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COVER STORY: B.P. VERMA
The Cross Connection
A man known for his honesty, Ashok Saikia finds himself
in the midst of an unlikely political storm
Until
last week Ashok Saikia was a low-profile joint secretary in the
Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Of impeccable integrity and someone A.B.
Vajpayee trusted implicitly. He has been in the PMO since March 1998 and
was handpicked for the assignment because of his proximity to Vajpayee's
foster family. The only shortcoming of the 1971 batch IAS officer of the
Assam cadre was his arrogance. He was unreservedly vain about his honesty.
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HORRIFIED: Saikia says he is ashamed
to attend office
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Saikia's world seemed to crash a day
after the CBI raided CBEC chairman B.P. Verma. Samajwadi Party (SP) leader
Mulayam Singh Yadav charged that the PMO had ordered the tapping of phones
of opposition leaders and named Saikia
as the official behind the move. According to his detractors, Saikia used
the PMO to gather political intelligence, using the services of revenue
intelligence and enforcement agencies. The buffeting of the PMO for the
second time in a month was a fallout of what has now come to be known
as the Verma tapes.
Even when the Congress refused to bite the phone-tapping
bait, Mulayam didn't relent. He recalled Saikia had received Rs 1 lakh
in 1991 from a man who defrauded trifed of Rs 35 lakh six years later
and was under CBI scrutiny.
Mulayam's outburst horrified Saikia. "Even
if God orders, I won't do anything illegal," says Saikia. Besides,
the power to tap phones vests with the Home Ministry. As for the CBI probe,
Saikia says as Assam education secretary he gave a reference to the alleged
defalcator. As did others like K.P.S. Gill. "I sold my car to him
for Rs 1 lakh which I received in cheque."
In many ways Mulayam's charges were an extension
of the turf war in the PMO. Saikia was pitted against his controversial
colleague, N.K. Singh. The allegations now robbed the bureaucrat of a
moral edge over his rival. Offended, he took a day's leave. "I am
too ashamed to go to the PMO," he said. However, Vajpayee took up
Mulayam's challenge. Attack me, not my officers, he warned. And even Congress
MP Santosh Mohan Dev from Assam vouched for Saikia's integrity.
A senior official admits phones are tapped,
not of politicians but of people close to them. Like Bhavna Pandey, Verma's
accomplice. Pandey's arrest, it is said, worried the sp. "Anybody
who is discredited is linked to the SP, be it Ketan Parekh or Pandey,"
says SP General Secretary Amar Singh, denying she was a party member.
"When Mulayam was made convener of the People's Front, the BJP started
its dirty tricks," he says. Clearly, what began as a customs scam
could snowball into a fierce political controversy. But is phone-tapping
a decoy for a looming battle on another, far more uncomfortable issue?
-Lakshmi Iyer
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