Whispers Forum

I fully agree with the views expressed by AK Saxena on IIMs, the same holds good for recently added IITs, these IITs have reduced the luster and reputation of all IITs too.
Harish Kumar
Farmers’ agitation spinning out-of-control
Agriculture is a state subject but the Union of India enacted with incredible speed
the three farm laws 2020, based on brutal majority in Lok Sabha and the ‘Voice Vote’ in Rajya Sabha. All the laws enacted without discussions and without consulting the stakeholders (States and farmers unions) naturally raised suspicions in the minds of the aggrieved.
Was there a national emergency during which the Union of India could have legislated on States’ subjects ? Was ratification of any international treaty involved. None of these. Then, why undue haste ?
How to break the impasse ? Extraordinary situation demands extraordinary solutions such as : Suo moto withdrawal of Presidential assent to the bills for abrogating the farm laws. At least, he could make his intentions clear to the ruling dispensation.
In the alternative, the President could invoke the advisory jurisdiction of the Apex court. Political parties including the defunct opposition, must be exposed.
For how long, could the nation be expected to mutely watch the political drama ?
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Solution seems to be eluding the farmers agitation inspired of Supreme Court intervention. In such a situation an article of Dr VK Bahuguna, former DG, ICFRE and Chairman of Centre for Resource Management and Environment, in Millennium Post had suggested that the Government of India should bring an amendment and leave the implementation on States based on the perception of local farmers or make these Acts as model Acts on the line of APMC Act. Secondly, he argues that when the Punjab Assembly has passed a resolution for not implementing these Acts in the state what is the justification for the states in supporting and scaling up the agitation for abrogation of these Acts .
V K Bahuguna

On Jan 13, 2021 Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) cleared purchase of 83 no.s of LCA (light combat aircraft) at cost of Rs 45,696 crore. It is a great step towards self-reliance in Aerospace manufacturing in India and will create an excellent ecosystem with HAL, BEL ,L&T and other 160 plus indian co.s/MSMEs.
I recall as Chairman HAL, that IOC(initial operational clearance) was achieved on Dec 20, 2013 and we delivered first Series Production aircraft (SP-1) to Air Chief Arup Raha in the presence of Manohar Parrikar, the then Raksha Mantri on Jan 17, 2015 (in just 13 months).
The future-LCA is important for us . THREE SUGGESTIONS—We must form a national advisory group of LCA for effective execution and tech adoptions. HAL also needs to increase Annual production capacity. LCA skills now be converted into a new National program-IRTA(Indian Regional Transport Aircraft.
Thanks to PM and RM for this positive decision...compliments IAF, DRDO and HAL for the achievement....
Dr R K Tyagi

The greeting card in eye-catching patterns and colours, since 1970s till about mid 2000s, used to hold monopoly of exchanging pleasantries on the occasion of advent of a new year. Thereafter vogue of sms on mobile phones and currently posting on facebook account, such greetings, has almost completely banished the custom of exchange of new year greeting cards .As ,earlier the number of cards received, and then number of messages received on phone, presently the number of posts on facebook, has become the hallmark of popularity of any individual.
In any office, on the 1st day of any new year, the hordes of employees would be seen entering the rooms of the seniors, with bouquets and cards in hands, to wish new year. It appeared that the air of sycophancy has completely overtaken the offices on this day. There used to be a very popular officer, who would receive more than thousand cards of greeting on new year and he would ensure that he reciprocated each and every greeting by posting back the replies, with the postage stamps, meant for the official purposes only, signifying the adage, ''Maal Malkan da, mash-huri kampany di'' (Get popularity at public expense).
In the twilight of his career, he was posted as financial commissioner revenue, the post on which, many years back, any officer, senior to a chief secretary would be posted. Since he was inherently a good person, he would go an extra mile to help any subordinate. Although, for many years, this post was considered to be a secretariat job, and the incumbents avoided frequent touring, this nice officer, would regularly visit the districts and tehsils each month. Normally, any financial commissioner revenue would not go out for doing inspection of any tehsil or deputy commissioner's office, but this gentleman chalked out a roster of such inspections, where he would also set apart sometime to hear grievances of the employees .After the tours ,he would feel highly elated, as the employees would profusely laud him for his unique way of helping and guiding the employees at the grassroots. They would say, ''Janab, tuhade tton pehlan ajj takk saadian mushklan kise ne nahin sunian'' (nobody listened to our grievances before you, janab!''
It was in the first week of January, many years back, when i went to see this noble officer, who had retired about two months back then. After normal pleasantries, the officer said, ''I am very happy that you have come to see me, otherwise normally people would not go to a retired officer. ''These words surprised me a bit as I knew his popularity and his vast social circle. I said, ''Sir, you have been generous to help one and all, everyone respects you and would do anything at your beckoning. ''I intended to say more, but he cut me short by saying, ''Nahi ji, istran nahin hunda (no, it does not happen like that).He continued, ''After retirement ,the people change overnight, I used to get more than thousand new year greeting cards, but do you know how many cards I have received only 2 months after my retirement ? ''He paused briefly to look at me, ''Not a single card sardar sahib, not a single!''
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, Amritsar

