Lucknow: Less than eight months after he retired from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) following a high-profile career in the Uttar Pradesh administration, Navneet Sehgal has been appointed chairman of Prasar Bharati with a tenure of three years. The post had been lying vacant for four years since the retirement of A. Surya Prakash. Sehgal was once a close aide of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a member of the elite ‘Team 9’ — a term used for the nine most influential officers who worked closely with the CM.
Sehgal, who retired from service on 31 July, 2023, after a career spanning 35 years, was last posted as additional chief secretary (sports) in the UP government but was not given any post-retirement sinecure by Adityanath, who had promptly appointed his other confidante Awanish Awasthi adviser to the CM within days of his retirement in September 2022.
President Droupadi Murmu appointed Sehgal chairman of the Prasar Bharati Board on the recommendation of a selection panel headed by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Also Read: ‘Mini CM’, ‘super CM’, troubleshooter IAS officer — the power centres in Yogi’s UP
Shunted out from Yogi CMO to returning to power at Centre
Once seen as one of the most influential IAS officers in UP, who had also enjoyed the trust of two former CMs — Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav — apart from Adityanath for a considerable time, Sehgal, a 1988-batch IAS officer, had been handling the charge of ACS of important departments like information and public relations, MSME and export promotion, handlooms and textiles and khadi and village industries till 31 August, 2022.
However, hours after Yogi confidante and 1987-batch IAS officer Awanish Awasthi superannuated that day, Sehgal was divested of these departments and instead given the charge of the low-profile sports department, in what came to be seen as his exit from the elite group of officers in the Yogi CMO.
Subsequently, Sanjay Prasad, principal secretary to the CM, was given charge of all the departments handled by Awasthi along with the department of information and public relations, which was being handled by Sehgal.
While Awasthi was back in power circles soon after his retirement and seen attending meetings even before his appointment as adviser to CM in September 2022, he has got two extensions since then.
In sharp contrast, Sehgal was given no such posting.
Sehgal was however re-elected as president of the UP Badminton Association in July 2022 for four years. Currently, the association’s chairman is Viraj Sagar Das, late minister Akhilesh Das Gupta’s son, who is also the president of the Babu Banarsi Das group.
“That he was denied any major post-retirement benefit by the Yogi government shows that the officer did not share the same equation as others who did get plum assignments even after retirement. His retirement was silent,” said a senior UP government official.
“However, his appointment as the chairman of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati board is big and especially because it comes just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. It is clear that the officer who is no longer a Yogi favourite has found favour with the Narendra Modi-led central government,” the official added.
Often Oppn’s target, but finding favour in successive regimes
While he has been targeted by the Opposition several times, Sehgal is known to make miraculous comebacks after being sidelined in new regimes.
While he served as secretary to Mayawati for her entire five-year term between 2007 and 2012, Sehgal was put in the list of officers in waiting soon after Akhilesh Yadav came to power in 2012, and later given the department of religious affairs which was then seen as insignificant.
However, the Akhilesh government roped him in as principal secretary (information) for crisis management following the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. He was also given the charge of CEO of the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) and handled Akhilesh’s ambitious Lucknow-Agra Expressway project.
While the BJP would target the Akhilesh government for alleged corruption in the construction of the expressway, Sehgal’s name was put in the list of officers in waiting, soon after Adityanath stormed to power in UP in 2017.
However, Yogi had turned to him in the aftermath of the 2020 Hathras gangrape and murder case and Sehgal was seen to enjoy proximity to the CM till he was shunted out in 2022.
The 1988-batch officer is since viewed as a “troubleshooter” for the UP government which had been facing widespread criticism around the Hathras case, and he is known for his astute media management, said sources in the UP government.
‘Communication, media management, wide network’
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior IAS officer who has worked with Sehgal described him as “accessible and someone who is good at media management”, and has a “wide network not limited to bureaucrats and politicians”.
“His plus point is that he is accessible and has a wide network which is not limited to bureaucrats and politicians. In the run-up to the Global Investors Summit 2018, he was among the key officers behind the successful branding of the UP government ahead of the Global Investors Summit 2018 which is considered a turning point for the Yogi regime. He even facilitated many meetings with top industrialists in the run-up to the GIS-2018,” the officer added.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: Who’s the most influential official in UP? Meet the key players in revamped Team Yogi