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Seshan criticises Bhatia's conduct, though indirectly

Former chief election commissioner T N Seshan today defended the Maharashtra government's transfers of IAS officers, saying it was within its rights to do so.

At the same time, he strongly criticised the leakage of official correspondence between IAS officers and the government. "Such correspondence should not be made public by the officers concerned," Seshan said.

Seshan is in Poona to launch 'Nirdhar' (Resolve), an organisation that proposes to take up the causes of the citizenry with the respective governmental agencies. The organisation will be launched tomorrow evening.

Seshan said he would not be able to comment specifically on the Arun Bhatia case as he is not aware of the facts, but he would make "philosophical remarks" about the transfers of officials and the leakage of official correspondence.

When his attention was drawn to Bhatia's abrupt transfer within six days, Seshan recalled his own experience in 1962 when he was allotted six different assignments on a single day. "In the morning, I was shunted to the rural development department, [and] I ended up as director of the women's development department with four other assignments coming my way in between during that very day," he said.

Seshan was rather caustic about the leakage of official correspondence, saying he would "throw the rule book at the officer who was responsible for such leakage." Official correspondence is akin to the relationship between a husband and his wife and just as the affairs of the husband and wife are their private matter, so also official correspondence is sacred, he said.

He said that though he had had a number of fights with the government during his career as a civil servant, he had not made them public. "I began talking only after I took over as a constitutional authority," he said.

If a civil servant is unhappy with the government and wants to speak out, he should do so after quitting his job. "You cannot rock the boat in which you are sitting. If you want to rock the boat, you must leave it," he quipped.

UNI

RELATED REPORT:
Government tries to send Bhatia into the archives

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