CAUGHT IN THE CROSSHAIRS
DIVIDE For most, Punjab chief secy Karan Avtar Singh has a calm disposition, but some find his temperament mercurial
For most of his peers, Karan Avtar is a low-profile bureaucrat with flawless conversational etiquette and stolidly calm disposition. However, some see him as a person with a mercurial temperament who is abrasive with juniors at times.
CHANDIGARH:The news of his faceoff with some senior members of the council of ministers in Punjab over the state excise policy at a meeting two days ago was greeted with disbelief by many peers and seniors of chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh.
For most of them, Karan Avtar, a 1984-batch IAS officer, is a low-profile bureaucrat with flawless conversational etiquette and stolidly calm disposition. But there are also some IAS officers and journalists who see him as a person with a mercurial temperament, abrasive with juniors at times, citing instances when he told a senior officer to put in his papers or asked another one to leave his office in the middle of a meeting.
Though opinion on his persona is divided, a few doubt the intellectual rigour of the bureaucrat with 36 years of experience and the reputation of being a stickler to the rule book. Yet, he finds himself in the crosshairs of an unsavoury and unprecedented controversy with nearly three-and-ahalf months left for superannuation where senior ministers have given an ultimatum to chief minister Capt Amarinder
Singh to sack him or they would not attend meetings as long as he is there.
Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and technical education minister Charanjit Singh Channi railed in front of the CM against Karan Avtar’s attitude and body language with the ministers. Before the cabinet meeting, Congress MLA Raja Amrinder Singh Warring also tried to tarnish the officer’s reputation by raking up his son’s alleged business interests in the liquor trade. Karan Avtar also holds the charge of the financial commissioner, taxation, and had the run-in with the ministers over changes proposed in the excise policy to compensate the liquor contractors for the lockdown period.
A postgraduate in economics from a top US university, Karan Avtar was handpicked by Amarinder, superseding three of his seniors, and appointed to the top bureaucratic position the day he took the reins of the state in March 2017. The present row is being seen as an embarrassment for the chief minister as he is also the minister in charge of the taxation department.
This is not the first time the IAS officer is in the line of fire of the ruling Congress leaders. Three months ago, several party MLAs, who were upset over denial of rooms to them at Punjab Bhawan in New Delhi, spoke out against him in the state assembly during the budget session and pressed for action against the officials for “disrespect” shown to elected representatives.
On February 18 also, some ministers had targeted the chief secretary for disallowing the fiveday visit of an official delegation led by cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to Dubai despite approval from the chief minister.
There has been a tug of war between the CS and the chief minister’s office (CMO) for some time which has come out in the open in the video conferences held during the curfew period.
“There are disagreements over the strategy to be adopted during the lockdown. In one instance, orders had to be modified,” said an officer who did not want to be named.
Though he appears to enjoy the confidence of the chief minister despite these recent controversies, the turn of events in the past three days, in particular the decision to make Karan Avtar skip Monday’s cabinet meeting, have done irretrievable damage to the institution of chief secretary. “This can never be undone. I never imagined that such a day would come,” said a retired bureaucrat who has held the post.
The tragic death of 16 migrant workers under the wheels of a goods train brings home the uncomfortable truth that migrant workers have been the real, helpless casualty of the lockdown. The poor are always at the receiving end, be it demonetisation or the pandemic.
Ravinder Kumar Jain,
Ludhiana