Meet Haribhai Chaudhary, the man from Gujarat in MHA

NEW DELHI: When you hear of Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Dineshwar Sharma, National Investigation Agency director general Sharad Kumar and a few additional and joint secretaries in the home ministry waiting patiently in the waiting room of a minister for an audience, you would assume it is for Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Increasingly, though, it is often Haribhai Chaudhary, the new minister of state and the heavyweight from Gujarat in MHA.

There may be speculation over who is the real No. 2 in the Modi government but there is no doubt on the second most important person in the ministry. Within days of taking charge on November 9, 2014, Chaudhary started to assert himself at North Block, especially with Rajnath Singh also shouldering the party’s political responsibilities and travelling extensively.

Chaudhary, for five years till 2010, was the vice president of Gujarat BJP. The 60-year-old four-time MP from Banaskantha in Gujarat may be a first-time minister but now he has most key divisions in the home ministry under him – from J&K, Left-Wing extremism, internal security, foreigners, Union Territories to police modernisation. All these matters are now directly handled by Chaudhary for final disposal, with only major policy issues being referred to Rajnath.

Recently Chaudhary instructed home secretary Anil Goswami to ask all joint secretaries to ensure that decisions on any file are taken within 15 days and a monthly review report is furnished on the actual expenditure against budgetary provisions after the ministry fell short on budget spends.

Chaudhary also wants ministry officials to visit a senior officer in different states at least six times in a year for follow-up of spending of central funds at grass-roots level.

"This is a very big ministry…The home minister wants ample work for junior ministers, unlike what happened in the previous regime. How much can the home minister handle?" a senior ministry official said. Another ministry official, however, said that Chaudhary is no pushover.

He is said to have asked for Zlevel security cover for himself. The heavy work allocation for Chaudhary has, in fact, led to diminishing of the profile of the other MoS, Kiren Rijiju, who only has the relatively low-profile divisions like border management, disaster management and freedom fighters with him.