Intoxicating trappings of power : Failure to submit IPR
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 12, 2013 -
The trappings of power can be intoxicating. Intoxicated on power and the accompanying sense of immunity may perhaps explain why over 1000 IAS officers across the country have failed to submit their Immovable Property Returns.
Not surprisingly Manipur has made it to the list of infamy, occupying the third spot with 100 IAS officers of the Manipur-Tripura cadre failing to submit their returns, as reported by news agency Press Trust of India.
Too bad that the names of these officers have not been spelt out !
Not any deriving any sense of sadistic pleasure, but The Sangai Express would have been delighted if the names of these 100 officers had been spelt out.
On second thoughts, would it have made any difference to the Babudom ?
Yet another manifestation of the mindset that it is those in the corridors of power who have been bending, twisting and deforming the system to suit their ends.
It is not just a question of the elite group of Government officials failing to meet a stipulated responsibility but is reflective of how the writ of the Government can be given the cold shoulder at the highest possible level.
There is something profound in the observation that the greatest threat to society and hence democracy is not a sick or corrupt political class but the bodies which make up the bureaucracy, for they are permanent. And IAS officers are certainly the creme' de la creme' of the structure known as the bureaucracy in the country.
The failure to submit the Immovable Property Returns may be read along different lines, but what cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand is the mindset that has seeped into the highest level of the officialdom and it is this which is a matter of concern, though it may just fall short of being alarming.
When officials at the highest level fail to comply with the laid down rules and regulations, then the situation at the lower rung may only be imagined.
There is something called the sanctity of Government institutions and if those at the helm of affairs are not prepared to protect this sanctity, then there is definitely something very wrong somewhere.
When it comes to the negative, expect Manipur to be on the list of the infamy.
Third on the list of IAS officers failing to submit their Immovable Property Report, one among the six States in the country with the highest HIV positive cases, one among the States with the highest number of tobacco related cancer, one among the States identified as a transit point for drug smuggling and one of the most disturbed States in the country and Manipur has surely managed to carve out a niche' for herself.
Nothing to applaud and nothing to write home about. Taking the system for a ride and in the process eroding its credibility.
Little wonder then that the credibility of Government institutions has hit rock bottom in the last few years and no, for once, the State Government should not take cover or refuge under the law and order alibi.
It is not the common man on the street, certainly not the farmer tilling the soil nor the blue collared workers who have succeeded in eroding the image of Government institutions but the officialdom, which come higher up in the pecking order.
Failing to submit the Immovable Property Returns may not be the end of the world and it may not qualify as a criminal case but it is the mindset, the culture of thought in the highest rung of the officialdom that needs a thorough relook and a cleansing.
Easier said than done, it may be, but a beginning has to be made somewhere.
A beginning that all those holding positions of power and responsibility are in one way or the other answerable to the people. And this does not exclude the Babudom.
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