Snippets / Mail Today, January 11, 2010

Getting a measure of the J& K issue

LIKE MOST politicians, P. Chidambaram loves to talk, but it must be said to the home minister’s credit that he is a rare politician whose actions speak louder than his words. He speaks tough, acts even tougher and it came as no surprise that after he replaced the narcissistic Shivraj Patil in North Block in the aftermath of 26/ 11, the country saw no terror attacks on its soil for nearly 13 months.

It was he, in cahoots with defence minister A. K. Antony who began the scaling down of the army’s presence in Kashmir where almost 30,000 troops have been pulled out over the past few months and more are being gradually withdrawn to enable the state police to take over the task of manning law and order. The long tranquil spell was broken after the two- day- long fidayeen attack in Srinagar last week and the questions now being asked are: have the terrorists begun regrouping? If so, will the government continue with the withdrawal of the forces? True, the terrorists cocked a snook at the Centre’s scaling down policy with their brazen attack, but if Chidambaram’s response is any indication, troop withdrawals will go on as scheduled.

National security adviser M. K. Narayanan too appears confident that the process of troop reduction can and will continue. And Chidambaram’s statement, issued last Friday, should end all speculation about any possible policy reversal. “ The alert J& K Police… neutralised the militants without suffering any casualties and evacuated 600 citizens to safety.

It is noteworthy that the state police and the CRPF conducted the operation without calling upon the National Security Guards or the Army Special Forces”. Chidambaram seems to subscribe to the view that, bereft of the popular support they once had, the terrorists will pop up once a while just to remind everyone that they are not finished yet.

Government wants to teach old dogs some new tricks

IF THE UPA government has its way, bureaucrats across the country will be encouraged to get back to the classrooms and learn a whole lot of new skills. This is part of the prime minister’s plans to bring babudom more in tune with the government’s policies vis- a- vis the internal situation in the country as well as global trends. As a first step, cabinet secretary K. M. Chandrashekhar has invited chief secretaries of all states for a two- day conference to which all union ministers have also been invited.

A senior bureaucrat admits that in the federal set up that we have in place, state governments should be more concerned about local issues, but emphasised that in a fast changing world, it as imperative that the states also have a vision that encompasses national as well as international issues. The conference scheduled for February 1 and 2 will be a first of sorts in many respects.

Apart from the mandatory speeches by the prime minister and the Cab Sec, there will be presentations by the chiefs of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and other scientific institutions on latest trends in technology that could be of use to specific states; an address by foreign secretary Nirupama Rao on “ Emerging Global Challenges and Opportunities”, a presentation of International Trade Outlook by commerce secretary Nandan Nilekani will brief the officers on the Unique Identity Card mission and Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh will present a paper on climate change.

Given the security environment across the country where no state, big or small is left untouched by agents of terror, it is not surprising that the government believes that babus from the states should also be given lessons on key security concerns.

For the first time ever, the army, air force and naval chiefs will directly address state- level bureaucrats on the security environment and the role that the state governments must necessarily play to supplement the Centre’s efforts. Hopefully, the back- to- the basics approach will yield dividends.

DELHIITES have in recent times seen the high- tech low- floor buses periodically go up in flames in many parts of the city and chief minister Sheila Dikshit has asked the manufacturers to rectify the faults or be ready to pay heavy damages. Something similar is happening in Tamil Nadu, the difference being that the private vehicles that are turning into fireballs are all owned by politicians, belonging to the AIADMK, the Congress, the CPI and the CPM. Last week, the AIADMK’s Rajya Sabha MP V. Maitreyan lodged a police complaint after his car was found burnt long past midnight. After an inquiry that lasted exactly two days, the state police submitted a report that put the blame on a battery short circuit.

Former Union minister EVKS Elangovan and CPI state secretary Tha Pandian were two other leaders whose cars mysteriously caught fire when no one was watching. The police were swift in conducting inquiries and even swifter in reaching conclusions: battery short circuit. Opposition leaders are now planning to petition governor S. S. Barnala to hold an impartial inquiry into these incidents, but bound as the governor is by the state government’s advice, his report may not differ much from that of the state police. Maitreyan at least has the satisfaction of the Rajya Sabha chairman — the country’s Vice- President — seeking a detailed report on the torching of the car of a member of the Upper House.

Power & Politics/ Mail Today, October 12, 2009

AS A professor, economist, minister and prime minister over the last five decades, Manmohan Singh, more than anyone else, knows how unprofessional and underperforming our bureaucracy is. He is equally aware that his pursuit of 10 per cent growth will come to naught if the sloth continues.

The genial doctor is not the kind to crack a whip but he has made it clear that nothing less than radical reforms in the bureaucracy are called for if the targets set by his government are to be achieved.

At a chief ministers conference on e- governance just before the last general elections, he dropped a few hints about the sloppiness in the bureaucracy, particularly while drafting notes for cabinet and inter ministerial consultations and in matters that related to the states. He recalled the PV Narasimha Rao regime, when he was finance minister, and noted that in those days such notes were “ clear, composite, complete and nothing was missing”. Cabinet secretary KM Chandrashekhar has so far maintained a low profile, but with his term now extended, he has decided to crack the whip. The grapevine has it that, taking the cue from the prime minister, he has now launched a programme to familiarise the bureaucracy with one of its basic duties — preparing notes. The result was the first “ Workshop on Preparation of Cabinet Notes” where participants from the level of joint secretaries and above were to be taught to “ familiarise themselves with relevant procedures, instructions, minimise deficiencies in preparing cabinet notes, create awareness for preparing better quality notes, acquire better understanding of cabinet procedures, minimise procedural errors in notes and reduce the time for finalising these”. Most of us would think that these are basics that bureaucrats were taught during their stint at the Mussoorie academy as probationary officers. But the August meeting is proof that the babus have unlearnt all that. On several occasions, cabinet meetings, inter- ministerial consultations or even the Centre’s meetings with state governments have been abruptly called off midway because of faulty or incomplete drafting of notes.

Something like this would never happen in the private sector where company honchos are accompanied by legal experts who vet every word that goes into a document. But in the government, this is the rule rather than the exception. Babus sometimes are too lazy to check if his or her department has the competence and the jurisdiction to look into a particular matter. They forget to check if Chandrashekhar the subject matter at hand concerns the central government exclusively or it lies in the state list which implies that the states must be consulted. In matters that call for inter- ministerial consultations, often these are given the go- by, leading to wrangling over jurisdiction.

A note which is said to have been prepared for the meeting makes for hilarious reading for no other reason than it shows how casual the approach of our “ steel frame” is. Babus are advised to “ check whether the name of the ministry, security grading, page number, file number etc are correctly indicated on each page, that each paragraph is not bulleted but numbered, the date of the note as given on the front page is the same as the one signed by the officer, that notes have been typed in double space of A- 4 size paper, 1.5 inch left margin has been given and the notes have not been bound spirally and been stapled only once on the left hand corner”. Other gems include these: “ quality of the language used must be clear and unambiguous, all pages must be numbered and arranged sequentially”. Democracy may not be about speed. The commies and the tinpot dictators do things faster.

Democracy is about transparency and accountability which tyrannical despots cannot lay claim to. The cabinet secretary must be lauded for his initiative which has now been adopted by individual ministries which are now conducting their own workshops to ensure that each babu works according to the guidelines laid out. In particular, bureaucrats should know that though they think they are good administrators, they may not necessarily be good communicators.
In this age of communication, that’s equally important.

The key test of course will be if this programme is extended to the entire bureaucracy and the government holds out the promise of reward for good performance. That would automatically imply that the laggards are punished. With pay cuts preferably.