Ayush Sinha is a bright young bureaucrat, an IAS from the Haryana cadre of the 2017 batch, ranking 7th on an All India basis. He did his chemical engineering and later obtained a master’s in biological science.
Ayush Sinha, IAS, the former SDM of Karnal came under flak from one and all for ordering the police to break the skulls of all violator-farmers. He urged the policemen to use their lathis without hesitation against the nearly year-long agitating farmers, who had threatened to disrupt a Chief Minister’s rally at Karnal. Ayush was wrong to the core in his action and exceeded his brief in failing to uphold the constitution, which has in bold prints, right to freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and a right to protest.
Just the other day, the Collector of Surajpur District from Chhattisgarh, Ranbir Sharma, had slapped a person and broke his mobile phone. What causes the bureaucrats to behave demeaningly to the persons they encounter and the chair they occupy? Passing UPSC and ending up in an IAS post has lost much of its glitter, save the power it gives to the officers. Many officers these days bend backwards to please their political bosses, simply fearing reprisals with punishment transfers or kept in compulsory waiting in eternity.
The question is, can a bureaucrat succumb to emotions or be enslaved by political ideologies? Though, bureaucrats, these days hurry to don the cape of politicians as soon as they retire or take premature retirement. To do this, they must come under focus and in the good books of one or other leading political parties. Compromise to values enshrined in the bureaucracy sets in then. Instead of departmental secretaries, they act like private secretaries to wily politicians.
Is it the pressure of bureaucratic work telling on the officers, like Ayush Sinha or Sharma? Does the Academic agenda miss a spiritual connection? Do the officers need to do a refresher course on mind control and crowd engagement?
Many will say the judiciary is the only hope in India. I will readily add to that list bureaucracy as well. Officers are the real veins in the warring political system in India. Look at the recent imbroglio between Assam and Manipur. How many know the midnight oil burnt by the officers from the two states to diffuse the situation. I know of ministers who were scared to push their wily ideas before stubborn bureaucrats who refused to stand down.
Ayush or Sharma, I guess, is an aberration and a minuscule minority from among the bureaucrats. If my guess is wrong, India will be in great trouble, with a politicized bureaucracy, taking sides resulting in self-defeat and destruction of another pillar of democracy.
Yielding to public pressure, Ayush Sinha, yesterday, was transferred from Karnal.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
