13 December 2012, 01:34 PM IST
Shirish Koyal
The shameful Palghar episode, it turns out, was also a case of insubordination. Two lower-level officers in the police force had disregarded orders from a senior not to act against 21-year-old Shaheen Dhada, who was hounded by Shiv Sainiks when she questioned the shutdown of Mumbai after Bal Thackeray's death. That the two officers who chose to listen to Shiv Sena storm troopers rather than an IPS officer have been suspended is little cause for comfort. The police force in every state is swarming with officers like Ravindra Sengaonkar and Shrikant Pingle, whose loyalty is not to their profession or duty, but to their political masters.
Palghar police are but one example of how a government department should not function. The rot is present in every city and state, in every government department and office. Politicians and parties that have been in power plant their lackeys in the administrative machinery. There is great utility in this. Files can be moved or made to disappear at will; tenders passed; information, even secrets, obtained; evidence obliterated in difficult times; and, as Palghar showed us, inconvenient people put behind bars.
These uses of having right people in right places are insignificant if we consider the use of the administrative machinery to further political agendas. Outfits heavy on ideology, the saffron camp in particular, are often accused of planting sympathetic officers in the system. Education is a favourite department to foist toadies. The history and textbook arms of this department are areas that receive special attention. Teachers may be among the most underpaid of government servants — and unfairly so —but as disseminators of knowledge, they are a prize catch for parties that seek to ingrain their illiberal ideologies in young minds.
In late 2010, Ramachandra Gowda, one of the three education ministers (you read it right, there are three ministers for education) in BJP-ruled Karnataka, had to resign after a scandal in hiring employees for two state-run medical colleges came to light. Candidates had allegedly been asked to buy jobs by paying Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. Gowda was not alone to lose his job; those who got employment after shelling out bribes — they numbered nearly 400 — were dismissed too.
Equally brazen was the process of appointing motor vehicle inspectors — again in Karnataka. Two transport ministers reduced the number of vacancies by importing their men from other departments! The high court restored some modicum of fairness by staying the process.
Much has been spoken about making the government's administration fair and responsive. One way to achieve this is to depoliticize recruitments from the lowest level. Political involvement and influence in making those decisions need to be cut off. Reports of Administrative Reforms Commissions should not be treated as formalities that have to be submitted and received. Public confidence in government requires urgent restoration.
This a tall order because our politics runs on favouritism and nepotism, besides other unsavoury elements. But one definitely hopes to see an administration that works for the people, not for politicians or other sharks. That's a better hope than harbouring the delusion that somebody will become Prime Minister in 2014.
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