Neta, babu aur ghulam

Politicians and civil servants have always jousted, both in fact and in fiction. “I sometimes think our minister doesn’t believe that he exists unless he reads about himself in the papers,” civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby famously said about his boss Jim Hacker in Yes Minister, the British comedy series.

Jousts can be civil. But in India, more often than not, they are just the opposite, creating such acrimony that governance risks becoming the casualty. The most recent example is what happened in Fatehabad, Haryana, the other day. Haryana health and sports minister Anil Vij stormed out of a meeting of the District Grievances and Public Relations Committee after the district police chief refused to “get out” as the minister had demanded.

According to media reports, the vitriolic exchange between the two took place when the minister questioned superintendent of police (SP) Sangeeta Kalia about the alleged illegal sale of liquor in some villages. Some residents had raised the issue. The minister demanded an explanation from the police officer. Ms Kalia said the police was doing all it could and that 2,500 cases had already been registered under the Excise Act in the past 10 months, which was a record.

The minister was not satisfied. What followed was an ugly verbal slug-fest, video clips of which have gone viral in the social media, and which clearly show an angry Mr Vij screaming at the woman police officer — the daughter of a retired painter of police stations — and asking her to “get out” of the meeting. Ms Kalia’s refusal to comply led to the minister leaving the meeting in a huff.

This, in short, is the backstory to the pandemonium that erupted in the Haryana Assembly, with the Opposition Congress going for the minister’s jugular. Mr Vij has reportedly sworn not to attend any meeting in future if Ms Kalia is present. He has complained to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and the director-general of police about what he sees as the officer’s “insubordination”. In keeping with how such stories have panned out in the past all over the country, the officer has been transferred.

Spats between politicians and bureaucrats are not the monopoly of Haryana nor just Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states. Durga Shakti Nagpal and Ashok Khemka, the Indian Administrative Service officers who opposed corruption in their states, faced the wrath of politicians from other parties. There are umpteen examples of similar fracas elsewhere which has resulted in officers being shunted, suspended and so on.

Sadly, such incidents are all too common. So why should we be surprised? Here is the reason. The BJP (in power in Haryana and the Centre) asks to be judged by a higher standard. It defines itself as the party with a difference and prides itself on good governance. Officer-politician clashes can unmake that vision. But instead of learning from what has happened elsewhere, BJP spokespersons are making the same mistakes by trying to unequivocally defend minister Vij and casting aspersions on officer Kalia in the name of public interest.

It is no one’s case that a minister can’t question a civil servant. But BJP strategists need to also introspect on the far-reaching consequences of public spats between the politician and the bureaucrat entrusted to execute a political vision. Decorum is key. If the minister was not satisfied with the explanation given by the officer, was it not possible to take up the matter in a more discreet way? Was it not feasible to engage her in a discussion to understand the constraints that the police face and brainstorm on how best to resolve the issue? None of this was done.

It does not require an Einstein to figure out that humiliation of a woman police officer in full view of the public in so crude a manner will demoralise the police and the district administration officials in general. This can only be bad news for the implementation of state government programmes. Keen observers of Mr Vij are not surprised by the turn of events. Clearly, here is a man who has a soft corner for headlines. Not so long ago, he tweeted, “Declare cow as national animal of India instead of Royal Bengal Tiger”. This in a state with one of the worst child sex ratios and where the status of girls and women should be of greater concern than the status of the cow, especially for the health minister.

What signal does the Haryana government want to send out by demonstrating that a woman, even one in an important and responsible position, can be shouted at in front of her juniors because her answer did not please a politician? Mr Vij and his boss, chief minister Khattar, may not take kindly to suggestions from others. But they should pay heed to the Prime Minister’s public statements on the politician-bureaucrat interface.

In April this year, while speaking at the Civil Services Day function in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that “political intervention” is necessary in a democracy. But Mr Modi distinguished between political interference and intervention. The former, he said, will “destroy” the system, while the latter is “necessary” and “inevitable”. The moot point — in which category does Ms Kalia’s public humiliation fall? Her transfer can potentially widen the gulf between politicians and officers. In Haryana, the BJP is in power but it complains that officers in districts are ignoring them. Humiliating officers is not going to help win trust.

Sangeeta Kalia may have been shunted out but clearly we have not heard the end of the story. She is a dalit and a member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has said the commission will soon send a notice to the government and seek a report from the chief secretary. So what is the way forward?

Blind obedience on the part of officers may avert officer-politician clashes but will strike a big blow to good governance. The officer is not always right and the politician always wrong, nor the other way around. The two can and will continue to have differences. But decorum and mutual respect can go a long way in addressing the trust deficit. Otherwise, good governance will remain just a slogan.

The writer focuses on development issues in India and emerging economies.
She can be reached at patralekha.chatterjee@gmail.com