Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s most powerful bureaucrat, V.K. Pandian, is all set for a more direct and powerful role in the affairs of the state after taking voluntary retirement. Pandian, who was chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s private secretary since 2011, was appointed to a cabinet-rank position after exiting the civil services.
Sources said that the 2000-batch Tamil Nadu-born Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer applied for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) on October 20, which was approved within a matter of just three days.
More importantly, within 24 hours of quitting the country’s most elite service, Pandian was appointed chairman of 5T (transformational initiatives), a governance reform initiative, and of Nabin Odisha, a newly launched rural development scheme, in the rank of a cabinet minister.
An order issued by the state’s general administration department said that Pandian will work directly under the chief minister.
Speculation is rife that either he or his wife Sujata Karthikeyan, also a bureaucrat, will make a formal entry into politics in the near future. Pandian’s critics were quick to point out that he is assuming sweeping powers with almost no accountability.
“He will henceforth manage the affairs of both the government and the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). He will wield sweeping powers and be answerable only to the chief minister, who has always given him a free hand. Pandian’s position, thus, has been further strengthened,” said Congress veteran and former minister Ganeswar Behera.
Pandian’s voluntary retirement came as no surprise for the likes of Behera, who have been watching his growth trajectory keenly.
“Any politically conscious person would have seen this coming. Earlier, he was calling the shots from behind the scenes, but now he will do this more directly,” Behera said.
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He continued, “What is surprising, however, is the speed with which things have happened, taking even journalists by surprise. The letter seeking VRS went to the Union government on October 20 and he was relieved on October 23”, adding that speculation about Pandian’s entry into politics was natural.
“He has not resigned to do tapasya (penance). He is now looking to legitimise his authority,” said the Congress veteran, who does not rule out the possibility of Pandian’s wife Sujata also putting in her papers to take the plunge into politics.
Former state BJP president Samir Mohanty finds the timing of Pandian’s VRS important.
“It comes only months ahead of the general elections. It is obvious that he will be managing the entire election on behalf of the BJD. He did this earlier, too, but this time he will do it openly and directly. Henceforth he will be running both the government and the BJD organisation and no one will question his authority,” said Mohanty.
Though people had been making conjectures about Pandian’s resignation and his possible entry into politics, speculation in this regard intensified after he began touring districts using a state helicopter, which drew the opposition’s ire.
The ace bureaucrat was also targeted by BJD MLA and media baron Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who questioned his visits and made a scathing attack on him in Sambad, the Odia daily founded by him. The retaliation was swift, with Ranjan Patnaik thrown out of the BJD.
Pandian’s closeness to Naveen Patnaik has never been in doubt. His efficiency and management skills were the talk of the power corridors in Bhubaneswar, with almost every move of the chief minister bearing his stamp.
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Though born in Tamil Nadu, he has an Odisha connection: his wife Sujata (nee Rout) hails from the state’s Kendrapara district. Her father Akshay Kumar Rout, who passed away in 2020, was an eminent paediatrician.
Pandian has been the eyes and ears of the chief minister for the last 12 years. In the initial years, he took utmost care to ensure that he did not step out of his boss’s shadow, but slowly his activities earned public attention and brought him into focus.
His visits to different districts using a state helicopter drew opposition fire, as this was seen as an attempt by a bureaucrat to arrogate to himself the powers and privileges of a public representative. His visits drew large crowds and ruling party politicians were seen fawning upon him during these trips.
“Even though the chief minister himself clarified that Pandian was visiting the districts on his instructions, the controversy refused to die down. This could be one of the reasons why he took VRS and decided to assume a more direct role in the affairs of the state,” said political analyst Shashi Kant Mishra who, however, dismisses the speculation about Pandian contesting elections as political kite flying.
“I don’t see that happening in the near future. Even his wife, who is Odia, will think twice before taking the political plunge. Since the question about Naveen Patnaik’s successor remains unanswered, there is always room for speculation,” added Mishra.
A poster on Odisha government’s ambitious 5T initiative features Karthikeyan Pandian. Photo: Special arrangement.
Pandian’s efficiency as a bureaucrat was never in doubt. Apart from being the longest-serving private secretary to Odisha’s longest-serving chief minister, he was also the 5T (team work, technology, transparency, transformation and time limit) secretary of the state since 2019, entrusted with the task of ensuring good and pro-people governance with complete transparency.
He first came to the chief minister’s notice during his stint as the sub-collector of Dharamgarh in Kalahandi, once considered the proverbial backwaters of the state. The impact of his bold administrative moves was felt by the people of the area, who saw it transform at a rapid pace.
Pandian was among the youngest collectors in the country when he took charge of the tribal-majority Mayurbhanj district, where he accelerated the pace of development.
However, his most satisfying and fruitful tenure as a young IAS officer was as the collector of Ganjam, the district that Naveen Patnaik hails from.
The high degree of efficiency and transparency with which he implemented the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the district helped reduce the scale of labour migration from the area.
He also came up with innovative ideas like the transfer of wages to bank accounts, thus ruling out the possibility of corruption.
Since Pandian’s wife Sujata heads the newly created department of Mission Shakti, which aims at making women self-reliant, the couple is crucial to the political fortunes of Patnaik’s BJD.
Mission Shakti supports more than 70 lakh women organised under six lakh women’s self-help groups, which constitute a key vote-bank.
Ashutosh Mishra is an Odisha-based journalist.
