Adarsh Housing scam: Will the truth ever come out?

Tuesday 23 October 2012
News updated at 3:51 PM IST by Prabhat Sharan
A thick jungle of intertwined vines with only blinking fire-flies casting light on facts is what now makes up the Adarsh Housing Society scandal -- which made sensational headlines last year for the alleged involvement of Army top brass, politicians and bureaucrats, but quietly faded into the background since. While other high-profile scams like 2G spectrum, cash-for-vote and illegal mining continue to be in the news with several ‘dignitaries’ scurrying between jail and bail, the Adarsh scam has almost been banished from public memory, as investigators struggle to wade through the thick foliage of information and arrive at appropriate conclusions.
It is through this forest where vines of corruption and chicanery are indistinguishably twined into a Gordian knot, the two-member judicial commission is trying to hack its way slowly picking up clues, which later turn up as red herrings.
Unlike other commissions set up elsewhere in country as well as in Maharashtra earlier, Justice (retd) J A Patil and former state chief secretary P Subramanian, the two-member commission set up last year to look into the Adarsh Housing scam, has no simple task before it; the commission has to sift out truth and elusive facts from various agencies, bodies and groups of interests to come to a conclusion.
The involvement of multifarious agencies all inextricably linked with each other coupled with political personalities from ruling party juggling with facts has made any kind of breakthrough into establishing even the primary ownership of the contentious land ‘deed,’ a Herculean task.
Last week Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was forced to admit that the progress into the Adarsh Housing scam “is extremely slow and there are no two opinions about it.”
And the result of the slow progress is that the commission which has already received two extensions since it’s inception has been forced to postpone the submission of its interim report. The interim report was expected this month but it came as no surprise when the news trickled out that it would be delayed.
The depth of involvement and the reach of the politician-builder-bureaucratic trinity in the scam which has innumerable questions buried in its past has managed to widen the chasm between the truth and justice. There are hardly any doubts regarding the veracity of the belief that violations had taken place through deceit; but the establishing of these facts, pointing to the manipulation of various governmental institutions by the powers be, is a different matter altogether. For this, the commission is wading through 379 files containing 1.50 lakh documents. There are over 100 affidavits filed by different persons, besides there is also the problem of ‘disappearance’ of several relevant and important documents.
No guiding light
Till date with varied and contradictory statements gleaned from officials and people summoned, the commission is yet to decide as to the identity of the ownership of the plot even though it is not supposed to outside its scope. But since CBI is also expected now to report to the quasi-judicial body, the investigation results have so far not provided any guiding light to the committee.
The Army, soon after the scam broke proclaimed that the land belonged to the defence, but later could only come up with maps dating back to 1950s and were unable to furnish any latest proofs to their claim. The state government on its part came up with another set of documents showing that it had taken the Colaba plot on which Adarsh building was erected from the Army by giving the latter a plot located in Malad-Kandivli belt in far-flung north-western suburbs.
To compound the matter worse, the initial allegation that ignited the scam of the land being reserved for Kargil war martyrs widow continues to be in limbo and so do other allegations flying around: reservation of flats; allotment of extra floor space index (FSI); widening of Prakash Pethe Road; reservation of the BEST (civic) plot; violation of coastal regulation zone (CRZ) norms and the role of bureaucrats in the manipulation of records and allotment of flats in the controversial 31-storey Adarsh building.
The presence of in-fighting and political rivalry continues to throw up sensational facts with an alarming regularity; but the headlines grabbing facts except adding to the confused state of affairs till date has contributed nothing to the investigations that could lead to the booking of the guilty parties.
The ruling Congress-led Democratic Front alliance government after instituting a CBI inquiry into the matter conveniently allowed the setting up of a judicial commission with quasi-judicial powers. Higher-ups in bureaucratic echelons while accepting that in the final lap the commission may manage to come out with the truth of the matter; but it would be a long, long run.
Till then the ruling DF, political personages, bureaucrats, relatives of people in power and retired high-ranking defence officials can take respite in the fact that the truth buried in the murky inception of the Adarsh Housing Society will continue to erupt as questions and nothing more.
History of all commissions be it the Lentin Commission, Srikrishna Commission, Liberhan Commission or any other quasi-judicial commission is that they take ample time to ascertain and establish the guilt of the parties concerned. And Adarsh Housing Commission will also have to trudge the same long winding path. Till the commission reaches to a conclusion, neither the Opposition political parties nor any civil rights groups can point a finger at the ruling political alliance for not taking action.
Adarsh Housing scam: Will the truth ever come out?

Will the Government Kill the RTI Act?

RTI applications now expensive and difficult; will the move kill the act? Reported by Sidharth Pandey Updated: April 29, 2012 16:00 IST
New Delhi: It was hailed as the UPA's big achievement when the Right to Information Act was passed in 2005. Now it seems like state governments and public authorities across the country are making it increasingly expensive and at times a virtually impossible task for people to seek information.
In states like Chhattisgarh, the Vidhan Sabha or state assembly has recently hiked the fees for information to Rs500 for each query. This means, that anyone asking questions like details of how many days their elected representatives have attended the assembly, or the expenditure on their foreign trips, will have to shell out 500 rupees each time. That's 50 times the price as envisaged under the original 2005 RTI Act. The Uttar Pradesh assembly has been asking 500 rupees for years now.
It doesn't stop there; in fact citizens should avoid asking for any photocopied documents from the Chattisgarh assembly unless they are ready to pay 15 rupees per page as charges to the assembly. That's 15 times the market rate for photocopying.
Will the move to make RTI applications expensive kill the act?
RTI applications now expensive and difficult
So while in some states the cost of applying for information has become expensive, other states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh have set a word limit to just 150 words.
It now seems that Madhya Pradesh too is about to set a word limit and also double the fees for seeking information from Rs. 10 to Rs. 20.
The justification to hiking fees and limiting queries given by various authorities is that the move is aimed at curbing frivolous applications that end up over burdening government officers with answering frivolous applications. But these changes in the rules have not gone too well with activists who have been fighting to strengthen it.
Shekhar Singh, the coordinator for the non profit organisation, National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), says the present and proposed changes may be ok in the letter but not in the spirit of the law. Singh, who was a key player in drafting the 2005 landmark information act, says that citizens should challenge the change in rules.
"Even if we agree to the Rs. 28 income a day, as the line that divides the poor according to the planning commission that means a person will have to save his entire months income just to file one RTI. It in effect takes away a person's fundamental right indirectly" explained Singh.
But changing rules is one thing, changing the act is another.
"More and more exemption provisions are being made than what are there are in the original law and this is not acceptable," said Satyanand Mishra, India's Central Information Commissioner (CIC).
As the CIC, it's Mishra's job to ensure that the RTI is implemented across the country. He also plays the role of chief referee between information seekers and public authorities, often ruling on appeals filed by citizens who have been denied information by officers.
But increasingly he's had to pass orders asking public authorities to not only give information to citizens but also re-look at the changes made by them which have altered the nature of the law.
The RTI is heralded as one of the most important laws since independence, by civil rights campaigners. It's allowed ordinary citizens get a host of basic services from water connections to passports. But now with many states and authorities making this process difficult and expensive, the RTI could soon be a mere act in government books.
Government intent to kill the RTI Act

Will the MOD overcome the allergy for the Military?

