Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Prime Minister’s most trusted lieutenant in Modi 2.0, is learnt to be focusing on vital aspects of national security with 16 key bureaucrats to fix the structural crises — the insurgency in Kashmir, the NRC, and the situation in Northeast and Maoist-affected areas.
With the policy of an iron fist for militancy in the velvetglove of “vikas and vishwas” (development and trust), he isformulating measures to deal with these challenges with a core team thatincludes some new and some old faces.
At the helm in the crucial Ministry in North Block, Shah isreportedly relying on these key bureaucrats that include 16 senior male and twofemale officials drawn from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and IndianPolice Service (IPS).
Of these officials, two hold posts of Secretaries, three areSpecial Secretaries, three Additional Secretaries and eight are JointSecretaries.
The officials, sources said, have started streamlining theirtasks under newly-appointed Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, a 1984 batchAssam-Meghalaya cadre IAS official, who was on July 24 appointed as Officer onSpecial Duty (OSD) in the Home Ministry. Bhalla will take over as the new HomeSecretary, succeeding incumbent Rajiv Gauba who retires on August 31. He wouldassist Shah with his experiences during his two-year tenure till August 2021.
Shah’s Private Secretary Saket Kumar is also among his topteam members. A 2009-batch IAS from Bihar cadre, Kumar, as per currentdeputation, would be assisting the Home Minister till July 29, 2023.
Others key officials of the team include Secretary, OfficialLanguage, Shailesh, Secretary, Border Management, B.R. Sharma, SpecialSecretary, Internal Security, A.P. Maheshwari, Special Secretary and FinancialAdvisor Bhupendra Singh, Special Secretary, Centre-State, Satpal Chouhan,Additional Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir, Gyanesh Kumar, Additional Secretary,Union Territories, Govind Mohan and Additional Secretary, PM, Vivek Bhardwaj.
Joint Secretary, Left-Wing Extremism, Praveen Vashista,Joint Secretary, Northeast, Satyendra Garg, Joint Secretary, Foreigners, AnilMalik, Joint Secretary, Border Management-I, A.V. Dharma Reddy, JointSecretary, Police-I and Police-II, Amitabha Kharkwal and Joint Secretary,Internal Security-I, S.C.L. Das are among others in the team.
The two women officials include Joint Secretary, WomenSafety (with additional charge of Internal Security-II), Punya SalilaSrivastava and Joint Secretary, Border Management-II, Nidhi Khare.
Maheshwari, a 1984 batch IPS officer, appointed to theMinistry in February beginning to replace Rina Mitra, has been reportedly gotShah’s approval to deal with internal security matters with a more muscularapproach to maintain law and order. He will hold the post till his retirementon February 28, 2021.
Additional Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir, Gyanesh Kumar andJoint Secretary, Northeast, Garg will be assisting Shah in dealing issues ofinsurgency in the Valley and completion of the National Register of Citizen(NRC) in Assam, respectively.
Besides the Team 16, the Home Minister’s juniors NityanandRai and G. Kishan Reddy, both holding charges of Minister of State for Home,would be playing crucial role in completing his five year target.
Reflecting his indisputable trust in Amit Shah, whocontinues to be BJP President, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted thefirst-time Union Minister into eight cabinet committees after forming thegovernment for the second time. Modi’s most trusted lieutenant since the 1980swhen both started their political careers in Gujarat, he made a grand entry inthe Union Cabinet on May 31 replacing Rajnath Singh, who has moved to theDefence Ministry across the road in South Block.
Emerging from the backstage, from where he directed theBJP’s spectacular ascent, he is in the forefront of Modi 2.0 government.