Bhubaneswar: With the Centre approving the voluntary retirement of 2000-batch cadre IAS VK Pandian there is intense speculation about the powerful bureaucrat’s possible entry into politics.
Though people have been making conjectures in this regard for past sometime, speculation intensified after Pandian, who was appointed the private secretary to chief minister Naveen Patnaik in 2011, began touring districts using the state helicopter. In July 2019 Pandian was given additional charge of the secretary to CM’s transformational governance initiative popularly known as 5T which stands for Team work, technology, transparency, transformation and time limit.
Eversince being appointed as Patnaik’s private secretary in 2011 Pandian has clung to him like his shadow scripting one success after another for his boss. His efficiency and management skills were the talk of the power corridors in Bhubaneswar as well as Delhi as almost every move of the chief minister bore his stamp. The Tamil Nadu-born bureaucrat became the son-in-law of Odisha after marrying Sujata Karthikeyan nee Rout, the incumbent commissioner-cum-secretary, department of Mission Shakti. Her family hails from Pattamundai area of Kendrapara and her father Dr. Akhshay Kumar Rout, who passed away in 2020, was an eminent paediatrician.
Pandian has been the eyes and ears of the chief minister for the last 12 years. In the initial years he took care to ensure that he did not step out of his boss’s shadow but slowly his activities became more public and more obvious politically. His visits to different districts using state helicopter drew opposition fire and Khandapada MLA and media baron Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who had won the seat on ruling Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) ticket, also questioned these visits as Pandian was drawing more attention than public representatives during these trips.
Pandian till now has had the reputation of being an excellent backroom strategist. Given his training as a bureaucrat he could plan and execute moves meticulously. Many believe that he has been the hidden force guiding ruling Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) victorious campaigns in elections. While his boss, the undisputed leader of the party and presently the longest serving chief minister of the country, remains the infallible electoral mascot of the state’s most successful regional party Pandian has been choreographing BJD campaigns. Patnaik-Pandian combine has resulted in BJD scoring one victory after another not only in the general elections but also in bye-elections.
A live wire Pandian’s efficiency as a bureaucrat has never been in doubt. Apart from being the longest serving private secretary to Odisha’s longest serving chief minister he was also the 5T secretary of the state with the task of ensuring good and pro-people governance with complete transparency. His achievements in this field earned him the respect of not only his colleagues but also people across the state.
Now, in the wake of his voluntary retirement speculation is rife that Pandian may formally become a member of ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and control the levers of powers more directly than he has been so far. The possibility of this now former bureaucrat joining the Patnaik government in some capacity or the other is also not being ruled out. There is also speculation about his wife Sujata Karthikeyan, the incumbent commissioner-cum-secretary of the newly created Mission Shakti joining politics.
That he will continue to wield enormous powers is evident from the fact that within 24 hours of his voluntary retirement the former bureaucrat was appointed as chairman 5T ( transformational initiatives) and Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha, a recent initiative to implement major government schemes, in the rank of a cabinet minister.
Pandian first came to the notice of the chief minister during his stint as the sub-collector of Dharamgarh in Kalahandi, once considered to be the proverbial backwaters of the state in terms of development. The impact of his bold administrative moves was felt by the people of the area who saw its transformation at a rapid pace. He was among the youngest collectors of the country when he took charge of the tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district where he not only accelerated the pace of development but also did great work for rehabilitation of people with disabilities (PWDs). His initiatives were highly appreciated.
But perhaps his most satisfying and fruitful tenure as a freshly minted IAS officer was as the collector of Ganjam, the district that chief minister Naveen Patnaik hails from. The high degree of efficiency and transparency with which he implemented the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the district helped bring down the scale of labour migration from the area. He also came up with innovative ideas like transfer of wages to bank accounts, thus eliminating the role of middlemen and ruling out the possibility of corruption. This was a precedent setting move.
His dynamism and commitment to duty were qualities that endeared him to the chief minister who made him his private secretary in 2011 and in 2019 decided to give him the additional responsibility of 5T secretary. It has been the chief minister’s most important governance initiative aimed at promoting transparency and efficiency. This set in a revolution of sorts in the administration.
One of the most popular initiatives launched under the umbrella of 5T is “Mo Sarkar” which aims at bringing the government closer to the people and involving them in the administration by seeking their feedback on the quality of governance. It began with a bang with the chief minister himself taking feedback from people on their experience in police stations. The impact was immediate and electric. The attitude of the men in khaki towards complainants and others visiting police stations changed immediately. People for the first time began treating police as their friend.
While the chief minister was seeking feedback Pandian, his man Friday, was making field visits to various districts along with other senior officials to have a look at the facilities in hospitals. In the course of these visits he also collected the feedback of common people about the availability and quality of services and improvements in hospitals and health centres were made in the light of that. Thanks to this effort the state was more than prepared to deal with COVID-19 when the first wave of the pandemic hit the state last year.
In the wake of his voluntary retirement it is certain that Pandian, who has adopted Odisha for all practical purposes, now seems all set to take up a bigger and more direct role in the development of the state. In all probability the role will be political in nature and one that will silence his critics who have been taking pot-shots at him for making visits to districts at state government’s expense and appropriating what is perceived to be the powers and duties of elected public representatives.
Political observers do not rule out the possibility of Pandian contesting the next polls but until then he will find other ways of exercising power directly with the blessings of his boss whose dependence on him has been growing with each passing day.
