NEW DELHI: Civil servants have to walk the talk as action is what matters most in the line of duty, said Sanjeev Chopra, director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, on Wednesday.
Delivering the P S Krishnan First Memorial Lecture organised by Centre for Dalit Studies, the senior bureaucrat spoke at length about the life and career of one of the most distinguished bureaucrats of the country, P S Krishnan and his contributions to elaborate the topic of ‘Civil Servant as an agent of Social Change: Role of Training institutions.’
Krishnan was a perfect blend of reformer, scholar, writer, activist and fighter, he said. Chopra told the young officers that words merely is not enough. “It is what you do which makes a difference.” Elaborating further, the senior IAS officer cited an example of an officer going to the hutment of a leprosy patient and having a tea. He said that this act itself makes it clear that leprosy is not a communicable disease.
Throwing light on Krishnan’s works and contributions, Chopra said Krishnan was dedicated to removing caste-centric inequalities and played crucial role in the formulation of critical legislation like granting of Constitutional status to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and the implementation of the BP Mandal Commission recommendations.
“Power will not be derived from barrel of a gun. Power will be derived from knowledge and information. You must know your laws...You must know all the facts of a case...Krishnan always argued the case on the basis of facts,” Chopra said, regarding the importance of knowledge and information.
“As a civil servant, we have certain code and Krishnan never violated any of the code that we should follow,” he said. Integrity and respect for diversity and collaboration are among the core values for civil servants, the senior bureaucrat added.