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THE NATION: GOVERNMENT
Gunning For Arun
Jaswant Singh's special adviser is again at the centre
of a controversy. This one though is not of his own making.
By Shishir Gupta
Arun Singh makes
a conscious effort to maintain a low profile and prefers anonymity to
the spotlight. Yet willy-nilly he seems to find himself in the thick of
controversy. As Rajiv Gandhi's minister of state for defence, he found
himself embroiled in the Bofors gun deal scandal. It chased him even after
he pulled out of government and chose to live as a recluse in the hills
of Almora. In April 1999, after many years in hibernation, he reluctantly
agreed to take on the post of adviser to External Affairs Minister Jaswant
Singh with the rank of a minister of state. Soon after, the Kargil war
saw him become deeply involved in restructuring the country's defence
establishment and planning on key strategic issues. It seemed an innocuous
task and a logical one because in 1990 he did head a committee that made
some far-reaching recommendations on the subject. Yet, Arun Singh suddenly
finds himself facing a lot of vitriol, especially from opposition parties.
Last week, the Congress and the left parties
hit out at Jaswant for giving an "extra-constitutional" role
to Arun. The adviser was called an unbridled supercrat not accountable
to Parliament. Congress chief whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told the Lok
Sabha, "We want no extra-constitutional authority to have any access
to the meetings in the Defence Ministry or to the meetings of the service
chiefs." Jaswant staunchly rebutted these charges and apart from
defending Arun's role also called him the "best defence minister
the country ever had". But by not clearly defining Arun's role in
the Government Jaswant has unwittingly fuelled speculation and criticism
on what his adviser is really up to.
There is little doubt that Arun's clout has
grown enormously, especially after he was made special adviser to the
defence minister when Jaswant was given additional charge of the MoD in
March this year. In his quiet and informal manner, Arun is said to have
been instrumental in pushing national security high on the foreign policy
agenda and is the prime mover behind major reforms in the defence establishment.
As head of the task force on "higher defence management" set
up after the Kargil war, Arun was in a unique position to evaluate what
needed to be done. With the Government agreeing with most of the task
force's recommendations Arun was asked to stay on to see their implementation
through.
Among the recommendations he has been pushing
is the appointment of a chief of defence staff (CDS) who would act as
a single-point adviser to the government and head the country's nuclear
forces. With the three forces showing dissonance over who should be appointed
the CDS and the structure of the nuclear command, the fallout has involved
criticism of Arun's role.
Yet, given Arun's sense of propriety, the charges
of acting as a supercrat appear harsh. Ministry sources say that he is
not involved in the day-to-day functioning of the armed forces and confines
his interaction with the service chiefs to defence reforms. The reticent
politician often addresses the service chiefs as "Sir" and remains
accessible to all seeking his advice. He hates being photographed and
does not attend official functions, preferring to remain in the background.
Much of the military brass, bureaucracy and strategic establishment find
Arun knowledgeable and "passionately" involved in security affairs.
They see his presence as a major plus point, though at times they are
unsettled by the speed with which Jaswant accepts his proposals.
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