Saturday, May 9, 2015

OROP: Are Bureaucrats the Real Villains?













OROP:

Are Bureaucrats the Real Villains?

                    By

Major General Mrinal Suman

 

Whenever the blame game starts for delay in
 
OROP, bureaucrats are painted as the
 
incorrigible villains who doggedly impede its
 
implementation. The services consider
 
bureaucrats to be their biggest adversary. Read
 
any mail on the social media, bureaucracy is
 
blamed for stalling all pro-services measures –
 
endless litigations, rank pay, equipment
 
deficiencies and so on. Are we being fair to
 
them? Are they really culpable? Can
 
bureaucrats disobey the political leadership and
 
block OROP?
 
 
 
 
The answer to this convoluted mystery lies in
 
the Indian bureaucracy’s split-personality
 
syndrome. It is a neurosis disorder in which the
 
personality becomes dissociated into two or
 
more distinct parts; each of which becomes
 
dominant and controls behaviour from time to
 
time to the exclusion of the other parts. A
 
modern name for this condition is dissociative
 
identity disorder.
 
 
 
 
 
Regrettably, Indian bureaucracy suffers from
 
triple split-personalities. Each personality
 
manifests itself as per the target group. A
 
bureaucrat is an arrogant ruler while dealing
 
with the public. In this persona, he looks at the
 
citizens as seekers of favours and considers
 
himself to be the dispenser of largesse. As a
 
result, he behaves in a haughty, pretentious,
 
condescending, pompous and supercilious
 
manner.
 
 
 
 
 
The second personality becomes dominant
 
when a bureaucrat interacts with the American
 
and European authorities. He becomes an
 
epitome of humility and decorousness; and
 
displays immaculate manners (bordering on
 
servility). He seeks scholarship and green card
 
for his progeny. Further, he craves for a
 
lucrative appointment under UNO, World Bank
 
and other international organisations. They
 
know that his candidature would need positive
 
support from the developed nations and hence
 
puts up a show of ‘good behaviour’.
 
 
 
 
 
However, it is the third personality of a
 
bureaucrat that concerns us with respect to the
 
implementation of OROP. It manifests itself
 
when he interacts with his political master. He
 
becomes the most servile, timid, gutless and
 
spineless creature on the earth. Even the most
 
degrading treatment meted out to him is
 
endured with inexplicable reticence. Some
 
states treat bureaucrats in an offensive manner
 
but there is not even a whimper of protest. 
 
 
 
 
No bureaucrat ever opposes or questions his
 
minister. During a social gathering, a senior
 
bureaucrat was candid enough to admit, “I stay
 
in my job as long as he is happy. Otherwise, I
 
will be shunted to some innocuous job in some
 
NE state. Who wants to risk it? Therefore,
 
during meetings, I keep looking at the facial
 
expression of my minister for clue and tailor my
 
response accordingly”. 
 
 
 
 
It is commonly joked amongst the bureaucrats
 
that their
 
 degree of impotence is
 
directly proportional to the
 
nearness of their retirement
 
 
date. Every bureaucrat dreads retirement and
 
consequent loss of power, recognition and
 
perks that he had got so used to during his long
 
innings with the Government. Thus senior
 
bureaucrats become the most pliable officials.
 
Fading away gracefully is not a trait that most
 
bureaucrats can be accused of suffering from.
 
They, by their very nature, are ‘lingerers’ and
 
hate the sight of an ‘exit door’. For re-
 
employment, they need to cultivate their
 
political mentors and stay on their right side.
 
 
 
 
Governorship is by far the most sought after
 
appointment. The next option is to grab a
 
vacancy in UPSC, CEC, CAG, CIC and such other
 
establishments. Many functionaries initiate
 
proposals for the constitution of
 
monitoring/regulatory commissions to create
 
suitable slots for themselves. As a desperate
 
resort, some bureaucrats ‘offer themselves’ for
 
appointment on an expert committee,
 
howsoever obscure it may be. Committee
 
members get office, staff, telephone, car and
 
other perks along with honorarium.
 
 
 
 
In view of the above, is it ever possible for any
 
senior bureaucrat to go against the wishes of
 
his minister? It takes no time for a minister to
 
remove a recalcitrant bureaucrat. Bureaucrats
 
are ‘survivors’ by nature and swim with the
 
tide. No bureaucrat stopped scams related to
 
2G spectrum, coal mines and Commonwealth
 
games.
 
 
 
 
To prove the point, let us recall Rahul Gandhi’s
 
demand for an increase in the number of
 
subsidized gas cylinders from 9 to 12 per year
 
at a Congress rally at Delhi on 17 January 2014.
 
The Cabinet approved it on 30 January and the
 
new policy came into effect on 01 February
 
2014. Wishes of the Congress Vice President
 
were implemented within a period of 15 days.
 
Although the then Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily
 
estimated the increase to cost the exchequer Rs
 
5,000 crore annually, no bureaucrat objected to
 
the huge fiscal penalty to stall it. They knew
 
what was good for them.
 
 
 
 
The contrast is obvious. In the current
 
dispensation, one year has passed; neither the
 
Defence Minister nor the Prime Minister can
 
fulfill the solemn promises made by them on
 
the OROP issue. Progressively, Modi is
 
appearing to be a weak and powerless leader,
 
whose writ does not run at all; making some
 
wonder if Rahul has a bigger chest than Modi’s
 
proverbial 56 inch one to enforce orders.
 
 
 
 
Therefore, it is grossly unfair for us to blame
 
the bureaucrats for the OROP logjam. No
 
bureaucrat can dare to stall it unless so
 
instructed by his ministers, whose bidding he
 
does so very diligently. Someone in the apex
 
authority is sabotaging the issue by asking the
 
bureaucrats to keep raising infructuous and
 
irrelevant queries. They are simply following
 
orders.
 
 

Postscript



OROP has ceased to be a question of financial
 
compensation. It has become an article of faith
 
with immense emotive connotations. It
 
symbolizes reluctance of a government to fulfill
 
its solemn commitment to its soldiers and is
 
considered symptomatic of the moral
 
deprivation of the worst kind of a two-faced
 
political party.

 
 

 
The Modi government could not have handled
 
the issue in a more senseless manner. It is
 
surprising that Modi remains unconcerned at
 
the inordinate delay denting his credibility. In a
 
short period of time he has frittered away
 
goodwill of 50 lakh strong military community
 
and their family members, whose en-block
 
support ensured his electoral victory. Modi is
 
certainly going to rue it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

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