Babus now oppose General Singh's vision for MoD
April 05, 2012 20:04 IST Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi
A recommendation to appoint officers from the defence forces at the level of director in the ministry of defence is being ferociously challenged, reports Sheela Bhatt.
The ongoing battle between Indian Army chief General VK Singh and the ministry of defence has now spread to the level of policy making, high-level sources in the government told Rediff.com
The fundamental issue in the psychological battle General Singh has waged against the government is that he wants radical changes made in the way arms deals are struck in India.
General Singh and other retired and serving army officers would declare victory if military officers are part of the defence secretary's team when decisions on arms purchases are made at the MoD.
Sources have told Rediff.com that the important sub-committee of the Task Force on National Security has recommended that officers of the defence forces be appointed at the level of director in the ministry of defence.
It is a baby step, but an important one.
This would dramatically change the perception of the MoD in the eyes of India's defence personnel.
But this recommendation is being challenged ferociously. There have been reports emanating that the controversies swirling around the army chief have cast their shadows on the deliberations of the task force on national security, which was set up last July.
In August 2011, General Singh briefed the task force, providing a comprehensive view of the issues concerning the army. He told members of the task force that there was a breakdown in the Indian Army's procurement policy.
Surprisingly, the task force did not act urgently and bring the issue to the prime minister's notice.
The task force seems to have treated General Singh's concerns in routine fashion. It appears the task force, which is headed by former Cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra, one of India's distinguished civil servants, is awaiting a formal completion of its assignment. It is expected to submit its report by the end of April.
Government sources claim a group consisting of retired diplomats and civil servants have opposed the inclusion of army officers in the MoD.
Rahul Bedi, the well-known defence expert and correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly, says, "Since the last 20, 30 years experts have given advice to the government to induct uniformed men in the MoD. It's frightening to see delays in taking such decisions. The way this situation can escalate is very frightening. I am not saying that there is going to be a military takeover, but the morale of the soldiers is likely to be adversely affected."
"As it is," he added, "the Indian soldier looks upon the babus (civilian bureaucrats) and politicians as chors, and this is not going to change. This (the opposition to induct military officers at the MoD) is only going to reinforce his belief and his dislike of the MoD and the babus of the MoD and the political class."
When officers of India's armed forces sit along with the babus, Bedi says a certain responsibility and accountability will be imposed upon this newly formed establishment to make change come about.
"Let us not forget that in all societies -- whether it is in the West or in India or in other countries around Asia -- military establishments are the last to change," says Bedi.
"They are the most difficult to change," he adds. "I think it's about time we overcame our allergy for the armed forces."
The core issue of the ongoing tensions between General V K Singh and the ministry of defence is that most of the powers of procurement of weapons and equipment lie with the MoD.
It is perhaps time the Indian Army's sensitivities are taken care of in the task force's report.
Babus now oppose General Singh's vision for MoD
Comment: It is but natural for babu's to scuttle any honest proposals from the Military as these corrupt officials have been Milking and degrading the Military to a tootless one. We need the guts of FM Manekshaw and Gen VK Singh to fight the corrupt forces in the MOD.

Troop movement report is irresponsible journalism: Ex-deputy Army chief

Troop movement report is irresponsible journalism: Ex-deputy Army chief
Source: Anupriya Kumar, Dailybhaskar.com | Last Updated 22:14(04/04/12)
New Delhi: The front-page Indian Express report on the late night January 16 military movement is an exaggerated account of a routine military exercise, and is an example of irresponsible journalism, Lieutenant General (Retired) Raj Kadyan said today.
In an exclusive interview to Dailybhaskar.com, the former Former deputy Army chief said that before publishing the report, the newspaper should have carried a preliminary check with the army to confirm what the purpose of the movement was.
"The military exercise did occur late at night on January 16, but it was a routine movement. A movement that involves a couple of units from an Army as extensive as ours must not be treated as anything abnormal," Lt Gen Kadyan said.

"It did not deserve to be blown out of proportion," he added.

Responding to the failure of the Army to inform the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Jan 16 exercise, he said the Army might have made a procedural lapse and can now be asked to provide an explanation of the same.

Lt General Kadyan also dismissed the contention that there could be a link between the age row between General VK Singh and the government of India, and the Jan 16-17 military movement."

"It must have been simply a coincidence. The order for the movement of the units must have been given by someone who I am sure did not even know that any petition has been filed by the current Army chief."

He also rejected the rumours of a military coup in a country that has a stable political system, which makes a military takeover impossible.

"Such things occur in countries beleaguered with political unstability and widespread unrest. Such a situation does not exist in India since our system is working fine."

Lt General Kadyan added, "It is unfortunate that a report carried by what is believed to be a credible publication ended with a statement that casts aspersions on the loyalty of the army in general, and General VK Singh in particular, toward the nation."
click here for the original post

Army Vice Chief, MoD officials likely to face House panel today

TNN | Apr 4, 2012, 02.11AM IST
NEW DELHI: The Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen S K Singh and senior officials of the ministry of defence (MoD) could face several hostile questions regarding the military preparedness and alleged corruption in the Tatra deal on Wednesday, when they appear before the parliamentary standing committee on defence.
Sources said Lt Gen S K Singh could be appearing before the standing panel, where the demand for grant for the military was slated to be the official agenda. However, in the wake of recent controversies kicked up by Army chief Gen V K Singh's startling disclosures, the meeting could focus on the Army's poor preparedness. Besides, discussions could centre on Gen Singh was offered a Rs 14-crore bribe by a retired Army general for clearing the purchase of "sub-standard" Tatra trucks.
The committee members are concerned about Gen Singh's claim that military preparedness was at an "alarming level", when the Army and ministry leadership has been regularly telling them that force was ready to protect the country.
In the last two years, the MPs were told that the military spending was on course, and that in 2010-11 they were able to exhaust the entire budget after several years. In 2011-12, save for Rs 3,000 crore of the Army's capital allocation, the Services spent the entire sum. The Army chief's recent letter to the PM about the poor state of affairs flies in the face of such assurances.
click here for the original report

Gen VK Singh is a thorn in the flesh of the corrupt
Among the chatterati in Delhi, it is being openly discussed that Gen Singh is a thorn-in-the-flesh of the corrupt, be it the services, the bureaucracy or politicians. Being the Army chief, he has to be party to any decision, especially those involving huge financial outlfow, but if he himself is above board, it makes life hell for those whose "livelihood" depends on corrupt practices. Poor fellas! Little wonder, therefore, the dirty tricks department has the daggers out for Gen Singh at all times.
Army chief vs govt: Another slap on you know who!

Is Home Minister walking diplomatic tight rope?

The portions in colour hit the nail on the head. The bureaucrats have no urgency and no accountability with the result our police and security agencies are severely handicapped.
Same is the case with the Defence Services!
Till funtioning of IAS and Finance is reformed, our governance and security will NOT repeat NOT come to required standards.
Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh (Retd)

Israel attack: Is Home Min walking diplomatic tight rope?
February 14, 2012 21:56 IST
While Home Minister P Chidambaram has declared the Israel embassy car bombing as a terror strike, he has opted not to name the perpetrators of the attack. Anil Chowdhry wonders why...
One watched with concern the explosion in an Israeli embassy car near the prime minister's 7 Race Course house in New Delhi [ Images ] on television news channels on Monday. On Tuesday, a similar incident took place in Bangkok -- the Thailand capital was rocked by three explosions.
While the Israeli establishment was prompt and forthright in holding Hezbollah and the Iranian government responsible for the attacks, Home Minister P Chidambaram has opted to not name any outfit. Whether he is clueless or trying to walk the diplomatic tight rope is anybody's guess.
The vent sets me thinking as an ex-security person whether such incidents, apparently caused by highly trained and motivated terrorists can be prevented?
Well, in my view, it is difficult for the police to prevent them, keeping in mind the volume of persons at any public place in the city and the chaotic condition of our roads. Detection of such cases, of course, depends a lot on public cooperation and technical and forensic expertise available to the police of the metropolis that is attacked.
Well-planned deep penetration intelligence operations backed by technical intelligence inputs are very complex and need dexterous handling by experienced sleuths. Moreover, they need full support from the government to succeed in preventing terrorist attacks in public places.
In both these areas our police and intelligence agencies are seriously handicapped by tight bureaucratic controls in the matter of recruitments, procurements, and purchases. I don't know about the other metropolitan police forces in the country but in Delhi, the police commissioner is rather tied up with several proposals from the home ministry aimed at making the police and intelligence agencies effective to counter terrorist organisations.
Files keep making their endless journeys up and down the corridors of North Block between the Union Territory -- police divisions of the MHA to the expenditure division of the Ministry of Finance, all located on the same floors. And the blame game between the state police and central intelligence agencies invariably starts after such incidents. In Delhi it is less pronounced since both report to MHA.
It is unimaginable that a capital city with a high level of threat from religious terrorist groups does not have in position a CCTV network even in its high security zone. It is yet not known if the Delhi police has been able to get hold of the number plate and photographs of the motorbike and its rider who is believed to have stuck the magnetic explosive device on the embassy car.
I know that the IB's counter-terrorism wings and the operations unit of the Delhi police are manned by some of the best intelligence officers, but the lack of adequate technical intelligence support is a handicap for both.
Let's hope that the HM, who has shown that he is a man of action and not words, is able to quickly fill this critical gap.
(The writer is a retired member of the Indian Police Service.)
Is Home Min walking diplomatic tight rope

