IIT and IIM Professors are going on strike. Anything strange?? What is strange is that they are not workers in a factory. They are the Gurus of India’s best brains, the best engineers and management professionals, who are sought after by the top most companies in India, America, Europe and other developed countries. They are the brains behind many path breaking inventions like the Pentium chips, exotic software and running of internationally renowned companies like Pepsi!! These professors are the best and if they want to join the private sector or go abroad, they will earn lakhs of dollars/ Euros. The bureaucracy is behind such learned and revered professors being forced to go on Hunger strike.
There is a pattern that the bureaucracy is following. As is well known by now, it is they who are responsible for creating dissatisfaction amongst another center of excellence; the Defence Forces, by cunningly awarding them inadequate salaries and pensions than their due. By downgrading the in-terse status of the Defence Services officers vis a vis the bureaucrats and the Police/paramilitary forces. They are the ones who forced the hands of the three Service Chiefs to refuse to implement the award of the 6th Pay Commission, for the first time!! It is they who are the cause of Indian Military Veterans going on hunger strike and returning their bravery and other medals to the Supreme Commander, the President of India, for the first time in their glorious history.
Have you ever seen IAS officers going on strike!!! Not they are overly loyal and devoted to the Nation (even more than the Defence Services!!!!!) The plain reason is that whenever a Pay Commission is set up, they are the ones who take the creamy layer and add to their pay and perks. This they do as they provide the secretariat, draft the report, interpret it, explain to the ministers and sit on judgment when other organs of the Government who feel aggrieved, put forward their requests. So they never have no reason to resort to any strikes.
The IAS which is present in all organs of the Government are so self centered and crafty. The politicians who are supposed to control them when they come in power have no experience and time for governance. They depend so heavily on the noting of the Babus on files. They have no courage to take any action against the bureaucrats even if they know that the facts put up in the noting are wrong. In any case the IAS has made such rules for themselves that to punish an erring Babu is well nigh impossible.
The bureaucrats are bent upon breaking the back of all centers of excellence in the Country. It is such a sad happening that they are forcing soldiers and elite professors to go on strike due to their short sightedness. They sit on important matters, procrastinate, cause delays, look at each and every issue with a myopic and bureaucratic angle. And they think they are doing yeoman’s service to the Nation!!!
There is hardly any project, acquisition of military equipment, construction of airports, roads etc on time. If all such delays are enquired into, the prime cause would be the bureaucracy!!
India’s progress in economic, industrial, health care, agriculture and other such areas is so slow and way behind. Its National security is at peril. Till IAS is reformed, nothing will change. India will crawl along and left way behind other nations. We may have even to suffer humiliating defeat, since no combat aircraft, artillery guns, aircraft carriers, submarines and other important weapon and other systems have been added to the three Defence Services for decades. Bureaucratic intransigence, controls and delays are also the primary cause of India being branded one of the top most corrupt nations!!
There is a dire need for administrative reforms, the way the government functions and manner of working of the IAS, if India is to survive as an independent nation. Indian polity should raise its voice and start a movement to safeguard the future of the Country and take the functioning out of the clutches of the IAS.
Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh, PVSM (Retd)
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