Sudhir Chandra, Member, Investigation of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is the 4th Most Powerful Bureaucrat in the BoI (Babus of India) power list. A 1973 batch Indian Revenue Service official, Chandra has proved that no one including politicians and top bureaucrats should feel secured and flaunt their unaccounted money because of their clout in the corridors of power. He is truly the corridors’ game-changer.
The man who is driven by his fearlessness has kept photographs of his religious guru all around the wall of his official room, possibly to draw strength against any political interventions! And no wonder, thanks to his growing clout, he is adding more enemies every single day.
What this tax hound does when he ends his busy day in North Block? That’s his own world as he starts playing Lara’s Theme to Strangers in the Night... in his piano. (In Picture: Chandra (left) with revenue secretary Sunil Mitra and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee)
DURING his heydays, 1958-batch IAS S Santhanam who worked very closely with two chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, NT Rama Rao and M Chenna Reddy, was a well-known figure in power corridors of Delhi. The former bureaucrat, who also served as the secretary to Governor during 1972-'75, breathed his last at the age of 75 in Hyderabad on Monday. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
An alumnus of Loyola College of Chennai, Santhanam was also the additional chief secretary and special chief secretary in AP. He was highly accessible even to common men, and was known for his humour.
In fact, the only retired bureaucrat (an IPS) of 1958 batch who is still one of the most powerful babus in capital's power corridor is M K Narayanan, National Security Advisor who retired in 1992. Significantly, the other known name who is a contemporary to Santhanam is J&K Governor N N Vohra, a 1959 batch IAS who retired in 1994. Only September last year, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) organised the golden jubilee retreat for the 1958 batch of IAS.
What's more, the first part of the book, "Governance and the IAS: In Search of Resilience" edited by R K Dar gives excerpts of memoirs of 12 officers of the 1958 batch covering administration in Orissa, UP, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, WB, Haryana, Bihar, Assam-Meghalaya and the Central Secretariat. And yes, the 1958 batch belonged to the last batch that was trained at Metcalfe House, Delhi which was in fact the house of Sir Thomas Metcalfe, Governor-General's agent at the Imperial court of the Mughal Emperor and later Commissioner of Delhi.
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HIS room in North Block is one of the busiest places these days thanks to the Income Tax department's massive searches all over the country to trace over Rs 2000 cr allegedly unaccounted assets of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda. Amid constant buzzing of at least one of his three mobile phones, he gives instructions to his visitors, all I-T officials who don't need to ask his permission before stepping into his room located in the same floor of India's all powerful finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. After all, he never allows his peons to switch on the red light outside his door even when he conducts very significant and sensitive meetings. And he gets upset only when a junior official takes his permission before entering his room!
That's Sudhir Chandra, Member, Investigation of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and a 1973 batch Indian Revenue Service official. Mr Chandra, who micro-managed the entire show witnessing over 400 taxmen taking part in the Koda operation, is a confirmed believer of divine strength. He has kept the photographs of his religious guru all around the wall of his official room, possibly to draw strength against any political interventions while handling such sensitive I-T search cases. He has asked his officials to be extremely polite in handling the operations, but at the same time wanted them to be as courageous as "Rani of Jhansi".
But what this tax hound does when he ends his busy day in North Block? He goes back his own little world and starts playing Lara’s Theme to Strangers in the Night... in his piano. Yes, he had public performances of playing piano during his time of probation 36 years ago. (Picture: 1973 batch IRS officers during training at NADT)
INCOME tax officials dealing with former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda regarding a case of an alleged involvement in illegal transactions worth over Rs 2,000 crore, are given special instruction by the North Block to be extremely polite and clam while conducting searches and asking questions to the politician. Also, tax officials have been asked to address Mr Koda, now an independent MP from Jharkhand, as "Koda sir" all the time. In fact, it's mandatory for bureaucrats to call political leaders as "sir" though it's not practised all the time. (Picture: Koda with model and actress Koena Mitra who was Jharkhand's brand ambassador)
In fact, over 400 I-T officials were deployed in the biggest ever search operation in a politician's premises, and it was done at the stewardship of Sudhir Chandra, Member (Investigation) of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Despite handling sensitive issues in CBDT, Mr Chandra always keeps the green light outside his cabin on, and hardly refuses anyone from meeting him.