IFS Officers only interested in Plum Postings: Takes MEA for a ride

Hilarious indeed: Tale of Envoy to Male!! How our External Affairs Ministry works. Amazing, how our External Affairs Ministry seems to work. There seems to be no dedication and National spirit.
Sad indeed.
Harbhajan Singh
Lt Gen

Time to crack curse of Maldivian albatross
K.P. NAYAR
Monday , February 13 , 2012
Washington, Feb. 12: “Operation Castor” by the Indian Navy brought relief to the tsunami-hit Maldives during Christmas season in 2004 and earned praise worldwide, but India’s political leadership continuously turned a blind eye to a developing political tsunami there that now threatens to undercut New Delhi’s sway over this unique nation of atolls.

It has implications that have the potential to drag down the four southern states into the same cycle of religious fundamentalism and terrorism that has become a familiar story in north and western India.

Unless the UPA government pulls itself up by its bootstraps now and thinks out of the box to help solve a crisis triggered last week by the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed, the Maldives is likely to drift deeper into chaos.

Madhusudan Ganapathi was not the first Indian diplomat to be rushed to Male to put out a fire that is the fallout of that capital’s politico-religious schizophrenia. And he will certainly not be the last.

A few months before the December 2004 tsunami, India defused a political earthquake when Shyam Saran, like Ganapathi now, flew into Male by special aircraft and ensured that normality was not disrupted.

That was a turning point when the political cauldron in the Maldives began boiling: the trigger was Evan Naseem, an ordinary prisoner in dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s notorious Maafushi jail, an alleged drug dealer who was beaten to death a year earlier, merely for disobeying orders by prison guards to come out of his cell.

Naseem became the Maldives’s Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian vegetable vendor in Sidi Bouzid, whose self-immolation in December 2010 was a catalyst for the current turmoil in the Arab world.

Popular revolutions had not yet become the norm, otherwise what followed Naseem’s death, which was pronounced at Male’s Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, would have been called a Maldives Spring. Besides, the Maldives is so tiny that nobody cared, except India.

Sensing the direction in which new political winds had begun blowing in the Maldives, India’s professional diplomats began talking to the opposition. They did not want to be caught unawares by a Maldives Spring.

For India, one of the problems of being the biggest country in South Asia is having to deal with sensitivities of smaller neighbours that often border on the irrational. Gayoom was apoplectic that Indian diplomats were talking to members of Nasheed’s nascent Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) that was still operating primarily in exile from Sri Lanka.

Saran, with his long experience of having handled such sensitivities in Nepal, Mauritius, Myanmar and Indonesia, ensured that a potential flashpoint was defused. But as foreign secretary, Saran had inherited a baggage on the Maldives that hung around his neck like an albatross.

Under sheer pressure, South Block often lurches from one patchwork to another and has little time for long-term strategic thinking, but Saran managed to get rid of the Maldivian albatross. Yet the curse that came with the albatross as in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner did not go away.

That is what India is paying for in the latest crisis in the atolls to its south-west that are critical for national security.

It is a matter of criminal neglect by successive Indian governments after Rajiv Gandhi’s that none of them paid attention — like a big brother should do — to the political problems in the Maldives the way New Delhi tracks and attends to similar problems in Nepal or Bhutan. There was never enough time for the Maldives.

Or willingness, for that matter. For as long as two years slightly before the Naseem episode, India did not have a high commissioner in Male.

Most Indian Foreign Service officers are unwilling to go to Male unless they are forced to because it is a diplomatic wasteland in the traditional sense and because a posting to the Maldives is often viewed as a stamp of inadequacy in later career.

During the two-year period when Male went without an Indian envoy, an attempt was made to send an otherwise competent IFS officer, who had previously suffered in his career because he dared divorce a member of one of India’s best known political families.

Indian politics was much more feudal and one-party oriented during those years and the officer paid a price for his personal choice. But he was not going to be sent to the Maldives, which he saw as another slight to his already damaged career.

Luckily for this officer, he had two dogs, which were now like his family and the Maldives does not allow any dogs for religious reasons. The only dogs that can be found anywhere in this nation of atolls are at the airport in Male to sniff passenger baggage for drugs. But those dogs are handled only by Sri Lankans under an outsourcing arrangement with Colombo.

So the officer in question put in a request that on compassionate grounds his assignment should be cancelled since he cannot take his dogs to Male. The request was granted. Another officer sought to be excused because his mother was ill and he could not go to Male.

South Block then scraped the bottom of the barrel and came up with the name of a consul general serving in North America. He too refused and there was enough political support to persuade the leadership of the IFS to thwart his posting. His plea was that he had hydrophobia, which made the Maldives unsuitable.

An aside to this story is that this consul general subsequently dug his heels and stayed put in Canada for well over a year. Fortuitously, his host government discovered that he had surreptitiously acquired Canadian permanent residency for his immediate family in violation of diplomatic rules.

Canada’s foreign minister then wrote a personal letter to Jaswant Singh drawing his attention to this violation. Singh, then external affairs minister, ordered his repatriation from Canada in seven days flat.

This reporter vividly recalls a nugget on the Maldives that was doing the rounds in South Block at that time. Kanwal Sibal, who was then foreign secretary, had persuaded then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to go to the Maldives at the end of September 2002: it would have been the first prime ministerial visit to Male in five years.

But there was no high commissioner in place to receive Vajpayee. The story goes that Neelam Deo, who was the joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs handling the Maldives, was narrating her tale of woe to her IFS batchmate, Shashishekhar M. Gavai, then consul general in Edinburgh.

To Deo’s great surprise and relief, Gavai volunteered to go as high commissioner to Male. As soon as she put the phone down, Deo rushed into the foreign secretary’s office to convey Gavai’s readiness to move from the UK.

It is to Sibal’s credit that in the course of just two days he cut through the long bureaucratic process of appointing an envoy. It is a reflection of India’s clout in Male that the Maldivians approved Gavai’s appointment in one week and fixed a date for his presentation of credentials.

Gavai rushed from Edinburgh to take charge as high commissioner just three days before Vajpayee landed in Male on September 22, 2002. It was probably the only instance in Indian diplomacy where an IFS officer held two jobs simultaneously on two continents. Gavai went back to Edinburgh after Vajpayee left Male to relinquish his charge as consul general.
Time to crack curse of Maldivian albatross

Babus and Bureaucracy make Citizens CRAZY

The a to Z of indian bureaucracy
Twenty six ways in which Indian babus are making a mockery of governance, ethics and public service.
Arrogance
For months, the media in Delhi screamed hoarse that the planned ‘BRT corridor’ scheme dreamt up by a few babus of the transport department is a disaster. The bureaucrats blithely went about imposing this nightmare on citizens of Delhi with traffic jams becoming the norm. Now the babus arrogantly blame citizens of Delhi for choosing cars over murderous buses for commuting to office! A babu without arrogance would be like a dodo... Extinct

Bullying
Like all bullies, the babu rides roughshod over those below him and fawns obsequiously on his masters. You only have to watch the rude and callous manner in which a bureaucrat behaves with a citizen who has gone to his office for some work. And then compare his behaviour in front of a politician in power. The ‘public servant’ is actually the ‘master’ of the public and the ‘servant of the ‘master’ – usually a minister, and sometimes a mafia don!

