583. The Home Minister

Guruchandar was elected to be the Chief Minister by the legislators belonging to his party. But, the dominance of other leaders in the party created difficulties for Guruchander in selecting his cabinet colleagues and allocating portfolios to them.

After prolonged deliberations within the party forums and among the senior leaders of the party, the cabinet formation was finalized.

Some of the leaders who were expecting cabinet posts were disappointed. Among those who got cabinet posts, some did not get the portfolios they had asked for.

However, those who were given berths in the cabinet realized that they needed to make some compromises, if they wanted to retain their cabinet posts, grudgingly accepted the portfolios given to them and assumed office.

"It is customary for the Chief Minister to hold the Home portfolio. But you remained firm in your demand for the Home portfolio and got it. This is a significant victory for you" Satish, a supporter, told Home Minister Ganeshbabu.

"What do you think? I could have made a claim for the Chief Minister's post. But I think the time is not ripe for it. If I have the Home portfolio, I will be able to do things favourable to our supporters in the party, keep our rivals in the party at bay and strengthen our faction. That way, it will be easy for me to climb the throne, when the right circumstances develop" said Ganeshbabu, feeling euphoric.

"Is there not a practice of the Intelligence Chief giving a report to the Home Minister, on a daily basis, highlighting the important information gathered by the department?" Ganeshbabu asked the Director General of Police (DGP).

"Yes, there is" said the DGP.

"It has been a week since I assumed office as the Home Minister. The Intelligence Chief made a courtesy call on me the day I assumed office. But, after that, he never reported to me."

"I don't know about it, sir. As you are aware, though the Intelligence Chief is my sub-ordinate officer, he functions autonomously. I cannot interfere in his functioning. I won't be able to question him. It will be appropriate, if you can summon him and ask him about it."

Ganeshbabu did not want to share with the DGP that he had summoned the Intelligence Chief a couple of times, but that he ignored the minister's summons, realizing that if he did, he would only be sharing his humiliation with the DGP.

"Ok. I will take care of it" said Ganeshbabu.

Chief Minister Guruchandar warmly received Ganeshbabu, who entered his cabin.

"The Intelligence Chief doesn't respect me. He doesn't give me the daily report, as required. I had summoned him twice, but he ignored my summons. I suggest that you replace him immediately" Ganeshbabu told the Chief Minister, in a demanding voice.

"If I replace him with another person, the new person will also act in the same way!" said the Chief Minister, smiling.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"It was my directive that the Intelligence Chief report to me alone, and not to any other minister or the DGP."

"Why? Is it not customary for the Intelligence Chief to report to the Home Minister?"

"Yes. But, it is also customary for the Home portfolio to be held by the Chief Minister. With that custom having been broken by my ceding the home portfolio to you, I thought it appropriate to change the other custom also!" said Guruchandar.

"But why?"

"Mr. Ganeshbabu! It is the Chief Minister's prerogative to allocate the portfolio to the cabinet ministers. But, because of the factional pulls in our party, I could not do so. I had to accept quite a few compromises. But, unless I know what is happening in the country through the daily reports given by the Intelligence department, I won't be able to run the government effectively. That is why I made this arrangement."

"If the Intelligence chief submits the reports to me, I will definitely share them with you" said Ganeshbabu, climbing down from his belligerent stance and striking a conciliatory note.

"Of course, you will. But I think, from the point of governance, it will be better that I receive the report directly from the Intelligence Chief and share with you what is relevant to your department, rather than you receiving the report from the Intelligence Chief and deciding what parts of the report are to be shared with me" said Guruchandar, in a firm tone.

"In future, if you become the Chief Minister - I know that you have that ambition - and the Home portfolio is held by another minister, you will find this idea useful!" he added, with a smile. 

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 59

Managing Intelligence Operations

Verse 583 (in Tamil):

oRRinAn oRRip poruL theriyA mannavan
koRRam koLak kidandhadhu il.

Meaning:

There is no way a king can succeed, if he does not gather intelligence on the happenings in the country, using surveillance and taking action as per his assessment of the situation revealed by such intelligence.

 

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'uLavuththuRai' by the same author.) 

Verse 584 (Soon)
Verse 582