editor speak

The bureaucracy, they say, is the barometer of national progress or retrogression. India at the moment seems to be in a state of retrogression as the barometer quite meticulously indicates. Sloth, corruption and lack of integrity are getting into the vitals of this functional trunk of the executive.

A house burgled by the home maker sums it up all—pithy, yet true. To hammer home the point, this issue of Bureaucracy Today busts the den of corrupt bureaucrats who have won laurels for their acts of misdemeanour, malfeasance and financial mismanagement. Reward the corrupt and the nation–with its vital assets –goes down the drain. What else could illustrate it better than the National Projects Construction Corporation (NPCC) fiasco the lid of which has now been blown off by Bureaucracy Today. A public-funded, babudom-managed company such as the NPCC is in the eye of a storm after its head honcho, Arbind Kumar, stands exposed for his brazen, yet successful, attempt at hogging the limelight by means which are ingloriously dubious.

What remains to be seen is how promptly the Government banishes this tainted official into obscurity. If, on the contrary, he is allowed to be on the rolls of the Government it would, indeed be a travesty of justice. For, he is no less a criminal than the former Satyam Chief Rajulingam. Why adopt double standards? When the guilt is proved beyond any shadow of doubt, why dither on action? Or, is the Government in a denial mode to save its own skin? The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) cannot absolve itself of the charge of complicity in the crime–grave in nature.
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The PMO abysmally failed in its prime duty of excluding Arbind Kumar from the list of nominees for the PSU excellence award as the mandatory vigilance clearance was given a go-by–an act of gross negligence by the PMO. This episode precedes the Chatwal controversy on public honours, which enraged the whole nation, bringing into sharp focus the modus operandi of the selection process for such awards. The Government would serve the nation well only if it severely punished the guilty, albeit belatedly. This would deter the corrupt in the higher echelons of power from manipulating the award – winning process to their advantage.

Suhaib A. Ilyasi
Editor-in-chief