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Low-profile but high-powered: that's the new Arun Singh

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He is not a high-flying bureaucrat; he is not a politician; he's not even a bjp sympathiser. Yet, Arun Singh is one of the most influential, if low-key, men in this government. As advisor (security) to the foreign and defence minister, he literally straddles South Block—two-thirds of it, anyway.

Most were baffled when Jaswant Singh brought Arun Singh, minister of state for defence under Rajiv Gandhi, in from—literally—the cold of the UP hills in April 2000. The one-line memo that announced his arrival in Room 161, South Block, offered no explanation either of the nature of his work or the duration of his tenure. Referring to the French system where the defence minister has an advisor on foreign affairs, a defence expert says, "In India, we have a strange situation where the foreign minister has a defence advisor!"

And in March this year, when Jaswant Singh took over the defence portfolio as well, Arun Singh became advisor to the defence minister too. A job acquired on the royalty network, given that Arun Singh belongs to the Kapurthala royal family of Punjab? Not so, say officials. "The powers are with the minister. Arun Singh only provides inputs. The minister gives directions," clarifies an official.

That doesn't satisfy everybody, especially those seeking a political angle. Says a minister, "We thought he was brought in to give us ammunition against the Congress on the Bofors deal. But he's told us nothing. Why is he here?" No one is willing to provide a ready answer.

Also unhappy, but with the appointment of the senior Singh as defence minister, is defence analyst Brahma Chellany. "The job of foreign minister and defence minister should never be entrusted to the same person," he says. "One is a soft diplomatic face while the other by nature has to be a hawk." If that is a contradiction, it doesn't seem to be coming in the way of Arun Singh. No one knows whether he is the defence advisor to the foreign minister or vice versa. And with Jaswant Singh's frequent overseas trips as foreign minister, the charge that this is Arun Singh's second stint as defence minister suddenly gains strength.

Defence ministry officials, though, claim Singh's official brief is limited to the implementation of the Kargil Task Force report on Higher Defence Management. (Out of the four task forces set up by the Kargil Review Committee, only one falls under the purview of the defence ministry.) This task force itself was incidentally headed by Arun Singh.

Meanwhile, an implementation committee has been set up within the defence ministry to work out the integration of the armed forces with the defence bureaucracy. Interestingly, this was something Singh had advocated during his stint as defence minister. "In 1986, Arun Singh had a dream—to carry out reforms in higher defence. Now he can see the fulfilment of that dream," predicts defence analyst Maj Gen Ashok Mehta. Experts say that the reorganisation of the defence ministry—indeed, the defence sector—is a favourite theme of this low-profile former company executive.

Under the Jaswant Singh-Arun Singh duo, defence reforms have been given top priority. "Post-Kargil, there was a need for security sector reforms and the two are doing a good job," says a task force member. Another high-priority area is defence procurement. Jaswant Singh has set up a Joint Procurement Board headed by special secretary A.V. Singh (earlier the navy, army and air force each had a separate board). And though it is the defence secretary and not Arun Singh who is officially in charge, it's no surprise that A.V. Singh is a frequent visitor to the security advisor's office.

Since the memo appointing Arun Singh is still to be updated, Jaswant Singh's advisor (security) redefines his turf on a daily basis. There are some hits and some misses. Take when the defence ministry's newly-appointed media consultant B.G. Verghese suggested that select analysts be briefed by the top brass in order to bolster the minister's image. In the event, Arun Singh, who was present at the briefing, proceeded to hold forth instead of letting the service chiefs talk. "It was only after reading the bad press that he stayed away from the last briefing," says a source.

Because of the undefined nature of Arun Singh's job, the only one who knows the full score is his minister. And Jaswant Singh is simply not willing to talk about his favourite appointee.

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