Hoo-ha over new code for babus to respect leaders

Naveen S Garewal

There has been a lot of hoo-ha recently about bureaucrats being asked to pay respect to elected legislators and parliamentarians or face consequences. In fact one wonders where was the need for such a directive for the ‘civilised’ and upper echelon of society. One the one hand, there are bureaucrats, considered to be epitomes of intellect and finesse, on the other are politicians, who may be crass at times but  know how to rule. But unfortunately, the need for such a directive is felt when one side or the other oversteps its “lakshman reka”.

Demanding respect may sound a little odd in a civilised society, but it becomes necessary when protocol is violated. Between a political boss and a bureaucrat, trust and confidence are perhaps the most important factors, just as in any other relationship. Unfortunately, relationships are often exploited by the one in a more commanding position, not necessarily that of authority, and could even be that of domain knowledge. This is exactly where the fault lines lie when it comes to relationships between politicians and bureaucrats.

Haryana in the recent past has witnessed many cases where politicians used the babus’ domain knowledge to circumvent rules and procedures for favour or personal gains, financial or otherwise. You cannot seek undue favours by bypassing procedures and then expect the person who made it possible for you to stay a “humble servant”. The Leader of the Opposition, Abhay Chautala, recently narrated an incident where a senior bureaucrat, who was very close to the rulers in the previous regime, did not get up from his seat when Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar walked into a meeting. Chautala later talking to Khattar pointed out to him that it was his “chair” that commands respect and not him, and no officer howsoever important can ignore the presence of the Chief Minister.

It was initially thought that the directive to the bureaucrats was a fall out of this incident, but it later turned out that the Chief Minister had not paid much heed to the advice. The directive is nothing but the reiteration of a letter from the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, highlighting protocol in dealing between the administration and the Members of Parliament and the MLAs. The letter follows the second report on the recommendations of the Committee on Violation of  Protocol Norms and Contemptuous Behaviour of Government Officers with members  of the Lok Sabha tabled in the Lok Sabha in January this year, thereby debunking all theories attributing motives to the move. 

Former Haryana Chief Secretary Ram Sahai Varma has some interesting anecdotes to narrate in his book “Life in The IAS”. He talks about how on a posting to Hisar, he travelled on a cycle-rickshaw to visit the Deputy Commissioner. Later that year he and his wife travelled in a bus with other passengers to set up their home there. Many of these buses used to have seats marked ‘reserved’ for MLAs or MPs. Both bureaucrats and politicians have come a long way since those days. Varma, who had worked with three chief ministers, highlights that chief ministers such as Devi Lal and Bansi Lal never stood by their egos and would concede to the point once they realised they were wrong.

Many serving and retired officers recall how Bansi Lal would make a phone call in the middle of the night for urgent matters and none dared to miss it. In fact many officers kept the landline phone beside them waiting for the call. Things have changed, perhaps politicians have moved away from being “statesmen” and bureaucrats are no longer made of the same stuff, necessitating rules and norms of decent civilised behaviour.