Corruption
This is synonymous with Indian babudom. Whether you are the aam aadmi or a billionaire, your file won’t move an inch unless cash changes hands under the table. In the 1980s, the Octroi department in then Bombay went on a strike & army officials manned the check posts. The strike was withdrawn after the media reported that Octroi collections had gone up by more than 500%.

Delay & denial
Perhaps except the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro, no project ever undertaken by an Indian babu ever finishes on time. There are some irrigation projects that are in the process of completion for the last 30 years! Delays are always deliberate because they throw open more opportunities for ‘money on the side’. And of course, whenever the media or the judiciary highlights the delay, the Pavlovian reflex of the Indian bureaucrat is to deny, and then deny some more.

Enquiry & extension
If corruption and sordid acts are the dirt, the omnipresent ‘Enquiry Committee’ is the proverbial carpet under which the dirt has been carefully hidden. The principal purpose of the Enquiry committee is to delay, and then deny in the hope that the media and the public will eventually forget about the case. In English, enquiry rhymes with another interesting word called bury! Bureaucrats never ever retire; they just keep getting those ‘extensions’!

Failure
That one word can neatly sum up the history of the Indian bureaucracy after independence in 1947. Worse, babus find it difficult to digest the fact that entrepreneurs can usually do a better job. So you will see bureaucrats banning ‘private’ bus operators and forcing citizens to take state run buses that don’t run. So you will see envious bureaucrats ‘de-recognising’ or not recognising world class centres of higher education. Perhaps their biggest failure till date has been their total inability to kill the great Indian spirit!

Gutless
There is a saying about the Emergency: they crawled when they were asked to bend. That can neatly sum up the behaviour and attitude of most bureaucrats in independent India. It is virtually impossible for a minister to get a babu sacked; and yet bureaucrats crawl before netas and justify their behaviour by whining that they are otherwise harassed.

Hustling
You would associate this term usually with dealers in a casino. But Indian babus have become masters of the game. Just look at how Sudhir Goswami hustled his way into the cover of Time Magazine as one of the Indian heroes. It is only much later that dumb struck Indians found out that Goswami was lining his pockets and bank accounts with money meant for flood relief! And does any one remember Ashok Agarwal, the Enforcement Directorate official who turned black mailing into a fine art!

Impose inefficiently
When corruption, delays, denials and hustling don’t work, the Indian babu resorts to ‘imposing’ rules and regulations. It is a different matter that the bureaucrat performs even this destructive act very inefficiently! Impose price controls if inflation hurts people so that they are hurt even more. Impose quotas at the behest of political masters. Impose rules which entrepreneurs have to break if they want to run a successful business.

Justify
The Indian bureaucrat has acquired and mastered the legendary act of justifying anything and everything. File a request under the Right to Information Act and the babu will deny access to it. He will then justify his cussed behaviour because it involves something termed as ‘national security’. Ask a bureaucrat about delays in construction of national highways and you will get simply no response, He will justify his stonewalling in the name of ‘public interest’!

Kafkaesque
If Franz Kafka had encountered Indian babus, his novels would have been even more depressing and disturbing. Analysts are sadly mistaken when they call Kafka’s writings surreal; they perhaps meant the Indian bureaucracy. A Kafkaesque bureaucracy is “marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity”. B&E challenges entrepreneurs and citizens to say confidently that they understand the frighteningly complex jargon that is used by babus.

Lies
Arguably the third most favourite sport of the bureaucrats after corruption and delays. When denials and stone walling don’t work, just resort to outright lies. The Indian babu will lie about files, projects, public interest, national security, corruption, delays, hustling and any other act that might embarrass the bureaucrat individually or the bureaucracy collectively. Thanks to judicial activism and some bureaucrats being sent behind bars for contempt of court, babus are now wary of using this weapon!

Mismanagement
If Jack Welch would watch an Indian babu ‘manage’ something, he might just end up committing suicide. With extremely rare and honourable exceptions, almost every thing that a bureaucrat touches turns into dust. When babus announce a grand new plan to increase electricity and water supply to citizens, the taps dry up and the lights go out. When they announce a plan to tackle monsoon in Bombay, even Dalal Street virtually shuts down because no one can reach office! And of course, they then justify it in public interest!

Nepotism
Like the courtiers of the Mughal era, Indian babus-thanks to their access to the new kings and queens of India (Ministers, MPs and MLAs)-are perpetually trying to curry a favour or two for themselves and their family members. The best overseas scholarships are thus ‘reserved’ for children of bureaucrats. Some of the best jobs in the private sector are thus ‘reserved’ for the children of bureaucrats. And some of the best college seats in India are thus ‘reserved’ for the blessed progeny of these new age courtiers!

Oblivious
Quite mysteriously, the ‘If they don’t have bread, let them eat cake’ persona of the French Revolution has been transplanted into Indian bureaucracy. Cocooned in their bungalows and VIP areas, the Indian babu is utterly oblivious to what is happening in the rest of the country. The babu is oblivious of the fact that 300 million Indians are starving; that roads don’t exist in much of India, that water and electricity are mirages for the aam aadmi, that…The only thing they are not oblivious to is their ‘status’.

Proliferate
Like bacteria and termites, Indian babus have proliferated and invaded virtually every sphere of activity in the country. No wonder businessmen and citizens say that our system is rotten to the core. Indian babus run companies, they manage climate control, they run the Railways, they operate fleets of buses and aircraft, they run duty free shops, they run anti-poverty programs, they run schools and colleges and hospitals… They might start running modelling agencies and spas too. In short, proliferating bureaucrats have run India to the ground!

Queue
When the first bureaucrat in the history of mankind had a fantasy, he saw a long and winding queue of forlorn, dejected and frustrated people. That day, God was perhaps in a bad mood and condemned mankind to a life time of queuing up. For Indian babus, the ultimate high is making citizens stand in never ending queues-for money, for ration, for tickets, for liquor, for passports and even for death certificates. Of course, queues are meant only for the public, not for ‘public servants’!

Red tape
The ubiquitous file tied up in red thread is the ultimate symbol of the corrosive and destructive powers of Indian bureaucracy. It is as dangerous as the Swastika of Nazis; as devastating as the Red Star of Stalin and Mao and as vainglorious as the Eagle of the United States. The Indian babu starts getting withdrawal symptoms if he is not surrounded by musty files; many of which have perhaps not been opened for decades. Red Tape is the Bramhastra that is used by babus to systematically throttle India Inc.

Sycophancy
Many at B&E suggested socialism & sadistic as a better option than sycophancy. Eventually, the consensus was that arrogance coupled with sycophancy is the Yin & Yang of Indian bureaucracy. The sycophancy is reserved only for the powers that be-for the criminal turned neta who has become a minister, for superiors who can gift plum postings and assignments and for very rich entrepreneurs who lavish money on the bureaucrats.

Tragedy
Indian bureaucrats are always feverishly praying for natural and man made tragedies and disasters to strike India. A minor flood is welcome; a drought is even better and a disaster like an earthquake or a super cyclone is heaven sent. A tragedy means ‘relief’ money from government coffers and an opportunity to make enough to build another house or two. Now you know why sincere and dedicated babus fight to have their districts declared ‘drought prone’!

Utopian
Hare brained ideas and schemes have become the monopoly of Indian bureaucracy. One day, you will have the Lt. Governor of Delhi thinking aloud that I-cards for people from U.P. and Bihar might be a good idea. The other day, you will have another babu stipulate that a homeless destitute must provide proof of residence before he gets free food. Soon, expect a bunch of sycophantic babus kowtowing to a neta and drawing up legislation for reservations in the private sector.

Verbose
This term just about pipped the word vindictive to the post. Whether it is the annual function of a school or college or a gathering of India’s top businessmen, the Indian bureaucrat is in his element when he gets a chance to deliver a ‘lecture’. Hypocritical words tumble out of his mouth like honey laced with arsenic. Children & businessmen have no choice but to suffer in silence for a vindictive bureaucrat is worse than a verbose one!

