Date:29/01/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/01/29/stories/2004012907331100.htm

National

Anil Baijal likely to be next Home Secretary

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, JAN. 28. Anil Baijal, a 1969 batch IAS officer of the Union Territory cadre, has emerged as the front-runner for the post of Union Home Secretary.

Mr. Baijal, now Vice-Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority, will succeed N. Gopalaswamy, who goes to the Election Commission as one of the commissioners.

His selection means that the claims of a number of officers belonging to the 1967 and the 1968 IAS batches stand overlooked.

Mr. Baijal's selection is yet to get the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's nod, but he is known to have agreed to the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani's choice for the post.

The choice of a relatively junior officer to head the coveted Ministry is being justified by the precedent set in the selection of a 1969 batch officer (Ajay Prasad) as the Defence Secretary. However, it is pointed out that whereas the Defence Secretary is deemed to be lower in the protocol hierarchy vis-à-vis the other institutional inter-facers, namely the three service chiefs, the Union Home Secretary has invariably been senior to the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the heads of other Central police organisations. Once Mr. Baijal takes over as Home Secretary, he will find himself in the unusual position of presiding over officers senior to him.