Debacle in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal: Misuse of Civil Service for Partisan Interests

The recent Assembly election results saw a spectacular debacle of two ruling political parties —the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Leftist alliance led by the Communist Party-Marxist in West Bengal which had been in continuous power over the last thirtyfour years, an unprecedented phenomenon in democracy anywhere.

The cause of the debacles was the same—misuse of power given in trust by the electorate in the hope that the power will be used in public interest. Both the parties betrayed the trust reposed in them—but of course in different ways.

In Tamil Nadu, power was used by the rulers of the DMK to amass fortune and wealth and gain commanding heights in all sectors and institutions in economic and social life, including the media and education, for one extended family of the DMK patriarch and Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi. Accumulation of wealth and power and concomitant corruption and arrogance displayed by the family members became insufferable. People were keen for an alternative. The only alternative was the AIADMK led by J. Jayalalithaa. Not that she had in the past set an impeccable record. Her previous rules were also tarnished by allegations of corruption. But voters thought that she could be given yet another chance. In any case there was no other alternative. If she learns no lesson and repeats her past mistakes, she also could be thrown out in the next elections!

It was surprising that none of the so-called exit polls or polls of public opinion had the least inkling about the massive tide in favour of Jayalalithaa. The huge attendance at her pre-election public meetings in important towns like Madurai and Coimbatore were indicative of the shape of things to come. But the complacent opinion readers did not sense the massive shift from the DMK to the AIADMK.

The modus operandi of the political parties in power is to use the machinery of government and administration to serve their own interests rather than public interest. Administration at all levels, from top to bottom, from the Chief Secretary at the top to the Tehsildar at the bottom, and from the Director of Police to the Sub-Inspector at the level of the police station, each one is made to subserve party or family interests. Politicians at all levels use their power to make the civil servants act according to their bidding. Not just those who hold formal positions in government as Ministers but political office-bearers and political busybodies as well.

But why do the civil servants do so? Obviously because they have to work under political pressure in the shape of threats and blandish-ments. How dare a civil servant question the dictates of politicians of the ruling party? They forget that in our democratic system of gover-nance, parties go in and out of power but civil servants have to serve different governments as dutifully as before. Civil servants are not servants of political parties, they are servants of the government and people. They have to work strictly according to the law and rules thereunder and decide individual cases accordingly. The elected governments can change the laws and rules but so long as they exist, civil servants are bound by them. They should not exercise arbitrary powers which go against the laws and rules and public interest. They have to work impartially. They are bound by the doctrine of political neutrality. They cannot have one law for the people of the ruling party and another for the rest. They cannot be a party to the vendetta often let loose by the members of the ruling party.

Unfortunately in our democratic system our politicians have forgotten this role of civil servants. There is increasing tendency to use political power to punish honest, upright officers insisting on doing their duties through devices like arbitrary transfers and even by launching departmental and criminal cases against them while rewarding ‘loyal’ servants no matter how arrogant they are towards the common people and how corrupt they are, so long as they support and help the corrupt politicians in power. Good, clean, impartial officers are marginalised while those who are corrupt but are in the ‘good books’ of politicians are given choice postings. Civil servants, even top-level IAS officers, are ‘identified’ with political parties. No wonder that the first thing Jaylalithaa did after assumption of office was to change the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police and other top officers. This is really most unfortunate and denotes degradation of the civil service as an institution based on the concepts of ‘political neutrality’ and subserving ‘public interest’ alone to the exclusion of partisan interest. Not just the CVC but every civil servant has to be of ‘impeccable integrity’. But they have become an endangered species in these days of extensive politicisation of the civil service and their subjugation by the politicians. Most civil servants have become subserving and time-serving.

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POLITICISATION took place in West Bengal as well, over the long Leftist rule of thirtyfour years. But not in the style of Tamil Nadu or elsewhere. It took place according to the doctrine of governance of erstwhile communist countries which was that the ‘government has to be subordinated to the party’. Individual communist politicians like Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were excellent examples of integrity, simplicity and even austerity in their personal and family lives. But in the political system of the Communist Party, there was no place for an ‘independent’ civil service. At all levels like district, Tehsil and even village, party cadres directed the decisions and acts of civil servants.

Panchayati Raj Institutions came to be instru-ments in the hands of party cadres. Ordinary villagers living ordinary lives were cowed down by local party cadres who were the ones who lived a comparatively affluent life. The rule of the omnipresent party became suffocating to the common villagers. The advantages of the old ‘Operation Barga’ which benefited the small farmers were eroded. The West Bengal debacle of the Communist Party was the inevitable outcome of the oppression of the pervasive party cadre.

Civil servants in West Bengal formed trade unions which behaved like party cadres. How can the civil servants be ‘loyal’ or accountable to their superiors when they themselves behave like political cadres? They ‘received’ the Chief Minister on assuming office at the entrance of the Writers’ Building. Teachers in educational institutions were appointed on the basis of party credentials rather than academic excellence. No wonder academic standards suffered.

Of course, it should be mentioned that even in other States it has become customary for higher civil servants like Secretaries to ‘receive’ Ministers with flowers and garlands. This is indeed very unbecoming of the civil service as an independent institution. However, such ‘loyalty’ of civil servants is only a self-serving device. The civil servants who worked as trade unions were quick to change their loyalties. Even before Mamata assumed office, there were extensive raids on the Communist Party offices where huge cachés of arms were discovered! How did this sudden change happen?

In the long rule of the Congress party at the Centre and in some States too this kind of phenomenon has become widespread. Civil servants are linked to parties and individual Ministers. But politicians forget that the so-called loyal servants do not serve them well. They show them the wrong path which can only lead to disaster. The self-serving civil servants in the government make politicians do acts which tarnish their reputation in public life.

In Maharashtra, the co-operative institutions built by pioneers like Vaikhunth Mehta and D.R. Gadgil stand ruined by politicians of the NCP as was exemplified by the RBI dissolving the Board of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank and appointing administrators to take the top-most financial institution of the co-operative movement out of the financial mess in which it has fallen.

It is high time that the politicians learn their lessons, stop misusing the machinery of the government and institution of civil service and other institutions like local government, co-operatives and educational institutions and work within the framework of our Constitution and the rule of law.

Formerly Secretary to the Government of India and Vice-Chancellor, Goa University, Dr Dubhashi is currently the Chairman, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Pune Kendra, and happens to be a Padmabhushan awardee. He can be contacted at e-mail: dubhashi@ giaspn01.vsnl.net.in