Wanton
Four synonyms for the term wanton are-uncalled for, needless, meaningless and reckless. But wait, the wanton behaviour of the Indian babu is on display on selective occasions. Over cautious bureaucrats suddenly turn decisively over zealous when it comes to squandering tax payers’ money on fancy schemes that only line up their pockets and that of politicians.

Xenophobia
When all else – including corruption, delays, denials, hustling, nepotism, red tapism and sycophancy – fails, the Indian babu resorts to the good old pass the buck game and starts blaming ‘foreign powers’ for all the ills that bedevil India. The foreign power could be the CIA, it could be terrorists from Pakistan, it could be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, it could be the insidious designs of China and it could be a conspiracy of developed countries to deny prosperity to India.

Yes minister
Most readers of B&E must be familiar with this hilarious and yet poignant book and British TV series. Just in case you are not, it is a series of episodes where bumbling but clubby bureaucrats make fools out of vain glorious politicians in the U.K. In India, it is difficult to say who is making a fool of whom. But one thing is for sure, both bureaucrats and ministers are sure making fools of Indian citizens. Not just some of the people some of the time. But all the people, all the time!

Zero sum game
In this game, one of the two participants has to necessarily lose. More importantly, the quantum of gains that are made by the winner is exactly the same as the quantum of losses. In India, the bureaucrat and the citizen have been playing a zero sum game right since 1947; perhaps even before that, when the British had ruled India through a civil service stucture. No prizes for guessing who the decisive winner is when the opponents are the citizen and the bureaucrat. Unlike those classic zero sum games, the politician is the joker in the pack in this case!
Business and Economy- Indian Bureaucracy

Secretary ESW: Mirror of Bureaucratic Arrogance

ESM SITREP 24 JULY EVENING
Dear Colleagues,
1. In the continuing efforts by IESM in pursuing ESM welfare measures, I had a one-to-one meeting with the Defence Minister on 18 June 2011. Inter alia he mentioned:
a) The govt is moving towards OROP step by step. There was no firm commitment when/ if full OROP will come through.
b) The bureaucracy was opposed to grant of OROP to Defence personnel. The Finance Ministry also puts spokes with regard to sparing money for OROP.
c) On the subject of non grant of enhancement of pension to the widows, he sounded sympathetic and wanted a Note from me that I submitted.
2. Based on his directions, I received a call for a meeting with Secretary ESW and I met her on 15 July 2011, again a one-to-one meeting. Unlike the Minister, her attitude was more hardened and bureaucratic. The gist of what transpired was:
a) With reference to OROP she asserted that the JCO and OR pensioners were happy with the enhancement. On being questioned on the source of her information she disclosed that some ESM organizations and individuals keep interacting with her and have told her so. I challenged her to produce even one individual among the over two million pensioners who opposes OROP.
b) She maintained that there was only a minor difference in the pension of pre and post 1.1.2006 pensioners. I maintained that for a Sepoy of Gp ‘Y’ with 17 years service the difference in basic pension was 42% and gave her a copy of the table showing figures for various ranks.
c) She elaborated the difficulty in implementing OROP since ‘many pensioners have moved residence’, ‘records prior to 1989 are not computerized’ and ‘there are too many categories and groups’ etc. I pointed out that same difficulties would have been faced when they equated the pre and post 10.10.1997 pensions - highlighting that in fact relatively more records of that period were manual – and adding that on similar lines why cannot the pre and post 1.1.2006 pensions be equated. I further offered to help with whatever technology assistance was needed but she declined the offer.
d) On the legal problem in OROP, she read out from a DOPT circular that had quoted some SC judgment to the effect that the govt had a right to fix any cut-off date for fixing salaries and pensions and that it did not violate the spirit of Article 14 of the Constitution. I pointed out the negative side of it in that the govt wants to fix a cut-off date detrimental to ESM interests and then takes shelter behind the law. Conversely, if govt wants to fix a pro-OROP cut-off date, the law will not interfere with it.
e) On the issue of revised PPOs, she mentioned that the CGDA and PCDA Allahabad had raised their hands in undertaking the massive work. I mentioned that the Army have told us they would help and we have been assured that the first PPOs will start rolling out in three months. She was skeptical and remarked ‘we will see’.
f) On the non-enhancement of widows’ pension along with others she mentioned that the pension is related to last pay drawn and hence cannot apply to widows. I pointed that even in case of surviving pensioners the enhanced pension is not based on their actual last salary but a notional one and the widows could be similarly treated. She did not give any counter argument.
g) On ECHS I had sought clarification on the following three points: i. Empanelment of TPAs. She disclosed that a Cabinet Note had already been prepared and that this was about to come through.
ii. Empanelment of Pharmacies. She disclosed that the DGAFMS and the Service HQ were opposing it.
iii. Making up of Staff Shortages. She mentioned that this was an ongoing process and deficiencies are being made up.
3. In the end I told the Secy EWS that all eyes were on the Rajya Sabha Petitions Committee and during our presentations they gave all indications that they would recommend grant of OROP. I further added that in case the govt did not accept the recommendations of the Petitions Committee, the struggle by the ESM will further intensify.
Best regards,
Lt Gen (Emeritus) Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM

Comments
Press On Regardless IESM. We have tolerated enough nonsense from the so called Ex-Servicemen Welfare Section (ESW) of the Government of India. Not a single serving or retired Defence Person is part of this organisation. They do not know the ABC of the Defence Services. They are totally clueless about the problems of Defence pensioners.They are the maximum trouble creators for the Defence Services Ex-Servicemen of India, Defence Services widows and families.– We will tolerate NO MORE nonsense from ESW. I know many members of the Parliament are monitoring our sentiments. May I request you to kindly send a copy of this email to Secy ESW. Also many of you, receiving our views, have close relatives in IAS; please forward a copy of this to them also, provided of course if you have some loyalty to us. Many of you have been promising to send articles on the attitude of IAS towards Defence Services; probably you could not gather enough courage to do so – or can we say that you lack loyalty to Defence Service in spite of having spent best part of your life with Defence Services.
Thank you. –
Chander Kamboj
In the Service of Veterans
Related Reading: DGR Perpetuates Corruption

Director General of Resettlement: A thorough clean up job is essential

CBI arrests two officials for graft TNN Jun 3, 2011, 05.42am IST
NEW DELHI: CBI on Thursday arrested two government officials for allegedly demanding bribe from a junior officer for upgrading his Annual Confidential Report. The agency registered a case against Jati Ram Meena, joint director at Directorate General of Resettlement in defence ministry, and S K Gupta, deputy director general, ministry of tribal affairs, under Prevention of Corruption Act, sources said.

"It was alleged in the complaint that the accused demanded a bribe of Rs 60,000 from the complainant for getting his Annual Confidential Report upgraded," CBI said in a statement. Based on the complaint, CBI laid a trap and arrested Meena while accepting the bribe. "Searches are being conducted at the official and residential premises of both the arrested persons," CBI said.
CBI arrests two officials for graft

Can the Military get Justice from grafted IAS Officers?

IAS design conducive to graft
India Today Amitabha Pande | June 17, 2011 | Updated 07:48 IST

Neera Yadav after her conviction.
Two months ago, Neera Yadav, former Chief Secretary of U.P, was convicted and sent to jail. Soon thereafter, BS Lalli, CEO of Prasar Bharati, was suspended on allegations of corruption. Both were my batchmates in the IAS and my memories of them as probationers are so completely at variance with the reputations they acquired later in their careers that it becomes both sad and difficult to reconcile the two.

