Whispers don't work anymore. One has to scream to be heard in the din caused by loud TV anchors, preachy civil society activists and pompous spokespersons of political parties. In all this, the deep, measured tone of Vinod Rai stands out; he understands the importance of pitch perfectly. He also has the art of saying the right things at the right moment, sometimes even keeping quiet when he has to. At a seminar in the Capital last week, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) made common cause with civil society. "It's essential to channelize this democratic upsurge into constructive channels," Rai said. The message was not missed by anyone. With the government and civil society engaged in pitched battles over the Lokpal issue and the aam aadmi enraged by the sight of skeletons tumbling out of UPA-II's cupboard, no one could have articulated the public discontent in a better way.
The skeletons would have remained hidden but for the meticulous work done by Rai and his team. Almost all scams which have come to light in recent months and rocked the government have been exposed by the CAG. With the dirt on 2G, CWG and KG dominating the chatter in the country's living rooms, Rai stands tall in the eyes of ordinary Indians. He is suddenly being seen as 'Mr Clean' who is not scared of taking on corrupt babus and netas.
A former bureaucrat himself – he's an IAS officer of Kerala cadre – Rai moved into the CAG office at Delhi's Bahadurshah Zafar Marg in January 2008, bringing with him a new style of working. From glitzy audit reports -- complete with graphs and annexures that provide documentary evidence -- to power-point presentations at media conferences, and floral carry bags for reporters covering the events, Rai has changed the image of the CAG. Till just a few years ago, the office was compared with a doctor whose post-mortem reports went straight into the dustbin. Not, anymore.
In its 150th year, CAG is hogging headlines for the right reasons. And the government is making news for the wrong reasons. The last time the office made so much news was in the late 1980s when T N Chaturvedi exposed the Bofors scandal. The rest is history. Now Rai and his team are causing so much trouble for the government that even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the CAG is "going beyond its mandate".
But Rai, who studied at the Delhi School of Economics where Manmohan Singh once taught, sees things differently. He is known to focus on the big picture. "More than a manager, he is a leader. He gives the direction while leaving operational matters for deputy CAGs," says a senior CAG official. The bureaucrat, who went to Harvard University for a Masters in public administration, has been helped by an informal working style that means subordinates are encouraged to speak and their suggestions are incorporated. In what's clearly a very short time, he has been able to motivate a bunch of officers from the Indian Audits & Accounts Service, a group that was earlier mocked by civil servants for spending more time on deputation outside the department than in their parent organization.
There is a distinct buzz about Rai energizing the office. It's no longer seen as a dusty place where faceless bureaucrats dozed over musty files and prepared reports which no one read. Now CAG reports make it to prime-time TV; Rai's style reflecting his desire to play to the gallery at a time when the government and its various arms have repeatedly let the public down. So phenomenal is his rise in the public imagination that many are comparing him to former Election Commission T N Seshan, the man who aggressively courted the media as he went about cleaning the electoral process.
This kind of rock star-status first came upon the CAG when it released the audit report on allocation of 2G spectrum and licences last year. Though many questioned the CAG's claim of a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore, its findings were a breakthrough. The massive figure caught people's attention and the scandal – along with the accused — became standard drawing-room talk. And so did 63-year-old Rai as he took "auditing" to the masses.
Though Rai would hardly have stood out five years ago had one met him then, his former colleagues remember him for his open style of working, quick response, prompt decision-making. "You would never see a file lying on his desk," says one of them who worked with him for many years.
You don't see a pile on his desk now either. He's been busy dealing with them and putting it out in the open.
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