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A change of guard is in store for the police and intelligence networks of the Government of India.

The Vajpayee Government is busy identifying officers to fill vacancies to be caused by the retirement of the top brass of over half a dozen outfits, between December and May.

Struck by the adverse media blitz created by the resignation of Indian Administrative Service officer E A S Sarma following last week's bureaucratic reshuffle, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is understood to ordered that efforts should be made to ensure no Indian Police Service officer is superseded unnecessarily, creating another controversy.

He has sought names to fill all vacancies, though appointments may be made one by one.

The organisations which will be having new heads include the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the external intelligence agency of India, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Border Security Force (BSF) and National Security Guard (NSG), while the government will also have to fill vacancies of two special secretaries in the Home Ministry who handling sensitive issues.

The first and foremost, and ticklish too, is the selection of a RAW chief in place of Sardar A S Dulat, who is retiring on December 31, when T R Kakkar, who looks after Kashmir as special secretary in the home ministry, will also retire.

Dulat had moved from the Intelligence Bureau to RAW, which had created a lot of bad blood in the Research and Analysis Services (RAS) cadre, for thrusting an "outsider".

He was appointed at the instance of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and has been receiving flak for advising the government to release three militant leaders of Kashmir in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines aircraft stranded at Kandahar last December.

The No 2 in RAW is N Sunderrajan, who happens to be from the RAS cadre (1966 batch) and hence aptly cut out for succeeding Dulat as secretary RAW, as the RAW chief is called. His appointment also meets Vajpayee mandate to honour seniority, but there is a technical hitch, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said. The problem is that he has got a bad confidential report.

The next too him, special secretary, RAW, is Vikram Sood (1966 batch), but he is from the Indian Postal Service cadre. There are many officers in RAW who have come from various backgrounds and who have risen over the years. Sood is one of them.

A postal service officer, however, cannot have intelligence perceptions that are needed in running an agency that has offices in 65 world capitals.

As per practice, a successor is appointed at least a month before, since he has to be an understudy of the outgoing boss to know all secrets and develop perceptions needed for running the agency across the globe sitting in Delhi.

Two lieutenant generals are also vying for the post, while the prime minister's Principal Secretary Brijesh Mishra, who 'messed up' the bureaucratic reshuffle, is trying to thrust an Indian Foreign Service officer to run the agency as it has to look after external intelligence.

The first among IPS officers retiring from top posts is Border Security Force Director-General E Rammohan, who may be succeeded by Delhi Police Commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma.

There will be key vacancies in April 2001, when R K Raghavan, the 1963 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer, retires as CBI chief, and a month later the Intelligence Bureau chief Shyamal Dutta will retire.

Going by seniority, the post of CBI chief may go to special director P C Sharma, a 1966 batch IPS officer from Assam-Meghalaya cadre who has two years to go before retirement in June 2002. There are, however, two outside contenders who are senior, coming from the 1965 batch. They include Andhra Pradesh Director-General of Police H J Dora, who is holding the post for three and a half years, and is due to shift to the Centre.

Dora, who has three years left, is, however, a favourite of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who is not ready to spare him for a Central assignment.

The IB, however, has two special officers of the same seniority, both from the 1966 batch of IPS and having four years of service in store.

K P Singh of the Madhya Pradesh cadre is tipped to be the new IB chief. It, however, would require shifting N C Padhi, an Orissa cadre officer, to another central police organisation as he cannot work under an officer of the same standing.

Other top IPS officers retiring in 2001 are NSG chief Nikhil Kumar, special secretary (home) M B Kaushal (a former Delhi police commissioner) and CBI special secretary Gopalachari.

Since the 1966 batch officers are being slotted for various top posts, the government may also have to find a slot for Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) chief Veeran Aivelli, a Hubli-born IPS officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre. He is due for retirement in May 2003 and will have to be adjusted in either the CRPF or CSIF as director-general.

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