The removal of L.C. Goyal as Home Secretary had been on the cards for the past 15 days but the final blow came on Friday, when Home Minister Rajnath Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought a change of guard.
Sources close to the Home Minister said Mr. Goyal was “too bureaucratic” in approach and had even tried to overrule the Minister’s decisions on several occasions.
Officials said he was “too rigid” in his approach. “The government was not happy with his style of functioning,” said a source.
The latest was a “rejig in work allocation” of the Additional Secretary- and Joint Secretary-level officers suggested by Mr. Goyal. “He had suggested some changes in the work allocation of senior officers in the Ministry but the Home Minister red-flagged it. He waited for a couple of days and issued the orders again. The order was withheld finally as it has to pass through the Home Minister,” said a source.
Sources said at least three officers, including an Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry, had complained against Mr. Goyal to the Prime Minister’s Office. It is learnt that when Mr. Goyal was asked for an explanation, he was not receptive.
When contacted, Mr. Goyal sent a text message, “I am not aware of any such thing.”
There were reports that peeved on being left out of the entire Naga peace pact announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Goyal had offered to resign in August. The home ministry was not consulted in the entire Naga framework agreement signed between the government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), on August 3.
Reacting to it, Mr.Goyal said, “Not at all, it is absolutely baseless.”
On June 27, Mr.Goyal said, “this job is like a bonus for me….i would have retired on May 5 itself (as rural development secretary). I have set 23 goals for my ministry to be completed in the next one year. I am giving you the list, if its not done, you can counter me then.”
The few goals Mr. Goyal mentioned were establishing an effective system for monitoring of foreign funding of NGOs, rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants, national security clearance policy, strengthen forensic science capabilities, CCTNS project and construction of integrated check posts.
Even regarding security clearance to Sun TV, Mr. Goyal put his foot down and refused to toe the government’s line.
“It is a bad precedent, government is setting. You cannot pluck one officer from one post and plant him according to you whims and fancies,” he said.
Late on Monday night, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued another order and reshuffled 15 additional secretary level officers. The most significant being the transfer of UP cadre IAS officer of 1984 batch, A.K Singh to Petroleum ministry. He is said to be close confidant of the home minister. It was on the home minister's insistence that Mr.Singh was brought to the home ministry. He was looking after the Union Territory (UT) as well as the Centre-State division.
Though Mr.Goyal was not the first choice of Rajnath Singh, when he was appointed first. This time too, Mr.Singh was told that Mr. Mehrishi was the only available option. At least three joint-secretaries in home ministry complete their central deputation this week, paving the way for another round of fresh appointments in MHA.
COMMents
SHARE