The Dignified Warrior: LG Jung’s Tryst With Polity

Delhi LG Najeeb Jung has been involved in a stand-off with Kejriwal. But he has conducted himself with dignity.

In a chequered career spanning 42 years and counting, Najeeb Jung has traversed between working as a bureaucrat and an academic.

But he shot into prominence in 2013 when the Congress-led UPA-II government appointed him as the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. Endearing himself to his political patrons, Jung deftly handled the situation involving the sudden and inexplicable resignation of Arvind Kejriwal in the short-lived AAP government in 2013-14. The raucous created by Kejriwal entailing his constitutional duty of deciding when to call for elections, once the Delhi Assembly was held in “suspended animation” for nearly a year, was efficiently managed by him.

From Bureaucracy to Academics

A charismatic Jung entered the Indian Administrative Service in 1973. He served in his parent cadre, Madhya Pradesh, but within a few years moved to the Centre on deputation. In 1995, Jung, then a joint secretary in the petroleum ministry, suddenly resigned from civil service.

But it didn’t take him long to find employment. Jung joined the Asian Development Bank (ADB), where he worked as Senior Energy Advisor and Principal Energy Specialist for four years. He became a senior visiting fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies at Oxford University, where he guided PhD students for three years.

But the erudite Jung, with his old-world charm, returned to the ADB to take charge of restructuring the war-torn Afghanistan Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources. Putting his training as a bureaucrat to good use, Jung rehabilitated and redeveloped Afghanistan’s gas production system, besides introducing modern marketing ventures for oil products. In no time, Jung returned to Oxford University where he served till 2008, advising international oil and gas companies.

He returned to India in 2008 and was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia the next year, replacing the acclaimed historian Mushirul Hasan. At that time, Hasan was running for a second term as VC, with full support of the then HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. But it was Jung who had the last laugh as Sibal’s colleagues in the Congress backed him.

Transitioning to the Executive

As Jamia’s VC, Jung witnessed several ups and downs, but maintained cordial relations with his Congress benefactors — a move which, in 2013, pitchforked him to the office of Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor.

In the months following his journey from Jamia to the Raj Niwas, Jung kept a low profile. He refrained from speaking to the press as a constitutional figure. Among other things, Jung reviewed the functions of the Delhi Police which faced a lot of public opprobrium following the December 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape. The fallout of the heinous incident was, in part, mismanaged by his predecessor Tejinder Khanna.

The roots of the seemingly unending Kejriwal-Jung war, which has reached a crescendo now, could be traced to the former’s 49-day stint as Delhi Chief Minister. Kejriwal chose to side-step the LG, especially on the Jan Lokpal Bill which the AAP government, in alliance with the Congress, sought to introduce in the Delhi Assembly without Jung’s consent.

The appointment of senior bureaucrats in the Delhi administration was overturned by Jung after the BJP government under Narendra Modi’s prime ministership assumed office at the Centre. The old bitterness resurfaced between the CM and the LG after Kejriwal returned to power with a stunning victory in the February 2015 Assembly Polls.

Times of Conflict

In the weeks that followed Kejrwal’s second swearing-in, clashes between the two became a routine affair, as charges and counter-charges were hurled upon each other. The conflict had spilled over in the public domain, with Kejriwal levelling outlandish charges of partisanship against Jung who was branded as a “BJP agent.”

Through the mud-slinging and high-octane war of attrition, Jung has maintained a dignified distance from all the muck-roaring.

He has defended himself in the best possible way a bureaucrat could have by adhering strictly to the rule book.