How 1963 batch IFS MK Rasgotra coordinated from South Block in Warren Anderson’s exit saga

AN IFS officer of 1963 batch and India’s ex-foreign secretary MK Rasgotra coordinated with US embassy to ensure Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson’s safe exit from India just four days after the Bhopal disaster of 1984. “He (Anderson) was given safe passage. The arrest was a wrong thing to do and hence was released,” the man who coordinated the Anderson’s exit saga from New Delhi’s South Block, said in an interview with a private news channel CNN-IBN.

As babusofindia.com reported in its post on Raajneeti, (Read: Indian bureaucrats who reportedly figure in Anderson’s escape saga) then Bhopal collector Moti Singh and Bhopal SP Swaraj Puri helped bringing Anderson to the city airport before he allegedly took the chief minister’s aircraft to fly to New Delhi. Mr Puri, who later moved up the police ladder to become Madhya Pradesh DGP, allegedly drove the Ambassador car carrying Mr Anderson to the airport.

If events are reconstructed based on interviews of Gordon Streeb, then deputy chief of mission at the US embassy, to NDTV and Mr Rasgotra to CNN-IBN, Mr Anderson spent time in US embassy, and also went to South Block before he flew back to US.

In fact, then foreign secretary Mr Rasgotra took up the matter with the Union home ministry before he was allowed to leave for the US. “It was the home ministry’s concern... Rajiv Gandhi concurred with the decision of safe passage,” he said in an interview with Karan Thapar.

Had India not allowed Mr Anderson to move out of the country, it would have spoilt the Indo-US relations and also impacted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country, Mr Rasgotra said justifying the government’s decision to give Mr Anderson a safe passage.

Shortage of 1,155 IAS officers in India

As home minister P Chidambaram is still fighting a battle to hold special exam to recruit IPS which UPSC has reportedly raised objections, it has now been highlighted by a section of media that there has been a shortage of 1,155 IAS officers in the country which is much higher than that of IPS at 631.

Will Mr Chidambaram bat for IAS too, as he is convening a meeting on Friday to remove the bottlenecks of recruiting young police officers serving in state police and central police organizations as IPS officers.

Action and Appointments

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved extension in tenure of Ms Bhaswati Mukherjee, a 1976 batch IFS as Permanent Representative of India, UNESCO, Paris, only upto June 30, 2010 and she would stand relieved on that day(if not relieved earlier) to enable her successor VS Oberoi, a 1979 batch Assam cadre IAS to join the post within June, 2010.