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Official transfers to be routed through Advani

Aditi Phadnis in New Delhi

In a clear shift in the balance of power, the last two days saw Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani clearing two lots of bureaucratic transfers without referring them to the prime minister.

A K Tewari, a 1969 batch IAS officer, who was in the vice-president's secretariat, was transferred to the commerce ministry as additional secretary on August 1. The transfer was cleared by Advani.

In the normal course, his name would have been proposed by the cabinet secretary and sent to the prime minister, who would have forwarded them to the home ministry for the requisite checks. These papers would then be brought before appointments committee of the Cabinet for formal clearance.

In this case, however, cabinet secretary T R Prasad conducted informal consultations with principal secretary Brajesh Mishra, and sent Tewari's papers directly to the deputy prime minister. These will now be sent to the Prime Minister's Office for scrutiny and will come back to the home ministry to follow the established route.

This is the second time the deputy prime minister has cleared bureaucratic transfers. On Friday, transfers and promotions of 15 IAS officers were cleared by Advani, including the director-general of foreign trade, L N Lakhanpal, who has been moved to the home ministry.

Seemingly innocuous, the move has enormous political implications. Earlier, the prime minister used to decide transfers and bureaucratic postings.

"The Prime Minister's Office will continue to be in the loop. But now the prime minister will get transfer files through the deputy prime minister," a top government official said.

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