Of more recent vintage is the extension of Singh's tenure asOSD in the PMO. That Singh was extremely keen on prolonging his tenure was known to all. Says a senior BJP MP, "Advani was strongly against retaining Singh and had said so to many in no uncertain terms." But Bhattacharya's lobbying won the day. Equally strange has been the rapid change of finance secretaries. Says a finance ministry official, "Three finance secretaries have been changed under his term. The present one, Ajit Kumar, was brought in because he was Ranjan's choice." In his reckoning, secretaries were now being treated like "district collectors" and can be transferred any time.
That thePMO will be in the line of fire in the coming days has already been seen in Samata Party MP Prabhunath Singh's hard-hitting missive to the PM on March 16, a day after defence minister George Fernandes' humiliating exit. The MP has demanded the removal of Mishra and N.K. Singh. "Vajpayee should immediately remove Mishra and Singh if he is keen on presenting a clean image of his government," Singh told Outlook. He has also demanded a probe into charges of corruption against Ranjan.
During his recent Kerala sojourn, insiders point out that it was Ranjan and his wife, Namita, who impressed upon Vajpayee to pen the now-famous "Musings", as his image, they felt, had suffered a serious setback from the Opposition's attack on him over his Ayodhya remarks. The musings, they believed, would restore his stature. It will be interesting to know who will do the same for Ranjan Bhattacharya as the heat turns up on thePMO.