Do social origins and the cultural milieu in which one has grown up have a role to play in the kind of IAS officer one eventually becomes? At one level, all bureaucrats have been corrupt in some way or another - favouring friends or kinsmen or persons of a particular region, using the perks and freebies offered by PSUs and so on. Worse, many have readily condoned or did not resist the corrupt behaviour of those wielding political power. A few, however, become known for the voraciousness of their appetite for material acquisitions. What makes for this change in behaviour? Were the symptoms, or the ' lakshanas' of such behaviour always there?
Categories
When we joined the IAS in 1971, the entrants could be broadly grouped into three distinct, occasionally overlapping, categories. There were those of us whose parents had been/were in the higher echelons of civil service or senior management positions in the boxwalla companies. Most of us had been to public schools and our undergraduate years had been spent in the elite colleges and universities of India.
The second social group in the IAS was also from an urban middle class background but with a strong non metro, medium sized city bias. Belonging to cities such as Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Nagpur, Sagar, Baroda or Mysore, their parents were mostly from professional, technical backgrounds working in the middle rungs of their organisations. They were deeply rooted in the emerging Indian middle class and the IAS was a very significant part of their aspirational growth.
The third group had closer links with the rural and provincial than the second. They were deeply and integrally connected to land and land relations. The IAS of their imagination was still rooted in a semi- feudal, patriarchal order. Their most distinguishing feature was their unease with the English language.
This threefold varna is probably sharper in retrospect than it was at that time and many of us fell in between these groups.
The distinctions were primarily cultural and the English language the main dividing line. Many of us in the first group were half ashamed of our elitist origins. To our social guilt tainted eyes a person like Neera appeared a shining example of someone who had fought her way out of a chauvinistic, patriarchal social order.
To understand what changed, tracing the career trajectories of the three groups can offer interesting sociological insights.

Who is Anna Hazare?

1. Who is Anna Hazare ?
An ex-army man. Fought 1965 Indo-Pak War.
2. What's so special about him?
He built a village Ralegaon Siddhi in Ahamad Nagar district, Maharashtra.
3. So what?
This village is a self-sustained model village. Energy is produced in the village itself from solar power, biofuel and wind mills. In 1975, it used to be a poverty clad village. Now it is one of the richest villages in India. It has become a model for self-sustained, eco-friendly & harmonic village.
4. Ok...?
This guy, Anna Hazare was awarded Padma Bhushan and is a known figure for his social activities.
5. Really, what is he fighting for?
He is supporting a cause, the amendment of a law to curb corruption in India.
6. How can that be possible?
He is advocating for a Bill, The Lok Pal Bill (The Citizen Ombudsman Bill), that will form an autonomous authority who will make politicians (ministers), bureaucrats (IAS/IPS) accountable for their deeds.
7. It's an entirely new thing right...?
In 1972, the bill was proposed by then Law minister Mr. Shanti Bhushan. Since then it has been neglected by the politicians and some are trying to change the bill to suit their theft (corruption).
8. Oh.. He is going on hunger strike for the whole thing of passing a bill..! How can that be possible in such a short span of time?
The first thing he is asking for is: the government should come forward and announce that the bill is going to be passed. Next, they make a joint committee to DRAFT the LOK PAL BILL. 50% government participation and 50% public participation. Because you cant trust the government entirely for making such a bill which does not suit them.
9. Fine, what will happen when this bill is passed?
A Lok Pal will be appointed at the centre. He will have an autonomous charge, say like the Election Commission of India. In each and every state, Lokayukta will be appointed. The job is to bring all alleged parties to trial in case of corruptions within 1 year. Within 2 years, the guilty will be punished. Not like, Bofors scam or Bhopal Gas Tragedy case, that has been going for last 25 years without any result.
10. Is he alone? Who else is there in the fight with Anna Hazare?
Ex. IPS Kiran Bedi, Social Activist Swami Agnivesh, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and many more. Prominent personalities like Aamir Khan is supporting his cause.
11. Ok, got it. What can I do ?
At least we can spread this message
12. How ?
Putting status message, links, video, changing profile pictures. At least we can support Anna Hazare and the cause for uprooting corruption from India. At least we can hope that his Hunger Strike does not go in vain. At least we can pray for his good health.

EX-SERVICEMEN RALLY HELD ON SUNDAY, AT FREEDOM PARK, BANGALORE, EXPRESSING SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT TO MAHATMA ANNA HAZARE IN HIS CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION
An Ex-servicemen rally was held on Sunday, 10 April 2011 at Freedom Park, Bangalore, expressing solidarity and support to Mahatma Anna Hazare in his crusade against corruption. The rally led by senior Veterans, viz. Lt Gen VJ Sundaram (senior scientist DRDO), Air Vice Marshal BK Murali (an Aeronautical Engineer) and Brig DS Sandhu (a dashing Cdr of an Armd Bde, while in service) was attended by a large gathering of Ex-Servicemen of the Army, Navy & Air Force and Defence Family Pensioners.
Veteran Gen VJ Sundaram stated that the corner stone of a Soldier’s life is Devotion, Dedication & Sacrifice; and so also, an Ex-Servicemen’s life is rooted in Thyaag, Balidaan & Kurbaani, as exemplified by Mahatma Anna Hazare, a Sepoy Driver of the Army Service Corps (ASC) during the 1965 War with Pakistan.
Veteran Air Vice Marshal BK Murali spoke about Mahatma Anna Hazare’s life as a shining example of patriotism & social service of the highest order; and, his single minded devotion to the cause of eradication of Corruption deserves total support by all citizens, across all walks of society.
Veteran Brig DS Sandhu, said that corruption was eating into the vitals of the Nation and it was the duty of all citizens to join hands to combat corruption on war footing.
Veterans Sub Maj Balachandran, Sgt Subhash Balekai, Naik Ramesh & Naik Reddy spoke of the need for probity in public life and said that drafting of a comprehensive Jan Lokpal Bill is the need of the hour.
Report by:
Veteran Colonel SS Rajan
Convenor, Karnataka Ex-Servicemen Movement
Bangalore, 10 April 2011

Supreme Court pulls up Defence Ministry

NDTV Correspondent, Updated: April 01, 2011 15:03 IST
New Delhi: The government was once again criticised by the Supreme Court, this time the court pulled up the Defence Ministry for not filing a status report on the sale of illegal weapons by the Army.
The court said," It seems that we are heading for another racket."
The Ministry told court that there are aberrations and a status report on how to deal with the issue will be submitted to court within six weeks. The court was hearing a plea seeking CBI probe in the issue.
Read more at: Supreme Court pulls up Defence Ministry
Related Reading
Illegal Arms sales by Army Officers
IAS Officers in the illegal brew of weapons

Adarsh Housing Society: Cases booked under IPC

PIB- Ministry of Defence 14-March, 2011 20:18 IST
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a Preliminary Enquiry on 15.11.2010 which has been completed and a regular case registered on 29.1.2011 against 13 persons under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Searches have been conducted at 13 places and large number of documents have been seized, which are under scrutiny by CBI. The names of accused persons are :(1) Shri R.C. Thakur, the then sub. Divisional Officer, Defence Estate Office, Mumbai, (2) Brigadier (Brig) [Retd]. Madan Mohan Wanchu, (3) Shri Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, Ex-MLC, (4) Major General (Maj Gen) [Retd], A.R. Kumar, the then General Officer Commanding in-charge (GOC), Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa (MG&G) Area, Mumbai, (5) Brig.(Retd) Romesh Chandra Sharma, the then Deputy GOC, MG&G area, Mumbai, (6) Maj Gen Tej Krishan Kaul, the then GOC, Indian Army Mumbai, (7) Brig (Retd.) Tara Kant Sinha, the then Colonel, MG&G Area, Mumbai, (8) Brig P.K. Rampal, the then Commandant, sub area Mumbai, (9) Sh. P.V. Deshmukh, the then Dy. Secretary D/o Urban Development, Government of Maharashtra, (10) Shri Ramanand Tiwari, the then Principal Secretary, D/o Urban Development, Government of Maharashtra, (11) Shri Subhash Lala, the then Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Government of Maharashtra, (12) Dr. Pradeep Vyas, the then Collector, Mumbai, (13) Shri Ashok Rao Chavan, the then Revenue Minister and the then Chief Minister, Government of Maharashtra and private persons. Investigation is in progress. The details of violation of rules/ regulation can be ascertained only after completion of investigation.
Some note sheets of a Adarsh Housing Society related file of Department of Urban Development, Government of Maharashtra have been found missing. In this regard, FIR has been filed with Mumbai Police against unknown persons.
This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to S DR. Arvind Kumar Sharma and others in Lok Sabha today. PK/NN
(Release ID :70979)
Adarsh Housing Society

