HVK Archives: Willing tools
Willing tools - The Pioneer
J N Chaturvedi
()
20 August 1997
Title: Willing tools
Author: J N Chaturvedi
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 20, 1997
Power within the bureaucracy today has gradually become centralised within
the Secretariat and even within that, amongst a few individuals. This has
generated the inevitable undercurrent of intrigue, caste loyalties and
establishment of hegemonies. The same practices, have infected the police
as well. In such a climate, playing it extremely safe has become the norm.
The recent decision of a Kanpur court to proceed with the trial of Phoolan
Devi, brushing aside her newly acquired celebrity status, revives hope that
the country's criminal justice system once in a while attacks even those
endowed with a protective political armour. The manner in which the large
number of criminal cases against Phoolan Devi have meandered tortuously for
over one and a half decades has thrown up disturbing questions. The rule of
law has been subjected to remorseless battering, mainly because the role of
our administrative officials has not just been of acquiescence but, quite
often, of downright collusion.
During the first few years of Independence, the devoted patriotism of the
1000-odd ICS and IPS officers "which alone enabled the inexperienced
political leadership to absorb the trauma of transition" was widely
acknowledged. Yet, less than three decades later, their successors can be
berated for allowing themselves to be trapped, or more likely, becoming a
willing party in trying to cover up a naked abuse of authority. They have
not shown themselves as any different in Phoolan's case.
The decision to lot her surrender more than a decade ago on her terms was
itself bizarre -- an agreement arrived at between two "sovereign" or equal
parties. She is repeating ad nauseum that the Madhya Pradesh Government
has gone back on its "solemn" assurances that (1) she would not be handed
over to the UP authorities and (2) all cases against her would be withdrawn.
She had pompously surrendered to the then Chief Minister of MP at, a
largely attended ceremony. The surrender was brokered by a senior police
officer, obviously with the blessings of the Chief Minister and
departmental superiors. Naturally, the "broker" officer was in contact with
her as well as with those who sheltered her. They all were guilty of
dereliction of a statutory duty cast on them under the CrPC, the IPC and
the Police Act/Rules, for deliberately failing to arrest and bring Phoolan
Devi to book. The Chief Minister and superior officers of both UP and MP
were also guilty of abetting these crimes. The actions of the police and
administrative officers who facilitated Mulayam Singh's design to scuttle
the course of justice, should also be investigated.
The same officials might have attuned their opinions differently to
coincide with the political objectives of another Chief Minister. After
all, hasn't the CBI done it before? With the change of Government
following the Lok Sabha elections of January 1980, CBI officials started
seeking the court's permission to withdraw chargesheets they had submitted
only a few months ago. It was strange indeed for the investigating agency
to disown the chargesheets it had filed on the basis of credible evidence.
Luckily for it, judicial monitoring then was less than exacting.
Today, the people's view of the Indian bureaucracy, including the police,
is quite disillusioned.
These officials have repeatedly shown themselves as a disoriented group,
going berserk the moment they wield power, unfettered by constitutional and
other constraints and willing slaves of the political masters of the day.
For instance, the servile nods of acquiescence of top police officers to
the clearly illegal instructions of a State Home Minister of UP in the
early eighties, to eliminate or physically incapacitate criminals, had to
be seen to be believed.
Again, only an incredible elasticity of conscience alone could explain the
actions of an overzealous IG to call out tanks in the streets of Patna for
quelling Jai Prakash Narain's "Nav Nirman" movement in 1974. The same
official was chosen then to preside over a special team to investigate
Emergency excesses.
Three decades of uninterrupted rule by the same party helped the services
to forget that governments constituted under a democratic set-up have a
limited life in terms of time. The charge on the services today is that
those in high positions have functioned "with their thinking caps in
limbo", yielding only to whatever their political masters wished.
The commissions of enquiry in 1977 came up with a number of shocking
exposures of the misconduct of many, administrative and police officials.
Several instances of brazen insensitivity, pusillanimity or worse,
involving those holding key positions, emerged, only to be buried once
again by officials serving the state.
A more recent controversy centered around the top officials of UP. While
the Chief Secretary wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and the Governor
to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, each rebutting the damning assessment of
the State by the Union Home Minister, both showed the Chief Secretary and
the DGP at their worst. They were quarreling over the issue of procedure,
altogether skirting the main issue that the two letters were based on
statistical jugglery, using fudged criminal records.
The Chief Secretary then claimed that the letters were sent with the
approval of the Governor. At best, this could only help incriminate the
latter but how would it exonerate the two most senior functionaries, the
Chief Secretary and the DGP, from conspiring to mislead both the Government
and Parliament of India?
TN Seshan had called such officials "call girls" of those in political
authority. BG Deshmukh, Cabinet and Principal Secretary to the PM for
years, followed this with an expose of Seshan himself. Ironically enough,
proclaiming the virtues of integrity and practising them, are two
completely different things, when viewed from a position of power.
The Indian services, especially the All-India Services, enjoy adequate
security of every kind under Article 311 of the Constitution. All senior
positions in the Government are held by officers of the All-India Services,
whose liberal emoluments, job security and time-bound promotions are
guaranteed by the Constitution, All India Services Act and Rules. Fairly
generous post-retirement benefits ensure them a reasonably comfortable old
age. Indeed, they belong to the highest income bracket in a country where
more than half the people they claim to serve, survive below the poverty line.
Therefore, if even with this kind of protective armour, there should be a
clamour for more, the cause of this moral degeneration has to be sought
elsewhere. It is now widely felt that this overprotection has encouraged
venality, lack of work ethics and insensitivity to the wretched daily
existence of the average citizen.
Power within the bureaucracy today has gradually become centralised within
the Secretariat and even within that, amongst a few individuals. This has
generated the inevitable undercurrent of intrigue, caste loyalties and
establishment of hegemonies. The same practices, encouraged amongst
different levels of the administrative departments, have infected the
police as well. In such a climate, playing it extremely safe has become
the norm.
Reward and punishment are the only known strategies for motivating any
organisation. The recent decisions of the courts, fastening criminal and
civil responsibility on individual officers for their acts of omission and
commission, have, therefore, come as a breathe of fresh air. Yet, not many
can afford the luxury of protracted court proceedings.
But have we not all heard of the people's courts of Telengana, Orissa and
Bihar, and their system of summary retributive justice? The people
elsewhere have also felt cheated for too long. No-one can thus anticipate
the final forms of punishment their pent-up anger may take.
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