B D Sharma
A very gratifying news item appeared in the Daily Excelsior the other day that 97 percent pending files have been cleared in Jammu and Kashmir at the initiative of Dr Jatindra Singh, MOS in the PMO. But the joy got diluted when the other adjoining news item lamented that the Administration has failed to implement Saffron Mission even after eleven years. A further jolt was experienced when the Sunday Express, (online) of the same day, carried the news that J&K got less than 10% funds, just 1809 crore out of the CSS allocation of Rs 18527 crore for the year, 2021-22. So the gains made in one arena got offset in the other and we are left with a mixed bag. Unfortunately the people forget the accomplishments but memorialize the deficiencies of the governments.
So the concerned officials must be worried about the laggards and steps must be in the pipeline for removing the bottlenecks. Some political leaders, who champion the cause of representative govt, already do not miss any opportunity to denigrate the performance of the officers. Otherwise also, the bureaucracy has few fans. People don’t hesitate to call it as “a villain” or a disease.
This view of the instruments of governments pervades all over the world. Social scientists have no kind words for the Governments. Larsson is very harsh and observes “Dear Government… ..I’m going to have a serious talk with you if I ever find anyone to talk to.” Jorge Borges is equally sarcastic, “I believe that in time we will have reached the point where we will deserve to be free of Government.” Steinbeck says, “I find out of long experience that I admire all nations and hate all governments.”
No doubt, there are many occasions when the authorities are found wanting in taking timely action. Sloppiness and messiness are the well known attributes of the officialdom and the people spare no opportunity to denounce them. The governing class should be gracious enough to take a lesson or two from them instead of taking ill of them. It ill behoves your present author to find fault of the system with which he remained associated for many years and on this count he runs the risk of putting his almost nonexistent reputation at stake. But the facts always remain facts and they must be acknowledged gracefully. Few instances will bring out the drowsiness of the governing institutions.
In the 1980s one Ladakhi soldier showed exemplary courage in the Siachen sector and was awarded Ashoka Chakra, the highest peacetime military decoration for valour. When he went to receive the medal from the then President Giani Zail Singh at the Rashtarpati Bhawan, the President as a gesture of encouragement and appreciation asked the soldier if the Government could do anything for him. The brave soldier implored that he has visited DC office Leh many times to get his Permanent Resident Certificate(more famous as State Subject),but was unable to get it. This certificate might be got issued to him. Needless to say that his PRC was got issued. But this incident speaks volumes on the working of our offices and tells us about the quantum of difficulty the ordinary people experience in getting small things done in our offices. Issuance of a simple certificate posed such an insurmountable problem to the simple minded soldier that it was so uppermost in his mind as to seek the intervention of the head of the nation.
Sometimes, even the authorities notice that their staff are but playing truants in the performance of their duties. In order to convey a lesson recourse to sarcasm and fun is taken to highlight the evading attitude of such employees. The beautiful adage thus coined runs :”Kumm ni kar te Ghumm ni kar, Fikar kar te zikar kar.” for such idlers. The truant employees proclaim day in and day out that they are under the burden of lot of work and pretend to be in the throes of worry on account of this. They chatter and platter much regarding the pending work but do little to execute it. In the similar vein once a “Friyadi” pressed hard a political authority for early redressal of his problem. The “Mai Baap” told the applicant that the Minister was the face of the Government and the duty of the government was to do “Ghour” (contemplation). “Ghour” was being done seriously by him regarding the applicant’s problem also and after the “Ghour” is completed, his work would be done.
Sluggishness and evasion in taking decisions by the authorities has enriched our literature also. Famous Hindi/Urdu writer, Krishan Chander’s famous story ‘Jamun Ka Perh’ illustrates it beautifully. Once windstorm fells a Jamun tree in the premises of an office and one person gets trapped under its trunk. Cutting the trunk of the tree needs to be taken up expeditiously to save the life of trapped person but the authorities, instead, start preparing note file and pushing it from below to above and from above to below. Finally it is decided to invite tenders for removing the trunk and disposing of its wood. Somebody in the line points out the necessity of getting NOCs from the Forest/ Horticulture/Revenue departments also which further delays the matter. By the time the decision is ultimately taken, the trapped person loses his battle for life.
Another allegory “Unnecessary Umbrellas” by SV Kumar depicts the bureaucracy adept in the science of rejecting the simplest request in ten different ways, even though the request is got submitted in quintuplicate on the appropriate form. A bank manager of nationalized bank at Manglore writes to his head office to grant sanction to incur expenditure of Rs 100 for purchasing two umbrellas for outdoor duties in rainy season. The manager is first asked to submit the request in revised format. After this is done, the manager is asked to explain why branch requires two umbrellas. When told that this is in accordance with the past practice, the Head Office suggests the manager to utilize the umbrellas bought last year. When told that life-span of umbrella is one monsoon only, the manager is asked to first auction the old ones. Manager issues auction notice but nobody comes forward as the items have become rusted ribs with large holes and occasional bits of fabric. Then he is asked to send the details of the bids received and the manager intimates that no bids have been called as there is no variation in rates and amount involved is small. By this time the monsoon season is over and the explanation of manager is sought that when the branch has managed to do without umbrellas then why time and costly stationary of the bank has been wasted. The manager conveys that the items were essential and he had purchased one umbrella out of his discretionary fund and had offered his personal one for the branch use. The head office becomes furious and starts disciplinary proceedings against the manager for exercising discretionary powers when the matter was under the consideration of the higher authorities. Moreover, what interest the manager had for offering his personal effects for official use. In this way the rules have been violated. The poor manager got the shock of his life and had to be hospitalized for three months. The bank had to arrange a substitute in his place and the manager had also to be paid his medical expenses of few lakh. The high-ups had their ego satisfied by administering a sharp rap to the manager and deterring him to repeat the indiscretion again though lot of loss occurred to the bank.
