Onus on political leadership to decry trolling of civil servants
It would have been a high-level political decision for official briefings on Operation Sindoor to be led by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, with the participation of Col Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh. Misri, Qureshi and Singh were calm and professional during the briefings. They were to-the-point and faultless regarding the diplomatic and military aspects of Operation Sindoor, reflecting the firm resolve of the nation in combating terrorism at its source. All three did the country proud.
It is therefore profoundly sad that two of the three — Misri and Qureshi — have been targeted by the bigoted and the ignorant. Sections of the media, civil society, a few civil service associations, the National Commission for Women and some Opposition political parties have risen up against the vicious trolling of Misri and his daughter. At the same time, the Madhya Pradesh High Court took the strongest objection to a minister (Vijay Shah) in the MP government making a remark about Qureshi and ordered that a FIR be filed against him. Subsequently, the MP Chief Minister and the BJP state head pulled up the minister, who apologised for his remark.
But in all this time, no minister of the Union government has still uttered a word at the outrageous trolling of Misri nor the remark against Qureshi.
As a former member of the Indian Foreign Service, which Misri currently heads — as the Foreign Secretary is traditionally the head of the Foreign Service cadre of serving officers — I cannot but feel dismayed, hurt and diminished that he has been so abusively trolled. I feel all the sadder because his daughter has also been trolled. This is a new low in India’s public life. It can be argued that the trolls are ignorant but ignorance is neither a defence in law or common decency and propriety.
The ruling dispensation states that the nation is entering Amrit Kaal when it will make unprecedented progress and dharma will prevail. Will such trolling of civil servants and their families be a characteristic of Amrit Kaal and will no action be taken against the trolls? This question is not unreasonable, for the government has not only not tried to identify the trolls and take action against them, it has not even publicly expressed any solidarity with Misri.
Is this behaviour a part of the practice of the Indian political class — that it lets civil servants take the flak for policies and actions they have ordered or sanctioned and approved, but may not be liked by the public? Domestic civil service officers, now retired like me, have told me that while the Misri episode may be new for the IFS — an officer having to face intense anger for a decision he has not taken, but is only conveying to the public — it was not so for them.
These officers have told me about many personal experiences where a political leader remained silent or simply slipped away, when people were demonstrating against a decision he had taken, but was being implemented by bureaucrats. One retired civil service friend went so far as to say that a politician told him that his political colleague was in trouble, because he had stood by civil servants when the police went after them in a corruption case.
In the light of this practice, perhaps it isn’t so surprising that neither Misri nor his daughter have received any support from the ruling dispensation. But by not doing so, I wonder if the government is allowing a precedent to be set that may come to haunt it in different and unforeseen ways? Many of our children, including those of our politicians, are studying and living abroad — surely, nobody wants a new front of trolling to be opened against them.
Misri’s daughter was trolled because she had written once for The Wire, a news and opinion portal which the ruling dispensation views as hostile. She was also ‘accused’ of providing legal assistance to the Rohingya community. Now Misri’s daughter is a lawyer in her own right and lawyers assist all kinds of persons. Besides, even if her thinking is at variance with that of the government, that cannot be held against her father or the work he’s doing. Moreover, as a citizen in a functioning democracy, she has every right to have her views of her own.
In the tradition of the IFS, Misri has maintained a stoic silence. This is also in keeping with the man and his Foreign Service training honed over the experience of decades in trying assignments.
But while his junior colleagues will take heart from his conduct in this matter, some of them may feel that the least that they can expect is that the political leadership condemns the trolls. This could be, in particular, an expectation from the political head of the MEA, for he has been a professional diplomat who also served as Foreign Secretary. Can such an expectation said to be unreasonable?
Vivek Katju is former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs.
