Despite umpteen efforts made by Indian Cooperative to contact FAI Director General Satish Chandra for details of the upcoming 55th Annual event, both his office and he himself refused to respond.
Chandra’s PA Sharma wanted us to write a mail which we did promptly. We waited to hear from him but on one pretext or the other he shunned us. It goes without saying that he did not find it fit to reply the said mail.
Just a couple of days before the event when we talked to Mr Sharma about this on the phone, his brief reply was “I put the mail before him (DG Chandra) but he said nothing. “Obviously, Chandra did not deem it important to respond”, was the purport of his reply.
This made us wonder who is Satish Chandra and why is he behaving so arrogantly. Before proceeding further, let us clarify that Indian Cooperative has no interest in FAI as such. But since it is a fertilizer association and co-op bodies like IFFCO and KRIBHCO are the largest producers of this product, we wanted to get in contact with Chandra.
Chandra’s arrogance, those who know him say, draws primarily from his deep contact with both bureaucracy and some of the political masters, whom he has cultivated over a period of time. A middling bureaucrat himself from DANICS he retired as Joint Secretary, but not before making useful contacts which can take care of his post-retirement needs.
Chandra has been occupying the office of FAI for past many years with little results, people in the know of things say. “See the state of affairs besetting the fertilizer sector in the country; subsidies are not being paid on time, co-ops have to pay higher taxes and there are myriad other unresolved issues before the sector”. A man should be in his job only if he delivers, he added.
One of his close associates said on condition of anonymity “he is soft-spoken and polished”. You infer whatever you can from this line, he added with a mischievous grin.
Ironical as it may sound, the 55th FAI event which was completely ignored by the mainstream media was covered by Indian Cooperative with four stories of the event. It is high time leaders of the sector found someone who is more open to media queries and more effective with the govt.