Armed forces must stem corruption

Dear Sir,
I refer to your editorial The Tribune- Jail for a Lt-General- Armed forces must stem corruption dated 21 Feb 11.
It is with utter shame that that we old soldiers watch senior officers being found guilty and being sentenced to rigorous imprisonment. Section 63 of the Army Act of 1950 is a very useful statute under which covers "an act prejudicial to good order and military discipline". Any misdemeanour can be charged under it eg., insolence, insubordination, stealing the affections of a brother officer's wife, being drunk or not being at an appointed place at the correct time etc.,. In fact Section 63 was the most used rule to discipline officers. With all round economic progress in the country, more and more cases of corruption are surfacing and more serious charges are being brought into use.
However, I am satisfied that in most cases the Services themselves throw up such cases and deal with them post haste. Unlike our colleagues in the civil services and our political masters, who know what is wrong with their colleagues but seldom make out a case against them. Even if they are found out, the CBI has to obtain permission from the Govt to start the investigations. Which their colleagues take ages to give, so that the culprit can cover his tracks at leisure. In fact if somebody blows the whistle, they go after him.
I was recently told by an IAS officer of MP cadre that every one knew about the corrupt ways of the Joshi couple who had amassed a fortune of a staggering Rs 360 crores. But no one had the gumption to give information about their misdeeds in writing, to a superior so that action could be taken against them. Look at the two consecutive Chief Secretaries of UP, who were voted as the most corrupt officers by the state IAS Association. But no one had the courage to supply the requisite information to prevent them from milking the state and its people of hundreds of crores.
How is it then that the country and the press goes into a frenzy if a couple of officers out of 40,000 odd, have crossed the red line. Has a politician or any bureaucrat from the IAS, IPS, IAAS, Indian Forest Service, PWD, Electricity Dept, IRS ever been brought to book with such alacrity and severity? The only one I know of was punished in New York for having taken commissions for awarding contracts. But that gentleman from the Indian Defence Accounts Service was working in the UN and did not have the protection of his brother officers! The punishment given to Lt Gen Sahni will ensure that for at least 10 years senior officers will think twice before they try something similar. Unlike the civil servants the army will continue to take decisions promptly, and not seek protection like the joint secretary level officers enjoy in the govt. The self cleansing process in the services will ensure that they stay a notch above their civilian counterparts as far as honesty is concerned.
What the govt and the people of India do not realise is that when you expect a defence officer to behave like Yudhishtra and be ready to bear the rigours of service life and fight like Bhim, he needs to be treated differently from the his civilian counterparts in the govt. They too have a desire to educate their children well and partake of the affluence the people around them are enjoying.( Remember when an IFS officer died, along with a Brigadier, in a bomb attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul his bereaved wife was visited by the PM personally and granted extraordinary compensation, while the Brigadier was ignored as he had only faced hazards of his service, for which he had signed up!)
But the Cabinet Secretary and his august Committee feel otherwise. No wonder they pronounced that defence officers need not be treated differently from their civilian counterparts. In fact, it would be better if they could be brought down a notch or two further!
Leadership in an officer is a prerequisite to be able to lead men in a critical situation and lack of probity in an officer is the antithesis of it. No soldier will follow an officer who has lost his respect. This does not matter in the civil services, but they do not want to accept this reality.
The Defence Services are still proud of their distinctive character, culture and elan and will continue to perform well both in battle and in peace time. But for heaven's sake do not expect them to be super human. You want them to shoulder all the responsibilities due to the failure of the state but want them walk the straight and narrow line. Something is going to give way. I hope it is not the Army! God bless my beloved country.
Lt Gen SK Bahri PVSM (Retd)

Article by Veteran Colonel Shaitan Singh Rajan
Democracy in India: A Farce and a Sham- The way out is to catch the bull by its horns

All Officers shortlisted for CVC tainted- Who heads dishonesty?

CVC drags Govt deeper
February 03, 2011 11:57:16 AM
Abraham Thomas | New Delhi
Reveals that all 9 officers shortlisted for CVC’s post were tainted

Raising a serious question mark over the procedures followed by the Centre in the empanelment of IAS officers from States, CVC PJ Thomas on Tuesday revealed that all the nine officers who were empanelled with the Centre in 2008 — including him — were chargesheeted or had complaints pending against them. Singling him out as a “unique case” was not proper, he pointed out.

The charge made by Thomas in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court has put a question mark on the whole empanelment process which allows any officer to move from States to the Centre and occupy an important position in the Union Government.

The Government had claimed that while empanelling Thomas as Central Government officer in 2008, CVC clearance was obtained and this was held out to be a certificate of his “impeccable integrity”.

The disclosure comes ahead of the Thursday hearing in the Supreme Court when the court is to take a final call on the suitability of Thomas to continue as CVC in view of a pending charge-sheet against him in the palmolein import scam, which dates back to 1991-92 during his tenure as Food Secretary with the Kerala Government.

In his affidavit, Thomas said, “Virtually every single officer in the zone of consideration (for empanelment at Centre) had complaints or chargesheets pending.” Besides him, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) prepared note with regard to eight other officers, who had far more serious charges of corruption, misappropriation and embezzlement listed against them. Except one, all other officers got cleared.

Relying on the data collected from the Department of Personnel and Training, Thomas said, “An impression has been created that my case is a unique one, and that I alone suffer some taint against my name. Clearly, it is routine for officers in the discharge of their duties to have cases slapped against them, many of which are trumped up or politically motivated.”

Defending others of his like who were chargesheeted, the affidavit added, “In an environment where a bureaucrat bears the brunt of protests against governmental action, it is necessary that an objective view be taken of how we officers function.”

But a look at the charges leveled against the officers defies all imagination of how these could be politically motivated. One of the cleared officers BR Kundal has been chargesheeted for misappropriation of sale proceeds of essential commodities. VS Dhumal, another officer whom CVC cleared, faces a complaint of immovable property acquired disproportionate to known sources of his income.

Tejinder Kaur is a unique case who got clearance despite Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recommending action for transfer of 15 acres of Government land to a cricket association, a matter which is sub-judice. There is also one Ashok Kumar, who got cleared despite a complaint pending against him of misuse of office and corrupt practices. Also, one Brajebeharaj Mahapatra survived the CVC scrutiny in the face of a chargesheet regarding wrongly claiming reimbursements and penalty of reduction to lower scale of pay imposed. There is a separate complaint of corruption pending against him in which the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has recommended punishment.

Aware of the Centre’s stand in trying to distance itself from the controversy and the subsequent pressure on him to resign, Thomas stood his ground in the affidavit highlighting his merits --- being the senior-most among the serving cadre of Secretaries, and holding experience in administration, vigilance and policy making posts. Making out a case that the palmolein “taint” against him was political, Thomas said, “I have been held out to the public as a tainted officials. This is rather tragic as my record during 37 years of service has been without blemish.”

