Nirmala Sitharaman wanted me out of finance ministry, says former secretary Subhash Garg

Subhash Chandra Garg, the previous finance secretary who was shunted out of the finance ministry inside three weeks of Modi-2.zero authorities’s first funds final yr, on Saturday alleged that new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman acquired him transferred out.

Garg, who took voluntary retirement quickly after being moved from the finance ministry – the place he dealt with the Department of Economic Affairs – to energy ministry, mentioned Sitharaman, in contrast to her predecessor Arun Jaitley, had “a very different personality and knowledge endowment”.

Both Ministry of Finance and Sitharaman’s workplace refused to touch upon the weblog Garg wrote on the day he mentioned he would have in regular course retired from the federal government service however for the VRS.

Garg mentioned he “did not share a good and productive working relationship” with Sitharaman, who got here to the finance ministry “with some pre-conceived notions about me”.

“She did not seem to have confidence in me. She was not quite comfortable working with me as well,” he mentioned including variations over surplus RBI ought to give as dividend to the federal government and coping with issues of non-banks had surfaced inside months of her takeover.

“Serious difference also developed on some key issues like economic capital framework of RBI, a package for dealing with problems of non-banks, resolution of non-banks, partial credit guarantee scheme, capitalization of non-banks like IIFCL and other financial entities and the like.

“Very soon, not only had our personal relationship soured, but the official working relationship also became quite unproductive,” he wrote.

Sitharaman needed him out in June 2019, forward of the July 5 funds presentation, he mentioned however didn’t say why her request wasn’t instantly accepted by the federal government.

Garg was transferred out on July 24, 2019, as Secretary, Ministry of Power and he utilized for voluntary retirement inside half an hour of receiving the order.

“Mrs. Sitharaman asked for and insisted on my transfer from the Ministry of Finance in June 2019 itself, within one month of her taking over as FM,” wrote Garg, who exited the federal government after serving the obligatory discover interval on October 31, 2019.

Praising her predecessor Jaitley for his deep information and understanding of the economic system, he mentioned his successor “Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, has a very different personality, knowledge endowment, skill-set and approach for economic policy issues and also for the officers working with her.

“It became quite apparent very early that working with her was going to be quite difficult and it might not be conducive to undertaking necessary reforms for the attainment of the objective of building a USD 10 trillion economy of India.” The former finance secretary alleged that Sitharaman, for causes not very clearly identified to him,  got here with some pre-conceived notions about him.

“Very soon, not only had our personal relationship soured, but the official working relationship also become quite unproductive.” Garg recalled he made up his thoughts in June 2019, a lot earlier than the Budget was introduced, that he would take voluntary retirement from the service to have the ability to work on the broader financial reform agenda exterior the federal government.

“I drafted my months’ notice for voluntary retirement sometime in the fourth week of June after going through the rules relating to voluntary retirement and decided to seek it from October 31, 2019,” he mentioned.

Garg additionally mentioned that he had mentioned with the then Additional Principal Secretary within the Prime Minister’s Office, PK Mishra about his relationship with Sitharaman on a couple of events.

“Both of us agreed that the best course would be for me to make way for the new FM to ‘function smoothly’. Mishra offered me to choose any job in the government or outside the government in regulatory bodies or elsewhere,” Garg mentioned.

The former finance secretary, nonetheless, knowledgeable Mishra that he had already made up his thoughts to hunt voluntary retirement.

“I filed for voluntary retirement on July 24, the day I was transferred to the Ministry of Power instead of October 31, 2019, the date I had originally intended,” he recalled.

Garg, nonetheless on July 26, 2019, had asserted there isn’t a connection between his switch from the excessive profile Finance Ministry and determination to take voluntary retirement, saying he had already mentioned the retirement matter with the Prime Minister’s Office on July 18.

The 1983 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, Garg got here to the Center in 2014 and was appointed Executive Director within the World Bank the place he stayed until 2017 when he was appointed DEA Secretary in June 2017. In March 2019, he was elevated because the Finance Secretary.

Jaitley, he mentioned, was “a mastermind with an uncanny ability to sift through massive amounts of information and government files to discover the pith and substance of the public policy issue involved. He also had the right temperament and ability to forge consensus.” Jaitley targeted on broader coverage points, leaving the operating of the departments and implementation of insurance policies to the Secretaries, he mentioned including Jaitley genuinely inspired contribution on main coverage points to come back from the Secretaries.

“He made the Secretaries present the policy proposals to the Prime Minister’s Office as well as to the media and the public. He was a very magnanimous and broadminded person,” he mentioned.

Under Sitharaman, the Indian financial coverage was getting distracted from what was required to achieve her acknowledged purpose of constructing a USD 10 trillion economic system by the early 2030s, Garg mentioned including that it was additionally one of many causes for his leaving the IAS and quitting the federal government.

“The reform agenda and the investment plan for attaining the goal of USD 10 trillion economy articulated in the Interim Budget 2019-20 however, got side-tracked and was virtually forgotten,” he mentioned. “The Government was turning populist as well.”