How deep is the rot is evident from this
incident where an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer was allegedly,
wrongfully shunted and suspended on behest of the sand-mining mafia of the
notorious criminal belt of western Uttar Pradesh?
It was an incident of the district Gautam Budh
Nagar (popularly known as Noida and Greater Noida), that earns maximum revenue
for Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with a distinction of giving the
country maximum number of prime ministers and ironically a state now that can
be termed as the worst place for development politics and a haven for the
criminal goons entering the mainstream of Indian politics.
The cities high on growth radars, not just in
Uttar Pradesh, but anywhere in India, are the hot-spots for corrupt politicians
and bureaucrats to earn quick money. And instances where bureaucrats, in this
case Durga Shakti Nagpal, are rare who cannot be predicted to be driven by what
but display rare honesty and follow integrity, in a world infested with corrupt
bureaucrats in brazen cahoots with the equally menacing politicians.
It is not about certifying Durga Shakti Nagpal. But
yes, she is a young and brave IAS officer who has worked with iron hand to
establish the rule of law in a lawless land her brief career record of almost
three years shows.
It is about the symbolization that her harassment
has created (and any other similar
incident sets) and its subsequent implications.
It can be said the hyperactive Indian media has
played a sensible role here by highlighting Durga Shakti’s issue giving it a
campaign sort of coverage with follow-up stories.
But how deeper is the rot can be gauged by the
responses of two other directly involved stakeholders in any such issue –
politicians and bureaucrats.
Once the media made it an issue (mind you, such issues are, indeed,
non-issues, as Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot was saying over the
transfer of the Jaisalmer Superintendent of Police who dared to open
history-sheet of father of a Congress MLA, or as the Samajwadi Party
politicians are saying over the suspension of Durga Shakti), the political
class had to take position based on the side of political opportunism it was.
The political opposition in Uttar Pradesh saw
points to score and the BJP, Congress and other outfits came out in open
support of the suspended IAS officer though each of these political outfits
have manipulated and colluded with the bureaucracy to indulge in corrupt
practices to gain unfair advantages.
So a senior and honest IAS officer Ashok Khemka
is transferred on questioning suspicious land deals of Robert Vadra, son-in-law
of Sonia Gandhi and every democratic norm is subverted in giving Vadra a clean
chit.
So, the top-wrung administrative officers of
Gujarat turn a blind eye to the riots that take lives of hundreds. Many of
them, for reasons known only to them, carry out fake encounters and are facing
trials now.
So, the honest IAS and IPS officers and
whistleblowers are either victimized or killed and the bureaucracy and the
polity play silly politics on how to protect the ‘honest’ breed.
But, in fact, no one from these two stakeholders
(bureaucracy + polity) wants to protect the remaining vestiges of honesty in
bureaucracy. (There is no need to write on honesty in Indian politics. It was
killed long ago.)
Victimization of the honest officer by corrupt
seniors from bureaucracy and polity – it has been so routine in India that even
the dumb filmmakers of India (they are in majority) have been weaving
mainstream cinema stories around it for years. The subject has grown into an
evergreen theme by now. Yes, in films, the victimized officers come out
stronger winning over the final battle establishing the values of honesty and
integrity.
Alas! That doesn’t happen in real life. (The reel life in this case, and in every
such issue, is an extension of the suppressed emotions in the real life. And in
India of the day, the difference between the reel and real life over such
issues is there to stay.)
Politicians cannot loot this country so brazenly
and shamelessly until they are not hands-in-glove with bureaucrats.
In fact, the lobby of IAS and IPS (Indian Police
Services) officers is so strong that if they decide to raise an issue,
politicians would think hundred times before taking an obstinate posture like
Akhilesh Yadav and his party took in Durga Shakti’s case.
It is never wrong to say that bureaucrats run (and so manipulate) the system and so
the country. Instead, their stronghold on the system is increasing with
increasing criminalization of Indian politics where a growing number of half-baked
and quality-illiterate politicians are finding chairs in the highest seats of
policymaking.
