Sanskrit, Ancient Wisdom to Ensure Elevation of Babus

NEW DELHI:Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia is planning a Gujarat model ‘Karmayogi Abhiyaan’ for bureaucrats, which is meant to transform officers into ‘karmayogis’ by imparting training that will include pranayam and yoga. Adhia enjoys direct access to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is believed to have played a crucial role in making International Yoga Day a success.

“Traditional wisdom had never been the ‘in thing’ in bureaucratic parlance. But not anymore,” the officer said about his late entry into the vast arena of traditional knowledge.

Another senior official who flaunts his ‘Indian side’ is Expenditure Secretary R P Watal. Well versed in Sanskrit literature, he often chants verses in the language during official meetings to explain investments and credits. He does that even during public functions.

 Kapil Dev Tripathi, secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is another Sanskrit expert in the Modi government. An Assam cadre IAS officer (1980 batch), Tripathi is also a well-known face in the Sanskrit literary circle.

Another senior official charting a traditional path is Balvinder Kumar, secretary, Ministry of Mines. The 1981-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre the writes prolifically about philosophy of religion and various aspects of spirituality and consciousness.

R Ramanujam, the 1979-batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer who was a secretary in the PMO, was another Sanskrit expert for whom the Modi government gave  an extension in his office despite being a prominent face of the previous Manmohan Singh Government.

 “Nobody is saying that all these officials got plum postings because of their knowledge in yoga or Sanskrit. But it goes without saying that their expertise got them closer to the higher-ups in government,” said an IAS officer who “regrets” not knowing either Sanskrit or yoga.

According to another official, the thrust on Indian wisdom does not mean neglect for foreign degrees. He said the Domestic Funding of Foreign Training (DFFT) scheme still provides IAS officers to study in foreign institutes of repute such as University of Birmingham, UK; Syracuse University, USA and Institute of Social Sciences, the Hague, with government support.

There were a number of officials in the UPA government who had foreign degrees, such as Rakesh Sarwal (a PhD from Johns Hopkins University) and Ranjeet Bannerjee (London School of Economics).

Among the new lot of IAS officers with expertise in Sanskrit are Surina Rajan and Kalpana Mittal Baruah, 1985-batch Haryana and Punjab cadre IAS officers, respectively, who have been recently empanelled as additional secretary in the Central government.

“It is good to see our government showing interest in the Sanskrit language, which is the oldest and the most classical of all Indian languages. We hope this is a new beginning,’’ said a faculty of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, a deemed university set up by the government to promote the language. The Sansthan had recently written to the government expressing its willingness to train teachers with post-graduate diplomas in Sanskrit, who could then be posted at Indian embassies.

There is a general push in the government towards Sanskrit, and it was only recently that the government had created a new post of joint secretary for the language in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Underlining the importance that the Modi government attaches to Sanskrit, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj had announced the formation of the post at an event in Bangkok, which was attended by 600 Sanskrit experts from all over the world.

Swaraj had said that Sanskrit is “modern and universal” and that its knowledge would go a long way in finding solutions to contemporary global problems.

“It is for the first time that such a post has been created, and too with such a fanfare,’’ said an official with the Department of Personnel Training.

It was not a coincidence that a number of ministers in Modi’s government—including Swaraj, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti and Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan—had taken their oaths in Sanskrit.