A disabled system

The dust is settling down on the Puja Khedkar saga. The media circus has travelled to new pastures with fresh fodder to feed on. But the story raises pertinent questions. Is the system so porous that any bright but deviant mind can easily manipulate it with impunity? Is the treatment of fresh trainees during their first field exposure such that, instead of tempering or training, it only serves to further embolden them to seek privileges and status which they now believe are birthrights?

When my batch was preparing to leave the Academy after the 1st Phase training in Mussoorie, many among us were apprehensive of what lay ahead. Reasons varied from the prospect of living alone away from home for the first time to working in a state one had never visited earlier, with language and cultural challenges. The then venerable Director of the Academy addressed the probationers in the iconic SP Hall on the eve of the departure, answering the many issues being raised. Understandably, the officers allotted to the North East Cadres, and for some reasons, Kerala, were the most worried lot. He assured them that letters have been written to the Chief Secretaries informing about their arrivals, with requests for taking care of transport to district HQs, accommodations etc. Amid all this, an officer assigned to a so-called mainland cadre in the western part of the country raised his hand and asked whether the CS of his state had also been suitably informed of his arrival. To this, the Director replied with a chuckle and a big smile, “You don’t have to worry. The state government will send a plane to pick you up!” The hall reverberated with laughter and therein perhaps lies one of the underlying reasons as to why Ms Khedkar behaved the way she did and, in the process, unwittingly plotted her own undoing.

Her matter is now sub-judice and one has no intention of passing judgement on her before the honourable Courts do. Suffice to say that whatever be the final outcome, the exposure and time the media has given to the case has jolted the diminishing tribe who still perceive the civil service as one of the remaining pillars of our society. I am unabashedly one of those who continue to hold this increasingly unpopular view despite the shenanigans of some of its members, present and erstwhile.

The three All India Services (AIS) form the core of governance at the state level, the All India nature of their service being restricted to occasional stints in the Central government at senior levels and in some cases brief deputations to their home states. Otherwise, most officers remain glued and vested in their cadres.

The arrival of an AIS trainee officer in the district in roughly the second year of service is an occasion which heralds the pre-coronation of a future master. The lower staff and subordinate state civil officers largely form the baraat which carries them on their shoulders. Of course this may not be true of all states. Some are not as welcoming to the trainees and a rocky start awaits them. There is the usual advice by the Academy to expose them to various departments at district and state levels, language skills and some hands-on training by assigning brief stints as BDOs/ SHOs/Range Officers. The focus is on learning the trades which will define their careers for the next 35 years.

So, how does this all connect to Ms Khedkar’s story? It is my view that the seeds of entitlement are sown in the academy itself, unwittingly or otherwise. Hark back to the Director’s response to the officer and peel off the intended humour or wit. How could he have expected anything less in the district? Today, we also have Instagram reels showing young men and women alighting from SUVs accompanied by blaring sirens, flashing beacons and prostrating subordinates with captions like “powers of the IAS/IPS”! There could not be a more misplaced exhortation to join the services.

I am not privy to the government’s present guidelines on district training. I am sure these are more than adequate. But a few suggestions can be made perhaps in the preceding context to address the non-training related aspects. It could be useful to lay down a manageable Lakshman Rekha of Do’s and Don’ts so that the trainees are neither deprived nor indulged to the extreme.

When I joined my cadre, I had to take a lift to the guest house from a stranger who, finding me standing forlorn outside the airport of an unfamiliar town, kindly offered me a lift in his jeep. I reached my district by hopping on to a public bus which halted at frequent intervals for onloading and offloading humans and animals in equal measures! I am sure some other batchmates would well have faced similar debuts while others would have been welcomed by liveried lackeys like medieval potentates. The lack of any well-defined comforts, fringe or otherwise, for trainees leave a wide gap in the same being offered to them across states. Where these are minimal or almost nonexistent, the trainees usually chin up and bear it with fortitude spending most of their spare time matching horoscopes with potential spouses in other cadres. But in states which indulge them, the human nature to clamour for more often takes over. Had Ms Khedkar been sent to a less indulging cadre with a collector whose tolerance threshold for the demands of trainees was much lower, she would have been dispatched with a rap on her knuckles. The flip side is of course that the alleged manipulations of certificates and feigning of disabilities would have remained beyond scrutiny.

A uniform code for both states and trainees with regard to basic facilities and creature comforts that should be available during district training could be tried without being too dramatic or overwhelming. This could include, inter-alia:

1. Basic accommodation at circuit house where quarters are not available;

2. Transport for official tours only in vehicles shorn of adornments like siren and beacons;

3. A house peon who can double up as a cook;

4. PSOs only where the same is required for security reasons;

5. Each officer should be given a separate handbook on what they can expect justifiably and what they cannot demand from the state and district. A copy of the same should be given to each DM/SP/DFO who has an assigned trainee;

6. Anything below or beyond the above should be discouraged.

The basic comforts of the trainees must be taken care of because without these they cannot focus on training. However, creature comforts and facilitating tools for official work should not be translated into privileges which create potentates. After all they have another 35 years or so to chase after status and perks.

Views expressed are personal