices for the ministries now with the BJP since the Prime Minister wanted to reshuffle the Cabinet before he proceeds on a two-week trip to the United States.

Quite disturbed, Ranga phoned this correspondent and many other friends dropping a hint that he does not know whether he would be accompanying the PM to America or not. As Power Minister, he was supposed to be in the PM's entourage.

Pressed a bit, Ranga opened up with burst of agony as he disclosed his conversation with Mishra and said he told Mishra very bluntly that ministerial portfolio is a political matter which he need not discuss with a "bureaucrat" as he would speak to External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh who handles such matters on behalf of the BJP in the NDA Government. As per him, Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav was to be shifted to the Power Ministry.

Rangarajan said he had already phoned Vajpayee, Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani and BJP President-elect Bangaru Laxman, complaining them about the ill-treatment meted out to him and telling them that he was resigning from the Ministry. He was to hand over his resignation to the Prime Minister on Saturday (August 12) but he had a date with the fate to fall seriously ill. Instead of going to PM's residence he was in AIIMS where his condition deteriorated early morning of August 14 sending him into coma for ever.

Former AICC Secretary C R Singhvi, a businessman politician from Madhya Pradesh who is settled in Rajasthan, was the man who was first to defect to BJP and then persuade Rangarajan to join the party. Rangarajan had confided in Singhvi on August 12 his decision to resign from the Ministry. He had told Singhvi that he had already told journalist friends to put it in papers after two days. His hospitalisation deterred the Media from speculating about his resignation as it was of no use when he was battling for life.

Rangarajan used to confide with friends in the Media, of course on condition of "off-the-record" as he did not want anything in the Press, as to how Brijesh Mishra was doing damage to Vajpayee instead of any help as he was destroying the goodwill that Vajpayee enjoyed through his obnoxious acts.

Since Rangarajan is now no more, the best homage to him would be to make public the secret of the agonies he suffered in privacy. Here are some of the mental tortures that gave him a lot of pain and he even complained to Vajpayee and Advani but without any relief:

In April, he had gone to Jammu for the "darshan" at the Vaishnodevi temple. He got a phone call from Brijesh Mishra, asking him to immediately return to Delhi since the Prime Minister wanted to undertake a bureaucratic reshuffle and a new power secretary was to be appointed in place of V K Pandit (MP cadre IAS officer) who was retiring on May 31.

Rangarajan protested that his family holiday was being destroyed as Pandit was to retire after more than a month and as such the decision can wait until he was back in Delhi after three days. Mishra, however, insisted that he was under instructions from Vajpayee and ultimately Rangarajan flew back to Delhi next morning.

Back in Delhi, Rangarajan got a panel of three officers from PM's Joint Secretary Ashok Saikia to make a choice. However, when the appointment was made, it turned out to be altogether different officer than those in the list. A K Basu, a West Bengal cadre 1965 batch IAS officer, was shifted from Steel Ministry to Power Ministry as the Secretary.

Rangarajan had a reason to protest since he was not consulted at all on Basu's selection. He told Advani and several other important leaders that Brijesh Mishra had been unfair to him as the officer who is appointed Secretary should be a man of the minister's confidence. "I opposed him, I did not want him since he is a negative man who will drown all my ambitious plans," Ranga told friends.

In yet another incident, appointment of the chairman of the National Thermal Power Corporation was scuttled by Mishra-Saikia duo. Six months before the retirement of Sardar Rajendra Singh from the chairmanship, the Power Ministry had started the process for selection of his successor. J S Bajaj, a technocrat, was cleared by the Public Sector Enterprise Board as also by the Committee of the Ministry and by the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet.

The file was put up for the Prime Minister's signature but instead of Bajaj's appointment came a note of Brijesh Mishra on the file that a new search has to be instituted and a committee may be constituted for the purpose. Rangarajan approached Mishra and tried to explain that Bajaj had been helping the BJP and his name had been cleared by one and all. Mishra, however, did not relent and now the chairmanship of NTPC is held as an additional charge by an Additional Secretary in Power Ministry.

Rangarajan was also having a running battle with Mishra and Saikia on their constant attempt to transfer Sardar Jagmohan Singh, a 1985 IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, who has been serving him as his private secretary. Even during his earlier days as a Congress minister, Rangarajan had the same Raju as his private secretary.

Since only those officers who have not crossed the rank of the deputy secretary in the Government of India can become private secretaries to the ministers, the PMO had a reason to repeatedly object to continuation of Raju with Rangarajan even after his alleviation as the Director. Even the Department of Personnel kept objecting.

Sensing the pressure when he got the third communication urging him to relieve Raju and choose some other officer as his private secretary, Rangarajan decided to post Raju in such a way that he continues to remain with him, though not as a private secretary. Bypassing the Cabinet Committee on Appointments (CCA) which is supposed to clear such postings, Rajgarajan got the Prime Minister's signature on the orders appointing Raju as the Managing Director of the Power Transmission Corporation. That was on July 12 but then those sitting in PMO know how to sabotage even a decision personally approved by the Prime Minister. END