Forum What Dipali Rastogi wrote wasn't news; her coming forward was news
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What Dipali Rastogi wrote (in The Hindu) earlier this month about IAS officers wasn't news; it was her coming forward which was news"
Dipali Rastogi, a serving IAS officer borne on the Madhya Pradesh cadre, recently wrote in The Hindu, under the heading "The philosophy of power and prestige", that the "The best IAS officer is one that has no opinion of his own, or even if he does, keeps it to himself. As the years go by and the lines between bureaucracy and politics, between right and wrong, between truth and lies become fainter and fainter, an IAS officer will have lost all original thought."
Continuing further, Ms. Rastogi has noted that since the IAS officer listens to nobody except himself, his knowledge becomes superfluous and useless and the figures that he pops out are "all fudged" to meet the expectations of the political masters.
With this premise, Ms. Rastogi has gone on to underscore that the realization has dawned on the political masters that they were being taken for a ride and this has led to the decision at the Government of India level to give lateral entry at the JS level to experts (from the corporate sector), who can show spine and deliver.
When asked to react to the piece by Ms. Rastogi, an ex-bureaucrat who chose to quit the IAS a few years ago, said he always held exactly the same views as Ms. Dipali and was rather forthright about them but people always thought that he was mouthing anti-establishment views because he had quit the service.
The former IAS officer revealed that most bureaucrats in different WhatsApp forums were slamming Ms. Rastogi for her views. These "chamcha bureaucrats" have ruined the governance of this country, was his parting shot.
Lalit Shastri
No govt wants to implement RTI Act !
No government ever wants to implement the RTI Act otherwise, the section 4 should have been implemented in the last 13 years. This order is not likely to be implemented and the administration would cite the practical difficulties in implementing it.
Sumeet