Having worked with Manohar Parrikar in Goa and known him for long, I can say with some certainty that he will not take ages to get a firm grip on issues. Neither the bureaucrats nor Service personnel can hope to mislead him
Five days ago he was the Chief Minister of a small State which had no heft in the country’s politics. Today he is India’s Defence Minister. Mr Manohar Parrikar has come a long way, and his journey has just begun. He has arrived with expectations, some bordering on the impossible but all premised on his reputation for personal integrity and administrative acumen. He has much to do, and he will be able to take a credible shot at them if he cuts off from the politics of the State he has left behind. It will take a while for Mr Parrikar to settle down to the complicated and often devious politics here, but politics is his forte. He once told me, “Politics is the same everywhere, though the scale may vary. The best way to handle the situation is to perform.”
I have known him and observed his functioning from fairly close quarters, as his Media Advisor and concurrently Director of Information & Publicity, when he was Chief Minister of Goa during the early 2000s, and earlier from mid-1990s when he emerged as an important leader, then in the Opposition. People change over the years — and politicians more so as they climb up the ladder. This is no doubt true of Mr Parrikar, but he has managed to retain his down-to-earth demeanour and straightforwardness.
This masks his political sharpness. On the day he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and when talk gained ground that he would join the Union Cabinet, he told me with a straight face (I assume it was a straight face because I spoke to him over the telephone) that neither of the two had invited him to Delhi. However, he added that he would consider it once the offer came. This was in contrast to his outright rejection five months ago when a similar speculation had begun to float. He had then said, “I will not leave Goa. I have much work to do here.”
There is a buzz on how effectively Mr Parrikar, an ‘outsider’, will be able to handle the bureaucracy in the Defence Ministry. Those who nurture doubts need to only look at the performance of two other ‘outsiders’ — Mr Modi and Mr Shah. Anyway, the new Defence Minister is a master at manoeuvring. As Director of Information and Publicity in the Goa Government, I did not for various reasons get along well the Secretary, Information. I found her not just manipulative but also incompetent. I brought my woes before Mr Parrikar. He listened to me, and smilingly said I should learn to “adjust”. He added, “You cannot keep fighting with civil servants.” Did that mean he would not check his bureaucrats even when they were in the wrongIJ “leave it to me”, he said. “I know how to tackle such people. But I cannot have a running feud with them. I have to administer the State.”
Years later, I realised how right he was. He did checkmate the troublesome babus (though he also unfortunately brought the knife down on a couple of good ones) in his inimitable style. That style should serve him well in the Defence Ministry.
like any other politician, as Chief Minister he had to put up with many unreasonable demands of his party colleagues, well-wishers and hangers-on. On most occasions he would brush them aside with the crisp, “It can’t be done”. The few he could not dismiss offhand, he would either oblige partially or put them through such a tortuous process that the person would give up in exasperation. I remember that he once directed a BJP legislator to me. This worthy had gone to the Chief Minister with a plea that a driver, who had been sacked months ago (before I came in) by the Information Department on grounds of serious indiscipline, be re-instated, even if on a ‘casual basis’. I told him rules did not permit me to do so, but if the Chief Minister could suggest a way out, I would consider it favourably (not that I would then have had a choice but to accept the sacked person back!). He went away mumbling that I was not being cooperative. Undoubtedly, he took his grievance to Mr Parrikar, who shrugged his shoulders and said he was helpless (!) because he could not make a noting in the official file which went against the rules, though he wished to oblige from the bottom of his heart.
These and many similar incidents of strife (not to mention my unending conflict with the Secretary, Information, despite the wise words to “adjust”) must have begun to trouble him. less than a year after I had served his Government, Mr Parrikar hinted that it was time for me to move out, and on. There was, people told me, an RSS-supported candidate waiting in the wings to take over. I put in my papers, and he said that I could continue as his Media Advisor. While that arrangement did not get off the ground and I bid goodbye to my very-brief official tenure, I retained my respect and admiration for him.
The Defence Minister said in Delhi on November 10 that while he was “defence-less” against the media, he would not allow India to be without defence (against attacks from enemies). This is vintage Parrikar who, like Mr Modi, knows how to spin catchy one-liners. But it is difficult to take his words (about being defence-less against the Press) at face value. As the Chief Minister of Goa, he had many critics in the media. Once, journalists were so upset with one of his ‘anti-Press’ actions that they began to wear black bands at his functions. He scoffed at the protest and, despite my repeated entreaties, refused to yield ground, saying that the instigators were “communal-minded characters”. Eventually, the ‘misunderstanding’ was resolved. During that period, the local media viewed me with deep suspicion as it believed (wrongly) that I had instigated the then Chief Minister.
What sort of a Defence Minister will Mr Parrikar makeIJ It’s difficult to predict; only time will tell. What is certain is that neither the bureaucracy nor the Service chiefs can take him for granted. They can learn it the easy way, or they will learn it the hard way. Knowing him, I would say, give him a month to settle, and you will find him with all guns blazing.
And, by the way, the country’s Defence Minister has a strong RSS background. If anybody has a problem with that, Mr Parrikar couldn’t care less.