LUCKNOW: A bureaucratic bomb has exploded in Uttar Pradesh (UP), laying bare a “reign of terror and fear” in the state administration. The shock waves of this explosion reached New Delhi earlier this month, in the form of a letter by suspended IAS officer Promila Shankar.
From the 1976 batch, Shankar is the seniormost IAS officer in UP, and was, till recently, the Commissioner of the state’s National Capital Region Planning Cell. In a letter to Pulok Chatterjee, Prinicipal Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) dated October 4, Shankar has sought the PM’s intervention in what she calls her “draconian and malafide” suspension (see box). Saying she went by the book in going abroad on casual leave with her husband P Uma Shankar, who is Power Secretary at the Centre—the reason for her suspension—Shankar alleges she is being targeted for raising objections to the Master Plan of the Yamuna Expressway Authority. What has really set the cat among the pigeons is that Shankar goes on to say that “the UP government is unleashing a reign of terror and fear in the administration and officers who speak their mind are harassed and sidelined”.
Shankar’s woes began on September 1 when she wrote to the UP Cabinet Secretary and Chief Secretary, expressing her inability to approve the master plan of the Yamuna Expressway Authority, and incorporate it in the sub-regional plan under preparation, as it included the acquiring of rich agricultural land, and would lead to the massive displacement and social unrest. On September 9, Shankar was suspended.
But Shankar did not buckle under, even though she hasn’t been able to elicit a response from the Centre, as in the case of Sanjiv Bhatt in Gujarat. “It may be because the Congress-led government is dependent on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) support, and because the Congress does not seek a confrontation with a Dalit chief minister,” says one senior IAS officer, who also believes that the manner in which the UP bureaucracy is being “crushed and silenced” is unprecedented and unheard of.
The Promila Shankar episode has blown the dust off what she calls “humiliation” of civil servants. In 2008, then chief secretary, P K Mishra, had felt slighted by Chief Minister Mayawati and her advisors, and left his job in a huff. Just the year before, Mishra had been reluctant to return to UP from the Central government, but was cajoled by colleagues to do so. Mishra realised his blunder soon enough, as most of his recommendations were rejected, and he was told “not to object to the Chief Minister’s wishes every time”. Mishra packed up.
Desh Deepak Verma is another officer of chief secretary rank, who was humiliated by the Mayawati government. Just before retirement in April, of chief secretary Atul Gupta, the state requisitioned Verma from the Centre so that he could be made chief secretary. Verma landed in Lucknow all right, but did not get his posting; the CM would not meet him, as wouldn’t any of her advisors. When Verma’s repeated queries began raising dust, he was posted to the Revenue Board—a punishment posting. A frustrated Verma made his way back to Delhi in a couple of months.
Even worse was the mysterious suicide of senior IAS officer Harminder Raj Singh at his official residence in the VIP zone of Kalidas Marg in 2009. At the time of his death, Singh was Principal Secretary (Housing), and handling many a dream project of the Mayawati government. On the night when he was found dead, with gunshot injuries and his personal weapon beside him, Singh had attended a party at a colleague’s residence, and was in a cheerful mood. “Even today, I don’t believe he’d commit suicide,” says one of his colleagues, adding that Singh’s cellphone is yet to be found.
It could be said that the Mayawati government’s friction with the state’s All India Services officers began with the appointment of non-IAS, Shashank Shekhar Singh, as Cabinet Secretary in May 2007. His all-powerful position at the top of the state’s bureaucracy was resented by all babus. The CM’s dictatorial style and refusal to meet any civil servant except those from her secretariat, only added to the ill-will. Her allegedly whimsical suspensions of IAS and IPS officers in her three previous stints were well known too. “If all her innings as CM are counted, Mayawati will have suspended no less than 100 officers—a record in itself,” says a retired IAS. “This is the only state where the CM does not have time for IAS officers, even to know their problems. The bureaucracy is supposed to be the bulwark of the administration. In UP, it’s being slowly and systematically rendered useless,” says S N Shukla, another retired IAS officer.
Senior civil servants are aghast by the manner in which honest and upright officers have been sidelined, while corrupt and tainted ones are posted to key positions, some despite being chargesheeted. Take Chanchal Tewari, a senior IAS officer, indicted in a multi-crore scandal, who is now principal secretary, Forests and Wildlife. Or Mahesh Gupta, indicted by the CBI in an appointment scam, who is now the Excise Commissioner.
The state’s prestigious IAS Association, which had once hit the national headlines for its anti-corruption drive, has been rendered defunct. It’s been almost five years since the association’s members were allowed to convene an annual services week. It was during the services week that IAS officers from across the state would converge to discuss their issues and problems, and invite the CM to address them. Mayawati’s coming has meant the week’s going. The association is headless now. The state’s IPS association has suffered the same fate.
Rebellion is brewing in UP babudom, though. The state’s own civil service, the PCS, is vertically split. Its associations were as dead as its IAS and IPS counterparts, because nobody wanted to offend Behanji by holding elections. Then, senior PCS officer Hari Shankar Pandey formed a parallel association on October 16, declaring the existing one illegal and malafide. Pandey is the younger brother of senior IAS officer Vijay Shankar Pandey, known for leading an anti-corruption campaign in the IAS association, and his move has shocked the state government. Pandey’s move is believed to have backing of several of the state’s disgruntled civil servants.
