It cannot happen that Uttar Pradesh should not interfere in the politics of the country because Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state of the country. There has been a tradition of giving extension after retirement to capable and reliable officers, but the case of AK Sharma, an IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, is a bit different because Arvind Sharma was to retire in 2022, but suddenly he joined BJP with VRS and Being a member of the Legislative Council was enough to give impetus to all new political discussions.
Known as the punctual and the officer who completed the task before the stipulated time. He has 19-20 years of experience working with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. AK Sharma, who worked in various positions as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2013, is one of the few officers who were called from Gujarat to Delhi after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. He was made Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office and then Secretary in the MSME Department.
Before the 2014 general elections, when Modi’s influence increased in the BJP, Amit Shah was sent as the in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and then when elections were about to be held, he himself reached Banaras. Just a few years ago, Nripendra Mishra, who was a trusted officer of Prime Minister Modi, arrived in UP on a special mission, as the chairman of Ram Mandir Construction Committee and now AK Sharma is also going to make further story in the same episode.
After joining BJP, AK Sharma had said, ‘I was asked to join the party last night itself. I am glad that I got a chance, I came out of a backward village, became an IAS and today it is a big deal to join BJP without any political background. AK Sharma said, ‘On the strength of hard work and struggle, I got the job of IAS and only BJP and Narendra Modi can do the work of bringing a person without any political background in the political party.’
AK Sharma was born in the year 1962 in Kajhakhurd village under Ranipur development block of Muhammadabad Gohna tehsil of Mau. Arvind is the eldest among the three sons of Late Shivmurti Sharma and Late Shanti Devi. He did his primary schooling from the village school and did his intermediate from DAV Inter College. Further education was done from Allahabad University, did graduation and post-graduation from there and took admission in PhD but after getting selected in IAS, the dream of doing PhD remained incomplete.
Some Important things from the tenure of AK Sharma
When Narendra Modi came to power, AK Sharma was working as Additional Commissioner in the Industries Department at that time. Prior to this, he had held the post of Joint Commissioner in Rehabilitation Department in Vadodara, Deputy Secretary in Finance Department of Gandhinagar, Collector in Kheda and Joint Managing Director in Mining Department, DM in Mehsana and before that SDM.
AK Sharma was called to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on the day Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat and was appointed to the post of Secretary and from here an unbroken relationship between AK Sharma and Narendra Modi started. In the year 2004, AK Sharma was made joint secretary, later he was made additional principal secretary and sent to the Chief Minister’s office of Gandhinagar. Wherever Narendra Modi stayed, AK Sharma was also present there.
During his Gujarat tenure, AK Sharma did many game changer works. In the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, the relief work kept the image of AK Sharma in good shape. By keeping on the posting of Tehsildar level, AK Sharma carried out the rehabilitation work with utmost sincerity and diligence. The camp where AK Sharma lived used to collapse in the nights due to the tremors of mild earthquake, many officers even got their transfer done but AK Sharma was honest about his responsibility and he remained there till the displacement work was completed. Didn’t happen.
Vibrant Gujarat, started in the year 2003, is such a procession of the Gujarat government, with the help of which the Gujarat government woos investors. This procession is organized every two years. AK Sharma was the chief planner of Vibrant Gujarat.
In the year 2008, Singur in West Bengal, situated some 50 km away from Calcutta, had become the center of discussion of the country. There was a Left government in Bengal and the government had given the Tata Company a place to build Lakhtakia in Singur. Lakhtakia, aka Tata Nano, a car worth lakhs of rupees, but Ratan Tata’s dream of turning India’s middle class into a four wheeler owner was getting dashed. The then main opposition party Trinamool Congress’s Mamta Banerjee and many social workers were demonstrating on the issue of giving fertile land to Tata by the government, some workers and agricultural farmers were also involved in this, there was a lathi charge, this protest for Tata was heavy.
Eventually Tata announced in October 2008 that they would not set up this plant in Singur, Bengal. It is said that an SMS came on Ratan Tata’s phone at that time, SMS was sent by Narendra Modi. It was written in the message ‘Suswagatam’ Ratan Tata went to Gujarat, here a new plant was to be opened in Sanand but it was difficult to get land in Sanand. The land on which Tata’s factory was to be set up, there was some issue stuck and the responsibility of solving the problem was given to AK Sharma, who was working as Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office at that time. AK Sharma solved this seemingly complicated land issue within a few weeks.
In 2006, AK Sharma had gone to Australia for 11 months of foreign training. On May 26, Narendra Modi took charge and on May 30, AK Sharma got the letter of appointment in the PMO. AK Sharma took over as Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office on 3 June, then was made Additional Secretary on 22 July 2017. On 30 April 2020, AK Sharma was made Secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
Even after coming to the center, the tenure of AK Sharma was very much discussed. He was directly linked to those projects in which Prime Minister Modi was of particular interest. In 2019, AK Sharma played an important role in designing the plan in the central government’s investment in 100 crore infrastructure, as well as AK Sharma’s direct intervention for development works in the ministries associated with it. Seeing his style of work, Narendra Modi made Arvind Sharma Secretary in the Ministry of MSME in the lockdown, only after that the project of giving loans to revive MSMEs and the foundation of self-reliant India was laid.
It is later said about AK Sharma in Bureaucracy and Democracy that “A K Sharma has some special qualities. He talks very little, he is very hardworking. If he decides to do some work, then he definitely takes it to the end and the third most important quality, if Narendra Modi says something, then AK Sharma will not back an inch from him. The same thing is a stone’s streak.”
Corona Era
When Corona was at its peak in India, the situation had become very pathetic at that time, almost every person in Corona lost someone. Everyone was desperate and upset, no one wanted to leave the house. At that time the situation in Uttar Pradesh including Banaras started deteriorating, then AK Sharma stayed in Banaras and rectified the situation there.
In the meantime, he first made a KCRC (Kashi Kovid Response Center) and made a policy of ‘While sick there, treatment’ and took the medicine of Kovid to the homes of the patients. After that, after doing many unique works in the field of health in Banaras, in 40 districts of Uttar Pradesh, millions of packets of corona kits, oxygen concentrators, oximeters, oxygen cylinders were distributed by ordering from abroad and dozens of new oxygen plants were installed as well as CSR Worked in the direction of improving the health system of the state.
During the camp in Banaras, AK Sharma himself went to the hospitals to take stock of the situation and with the aim of distributing medicines in a better way, he himself even distributed corona kits in many districts of the state.
Bureaucrat-turned-Democrat
Sharma made his presence known among the public by visiting almost all the districts of Uttar Pradesh during the tenure of his Legislative Council for one year. Seeing the presence of the public in AK Sharma’s programs, it was as if these people were so close to each other.
In the tenure of only one year of the Legislative Council, he started many closed trains to connect Purvanchal to Delhi, construction of underbridges on the lines of metros in the village, along with development works of several hundred crores, from the state government to the center. Wrote a letter to the government, out of which many works were also approved and many works are about to be approved, this work is enough to tell the vision of development of AK Sharma.
The way AK Sharma has traveled to the districts of the state and continued his affinity with the general public during the 2022 assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party has got a lot of benefit in the elections, from the farmers movement in the west. AK Sharma played an important role in reducing the opposition and by staying in Varanasi district in the assembly elections, he proved his worth by discharging the role given by the party.