Tainted Thomas
•Singling him out as a ‘unique case’ not proper, says Thomas
•Allegations could be politically motivated, he submits in court
•Thomas lists his merits as ‘senior-most among the serving Secretaries, and holding experience in administration, vigilance and policy-making’
•Another empanelled member, Tejinder Kaur, got clearance despite CBI recommending action for transfer of 15-acre Govt land, he says
•Brajebeharaj, who had also been empanelled, survived CBI scrutiny despite being indicted by UPSC
•The disclosure comes ahead of the Thursday hearing in the Supreme Court when the court is to take a final call
CVC drags Govt deeper

Corruption disgraces India: PM
New Delhi: Corruption dents India's image, hampers good governance and needs to be tackled "boldly and quickly", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday.
"Corruption strikes at the roots of good governance. It is an impediment to faster growth. It dilutes, if not negates, our efforts at social inclusion," Manmohan Singh said, two days after former communications minister A. Raja was arrested for his suspected role in the 2G spectrum scam, billed as the country's biggest to date.
"It dents our international image and it demeans us before our own people," the prime minister said, addressing the second annual conference of chief secretaries of states here.
He said the challenge of corruption needed to "be faced frontally, boldly and quickly".
Corruption dents India's image, tackle it boldly- Read more

Honest IAS Officer murdered by Mafia

Burning of Malegaon official to be probed; compensation announced January 26th, 2011(IANS)
The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, has announced a Rs 25 lakh compensation for the family of Malegoan additional district collector Yeshwant Sonawane, who was burnt alive by the oil mafia while on a raid on Tuesday.

The Chief Minister has also ordered a probe into the gruesome killing.

The Chief Minister on Tuesday night also announced other benefits including a government job to one dependent family member, salary till Sonawane's retirement date, free education for his two children till graduation and a residence from the government quota.

Sonawane, 44, was doused with kerosene and burnt alive in Panewadi, near Manmad in Nashik district on Tuesday, when he went to conduct a raid on the local oil mafia for pilferage from kerosene tankers.

Four people have been arrested and charged with murder.

The main accused Popat Shinde, who also sustained 60-65 per cent burn injuries, has been admitted to a hospital in Malegaon. His condition is reported to be serious.

A 1994-batch Maharashtra cadre officer, Sonawane was posted at Malegaon since over a year. He is survived by his wife and two children.

The Chief Minister expressed his condolences to Sonawane's family.

Nashik's guardian minister, Mr Chhagan Bhujbal, on Wednesday chaired a meeting of top officials of the district, including the collector, divisional commissioner and other senior officials from the police and revenue departments.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Gazetted Officers Federation has called for a day-long strike on Thursday to protest against Sonawane's murder.
Burning of Malegaon official to be probed; compensation announced

IAS officer couple loot Bhopal Gas Victims

Tainted IAS officer couple worth Rs 360 crore
Bhopal, Jan 19, (PTI):
The Income Tax department has claimed to have detected wealth valued at a whopping Rs 360 crore from suspended Madhya Pradesh IAS officer couple Arvind and Tinu Joshi and disproportionate to their known source of income.
Department sources said here today that the biggest amount of ill-gotten money probably detected from any IAS officer in the country was unearthed following several Income Tax raids on the premises of the duo. The first raid on February 4 last had yielded Rs three crore and a number of documents about their alleged unaccounted investments, the department claimed.
Jewellery worth Rs 67 lakh and foreign currency worth Rs seven lakh and seven suitcases were also recovered during the raids, the department claimed. The raids were carried out following complaints that the officers had allegedly made huge investments in an insurance company.
In a 7,000-page appraisal report submitted recently to the Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary, Avni Vaish and Lokayukta P V Naolekar, the department has given details of investments made by the Joshis.
Both Arvind and Tinu, who are 1979-batch IAS Officers of the Madhya Pradesh Cadre, have held important positions in the Centre since the late 80s.
Tinu served as Deputy Secretary in the PMO from July 1, 1988 to January 1, 1990 while Arvind was Joint Secretary in the Defence Ministry during the 1999 Kargil hostilities.
As per the report, the two have made investments in a number of areas ranging from agriculture to real estate and stock market.
The couple purchased agricultural or non-agricultural land at a number of places including Kanha and Bandhavgarh national parks, Raisen, Balaghat, Sehore and Bhopal, the report said.
The report also alleged that the couple purchased 25 flats of which 18 are in Guwahati, six in Bhopal and one in New Delhi.
Papers about seven plots at Patel Nagar have also been recovered from their possession, it said.
The report also claimed that Arvind Joshi had allegedly indulged in speculative trading in shares, futures and options to the tune of Rs 270 crore in the last three years.
Tainted IAS officer couple worth Rs 360 crore

Lokesh Batra 1971 war veteran- Flag Bearer of RTI Act

Aslam Bhai , President, Nagarik Adhikar Kendra, a Gujarat NGO
With the Panchayat getting the maximum number of visits by members of a village, the NAK hit upon the novel idea of painting the mandatory disclosures under RTI on the walls of the Panchayat building. While Section 4 (1) (b) of the Act lists 17 types of information which must be voluntarily disclosed by a public authority, this list is displayed on a department's website, inaccessible to the mass of villagers who usually have no access to a computer. In 2009 NAK put up a template on the walls of 22 village panchayats in Panchmahals district along with similar templates in the village ration shop, the nearest PHC, local government schools. When they did the same for 15 villages in neighbouring Dahod district, the district administration sat up and took note. 200 villages in Dahod district were then instructed to replicate the wall painting template and spread the RTI word.

Lokesh Batra, 1971 war veteran actively involved in taking up social issues
It is a full five years after the enactment of the RTI Act that all 37 passport offices in the country are in tune with it. A sustained campaign by Retd Commodore Batra ensured that they complied with Section 4 of the Act which lists the 17 types of information which every public authority must disclose. He is also in the middle of a campaign to ensure that Indians who travel abroad do not lose out on their RTI rights.

Indian citizens living abroad are unable to access information as per their right in the absence of procedure/rules to be framed by the government for payment of RTI fees in foreign currency. Retd Comm Batra, who stays in Noida, also led a spirited campaign at the time of the Nithari killings bringing out the failure of the authorities. His latest campaign involves an RTI application to the PMO and MoEF to formulate a Green Buildings Code for govt buildings.
Flag-bearers of RTI Act: The Economic Times

Soldiers lost in the babu maze

Deccan Chronicle September 15th, 2010 Soldiers lost in the babu maze by S.K. Sinha

Since 1947, career prospects in the armed forces, compared to the civil services, have become phenomenally worse. Wholesale proliferation of higher ranks in the civil services since 1947 has resulted in India having the most top-heavy civil administration. This only undermines efficient functioning. In a state there used to be one chief secretary, but now there are dozens of super chief secretaries with higher rank and pay. Similarly, instead of one inspector general of police in a state, we have dozens of DGPs, ADGPs and numerous IGPs. There used to be only four levels of civil servants in the Central Secretariat, from undersecretary to secretary. That has now increased to seven levels, to principal secretary. In the police a new zonal level of functioning has been introduced in many states to supervise the supervisors. Almost all IAS officers end up as secretary or additional secretary, and all IPS officers as DG or additional DG. In the Army, the majority of officers cannot go beyond colonel. The shortage of several thousand officers in the Army underscores that the Army is now a very unattractive career.

The protocol status of the Army in the table of precedence has also been successively downgraded with every revision of the table. After Independence, the Army Chief was initially ranked with the judges of the Supreme Court but above the secretary-general (this appointment was abolished after a while and in 1963 the appointment of Cabinet Secretary introduced). The Army Chief was now placed below Cabinet Secretary, and thereafter to many others. Today he ranks below members of the Union Public Service Commission.

This persistent downgrading of the Army applies to all officer ranks in the Army. In 1972 we had proposed that the Field Marshal should get his full pay as he is not supposed to retire and be ranked with Bharat Ratna holders, that is, just below Cabinet ministers. This was not accepted and he was ranked along with the service chiefs, that is, below Cabinet Secretary. As for salary, Manekshaw was given arrears amounting to `1.2 crores after 33 years, a few weeks before he died. Imagine. Such shabby treatment of India’s first Field Marshal who led Indian arms to a great victory. A minister of state represented the Indian government at his funeral.

The cause of the neglect of the Army in India is our irrational higher defence organisation on which the bureaucracy has a stranglehold, isolating the Army from decision-making. This does not happen in any other democracy. Unless this is set right, the Army will remain neglected.

- The author, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.
Extracted: Click Link for full article
Soldiers lost in the babu maze