In thick of scandal, but RK Pachauri stays in charge of TERI

His control over the organisation continued during the sexual harassment investigation and it will flourish despite Ajay Mathur taking over as the new director general.

Updated on: Feb 10, 2016, 14:50:34 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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RK Pachauri’s elevation as executive vice-chairman of The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri)may have been lambasted by a 29-year-old woman who has charged him with sexual harassment but the episode shows that his tight grip over the environment group has not diminished.

RK Pachauri’s writ in the environment group appears unchallenged. (HT file photo)

The controversial promotion answered one key question: That Pachauri’s control over the organisation continued during the sexual harassment investigation and it will flourish despite Ajay Mathur taking over as the new director general.

Teri confirmed Pachauri was heading the institute for almost the entire period of investigation.

The institute’s spokesperson told HT Pachauri continued to serve as director-general (DG) of Teri with the “mandate” entrusted to him by the governing council.

Soon after sexual harassment charges were levelled last February, he went on leave and the governing council appointed Leena Srivastava as acting DG in his absence. It was only in July 2015 when a court allowed Pachauri to access his office that senior Teri officials decided to relieve Srivastava of her charge as acting DG.

“Since July 23 Dr Pachauri is the director-general. That is official,” a senior Teri functionary told HT.

When Pachauri resumed work at Teri headquarters, the 29-year-old researcher was working in the same office. And her senior was holding meetings with Pachauri on a daily basis, which Teri says were only for “official” purposes.

A Teri employee, who did not wish to be named, recalled the unease in the institute as the DG office became “hyper-active” during the period and the complainant’s open letter on Tuesday has confirmed this.

“I don’t know whether the case was being discussed but the entire activity showed that Pachauri was very strong still and his writ ran large,” a researcher with a leading educational institution in Delhi, who worked with Teri as a project head, said.

Senior functionaries reportedly used to visit Pachauri’s home when he was debarred by court from entering the Teri headquarters between March and July 2015. This was the period when Srivastava was the acting DG as Pachauri was officially on leave.

A senior Teri functionary did not deny this, saying Pachauri was overseeing certain projects himself, especially the overseas ones, and the section heads may have gone to seek some “clarifications”. “Everyone in Teri is free to consult an old and experienced hand like Pachauri,” the functionary explained. Around one-third of TERI employees get their salaries from projects abroad.

All this may have had a bearing on the complainant who resigned in the first week of November, accusing the advocacy group of treating her in the “worst possible manner” and causing “professional” and “emotional” harm to her.

What apparently came in handy for Pachauri’s continued reign?was the delay in joining of his replacement Ajay Mathur.

“I am excited. I will be joining in three months,” Mathur had told HT when he was appointed in July last year. In December, a Teri spokesperson told HT that Mathur would be joining on January 4. When this correspondent met Mathur during the Paris climate summit in December, the initial enthusiasm was missing but he was willing to take the plunge. “Let’s see what happens” was his refrain.

Mathur finally joined on Monday with news that Pachauri will continue to mentor the organisation. Insiders say he will have operational control over foreign projects for the time being.

Insiders say after the complaint Pachauri’s position has got stronger and that has become evident from his redesignation as executive vice-president. “I don’t think it will change much even after Mathur joins,” one of them said.

“Shamelessness abounds! The news of promotion of a man who stands booked on charges of sexual harassment at workplace, stalking and criminal intimidation by country’s who’s who makes my flesh crawl,” the 29-year-old researcher wrote while reacting to Pachauri’s elevation.

Pachauri’s lawyer Ashish Dixit denied all allegations made against the Teri boss, saying there was nothing wrong in his appointment as executive vice-chairman.

But, all that has happened in the past year show most organisations still favour the man and it is still difficult for a woman to get some justice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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