AN UNUSUAL EXIT ADMINISTRATION

BVR Subrahmanyam was the chosen officer to spearhead the process of recreating ‘Naya Kashmir’ after the reading down of Article 370 and bifurcating Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. More than two years after, when the officer with unimpressive contributions readies to take a top position in Delhi, nobody in Srinagar is willing to chaperon him to the door, Masood Hussain reports

- Masood Hussain

Finally when BVR Subramaniyam, the IAS officer who parachuted to Srinagar, on June 20, 2018, within days after the BJP-PDP government crumbled under its own weight, found a home in Srinagar’s Church Lane, the officials visiting him were always curious that why is he always busy with his computer, living a very simple life. Good governance, one official said, does not require too much of a computer. “It just needs to be delivered,” he would say.

The reality dawned much later when his own governor, Satya Pal Malik (August 23, 2018 - October 30, 2019) started telling people that his Chief Secretary would avoid revealing details of the happenings to him. In the Jammu and Kashmir administration, it was an open secret that Sumbramaiyam knew everything in advance as he was the most trusted man of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Many think it was him who scripted the details of targets assigned for the dispensation that replaced Mehbooba Mufti.

Enjoying the trust of the most powerful man in India impacts the person in its own peculiar way. Over the days in Kashmir, he had grown into an administrator who would dislike his wisdom being challenged and who would find ways and means to deny the power, sometimes even to his seniors. At one point in time, some even found him flaunting his power by uttering sentences like ‘Oh, I forgot where I had to send this adviser (to governor) today?’