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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Former Central Bureau of Investigation spokesman S M Khan's appointment as press secretary to President A P J Abdul Kalam may have ruffled some feathers in the Press Information Bureau, but oblivious to the heartburn, Khan is getting ready to serve in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
His appointment is considered a dream assignment and several of his contemporaries in PIB would have given anything to bag it.
Khan, however, has taken the new appointment in his stride and looks at it as a rare honour.
"I got a call from Mr P M Nair, secretary to the President of India, on Monday asking me to see him. I went over to see him. Until then I did not even know what was it all about. During my conversation with him he asked me if I would like to work with the President of India Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. This was a great honour for me. I simply could not have refused such a big honour. By Tuesday evening the order of appointment was formally conveyed to CBI Director P C Sharma, who in turn conveyed the same to me," Khan told rediff.com on Thursday.
A group 'A' officer of the Indian Information Service's 1982 batch, Khan has been a familiar face for reporters covering the CBI in Delhi for years -- 13 years to be precise.
Forty-five year old Khan, a post-graduate from the University of Wales, hails from a small village in Khurja in Uttar Pradesh.
"I did my LLB from NREC college in Khurja and later did my masters in law from the Aligarh Muslim University," he said. At both places he was a gold medalist.
Khan joined the CBI in October 1989. He shot into limelight when Joginder Singh was the CBI director. During this period, CBI handled a number of high-profile cases like the fodder scam and the Purulia arms dropping case and Khan's daily interactions with the media brought him to the forefront of the organisation.
At one stage, the government offered to make him a deputy secretary in the Ministry of Defence, but friends in the media prevailed upon him and he agreed to stay on with the CBI.
Referring to his first meeting with the missile man, Khan said that Dr Kalam is a splendid person.
"I called on Dr Kalam, the President of India, soon after I took the charge [of my new assignment] on August 7. The meeting lasted ten minutes. It was a memorable meeting in the sense that Dr Kalam was more interested in knowing me as a person. He asked me questions about my background. How do I handle media? I am looking forward to working with him," Khan said.
Those who have known Khan from close quarters vouch for him. "He is a man of impeccable character. You could trust him with anything. He would reveal only what is necessary and no more," a senior CBI officer once told this correspondent.
His experience in handling media will surely stand him in good stead in his news assignment.
Presidential Election 2002
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