Stephenians have top posts in Modi government

High-ranking politicians of the UPA government have also been from St. Stephen’s college.

NEW DELHI: There may be many differences in the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the incumbent Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, but their love for St. Stephen’s college graduates seems to be a common factor.

If the UPA government’s top political leaders were products of the prestigious St. Stephen’s college, the Modi government’s top bureaucratic posts are also held by St. Stephen’s products.

The list of high-ranking politicians who were Stephenians and part of the UPA government include Congress president Rahul Gandhi who pursued History Honours at St. Stephen’s college, but he did not finish the course and went abroad. Others include Sachin Pilot, who was recently appointed as Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Kapil Sibal, Virbhadra Singh, Salman Khursheed and Shashi Tharoor. All these leaders held top ranks in the UPA government.

St. Stephen’s college, the oldest college in Delhi (established in 1881), has a long list of alumni currently holding top official ranks, including  in the Modi government. The list includes the current Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Ranjan Gogoi, new Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha, Finance Secretary Ajay Narayan Jha, interim director of the Central Bureau of Investigation  Mannem Nageswara Rao, Comptroller and Auditor General  Rajiv Mehrishi and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. Vice-chairman of NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar, too, is from St. Stephen’s college.

Not only are the above-mentioned officials from the same college, interestingly, most of them are history graduates. CJI Ranjan Gogoi and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das are history graduates from St. Stephen’s. Das, who took over after the sudden resignation of Urjit Patel earlier this week, is a 1980 batch IAS officer. Ajay Narayan Jha, Finance Secretary since December 2018, also graduated from the college with a BA degree in History and is a 1982 IAS batch officer. CAG Rajiv Mehrishi, too, is a history graduate from Stephen’s.

Mehrishi is from the 1978 IAS batch. Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Sinha and Amitabh Kant of the Niti Aayog graduated in Economics. Kant is from the 1980 Kerala IAS batch.