Wings of high – profile Telecom Secretary JS Deepak, were clipped in the most indecent way. Deepak left on Tuesday (February 28) for Barcelona. His transfer order with immediate effect was issued on Wednesday midnight and he was given marching orders to come back to Delhi right away by Friday, March 3. And that too to stand in queue and wait for his next assignment for three months.
Once named as the most powerful Secretary of any Ministry or Department at the Centre, the ever smiling 1982 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer J S Deepak succumbed to the unholy nexus of corporate-bureaucrat-politician nexus and was transferred in the most unceremonious and awkward way by the government last month.
Normally Reliance Boss Mukesh
Ambani does not go to meet any Secretary .He once visited the chamber of J S Deepak the then Telecom Secretary in Delhi. At this point of time Deepak was discussed in the corridors of power as the most powerful bureaucrat in the country. And after two months he was moved as OSD in the Ministry of Commerce.
The reasons for his shifting to te Commerce Department are not unknown; but everybody has preferred to maintain a mysterious silence over the issue. The haste with which he was transferred, and asked to report immediately, has left many questions unanswered. Deepak had to abandon his engagements in Spain and returned India to join as Officer on Special Duty in the Commerce Department. Nobody in the government can answer the urgency attached with this posting.
One view is that the government wanted to put an experienced person in the WTO wing as Deepak already served in the Commerce Ministry as India’s chief negotiator at the WTO and for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, the mega Free Trade Agreement being negotiated by 16 countries.
After cooling his heels for two months as OSD in the Commerce Department ,Deepak will take over as India’s next Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in the order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. As per the order, he would have to assume charge as ambassador from June 1, and will serve till the date of his superannuation which is July 31, 2018.
The change comes at a time when the industry is divided over the mobile tariff rates offered by new operator Reliance Jio. As a head of the Telecom Commission, Deepak had opposed unrestricted freebies offered by any telecom operator to attract customers, as the sector is already suffering from heavy debt.
But his sudden transfer surprised many in the Telecom Industry as he is credited with successfully conducting the first ever e-auction of spectrum in 2010 that fetched government over Rs 1.06 lakh crore in 2010, while also setting the roadmap for future auctions.
TRAI meddling in many affairs of telecom department has certainly robbed one of the most sparkling bureaucrats who was shaping up the scam-tainted ministry to great level.
This Karnataka man understands Physics well just failed to decipher the chemistry of Sharma, Chidambaram, Ambanis and others!
