This was perhaps his first real nightmare after he took over the ministry last December. And this, despite the fact that private telecom operators have not given him a moment's rest since he took them on two months ago. One of the first things Jagmohan did when he became minister was tosend off stern letters to private telecom companies who had defaulted or simply refused to pay their outstanding licence fees. The letters firmly told them to furnish 20 per cent of their dues and deliver bank guarantees for the balance 80 per cent before a prescribed deadline. Cellular operators claimed that the Department of Telecom (DoT) had no business asking for fees at a time when a new telecom policy was still being evolved. After all, the government had already realised as early as 1997 that there were some inherent problems in this sector and a fact-finding report had admitted that the woes of operators had mounted because of delays by DoT. And why should they be penalised for this, they argued.

But Jagmohan refused to buy their sob story and was furious at their cartelisation and over the mercy petitions they regularly presented to N.K. Singh in the Prime Minister's Office. He demanded to know how they could refuse to observe contractual obligations and wriggle out of legal agreements when theyhad submitted competitive bids. Together, the companies owed as much as Rs 3,700 crore. How, argued Jagmohan, could he explain this non-recovery to his government?

To his credit, even the Delhi High Court rejected a petition from a group of operators seeking an interim injunction against DoT from encashing their bank guarantees (the deadline was fast approaching), leaving a satisfied Jagmohan in command.

The minister's steely determination may pay off in the long run. People who crossed his path in the decades before testify to his cold-blooded and almost chillingly ruthless approach to problems. His critics admit that only a Jagmohan could have dealt evenly with the sharks in the telecom industry but, they say, the country is still paying heavily for the excessive zeal he displayed in carrying out his duties during the Emergency and in his stints as governor in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jagmohan was vice-chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) when he was handpicked by Sanjay Gandhi to lead thedemolition squad against unauthorised structures in the latter's Delhi beautification drive. People still remember how he sent his bulldozers with characteristic precision to raze down every jhuggi that stood out like a sore thumb in Lutyen's Delhi and banished the settlers to what are now known as the city's ``re-settlement colonies''.

He achieved added notoriety when he attempted to clean up Shahjehanabad (which included Red Fort and the Walled City). On one particular encounter at Turkman Gate, Jagmohan ruthlessly mowed down and fired upon the human chain of settlers that had formed to save their hutments.

While Jagmohan's misdeeds may not quite match those of the great villains of the Emergency -- he was after all only a minion -- he still had to pay for his excesses after Indira Gandhi was ejected out of office in 1977. But his loyalty to her remained unwavering and it served him handsomely when Mrs Gandhi was voted back to power. He was made Lt governor of the Capital in 1980 and was soon back inbusiness with renewed vitality, demolishing the properties of those who had dared criticise Mrs Gandhi.

In 1982, he was handpicked by her once again to prepare Delhi for the Asian Games that it was hosting that year. Arcades, sports villages, hotels and flyovers came up with flying speed and Jagmohan was soon the toast of the town. Two years later, he was packed off to Kashmir to rein in an increasingly independent Farooq Abdullah. Within three months of his being there, Abdullah's government was dismissed and Jagmohan administered the oath to the former's brother-in-law, G.M. Shah. But the minority Shah Government never looked credible. In 1986, Jagmohan finally took over the state administration himself.

This first stint in Kashmir was largely marked by his masonic energy to clean up the Hindu pilgrimage centre of Vaishno Devi. He also set up projects for development work at the Shankacharya Hill, Swami Vivekananda Park and other such centres in the state.

He returned to Delhi in 1989 after completinghis term and probably looked forward to a retired existence poring over books in Delhi's India International Centre. For a while, he and his Black Cats were fixtures in the precincts of this institution, as he did the seminar round and furiously wrote books. It was Prime Minister V.P. Singh who, on the advice of then Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, pulled him out of this cocoon and sent him back to Kashmir to contain the serious insurgency problem there.

The debate still rages, both in political and media circles, whether this was what the state needed. Most tend to believe it was Jagmohan who aggravated the problem in J&K. Within six months -- he was sent in January 1990 and was recalled hastily in June that year -- Jagmohan had gained a reputation for brutally suppressing the separatist movement. He encouraged the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits so that, it was alleged, he could deal more effectively with Muslim separatists. The indiscriminate firing at mourners of Mirwaiz Moulvi Farooq, a respectedreligious leader, was the last straw, and Jagmohan was asked to return home.

Clearly, Jagmohan perceived his recall as a ``betrayal'' by V.P. Singh. Simultaneously, his uncompromising stand against separatist Muslims had endeared him to the BJP. The warmth that was growing between them even prompted the party (which was Singh's coalition partner) to immediately accommodate him as an MP in the Rajya Sabha.

It was only after he had completed his full term here that he officially joined the party that cherished him. Jagmohan's fortunes in the BJP soared because, as party leaders themselves confessed, there were hardly any people with experience within the party when the time came to form the government. Jagmohan kicked off his first Lok Sabha election campaign in 1996, in typical IIC style, with a morning coffee party in Lodhi Gardens. He won again in 1998, but colleagues admit he was disappointed when he was not given a Cabinet post. Says Vijay Goel, BJP MP from Delhi,``He felt his talents were lyingwasted.''

With the ministership that came his way four months ago, Jagmohan was back in business. But the old workhorse will need his considerable experience and singlemindedness to get himself out of the tangle he now finds himself in.