Ethics in Civil Service

A glaring example of how the well-entrenched members of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) conspire to subvert moral values as well as the law of the country they ‘serve’ became available to public in the form of an investigative report published by the well known newspaper – The Indian Express – in its today’s edition dated the 6^th April 2008.

The news report, accessible at http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/293126.html shows how a particular politician was allotted a plot of land in 1993 in flagrant violation of all norms of administrative law. It also furnishes details as to how the ‘specific’ plot of land was progressively changed from the initially tiny size of just 35 sq. metres to one over ten times larger at 354.25 sq. metres! Not only that; while the initial plot was in an area meant for economically weaker sections (EWS) of society, the final plot is situated in a prime residential locality in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.).

The newspaper reports that when the media confronted the beneficiary with these facts, he retorted that he had done no wrong. After all, it was not his fault that, based on his hand-written request note, the State administration had given him a plot of land meant for an EWS applicant, and so on. Whatever the technicalities, it can’t be denied that the allotment of land could not have taken place without the involvement of several officers manning key posts in the Uttar Pradesh State government and in the Lucknow Development Authority.

Instances of such filth in administration usually surface because someone in existing government deliberately leaks the facts out to embarrass his political opponent(s). In other cases these come out into the open owing to painful, persistent and risky efforts lasting maybe weeks or months undertaken by some hard-nosed journalist or an NGO.

It is tragic, but widely believed, that only a minuscule fraction of the huge number of total cases involving such blatant, arbitrary and illegal use of authority by our babus (bureaucrats) and netas (politicians) reach the domain of public knowledge.

A still greater tragedy is that though the few such reported cases provide clear evidence of criminal intentions and actions ranging from gross dereliction of duty to conspiracy or breach of trust, the culprits usually go scot-free. This is for several reasons, including the following.

a. As such illegalities usually involve a number of babus, including those at the top rungs of a State’s administration, they naturally have a vested interest in scuttling action that would expose them.

b. Criminal action is required to be pursued by the State, which in effect means that the babus at various levels have to process the cases or data relating to them.

c. As the culprits belong to an All India Service, even honest members of the Service tend to favor protection of the tainted brother officers to avoid ‘maligning’ the ‘good name’ of their Service!

May God save India.