PM has huge passion for inauguration and foundation stones laying ceremonies. He laid the stone of permanent campus of IIM Sambalpur, Odisha on Jan 2. Then, in quick succession, GAIL’s much-delayed Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline project was inaugurated on Jan 4, 2021.
Fair enough. But, trumpeting achievements through long speeches is like addressing a political rally. Public apathy. I do not blame PM Modi ,but,his chatukaars.These insidious enemies include his ghost speech writers who takes pride in producing long speeches. More quantitative than qualitative.
I have always stood against PM’s detractors who have failed to advise him appropriately. Modi is irreplaceable. As his fan , I consider it my duty to be upfront.
Reverting to PM’s speech at IIM Sambhalpur, one is not sure whether PM had the clear idea of what the Management schools are supposed to teach? What did he want to convey by his favourite expression : “ Innovation, integrity and inclusive ?” Are these subjects taught in IIMs? Or, was it just a south indian Saambhar-like phraseology that can be used on any occasions : political, scientific or religious.Why is PM fond of giving a stick to the wayward Opposition to beat his party with?
Does the country need more management schools? Absolutely not. For most management aspirants , the objective of getting management diploma or degree from low grade schools, is not enterprise but a good job with attractive salary. A vast majority of them do not get anything like that because of poor quality of intake and worse, teaching. The bitter truth is that the top management schools admit only the best students with exceptional academic records. Here is a revelation based on my decade long experience as a Mentor for civil services aspirants. My long experience holding a critical position in UPSC at senior level ,comes in handy.
Of late, the management aspirants are not getting attracted to new IIMs.The latest trend is that even managers trained in top IIMs are now keen to join the Civil Services after appearing in UPSC civil services examination.
The little known fact is that students ,no longer, wish to complete in the admission process for IIMs like Vizag, Bodh Gaya, Nagpur or Sambhalpur. The new IIMs are being mentored by old IIMs which are known by their alumni rather than competent faculties.The private management schools are money-making machines. Poor infrastructures and incompetent faculties.
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as the national-level Apex Advisory Body under Min of HRD ,is mandated to conduct surveys of facilities available for technical education and promote development. A big farce. A den of corruption. No recognitions / No clean chits without money power.
Same opinion is held by me for opening new medical colleges across the country. Bribes running into crores of rupees. PM may hold a judicial and transparent enquiry. How teams of fake teachers and medical doctors are created with hired buildings infrastructures for getting NOC for opening private managements institutes and universities . Congress-led UPA and its supremo, were specialists in games of corruption.
Flawed recruitment models continue to produce accidental bureaucrats. Too many job seekers in the country.
Game-changing reforms are needed to grapple with India’s increasing responsibilities and bring about Good governance, PM’s favourite dream,still remains a far cry.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Artists, musicians, theatres, opera and museums in Europe have been worst hit by Corona induced lockdowns and are agitating for months now. The horror of new nationwide lockdown in several countries due to the new strain has only added to the frustration. UK, Italy, France, Germany and other European countries are aware of the problem. No TV channel in India has even mentioned the plight of artists in India. Is it because art and culture is just a “seasonal” vocation? WIC seems to be the only portal which has published twice this year news about “culture” ministry. Otherwise singers like the Bauls of Bengal are mentioned only if it yields political dividends. I happened to listen to their soulful songs in the 1990s at the Trade Fair theatre in Delhi, thanks to the Resident Commissioner. Why are such performances not being held anymore? The stress of lockdown could have been reduced to some extent if the useless, BP raising, cantankerous debates on TV were substituted by such music and other performing artists. Even DD is behaving miser in keeping its assets canned otherwise it has a treasure trove of world class products from Lucknow, Jalandhar and Bhopal. The Artists deserve their share in public service. India is a rich culture and its pool of artists is bewitching.
M L Gupta

