Open letter to an Indian Bureaucrat

To
Ms. Basanti Roy,
Director, Bal Bhawan,
Marine Drive,
Mumbai


Dear Ms. Basanti Roy,

I read about the problem you are facing with the Salaam Balak Trust encroaching on the property of the Bal Bhawan in Mumbai. I sympathize with you entirely. Who are these foreign NGOs to think they can come and set up their office anywhere they like? Don’t they know that Govt. land is sacrosanct – that only slum-dwellers and anti-social elements are permitted to encroach on it? Do they think that just because they are feeding poor children from the street everyday, giving them a place to hold classes, and are looking after them, they can expect you, the director of Bal Bhawan, to listen to their pleas and not evict them? So what if they are occupying only a corner of the Bhawan’s back garden? Didn’t you give them a warning when you tore down their toilet located on a rubbish dump? Corner or garbage dump, Govt. property is Govt. property – so what if they don’t have any other place to build their toilet! They can use the area along the railway tracks, as all good Mumbaikars do!

You are right to ask who gave them permission in the first place. You must find out who that addle-headed former director was who cared for street children and thought the Salaam Balak Trust was doing a necessary job, and make sure that s/he gets transferred to such a remote place, that s/he is unable to create such problems again. Better still, try and see if you can get this person caught in some lafda, like the Telgi scam or something, and sent to jail! Who did s/he think s/he was, to take such an arbitrary decision? Was protocol followed? Was clearance obtained from the higher-ups? Was all the necessary paperwork completed?

The journalist who wrote the article had the gall to speculate on the purpose of the Bal Bhawan. How dare she? Doesn’t she know that it is none of her business? How can an ordinary, tax-paying, law-abiding citizen like her question a Govt. Institution? What happens or does not happen in the Bal Bhawan is for you, as Director, to decide. How dare she say that the Bal Bhawan is useless and needs to be closed down? What will happen to the skatting (sic) and Casio classes and the dance competitions for middle-class kids that are held there? Where will they go if you follow her advice and start looking after the street children?

Ms. Roy, you must not take this article to heart. After all, what can a mere journalist know about the difficulties of running a Govt. Institution? How does she know what problems you must face getting up in the morning in your sprawling quarters, instructing your cook about the day’s menu, your servant about the day’s cleaning up, your ayah about the needs of your children, your mali about the work in the garden, and your driver about making sure your Lancer/Sonata/Octavia is revved and ready for going to the evening’s party at the American Consulate? How will she know that, having arrived at 11.45 a.m. to work in that horrendous Govt. Ambassador after a strenuous session with your personal trainer, how exhausted you are? And in that state of exhaustion, you are expected to sign some silly files for procuring some unnecessary items – half of which never come, anyway (you do have a budget allocation to use up, after all, but can she understand that?); conduct meetings with your staff about the gardener who hasn’t come for three months but is drawing pay, about the security guard who is suspected of regularly stealing and selling bulbs and other electrical fittings (or is it one of the peons?); and meet visitors like this journalist! Which will leave you with barely enough time to freshen up for the Ladies Lunch hosted by that rich socialite (for whom you have had such trouble wangling an invitation to the Consulate party in the evening! But ladies should help each other out – how does one explain this to that journalist?)

What is the country coming to? Time was when a bureaucrat like you was the ordinary citizen’s mai-baap – everyone would stand aside to let you pass, bow their heads in respect and salute you. Just the fact that you had the title of IAS was like having a magic wand. You could go anywhere you wanted, meet anyone you wanted, do anything you wanted. You still can, but now people like that journalist keep tabs on you. They criticize your decisions, question your competence, and cast aspersions on your commitment to the country! Imagine! People like you, who run the country, are being told by ordinary citizens how to do your job! How can you tolerate this?

There is definitely some mischief afoot. There appear to be some bad eggs in the bureaucracy itself, who are spoiling the image of an Indian bureaucrat. Like that Harsh Mander, who resigned in protest following the Gujarat carnage. Because of him, people now believe that bureaucrats should act according to their conscience instead of following the orders from the higher-ups. Or like that E. Sreedharan, who completes every project he takes up before the allotted time. Such people are setting really bad examples and causing the public to have unrealistic expectations of the bureaucracy – like conscientiousness, efficiency, sensitivity, commitment, etc. What on earth are they thinking? That the bureaucracy is for the public? For the country?

It is high time that someone showed them that bureaucracy, as its name suggests, is for the bureaucrats, for their carefree comforts and lifelong enjoyment. And who better than you, Ms. Roy, to epitomize that?

With best regards,
An inured Indian citizen.