A Raja was forced to resign as telecom minister under intense political and institutional pressure, but some of his aides in the bureaucracy continue to hold their key portfolios in the ministry. Comfortably away from public glare, two Raja lieutenants?RK Chandolia and AK Srivastava?even retain the immense de facto powers that Raja bestowed on them immediately after he assumed office in 2007.
Chandolia, who was Raja?s private secretary in UPA-I when 2G licences were granted, is now economic advisor in the department of telecommunications while Srivastava is deputy director-general (access services-I), handling licensing matters.
Pertinently, two former telecom secretaries Siddharth Behura, PJ Thomas and incumbent R Chandrasekhar had let these officials retain their key portfolios. Chandolia, an Indian Economic Services officer, got promoted to the joint secretary (JS) rank when Raja returned to the telecom ministry in UPA-II. The officer apparently helped Raja in the arbitrary disbursal of 2G licences in January 2008. A former DoT secretary told FE that Chandolia used to enjoy immense de facto powers as PS to the minister.
A JS rank officer is not supposed to be private secretary to the minister, a post conventionally occupied by a director-level officer. Ideally, Chandolia should have been given some other posting, but so much was Raja?s confidence in him that he brought him back as economic advisor in DoT. This slot was in fact a new creation, since the department already had a senior economic advisor.
Chandolia assumed his new role in mid-September last year and with the retirement of telecom secretary Behura, he further gained in ascendancy. Behura?s successor PJ Thomas (now Central Vigilance Commissioner) gave him important tasks like policy-related matters and appointment of directors on the boards of PSUs like BSNL, MTNL, ITI etc. This was done at Raja?s behest, since work allocation to officials is the prerogative of the secretary but the minister can verbally cite his preferences.
Even after CBI raided DoT last October over the 2G scam, Thomas, instead of shifting out officials who were involved in the allotment of controversial licences, allocated them more important jobs. In the case of Chandolia, major policy-related work were taken away from the then joint secretary (telecom) JS Deepak and allocated to Chandolia.
Chandolia continues to keep his powerful post since the new DoT secretary R Chandrasekhar has not taken back the assignments from him. Rather than report to the senior economic advisor, Chandolia reports directly to the secretary. Lately, he has been active in selecting the new chairman and managing director of BSNL. The other key official who directly handled licences and is signatory to every file and has also been interrogated by the CBI is Srivastava. He not only continues to handle the same charge but also prepares notes in DoT’s defence, which are then circulated to other ministries. DoT’s infamous reply to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that it had no business to audit government policies was drafted by him and processed by DoT’s legal advisor, Santokh Singh, another officer who advised Raja on licensing and continues to discharge the same responsibility.
?The two officers (Chandolia and Srivastava) are assigned to prepare notes on DoT’s stand on the 2G issue, which are then circulated in other ministries to act as government’s defence,? a DoT official said. ?Ideally, the secretary should change their work allocation and move them to some other assignment where critical issues are not at stake because the actions taken by them are under investigation,? the official added.
The moot question now is if the new telecom minister Kapil Sibal would strip these Raja aides of the immense de facto powers they enjoy.