For a government that’s accused of putting square pegs in round holes, the new home secretary is an exception.

It isn’t enough to say that Anil Goswami, 58, is the first man from the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) cadre, blooded in militancy since he joined the Indian administrative service (IAS) in 1978, to be made the union home secretary. Other ‘firsts’ add up to indicate some definite signs of career management!

How about being the first officer to be announced as home secretary-designate over two months in advance? Or the fact that Goswami was given an exposure as additional secretary and then special secretary in the ministry of home affairs (MHA) for two years until July 2012?

He served as principal secretary to the then J&K chief minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, during 2005-08 and had field postings as divisional commissioner, and headed J&K tourism, as well as the state’s campaign on information and broadcasting.

But most crucial, albeit on hindsight, is Goswami’s unique CV of building the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board from scratch.

Anyone who has been for a darshan would testify to the outstanding arrangements for the comfort and safety of pilgrims.
 
Well, it was Goswami, assisting governor Jagmohan, when the government of J&K, took over the management of the yatra and the governance and administration of the shrine through the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.
 
The duo did that in August 1986, with Goswami having less than nine years of service, under the provisions of The Jammu and Kashmir Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988. In one swoop they could design better management and governance of the shrine and its endowments including lands and buildings, throwing out a private trust called the Dharamarth Trust and a group of traditional local residents called Baridars (so called because they collected their offerings as per their turn, ‘bari’).
 
Jagmohan was moved by the poor state of affairs and the absence of facilities for the pilgrims. While the offerings were pocketed by the Baridars, the other incomes including rentals and royalties were collected by the trust. Together with the governor, it was left to Goswami to eject these elements.
 
Legend has it that Jagmohan and he stood in the heat and dust, personally supervising the foundation of a marvel in what an enlightened government machinery can do.

More so, when the Vaishno Devi experience is compared, with the possible exception of the Tirupathi temple, to the holy mess pilgrims face from Kedarnath to Kashi, Mathura to Rameshwaram.

“Goswami laid the base of whatever subsequent successors have achieved,” a former additional CEO of the Vaishno Devi board, who is himself very highly regarded for facilitating pilgrims and smashing the local mafias, told me.

Not surprising but uniquely enough nonetheless, the J&K government turned to the new home secretary thrice to run the shrine board, once in 1984-86 when he was in senior-time scale, next in 1989-92 when he was in deputy secretary and junior administrative grade, and finally 1994-96 in the rank of director. It helped that even though he wasn’t a native, Goswami was politically strong, being related in marriage to J&K’s leading plywood-to-pharma corporate, Kishan Chand Mahajan group.

So, while we witnessed on July 1 a major revamp in the top echelons of the IAS (Vishvapati Trivedi,1977, Madhya Pradesh, is the new secretary shipping; Bimal Julka, 1979, MP, is the new secretary of information and broadcasting; Shyamal Sarkar, 1979, West Bengal, is the new secretary of the department of personnel and training; Alok Rawat, Sikkim, 1977, is the new secretary of water resources; Gauri Kumar, 1979, Gujarat, is the new secretary of border management; PK Sinha, 1977, Uttar Pradesh, is the new power secretary, Afzal Amanullah, 1979, Bihar, is the new secretary for parliamentary affairs; Nita Chowdhury, 1977, UP, is the new secretary women and child development, Sangita Goiral, 1977, Rajasthan, is the new secretary youth; and Ravindra Singh, 1979, UP, is the new secretary culture), I’ll single out Goswami’s appointment. As home secretary (along with secretaries of finance, defence and foreign affairs) he has a guaranteed tenure. So, he’ll be in saddle until June 2015 as the single-point for paramilitary forces, and will be the man assisting the election commission in conducting the next general elections.

More importantly, it’ll be for Goswami to help the devastated state of Uttarakhand. If he can do an encore of Vaishno Devi, find a relief and rehabilitation plan for an incompetent and corrupt state government, his sequel to the book he wrote on rebuilding Mata’s Shrine will evoke a billion bonus blessings.