New Delhi, Sep 8 (Inditop.com) Rattled by the protest leave of seven senior officials from the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency, on the grounds they were superseded has prompted the government to hold an emergency meeting to consider their case.
However, highly placed sources pointed out that it would not be able to bring them all on parity.
The genesis of the revolt was when Avdhesh Mathur, a 1975 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Manipur cadre, was promoted as Special Director General.
Mathur, who was transferred to RAW in 2007 from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), superseded among others P.M. Hablikar, Sharad Kumar and Chakru Sinha, who were all additional secretaries and from the 1973 batch of the RAW Allied Services (RAS) cadre.
Mathur was empanelled in June this year and picked up his rank.
“There were four other officers who were passed over and that upset them and prompted them also to go on leave. The cabinet secretariat will hold a Departmental Promotional Committee (DPC) meeting next week, but I doubt if it will redress the grievances of everyone,” said a highly placed intelligence functionary.
Insiders within RAW see a pattern in this unusual move and feel Mathur’s elevation could clear the decks for him to be the next secretary when the current chief, K.C. Verma, retires in January 2011.
“The officers will get a hearing but nobody knows how the crisis will be resolved. Only one among the seven officers will get his promotion,” said a source.