Prime Minister Modi also recounted an episode in the Parliament recently as to how our Government machinery sleeps over the matters for years without any justification. A post of Churchill’s Cigar Assistant was created in early 1940s in Madras, who was tasked with obtaining the finest Trichinopoly Cigars and ensuring their smooth dispatch to 10 Downing Street. Despite Churchill losing elections in 1945 and India becoming independent in 1947, the post continued to exist for decades together till its irrelevance came to the notice of the Pay Commission and was duly abolished.
Fortunately for the Indian bureaucracy, the sloppiness, sleepiness and sluggishness pervade in almost the whole world. Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese army officer who had been deployed in the far-flung Lubang island of Philippines during the second World War. When the Japanese army surrendered, Onoda and few other soldiers could not be conveyed any directions and they continued fighting in the far-flung jungles. All but Onoda and three other soldiers had either died or surrendered. All efforts by the Philippines army to get Onoda surrender didn’t succeed. The Japanese authorities did not take adequate steps, as is the wont of governments, to arrange for his repatriation. The poor soldier continued to hamper enemy attacks as he had been ordered. He took the rescue teams to be the enemy onslaughts and escaped them employing guerilla tactics. Onoda’s orders also stated that under no circumstances was he to surrender or to take his own life. Japanese authorities took only halfhearted steps to rescue Onoda. But a public spirited Japanese, Suzuki took upon himself to rescue Onoda. He was able to establish contact with the soldier and asked him to come out of the jungle with him. But Onoda refused to surrender, saying that he was waiting for orders from a superior officer. Suzuki returned to Japan with Onoda’s photos with him as proof. And now only, the authorities became active and located Onoda’s commanding officer, Major Taniguchi, now running a small book shop. The Major went to Lubang island and finally met with his long lost subordinate. Onoda was properly relieved of his duty and he surrendered on 9, March 1974, after twenty nine years’ of hiding in Philippines.
When Bismarck was Prussian ambassador at the court of Russian Czar in 1860s, he looked out of a window at the Peterhof Palace and saw a sentry on duty in the middle of the vast lawn. He asked the Czar why the man was there. The Czar asked his aide-de-camp who couldn’t give a satisfactory answer. Czar sent for the officer in command who also showed his ignorance. The general commanding troops at the Palace was summoned. “General, why is that soldier stationed in that isolated place?” “I beg leave to inform your majesty that it is in accordance with ancient custom.” “What was the origin of the custom?” put in Bismarck. “I do not recollect at present,” answered the General. “Investigate and report the result,” ordered the Czar. It was found that the sentry was posted there by an order put on the books eighty years before! For one morning in spring, the then all powerful queen, Catherine the great, looked on that lawn and saw the first flower thrusting above the frozen soil. She ordered a sentry to be posted to prevent any one picking the flower. And even after eighty years there was still a sentry on the lawn even though the requirement was for a few days only as numerous flowers were destined to sprout in a day or two.
In the light of aforementioned instances, the people are not likely to have anything good to say about the Governments. To the people the authorities are notoriously undemocratic, prone to creating “paper trails” and piles of rules which result in red tape costing the taxpayers heavy both in time and money.
However, all is not that gloomy and miserable also. We are seeing many strides being made in our country for the last few years. Construction of high quality roads, electric supply to all villages, taking up piped supply of water to all, Jan Dhan Yojana and Direct Benefit Scheme, streamlining supply of cooking gas, Mundra Yojana and promotion of Start-ups, Swachh Bharat, health insurance, tackling Covid menace and administering 108 Crore jabs, enhancing domestic defence production and many other measures speak highly of the achievements of the Government machinery under the guidance of the Prime Minister and his team. There is another bright side of officialdom also. The despised red tapism documents the processes so that, if problems arise, data becomes available for analysis and correction. Files provide us organizational memory and allow an organization to be continuous. Bureaucracy many times is not a house of suppressed creativity and extinguished imagination. Social research shows that many employees intellectually thrive in bureaucratic environments. According to this research, many bureaucrats have higher levels of education, intellectual activity, personal responsibility, self-direction and open-mindedness, when compared to non-bureaucrats. Though it may have many shortcomings yet it goes without saying that bureaucracy is unavoidable. Some alternatives like the NGOs and the start-ups were tried as its antidote, but the remedy aggravated the malady and even they fell victim to the bureaucracy themselves.
(The author is a former civil servant).
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