Officers' mess

Caught between expectations of the public and demands of politicians, IAS and IPS officers today face a great dilemma — to do or not to do. CAG Vinod Rai recently said it was time bureaucrats stood up to be counted. That though is easier said than done.
The steel framework is creaking — bending under the weight of people's expectations and being pulled down by the political class.The IAS and IPS officers themselves are caught in a debilitating dilemma as governance, in the words of Vinod Rai, "touches a new low" . The former IAS officer, in his new avatar as CAG of India, spoke for the entire bureaucracy when he said that the "morale of the civil servants in the country is at an all time low" .
Rai didn't mince his words. "While some officers allowed themselves to be used, some other upright officers stood their ground preventing offences of commission. That's where we need to be standing and counted," he said as he delivered the 26th Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial lecture at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, recently. He ended by asking All-India Services officers to "restore citizens' faith" in bureaucracy.
The CAG's words couldn't have come at a more poignant time — a time that's witnessing a sharp rise in the cases of senior officials being "punished" for not toeing the official line. One such bureaucrat is the senior-most IAS officer of the UP cadre, Promilla Shanker . The 1976 batch officer was recently suspended by chief minister Mayawati for "going abroad without getting her leave sanctioned" . Could it be just a coincidence that the suspension came after she pointed out large-scale irregularities in the draft plan prepared by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority? Senior even to UP chief secretary Anoop Mishra, Shanker has now written to the Centre for "being victimized for speaking my mind" . Though they work closely with politicians, bureaucrats often face the netas' wrath for daring to challenge them. Former I&B secretary Bhaskar Ghose says while it is difficult for an officer to take a stand, it's easier to give in. But he suggests a way out: the power of transfer and posting should be taken away from politicians and entrusted upon the Union Public Service Commission. It will help provide dynamism to the bureaucratic set-up , says Ghose, as most governments want officers who are ‘Yes men' . "They can't tolerate independent minded ones."
In such a scenario taking on politicians could be suicidal. Recently, Gujarat witnessed two senior IPS officers , Sanjiv Bhatt and Rahul Sharma , being shunted out for trying to challenge chief minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the 2002 riots. "Such blatant harassment of senior officers sends wrong signals," says a Gujarat cadre IPS officer on condition of anonymity.
Transfer of IPS officers may look like a routine exercise, but it's often used by politicians to "fix them" . In July, Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan , (1973 batch) known for his clean record, was shifted out after the Supreme Court declared Salwa Judum an "illegal militia" . Though no reason was given, it is believed that the ex-DGP and state home minister did not see eye-to-eye on anti-Maoist operations . "Removal of the DGP at this juncture will not only derail the strategy (against Maoist); it will also demoralize the forces," says a senior IPS officer of the Punjab cadre.
The morale of the department is the last thing on the minds of politicians as they play their power games. With every regime change in a state, "non-pliable civil servants" — almost always considered close to a previous government — are moved around like hapless pawns. After Mamata Banerjee stormed into Writers Building in May, Manoj Kumar Verma, a 1998 batch IPS officer of the West Bengal cadre (described as "efficient and fearless" by his colleagues), was removed as SP, Midnapore. Verma still remains an "officer without duty" . Verma's case may sound bizarre but it's not unusual. "It's an evil throughout the country. Ruling parties do post people arbitrarily, without merit. It's done to subjugate the bureaucracy into toeing a certain line," says TSR Subramanian, former cabinet secretary of India. But, says Subramanian, the bureaucrats should voice their concerns within the bounds of service rules. "Done in that manner, the service rules protect you and provide immense immunity."
But others blame bureaucrats themselves for their plight as they have not learnt to say "no" to their political masters. "The message should be loud and clear that reshufflings would not help matters," says a Maharashtra cadre IPS officer, giving the example of a fiercely independent cadre-mate , then Nasik IG B D Mishra, who had to be reinstated because of public pressure after he was shunted out for acting against some local heavyweights. Such officers, though, are few and far between. In Bihar, much heat and dust was raised when the state electricity board's DG (vigilance), Manoje Nath, was giving marching orders by the government in October 2009. Nath, who is the senior-most IPS officer in the state, now says that as a survival strategy he has now learnt to "lower my expectations from the service with each passing year -- a bulwark against officially incurred frustration on account of unjust and undeserved persecution."
While an officer may lower his own expectations, he may not always have the luxury of ignoring people's expectations. Nor can he afford to antagonize the political class. To maintain that difficult balance, while some seek central deputation, others go on unending sabbaticals. Yet others , like a 1985-batch Bihar-cadre IPS officer, plead to the government that instead of all the harassment they just be declared insane.