It’s a Malayali dish in capital’s bureaucracy

With the swearing in of chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) PJ Thomas on Tuesday, the top echelons of Indian bureaucracy have acquired a distinctly Malayali flavour.

With the addition of the 38-year-old former telecom secretary, seven of the top 25 babus in New Delhi are now from the Kerala cadre.

The other high-profile Kerala cadre IAS officers in the capital include cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar, comptroller and auditor general Vinod Rai, home secretary GK Pillai and his wife and planning commission secretary Sudha Pillai.

With Thomas’ elevation as CVC, two watchdogs now belong to the Kerala cadre.

“Apart from one or two posts such as CVC and CAG, these are routine promotions,” said the Delhi-based national affairs editor of a top Malayalam newspaper.

“However, there has never been such a huge presence of Malayalam-knowing people in the top levels of national bureaucracy,” he added.

Besides Kerala cadre officers, there are bureaucrats such as TKA Nair, principal secretary to the prime minister, and aviation secretary Madhavan Nambiar, who trace their origins to the coastal state.

This is the first time that Keralites have gained supremacy in the administration. Tamilians were the flavour at the time of Rajiv Gandhi in 1984, while Kashmiris held sway under his mother Indira Gandhi. If VP Singh’s era saw the emergence of UP cadre officers, IK Gujral’s brief tenure saw Punjab cadre officers being promoted. HD Deve Gowda preferred Kannadigas, according to some.