‘A Group Of Officials Is Trying To Malign Me’

Few in South Block had heard of Raghavendra Shastry till he walked into the ministry of external affairs (MEA) in May 2009 to take up the post of advisor to foreign minister S.M. Krishna. As Krishna’s “eyes and ears”, he has made many friends and some enemies. Many officials in Karnataka, particularly senior police officers like Achutha Rao and Gopal Hosur with whom Shastry worked on social welfare projects, praise him for his honesty and integrity and the good work he did there. He speaks about his attempts to ring in transparency in the MEA and the controversies he has courted to Pranay Sharma.

What were you doing before you were drafted into the MEA?

For over two decades, I was the president of a multinational company which had over 2,000 employees. I had an annual salary of Rs 1.2 crore and paid income tax of over Rs 25 lakh every year.

How did you come to know S.M. Krishna?

When he was Karnataka’s chief minister, I had interacted with him as the chief warden of civil defence and on a project I was implementing that involved companies donating vehicles to the police department for public use (now called Hoysalas, with over 200 vehicles). I was also in many crisis-management programmes, not as a paid employee, but voluntarily, in the interests of the people.

Are you in the ministry to build up Krishna’s image?

S.M. Krishna does not need anyone to build his image. He has a global image for he has spent 50 years in political life. President Obama made a rare exception of going to Hillary Clinton’s office to meet him and said, ‘It is unbelievable what you have done to Bangalore.’

What have you brought to the table in your two-year stint in the MEA?

The minister directed me to root out corruption and bring in transparency in all the ministry’s dealings. I was assigned to deal with the Haj programme, where we have ejected those who were making crores. We have brought in transparency, put up websites and made sure that no broker or agent, in collusion with our lower-level officials, can make money. We have also ensured that people do not pay a single-rupee bribe to get their passports. It should come to them automatically once they log into the system, key in their name and pay. We are putting in place a system which is totally free of corruption, bribes, agents and touts. We have also tried to get back the bodies of Indians who die abroad, especially in the Gulf. Earlier, 500 bodies would come in a year but now we get back 1,400 bodies.

Since the MEA has a host of trained diplomats, including a joint secretary for external publicity, what’s your role as advisor to the minister?

My role is to coordinate with them and ensure that the MEA has a right profile among the people. Be it the Haj or passports, I look into the system to see if anything wrong has happened. We have received complaints where a bulky laptop, weighing over 2 kg, has been purchased for Rs 70,000 for our senior officials. The same laptop in the market costs Rs 30,000. We are conducting inquiries into this, as also on purchase of gifts for foreign dignitaries on inflated taxi bills for which the ministry had to pay Rs 30 lakh in a month.

Is there a lot of corruption in the MEA?

A group of low-level officials are hand-in-glove with agents, brokers. But I can say that the Indian Foreign Service doesn’t comprise corrupt people.

None at all?

No, I have never spoken against diplomats. There are one or two who have been found to be involved with the lower-rung officials and are trying to make money, against which we are trying to put in place checks-and-balances.

Has any action been taken against the guilty?

Inquiries are going on. There are about six instances where action is being taken; some have been arrested.

The transfer of a bunch of five joint secretaries in April-end had many in the ministry believe that you had a hand in it, especially in the case of T.S. Tirumurti. Is this correct?

First of all, this group called ‘friends of Tirumurti’, well, they are not friends of Tirumurti but ‘friends of corruption’. They have touts, agents and brokers behind them. They are trying to tarnish the MEA’s image with their corrupt practices.

Do you have any idea why Tirumurti was transferred?

It’s the foreign secretary who transfers officers. One, she decided since the officer (Tirumurti) was an Arabic speaker, he should go to Kuwait. Two, he had completed three years and eight months, as against the usual tenure of three years. It’s a matter of pride for an officer to become an ambassador. In India, a joint secretary gets hardly Rs 70,000, an unfurnished two-bedroom house, a small office; he gets no facilities for children’s education. As ambassador, you get an allowance of over $5,000 per month, servants, a well-furnished office and house, cutlery, crockery, electricity, telephone charges, laptop, a Mercedes Benz car and over $20,000 for children’s education. Also medical and other benefits. It raises questions in people’s mind why somebody wouldn’t leave India to take the post of ambassador. It’s clear that it’s not Tirumurti but a group which cannot stomach that a transparent system is being brought into place is behind this. They are tying to malign the name of the IFS. My reputation as a man of integrity has been built over decades. I will not allow these ‘friends of Tirumurti’ to burn it down. What they told Outlook about me is character assassination. Their ploy is to prevent us from revealing the corruption of those who are working in collusion with the mafia.

It is alleged that a person claiming to be close to you had asked for a cut in the housing project that India was to execute in Sri Lanka. And that Tirumurti refused to oblige, because of which he was transferred.

If that’s so, why didn’t Tirumurti tell me that a gentleman had come to him taking my name? I would have ensured that this guy was immediately put behind bars. No broker is allowed in our office. Why was he allowed to come into the office? Why didn’t Tirumurti complain about it to the foreign secretary or to me? This shows that there is a bigger game going on with larger interests.

So you had nothing to do with this project?

I had never written a letter to the joint secretary (Tirumurti) to give the housing project to different psus. The days of a single party getting the tender are over. Now there is transparency in the way the tenders are given, based on quotations. I never interacted with this joint secretary nor did I ever give him any instructions. It’s unbelievable that an officer like Tirumurti could provide such details of the ministry. It is surely a plant, a motive of disgruntled junior officials; it has nothing to do with any IFS officer. The so-called ‘friends of Tirumurti’ are an unknown group trying to speak about the incompetence of the IFS officers. It is sheer stupidity to plant allegations questioning his competence. I have the complete support of all senior officials to complete the reforms...which have been successful in the last two years. No financial dealings or awarding of contracts ever came to me or were processed by me. These are done by a very competent and senior official of the ministry, Vivek Katju. Now an outfit called the ‘Indian Agency for Partnership in Development’ is being set up to implement India’s assistance to other countries and deal with all financial transactions, worth a total of Rs 50,000 crore. This will bring in total transparency and eliminate corruption.

Why is your name being dragged into this?

I’m a thorn in the flesh of this vested group of officials, so they are trying to malign me.

Do you have many enemies in the ministry?

I have a lot of enemies at the lower level of the ministry but the big ones are the friends of those who are not able to make the kind of money they were making before. I can tell you clearly that even bigger players are involved. Not IFS officials but outside agencies, the dalals, brokers and agents, they are all are involved in this.

Is this from inside or outside the ministry?

It’s mainly from outside the ministry but the way they are trying to change the thinking in the ministry has been rejected by 99 per cent of the officers. Because it’s been rejected, they are trying to malign my name.