PMO fast-tracks Mehrishi’s appointment as Home Secretary

Mr. L.C. Goyal, who took charge in February this year, was ordered to seek voluntary retirement on Monday.

August 31, 2015 02:44 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:18 pm IST - New Delhi

Newly appointed Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.

Newly appointed Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.

Senior IAS officer Rajiv Mehrishi replaced L.C. Goyal as the new Home Secretary in the NDA government, the third such change in the past one year.

Mr. Goyal, who took charge in February this year, was ordered to seek voluntary retirement on Monday, barely hours before Mr. Mehrishi was to superannuate as Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs.

By evening, in a reprieve for Mr. Goyal, another order was issued appointing him the Chairman of the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) under the Ministry of Commerce. The post of CMD, ITPO, is meant for retired officials and currently an officer of the Additional Secretary rank is holding additional charge of the post.

Sources said Mr. Goyal’s removal had been on the cards for the past 15 days and he was sounded out on Saturday to put in his papers.

On Monday morning, he sent in his resignation to the Cabinet Secretary, and did not turn up at his North Block office. Government sources insisted that the order should not be seen as being against Mr. Goyal but in favour of Mr. Mehrishi.

Interestingly, a statement issued by Mr. Goyal earlier in the day said, “For personal reasons, I didn’t want to continue. It was my own decision. Any other reason being mentioned is factually incorrect.”

Sources said the government was not happy with Mr. Goyal’s style of functioning and he was a stickler for rules.

Mr . Goyal’s case has a striking resemblance to the ouster of Sujatha Singh as Foreign Secretary, whose tenure was cut short by eight months to make way for S.Jaishankar, who was to retire three days prior to his appointment to the post.

Mr. Goyal would have retired as Rural Development Secretary in May 2015 but he replaced Home Secretary Anil Goswani in February after the latter was asked to put in his papers by the Centre over allegations that he had rung up CBI officials to soften their stand against Saradha scam accused Matang Singh. This ensured a fixed tenure of two years for Mr. Goyal and he would have continued in office till 2017.

Sources said the decision to remove Mr. Goyal had more to do with “accommodating” Mr. Mehrishi, as his style of functioning was appreciated by the government.

A 1978 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, Mr. Mehrishi has also served as the Chief Secretary in Rajasthan under Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. He was handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come on Central deputation.

The appointment took many by surprise, with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) directly posting a press release on the Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) website, rather than routing the same through the Department of Personnel and Training.

While it could not be conclusively said why Mr. Goyal took premature retirement, his stand against giving security clearance to Sun TV and his displeasure about being kept out of the Naga peace pact by the PMO was a known fact. Mr. Goyal was known to have taken a tough stand against any relief to Sun TV and had several run-ins with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which was in favour of giving the network a reprieve.

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