The Hindu : Whatever happened to the steel frame?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 11, 2003

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National

Whatever happened to the steel frame?

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI JAN. 10. The New Delhi-based IAS and IPS officers belonging to Uttar Pradesh cadre have received a communication-cum-invitation from the Chief Secretary of the State. It reads, in full: "You are cordially invited to attend and celebrate `Swabhiman Diwas' to commemorate the historic awakening and empowerment of the Depressed Classes in India on the occasion of the Birthday of Ms.Mayawati, Chief Minister, U.P. on 15th January, 2003, at 7 p.m. at Talkatora Indoor Stadium, Park Road, New Delhi.. RSVP, Chief Secretary Uttar Pradesh.'' The invitation bears the official seal of the State.

The recipients were indignantly ringing up one another on how the Chief Secretary could allow himself to be persuaded to send out such a communication. Some are even believed to have expressed their indignation to the Union Home Secretary and the Cabinet Secretary (who himself is a U.P. cadre officer and must have been invited to the Swabhiman Diwas).

A political leader's followers or party is entitled to celebrate his or her birthday in a manner to make a political statement. For example, the BJP celebrated Atal Behari Vajpayee's birthday as "Vikas Diwas.'' Similarly, the BSP could serenade Ms. Mayawati as the embodiment of the political philosophy of the Dalit emancipation. But the Chief Secretary cannot lend his name to a partisan cause, that too in a manner distracting from the State Government's constitutional obligation towards all citizens.

Perhaps, it is an aberration. Perhaps, the steel frame is not as steely as it pretends to be. Perhaps it is that the Chief Ssecretary wants to curry favour with a Chief Minister. May be "Dalit empowerment'' is politically correct, and not many may want to run the risk of being accused of being a `Manuvadi,' but at stake is even a larger principle: an elected Government and its officers have to act fairly and equally towards all citizens. The bureaucracy — unless it is asked to be "committee'' — is enjoined on to be above all political loyalties.

As an indignant U.P. cadre officer asked: "Supposing the Chief Secretary of Gujarat were to send out invitations to celebrate Narendra Modi's birthday as a "Hindu awakening day," then all of us would correctly excoriate him for being communal.''

But who can do anything to correct this errant behaviuor" Can the Prime Minister or the Home Minister or even the Cabinet Secretary intervene in the interests of bureaucratic neutrality and good governance? Or, will, coalition compulsions override all canons of raj dharma?

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