But expecting a war cry (and indeed, by now, the nation should have heard the war cry by the
lobby of bureaucrats loud and clear) on victimization of an honest IAS
officer is like expecting from the Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s Haryana government
that it would reopen the dubious land-deal cases of Robert Vadra for further
investigation.
How can we expect this from the class of
bureaucrats who, no matter how poor they were born, die filthy rich; who amass
millions and millions of disproportionate wealth; who rush to touch feet of
politicians to be in their good book; who brazenly allow and cover-up the
wrongs of the political goons; who seldom visit the hinterlands but frame
policies deciding fate of millions; who plot to siphon-off the public money by
being complicit in the chronic political corruption eroding whatever little
left in the name of democratic weaving of the country.
No surprise then that the Indian bureaucracy is
among the most corrupt and least efficient in the world.
Yes, the issue is still raging, though slightly
pushed to the background in last two days due to the ugly display of politics
over Pakistan killing five Indian soldiers at Line of Control in J&. It
reflects in the continued debate over the issue, in the suppressed emotions of
‘we, the bystander Indians’, and so the media is expected to cling to it for
some more days. But what once the TRPs start drying up?
And that has started happening. So don’t think
long term.
Anyway, don’t expect that some miracle is going
to happen.
Some senior, obedient and ‘reverent’ bureaucrat
of Uttar Pradesh would have advised the state government to exploit the system
to put the brave lady in the dock as the chargesheet served to her says. It can
be safely said politicians of Uttar Pradesh do not have that much of
intellectual capital to implicate her falsely until they get advice from some
seasoned bureaucrat.
But yes, true to the trademark brazenness of politicians,
some cooked up cases were imposed on the lady in addition to the chargesheet
served by the government of the young chief minister of Uttar Pradesh who had
won the office with a landslide victory on promise of giving a reformist
government.
But badlands of Uttar Pradesh remain the story
of everything, where every parameter of a civilized society is taking a regular
fall.
The issue also, once again, unmasks the
doublespeak of yet another young face at the political forefront, Rahul Gandhi.
It goes without saying that nothing in the UPA government can move if Rahul
Gandhi doesn’t approve of. But he didn’t speak vocally on Durga Shakti’s harassment.
Why of it - only he can answer, like on many other vital issues.
Yes, Sonia Gandhi did write to Manmohan Singh to
look into the matter. And thus spoke Manmohan Singh, the comfortably numb prime
minister of India, promising that rules would be followed in the case.
Now, the developments into the matter, as
expected, say of some backdoor understanding between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and
Congress. Congress needs SP support for the Food Security Bill. So, the
emphasis, now, is on to hush up the matter.
So, the possible outcome in Durga Shakti’s case
is going to be:
Her suspension would be revoked once she replies
to the chargesheet as Akhilesh Yadav has indicated. It will satisfy the
political ego of Uttar Pradesh government as well as will address the
compulsion of the UPA government to act in the matter as Sonia Gandhi has
publicly written for it.
After some time, once the controversy dies down,
Durga Shakti, as reported, would seek and be given a cadre change to move out
of Uttar Pradesh.
Three young faces, a 43-year old
prime-ministerial nominee and dominating face of the largest party of the
ruling coalition, a 40-year old chief minister of India’s most populous state and
a 28-year old IAS officer, all, willing or unwilling, characters of yet another
tragic drama in the botched history of Indian democracy – they sum up the irony
of Indian democracy – that its weaving is increasingly becoming undemocratic.
An increasingly undemocratic atmosphere where
the political class is getting more and more intolerant, alienated, lineage-based
and corrupt; where political and bureaucratic corruption has percolated to
almost every part of the society; where protesters and activists are targeted,
suppressed, silenced or killed; where democracy is being pushed backward every
passing day!
Indian democracy – a democracy in tatters and we
are not doing enough to address it!