North Block mandarins still cannot believe what they heard last Friday. At a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh waxed eloquent on how his officers in North Block were outstanding gems without whose dedicated work he wouldn't have been what he was today.
He went as far as naming each of the secretaries in the finance ministry during his address and said that he would like to share with his fine officers the credit he was getting today for having managed the economy well.
By coincidence or by design, all the senior secretaries in the finance ministry were present at this meeting. Usually, Singh does not insist on the presence of his senior officers at any of his public meetings.
But this seemed to be a different occasion -- his first meeting with an industry organisation after the presentation of the Interim Budget that seemed to have cemented his reputation as a finance minister who could do no wrong.
So, among the audience were seated Finance Secretary D C Gupta, Expenditure Secretary D Swarup, Revenue Secretary Vineeta Rai, Financial Sector Secretary N S Sisodia and the Chief Economic Advisor, Ashok Lahiri.
In acknowledging the praise showered on him by industry captains for having steered the economy to a high growth path, Singh was modest. He recounted how difficult he must have been as a boss to his officers and how unpopular he must have been to their families because of his odd working hours. But these fine officers tolerated him and gave their best to nurture the economy back to what it is today, Singh said.
He recalled how he wanted to be more gung-ho about the growth estimates for the current year, but was ultimately restrained by the pragmatic views of his officers. In short, the message was that the success of Singh was also the success of a fine band of top officials in North Block.
Even CII Director General Tarun Das showered praises on the finance minister's team of secretaries, which he would have normally reserved only for Manmohan Singh's North Block team of the 1990s led by Montek Singh Ahluwalia. A grateful and visibly happy Singh gave his secretaries a meaningful look that seemed to suggest: look, it is not just I, even the industry leaders are happy with your work!
That, perhaps, was the give-away. Was the finance minister making amends for the adverse comments he had made earlier in relation to the quality of officers available to him? And now that he had achieved success and the elections were round the corner, he was willing to soften the blow and build bridges. Success, after all, also makes you generous and forgiving.
Less than a year ago, Singh had told at least two financial papers about his disenchantment with the quality of bureaucrats made available to him from whom he was expected to build his team in the finance ministry. He had admitted that the finance ministry must have the benefit of the best minds.
But his regret was that the quality of officers had deteriorated to such an extent that he had little choice. Addressing a similar issue in an interview to another newspaper, Singh had regretted that his civil servants were not very civil.
Add these comments of his to the reports of how the recent initiatives of the mini-Budget unveiled in January were actually finalised without much involvement of finance ministry officials, you will know why and how Singh had alienated himself from his senior team in North Block.
It was clear from the first day he took office in North Block that he was going to be a finance minister with a difference. But how different was felt the most by his bureaucrats!
He dispensed with many conventions. He became accessible only to very senior officers. He would not allow any junior officer to be part of the meeting in which he would get briefed on the questions he had to field in Parliament the next day.
One of the first things he ordered after taking charge was to dispense with the long conference table that used to kept in one corner of the finance minister's room. That was the surest way of ensuring that his meetings in his room had to be held across his table with only a few senior officials.
The finance minister's lack of enthusiasm about his officers was understood and even shared by industry. Industry leaders often complained that barring one or two officers, there was hardly anyone in North Block who could engage with them constructively on critical issues affecting their businesses or the economy.
All that seems to have changed now, with Singh himself declaring how good his officers are. Industry has lost no time in falling in line.
In retrospect, it seems that the Friday meeting organised by the CII may have had a hidden agenda: having spread the feel-good factor in the economy, it was now time to spread some cheer among the North Block officers as well.
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