RAILWAY SAMACHAR

BRAVADO OF A RETIRED BUREAUCRAT

A REAL EXPERIENCE BY A RAILWAY OFFICER

Recently, there was a bold pronouncement by Shri Pratyush Sinha who retired as CVC of India saying that 30% of Indian people are utterly corrupt whereas 50% are fence-sitters (border line cases). This statement is not only unfortunate but also self-serving, coming as it does from a person who had all the opportunities in the world to serve the cause of transparency and honesty within the government establishment in this country. Regretfully, Indian bureaucrats have a tendency of suddenly becoming wise and courageous soon after their retirement after decades of selfish, supine and silent existence merrily enjoying the fruits of the system they decide after retirement. There is a marked tendency on the part of many to try and gain publicity by criticizing the institution about the re-formation of which they have not done any thing during their service.

Shri Sinha was heading CVC for a number of years and during this period also nothing particular was done to distinguish between the actual corrupt within the bureaucracy and those who have been hauled up for their forthrightness, honesty and courage. Most of these officers belong to either the Jr. Scale or Sr.Scale or the JAG. Where as the actual decisions of import are taken at the secretary/Jt. secretary level of the government. In this country almost any government official can be charged with dis-honesty if his/her bosses like to frame him/her. It can be safely said state that the majority of the cases going to the CVC belong to this category of officers who are more wronged then being wrong themselves.

Shri Sinha should be asked as to what actions he has taken to curb the tendency of the Commission to blindly prosecute this kind of officers instead of catching the black sheep in the higher echelons of the civil service. Any case sent by a department to the CVC for prosecuting an officer routinely gets the nod of the CVC without any effort on the part of mandarins there to pin the actual culprit or to find out the motive behind framing of the hitherto brilliant and honest officer. No wonder, the CVC and vigilance have an abysmal record of conviction hundreds of officers have got their careers ruined because of inefficiency, incapability, sadism and total lack of will on the part of the CVC babus to distinguish between corruption and bonafide mistake.

As young officers are full of zeal to work, youth and vigour most of them fall easy prey to the scheming and cunning superiors who get annoyed due to a variety of reasons. Therefore majority of the officers suffering from the wrath of seniors and foolishness of the vigilance apparatus belong to those in their first few years of service. The judiciary has been routinely pointing this out and trying to salvage the lives and careers of honest officers.

Therefore, it can be safely concluded that organizations like CVC and CBI have only helped those senior and experienced bureaucrats of this country who want to mint money and plunder the public wealth, to do it systematically by diverting the attention and blame to junior and inexperienced officers who at times are only innocently carrying out the orders of their superiors.

By terrorising honest, upright and out-spoken officers the CVC as well as the CBI have greatly harmed the cause of transparency and integrity in public life in this country. Sadly, Mr. Sinha has only been a silent spectator to this phenomenon of hounding of straightforward officials by his ignorant, inefficient and utterly incapable establishment for years. He could have made a lot of difference to the lives of thousands of officers and their families by catching those who deserve to be caught and helping those who can take this country forward, but he choose not to do either and remained a blue blooded civil servant working at the beck and call of his friends in the rarefied environs of the ministries located in the national capital.

About two years back I had an occasion to meet the concerned directors and senior officers of CVC to discuss a case. During the course of discussion all the officials of the CVC agreed that the case in question was completely without merit and an innocent officer was in fact being prosecuted due to professional rivalries within his ministry. But nevertheless they had no option but to go ahead with the case as it was forwarded by his ministry and CVC lacked any competence to analyse the fact of the matter.

Under these circumstances I have a few pertinent questions to ask to Mr. Sinha.

1. During his entire tenure as Commissioner at CVC, in how many cases did he rescue the careers of bright and honest officers who have been maliciously cornered by the bunch of thugs manning the corridors of power?

2. Is it not a fact that the CVC and all its vigilance paraphernalia has become a factory to produce timid, sulking, dithering and incompetent bureaucratic eunuchs?

3. Is it not a fact that long years of prosecution and lack of understanding by the vigilance official is unfair and counterproductive so far as transparency and integrity in public life in concerned?

4. Is it not a fact that many of the CVOs in various departments become utterly corrupt during and after the tenure as CVOs?

5. Is it not a fact that most honest, upright, sincere and efficient officers do not like to become vigilance officers because of the unfair games practised by the vigilance machinery in the central government departments?

6. Last but not the least, is it not a fact that the man-on-the-street along with the umpteen number of simple government employees hate the vigilance and CBI just like leprosy or cancer which either has a very long and painful cure or has no cure at all?

To sum up I will only say that in this country most of those who are prosecuted by CVC or with the help of the CVC don't deserve to be prosecuted at all and those who deserves are not prosecuted at all and hence lead a respectable life.

THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN BY A VICTIMISED RAILWAY OFFICER.