The Nation: Mohan Guruswamy: What the Help Saw

In deciding not to go quietly the former adviser to the finance minister has opened a can of worms that raises questions about the government's integrity.

There is an important lesson the BJP has learnt in recent weeks: keep off Harvard alumni, they spell trouble. First there was Subramanian Swamy, the rising star of the Jan Sangh in the early '70s, who ended up mounting savage personal attacks on Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the Janata Party government. Now it is the turn of Mohan Guruswamy who concluded his brief innings as adviser to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and his association with the BJP with a sensational, no-holds-barred assault on Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani.

An angry Guruswamy, who was either sacked from his secretary-level post on February 3 or resigned on his own a week earlier, began by positioning himself as an anguished liberal who couldn't stomach the attacks on Christians. But this was a convenient fig leaf. He saved his vitriol for the opening day of the budget session of Parliament so as to cause a beleaguered Government the maximum embarrassment.

He succeeded. In dishing out a heady brew of backroom intrigues, laced with innuendos, delightful one-liners and stray photocopies, he hit the Government on the one attribute it treasured most: its integrity. He virtually accused the prime minister of running a vicious cabal and touting for the Hindujas, Advani of lobbying for Essar, Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan of siding with the Mittals and his own finance minister of lacking a backbone. He even dragged in Vajpayee's foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya, Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra and Secretary to the Prime Minister N.K. Singh. "They are like Abraham Masslow's baboons who have to humiliate an outgoing alpha male," he said, referring to his letter of dismissal.

Guruvachan

"The Vajpayee-Advani relationship is like the Charles-Diana marriage. They'll pose in front of the Taj but their body language will tell a different story."

"Advani called to find out if the Ruias were asking me to do anything wrong. I said no, their problem is genuine. The PMO got wind of it and decided to use it against him."

"Pramod Mahajan came into my room with Pradeep Mittal who tried to hustle me. I told them to ask the PM to call me with instructions. I wanted to see how they'd do for Mittal what they were opposing for Essar."

"Vijay Kelkar is good with petroleum but knows nothing about finance. He has no clarity or vision."

"I met V.P. Singh after my resignation and he told me to record my views and clarify the reasons for my sudden departure."

The allusion may well be both obscure and unparliamentary, but Guruswamy was never one for niceties. He was a man in a hurry. Beginning with the Janata Party, followed by Jan Morcha and the Janata Dal, Guruswamy displayed a streak of political promiscuity. He entered the BJP via its media cell in 1995 and soon found his way into Advani's charmed circle. It was Advani who pressed his appointment in the Finance Ministry despite Vajpayee's lack of enthusiasm. And it is Advani who is now facing the flak for his misjudgement. The issue, says a BJP leader, "is not why Guruswamy was sacked but why he was appointed in the first place".

Advani isn't talking but his former protege has left precious little to the imagination. Guruswamy feels he is a victim of a conspiracy hatched in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The problem stemmed from Guruswamy's blunt style that verged on abrasiveness. The job description of adviser, says Jairam Ramesh who occupied the same post under P. Chidambaram, "is to follow the instructions of the minister". Guruswamy interpreted his brief as being political and proactive. He didn't want to be cramped by bureaucrats citing rules, precedents and procedures. If something had to be done, it had to be done. Even if it meant barking instructions to heads of financial institutions (FIs) and drawing up lists of people to be appointed on the boards of nationalised banks. He rarely waited to be asked.

"Guruswamy's problem," says Mishra, "was that he confused the role of an adviser with that of a decision-maker." He couldn't stomach his recommendations being rejected or even scrutinised. The problem reached a flashpoint when he brokered a Rs 2,500 crore financial package between the FIs and Essar, allegedly at the behest of Advani. This was aimed at helping the Ruias tide over cost over-runs and default in interest payments. The PMO, however, objected to the package saying the company should resolve the problem with the lenders directly and not bring the Government into the picture. The objection may have been premised on excessive non-intrusiveness but Guruswamy compounded the problem by projecting it as an attack on Advani. "He was trying to drive a wedge between Vajpayee and Advani," says a PMO source.

That may be an overstatement but Guruswamy seems to have cast himself in the mould of a crusader. In attacking the Government he has focused on issues where official inaction has proved costly. Like Enron being financed by Indian banks rather than bringing in direct foreign investment. He also raised the issue of GE Capital recycling FIs' funds rather than injecting overseas funds into the economy. The implication was that the Government was being remarkably casual in its professed swadeshi commitments.

Or take the case of an alleged move by the Unit Trust of India (UTI) to sell its entire 16 per cent holding in ITC to parent company bat. In unilaterally shooting off a position paper on the subject, Guruswamy says he was responding to press reports that some MPs were pressing the PMO for disinvestment. His argument that the shares should be sold at a hefty premium that would yield UTI nearly Rs 7,853 crore made good economic sense. Yet, the fact remains that this was unsolicited advice because the proposal had not been taken up seriously by either UTI or the Government. Says Mishra, "I know nothing of his allegations concerning bat. The papers never came to me." By creating a public stink, Guruswamy has ensured they won't reach Mishra in a hurry.