By Sanjiv Acharya
Both George Fernandes and the Kargil war were in the news for different reasons last week. George for his ill health; and the ongoing fight between wife Laila and Jaya Jaitley over property. And the Kargil war, which was fought during George’s tenure, was in the news due to controversial recording of its history. Anyway, another person also related to both George Fernandes and Kargil is a man called Arvind Joshi. He was in George Fernandes’ team in the defence ministry during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s NDA government. He served as joint secretary in the MoD. His IAS wife Tinoo Joshi (both are 1979 batch IAS officers of Madhya Pradesh cadre) was the secretary general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation during UPA’s last regime. This powerful IAS couple was spotted in Delhi last week at different five star hotels in and in the company of other powerful persons. Let me remind you, this high profile IAS couple from Bhopal came into the limelight following an income tax raid at their home which unearthed three crores in cash, jewellery worth Rs 66 lakh and properties hugely disproportionate to their known sources of income. Their five lockers were sealed. Even in late 1980s and early 1990s, the Joshi couple held simportant posts at the Centre. Tinoo Joshi served as deputy secretary in PMO (July 1, 1988 to January 1, 1990) and ministry of labour (January 1, 1990 to July 1, 1992), Arvind Joshi served as deputy secretary in health (July 1, 1988 to September 1, 1989), director in the ministry of railways (September 1, 1989 to April 1, 1991) and deputy secretary in the ministry of coal (April 1, 1991 to August 1, 1992). And who are their batch mates? They include R Gopalakrishnan (Madhya Pradesh cadre), joint secretary in the PMO, Vinay Sheel Oberoi (Assam cadre), Permanent Representative at UNESCO, Dr Prasanna Kumar Mohanty (Orissa cadre) and Mission Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Nl Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) under the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, and Ms Zohra Chatterji (UP cadre), joint secretary information and broadcasting ministry.
The Madhya Pradesh government had suspended both of them. The two had insurance cover for over rupees seven crore. Their wealth has allegedly shot past the Rs 200 crore mark. A senior officer of the Central Vigilance Commission told this correspondent that there are at least 15 such IAS officers who should be behind bars, but their political bosses shelter them.