Woman at the helm in Mumbai MC
Ashwini Bhide, who has stormed a male bastion, is well known for her integrity
RESIDENTS of Mumbai should thank Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for choosing a top-class bureaucrat, Ashwini Bhide, to head the 161-year-old Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Bhide recently took charge as the city’s first woman Municipal Commissioner.
There are two appointments that matter the most to every resident of my city — Municipal Commissioner and Police Commissioner. Their leadership affects every Mumbaikar’s life. The jobs of Chief Secretary, the seniormost babu in the state administration, and the DGP, who heads the law-and-order machinery, are basically supervisory. Many good choices have been made in the past, and many bad ones too. The consequences of such choices are easily discernible to the public.
What do the people expect from the two cutting-edge officers at the top? Residents need good civic amenities — uninterrupted electricity and water supply, pothole-free roads and efficient sewage disposal. These are their main expectations from the municipality. They want the police to ensure safety and security of life and property.
Thus, the incumbents of the top jobs in the BMC and the Mumbai City Police must be, first of all, officers of unquestioned integrity. They may be very intelligent and capable, but if they are more interested in serving themselves rather than the public, they will start on the wrong foot.
There have been some very good commissioners, both in the municipality and the police. The problem arises when the ruling party handpicks officers for dubious reasons. Most citizens learn very quickly which officer works for the public good and which one prioritises personal gains. Nothing can be hidden from the public gaze. If there are officers who think they can escape that scrutiny, they are sadly mistaken, or more likely, they do not care!
Bhide comes with a formidable reputation for integrity, which is a sine qua non for good governance. This is the second recent appointment made by Fadnavis that meets this criterion. The other was of Sadanand Date as the state’s Director General of Police (DGP). At the seniormost level, these two officers — Bhide of the IAS and Date of the IPS — are easily the pick of the lot. They represent the best that these two services should offer.
I once met Bhide in her office a few years ago. She was tasked with getting the Mumbai Metro up and running. Her priority was the acquisition of land for the project. The Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) was in possession of some of this land. Vivek Jain, then Chairman of the RWITC, requested me to accompany him to a meeting with Bhide. I went along with him and he told her about the minimum requirement of the club to organise weekly racing.
Both Vivek and I left her office with an indelible impression of a straightforward, no-nonsense officer who inspired confidence. My subsequent conversations with friends in the bureaucracy and the police confirmed my initial opinion about her. I learnt that she was not only an officer of unimpeachable probity but also one who made it a point to know every detail of the task entrusted to her and went about accomplishing it without any fuss or publicity.
Following her appointment as Municipal Commissioner, the media focused on the fact that she was the first woman to head the BMC — India’s richest municipal body whose budget exceeds that of some small Indian states. Bhide rightly pointed out that her gender was inconsequential to her elevation.
Religion, caste and gender don’t matter to the people who are to be served. It is the calibre of the officer selected that counts. Bhide scores much higher than many others who have held that position.
There have been several outstanding women officers in the IAS, IPS and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). Serla Grewal, an IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, served as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh and Secretary to the Prime Minister. Meeran Chadha Borwankar was a top-class IPS officer of the Maharashtra cadre. Now retired, she is fondly remembered by those who served under her. Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao was an asset to the Foreign Service, which normally does not attract public attention.
The greatest reward that public servants, especially in the IAS and the IPS, should expect is the love and respect of the people they have been lucky to serve. It is most satisfying when citizens greet you and come up to talk to you years after you have retired.
Right from the days when she entered the IAS, Bhide must have been aware that ‘S’ stands for “Service”. This word should remind all who join the IAS and the IPS that they are “servants” chosen to serve the people. Some do forget this basic thing and then there are those who even imagine that they are the masters! Bhide is one of those who has interpreted the meaning of “Service” correctly.
