No one is quite sure what he does, but outside room 161 at the external affairs ministry is a sign that says: Advisor (security), External Affairs Minister. At 9.45 am each day, Arun Singh, the former Congress minister of state for defence, arrives at South Block in a white Cielo instead of the sarkari white ambassador and enters his room.
Two months ago, when the memo announcing Arun Singh's appointment was circulated in South Block, it baffled many within the ministry itself. "Why Arun Singh? What are his credentials? And what is he going to handle?" asked an mea bureaucrat. The one-line memo offered no answers. "This is unusual in itself. Usually the memo states the nature of work the person will be handling, who all should report to him, etc," added the bureaucrat.
If the mea is confused, then the ministry of defence is downright resentful. "What is his mandate? What authority does he have to interfere in defence matters?" asked an MoD official. What has fuelled the anger of the bureaucrats further is that this is the first time the external affairs minister has appointed a security advisor. "There is already a full-fledged minister of defence. So where is the need for a security advisor?" asked a George Fernandes loyalist. Fernandes himself, who during his last stint had earned a reputation for shooting off his mouth, has decided to bide time and not say anything on the issue, for now.
Arun Singh, however, appears to have no confusion about his job. For one, he is heading the committee on defence management, one of the four sub-committees set up following the Kargil Review Committee recommendations. In fact, government sources claim that if Jaswant Singh had his way, his security advisor would be heading all four committees. But this suggestion was shot down by other members of the Group of Ministers handling the Kargil Committee report. Jaswant Singh then suggested that Arun Singh be the No 2 man in all the committees. This was also vetoed by the others.
Arun Singh is also advising the foreign minister on "security matters". In this capacity, he is known to summon the service chiefs whenever the minister wants to meet them. In fact, last month, he arranged a meeting between Gen V.P. Malik, the army chief and Jaswant Singh. This did not go down well with the defence ministry which did not appreciate being bypassed.
Then again, Singh is also a frequent visitor to the briefings at the Ops Room (military operations room). At times, he has also requisitioned a briefing - his area of interest being the neighbouring countries. The interesting point here is that the Ops Room is located at the MoD. And the briefings are usually attended by members of the Cabinet Committee on Security.
"What is his locus standi? In what capacity is he attending these briefings?" asks an MoD official. Arun Singh also has a tremendous rapport with the defence forces. The army chief is an old friend and Arun Singh has no problems initiating a separate channel of communication with him, ignoring the MoD entirely. "Unfortunately, the defence minister is also trying for the same friend-of-the-armed-forces slot. His (Fernandes') trips to Kargil and Siachen made him very popular with the troops. They compared him favourably with previous ministers like Mulayam Singh Yadav. And now Jaswant Singh has brought in someone who already has the kind of rapport Fernandes was trying to build. Obviously he's not happy," said one bureaucrat.
Disclaiming such reports, Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly says "there is no problem between the two (Fernandes and Jaswant Singh)". But officials in the MoD are not as sanguine. "This is the man who advised Rajiv Gandhi on Operation Brasstacks, which nearly led to a war with Pakistan. And this is the man who was in the Ops Room during Operation Bluestar, which alienated the entire Sikh community from the then ruling party (Congress). Couldn't Jaswant Singh find someone else to advise him on security matters?" asks another bureaucrat from the MoD.
There are also whispers about the Thakur connection between the two Singhs. But, contrary to speculation in the media, Arun Singh is not a Rajput but a Sikh. He also has a distant tie with the Kapurthala royals. More to the point, mea sources point to two things when justifying his appointment. And ironically, these are two of the major grouses the MoD has against Singh. One, of course, is Singh's smooth network with the forces. Points out a former foreign secretary, "Arun was well liked as defence minister. Look at the others. Sharad Pawar was too busy selling cantonment land, Mulayam Yadav was busy promoting the Yadavs, and Fernandes is too busy sounding off his intellect. Inject a man like Arun Singh in this scenario. Obviously, there'll be a problem."
The second is the Arun Singh Committee report (1990). Supposed to look into defence expenditure, it ended up undertaking a full-scale review of the MoD. In fact, one of its suggestions was for the MoD to merge with the service headquarters. The recommendation made Arun Singh very popular with the armed forces, but had the babus at Raksha Mantralaya baying for his blood. In fact, just last week, MoD officials were searching for a copy of Singh's report.
Another sore point with the MoD is the fact that Arun Singh's committee on defence management is the only one which has two serving officers on board. The other three committees have to make do with retired officials. "This is a direct encroachment on our turf," points out a piqued defence ministry official.
There is no denying the distinct undertone of resentment at Arun Singh's induction into the mea. During the Kargil war just last year, Arun Singh had offered his services and was appointed special executive assistant to the external affairs minister. At that time Jaswant Singh had said that the former defence minister was an old friend. In a newspaper interview, Jaswant Singh had said: "I have exploited his sense of nationalism and he's now working with me on a token salary of Re 1 a month.... This is not a political move."
As special executive assistant, Singh's brief was to cover the grey, overlapping areas between the mea and the MoD, but only for the "duration of the crisis". This time round, however, Arun Singh seems to be doing the same job, but without a time limit. "He is there as long as the minister wants him to be. And at times, he does act as an interface between the mea and the MoD," says an mea source.
This is in keeping with Jaswant Singh's own assertion that the "mea has a very significant role to play in managing national security, along with the defence ministry". In fact, mea officials claim that "anything that is an external threat to India is an mea subject". This is essentially a turf war between the two ministries. But what is puzzling everyone is that Singh has allowed himself to be used as a pawn in it.
But as long as he is there, Arun Singh seems to be enjoying the ride. For instance, there have been occasions when visiting foreign officials have called on him. "Who has asked them to meet Arun Singh? He does not figure anywhere in the official chain of command," says a bureaucrat. And if the rumour mill is right, then he is also the minister's candidate for "ambassador to a very important country" (read, the us).
Some, however, point to the appointments of D.P. Dhar and G.P. Parthasarthy during the seventies and the eighties as chairmen of policy planning in the foreign office. "Even these two attended defence ministry briefings. There is nothing wrong in that," says J.N. Dixit, former high commissioner to Colombo. "But the chairman, policy planning, was a ministerial appointment. He had a rank below the union minister and above the minister of state. So there was no protocol problem there. If you make someone advisor to just the minister, then there is a protocol problem," points out a retired foreign secretary.
Which is perhaps why when you call Arun Singh's office, his secretary directs you not to the external publicity division but to the special publicity cell. The difference between the two highlights the main problem with Arun Singh's appointment: external publicity handles routine media briefings whereas special publicity deals essentially with propaganda and damage control. Arun Singh's appointment clearly needs damage control more than publicity!
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