Roughly thirty-five years ago, some of Indira Gandhi's acolytes issued a clarion call for a 'committed' bureaucracy and a 'committed' judiciary. They did not know, or chose to ignore, that in American slang asking that someone 'be committed' is to say that they are fit only for the mental asylum. (Or perhaps they did know -- taking it all too seriously and condemning India into the loony-bin that was the Emergency!)
Be that as it may, 'commitment,' as they interpreted it, did not mean dedication to one's given tasks, it signified an unquestioning obedience to the Nehru-Gandhis, without bothering about niceties such as the law. Don't you think they would have beamed approvingly at B R Kundal?
B R Kundal was once the chief secretary to the Government of Jammu & Kashmir. He quit that post in May after he was promised a ministerial berth under Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. This followed the enforced resignation of Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed from the ministry after allegations of corruption.
B R Kundal was expected to take the oath of office on Monday, the second of June. The ceremony had to be postponed for a few days after angry MLAs from the Congress itself complained. Sadly, their protests seem to have been about an outsider grabbing the loaves and fishes of office, not about the irregularity of the proceeding itself.
To clarify the point, take a look at what might have happened had B R Kundal decided to retire and join a corporate house. There are strict rules about such things; he would either have had to wait for at least two years before taking up such a job or he would have had to win special permission.
The logic is easily understood. Civil servants possess the power to take decisions that favour one party over another. In the interests of a free and fair administration, the regulations insist on a cooling-off period, so that nobody is tempted into taking a call favouring Company 'X', then taking up a cushy post with the same firm as a sort of retirement benefit.
The cynics among us would say that politics today have been debased into little more than a business, a money-making enterprise. I myself would not go as far as to daub all politicians with that brush but I accept that there is no smoke without fire. So, why then should the rules be different in this case?
As you can see, the safety measure of seeking special permission is no handicap at all. The man making that call would be the same person who invited B R Kundal into the ministry.
Should we be charitable and assume that the former chief secretary was invited because Ghulam Nabi Azad wanted to ensure that someone both clean and competent would join him, not embarrassing him as Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed did? Well, not really, because the Congress was surprisingly candid about the reason.
When the consumer affair and public distribution Minister, Taj Mohidin, was quizzed by reporters about the delay in inducting B R Kundal, the minister was quick to deny rumours of opposition within the party. The real reason, he said, was because 'the Bahujan Samaj Party is making inroads in our vote bank in Jammu.'
There you have it --
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