Page 34 - Tehelka Issue 15 August 2018

OpiniOn
dilemmas
HumrA
QurAISHI
The Delhi-based writer
and columnist’s books
include Kashmir: The
Untold Story. She co-
authored a series of
writings with the late
Khushwant Singh and
her short stories are
part of anthologies.
The views expressed
are her own
Power but no power
for civil servants
What’s amiss if a civil servant point out at the dark realities of
today’s India? After all, they are focusing on the problems based
on ground realities
ver wondered why civil not the ordinary folk who are kept at a
servants pick up adequate distance with security phobias hover-
courage to write their mem- ing around just about anyone fitted in
oirs only after they retire? the rulers’ slot.
Well, because there is no And if a civil servant dares to talk
E pressure of getting hauled aloud or write candidly, he is singled
up by the establishment for speaking out, readied to be suspended, if not
out or writing beyond the (politically) mauled in varying ways.
set parameters! In fact, even then, at that The first bureaucrat who was
retired stage, only few manage to write hounded by the then establishment was
along the absolutely stark format. Per- Chaturvedi Badrinath of the Tamil Nadu
haps, all through their training period cadre. This was in the early 70s when
and the service years, the very tendency controversy erupted in the backdrop
has been to refrain from offloading, to of the governmental venture — ‘Time
be confined within the safe zone; where Capsule’. And this bureaucrat raised
there is less fear of getting hounded by several pertinent queries in the context
the political bosses. of the historical contents to be embed-
Look at the way the establishment ded in that capsule. Needless to add,
has reacted to the J&K cadre bureaucrat, this up right bureaucrat’s career was
Shah Faesal’s tweet on the rapes taking severely affected. But, not his morale
place in the country. The tweet reads “Pa and confidence.
triarchy+Population+Illiteracy+Alcohol+ During several interviews with me,
Porn+Technology+Anarchy = Rapistan!” he had detailed that even after he was
The Centre was not just fumed but suspended and questioned, he re-
has ordered an action against this top- mained firm on his stand and then took
per bureaucrat of the 2011 batch. In fact, to writing on ‘Dharma’.
Shah Faesal, 35, is the only IAS officer Later, of course, he tool premature
from Jammu and Kashmir to have ever retirement and moved far away from
topped the civil services and he is cur- babugiri towardsthe world of academics
rently an Edward S Mason Fellow at and wrote books after another till he
Harvard Kennedy School on study leave. died in 2010 , in Puducherry .
Tell me, what’s amiss in his tweet! Coming back to today’s India, the
Perhaps, he should have added a couple situation stands compounded. Even be-
of additional words — Lynchistan or fore the government’s order, the Right
Jungle Raj or Murderous Rulers to relay wing goon brigades will do so.
the realities of the day. Even the political preferences of the
Also, doesn’t a civil servant carry the civil servants have to be kept away from
basic right to spell out the realities of public domain. In 2016, didn’t we wit-
the day? Nah! not just in the dusty files ness the plight of the Madhya Pradesh
but for the masses he is supposed to bureaucrat, Ajay Singh Gangwar, who
administer.Of course, in today’s lopsided was handed his transfer orders after he
governance the civil servant is reduced praised former Prime Minister Jawa-
to serving only the political rulers and harlal Nehru on Facebook. Gangwar,
Tehelka / 15 august 2018 34 www.Tehelka.com