Srinagar, Aug. 4 -- Pradip Baijal is a pugnacious reformer with a ferocious appetite for taking on challenging assignments. This reviewer remembers vividly Baijal, as Secretary Disinvestment in 2002, walking in the sweltering summer heat from the North Block to the hoi polloi car park around the fountains below Raisina Hill, where the taxi, which served as his official car, was parked. For Baijal life is not worth living without a challenge to overcome and importantly, win.
This was reflected in his stellar performance in the Ministry of Disinvestment during the Vajpayee government. Publicly owned companies and hotels were privatised rapidly over three years before resistance from vested entitlements built up. Subsequently, as Chairman, TR...