Dwarkadhish's suggestion for ad-hoc upgradation of 2014 Promotee ACs to the STS grade of DC is very practical and will boost productivity of Board, as Chairman can focus his vision on increasing the Revenue instead of monitoring the CAT Court Cases. An order similar to Office Order No. 161/2020 dated 30/12/2020 may be issued and all Promotee ACs who have completed more than 6 years in service may be upgraded to STS grade of DC on ad hoc basis as has been done in case of direct recruit ACs of 2014, 2015 & 2016 batches. In earlier forum posts I have seen that their is an Honorable Supreme Court judgement to promote AC to DC, whether temporary, ad hoc or regular if an AC has completed 4 years of service. The image of the Board is getting dented day by day, by adopting biased and discriminatory attitude towards Promotee Officers & treating them shabbily. Yes it is high time PMO should intervene, to dispense justice, to Promotee ACs of 2014 batch who have completed 6 years of service, 2 years more than required for upgradation to DC and who have worked hard to implement the biggest tax reform ever undertaken in the world by our visionary Prime Minister.
D S Bansal

Bank of Baroda’s claim that integration of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with it has been complete and the customers of erstwhile Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank can now enjoy hassle free service through all BoB’s applications notwithstanding, the customers of the erstwhile banks which have been merged with BoB are faced with a host of problems be it internet banking or downloading the app and getting registered on it. What to speak of others, even I personally faced too much trouble in log-in issue of “Baroda M Connect+”, As new app login kept failing for more then a week, the employees at Khoe-fiza branch of the Bank of Baroda in Bhopal too were non-cooperative as usual. I didn’t get any help from the branch people and they advised me to contact HO customer care. I did so and my grievance was registered with reference number MBNK2317939093 but no help came in. I again complained for the second time (reference number MBNK2324542242), but this time again the problem was not resolved. I instead got the message via a mail saying - the bank is having sms delivery issue with Airtel. Then a friend of mine advised me to try log-in at mid night or early morning and see whether the registered mobile confirmation sms is delivered or not for app logg-in. I followed his advise, tried in wee hours and could somehow succeed after running helter skelter for several days. Hope the BoB authorities will look into the matter and come out clean as several others may also be faced with untold problems.
Abul Hasan Siddique
Sort out promotion issue in CBIC amicably
This is with reference to genuine grudge of not giving promotion to 2014 batch Promoted Asst Commissioners (JTS) to the rank of DC (STS) by Central Board of Indirect taxes & Customs even after putting more than 6 years of service. The most easy way out to rest this simmering discontent is to give them rank of DC (STS) as the post of DC in C.B.I.C is Non Functional Upgradation, does not entail any expenditure, creation of vacancy or transfers. CBIC has given rank of Additional Commissioners (NFSG) to 2011 batch, for which there is no vacancy requirement. Powers of AC & DC and that of J.C. & ADC are same. Chairman is requested to sort out this issue amicably, without any bias and discrimination, so that Govt. is not saddled with unwanted litigation where he and Revenue Secretary are also made respondents through Union of India.
Manoj Tekchandani
‘Inconvenient’ files often go missing?
The government officers come up with all kinds of excuses for not providing the information. It may be that the records are not traceable with no fixing of responsibility on anyone as if no one is responsible for maintaining the records. If a file is missing, there is little that anyone can do and there is no one who is held accountable. Can anything actually be done to improve the situation? It is a matter of common knowledge that the moment some file is inconvenient, it goes missing.
Anurag
Condolence
P C Hota’s passing away on Dec 31, 2020, is a great loss. I served under him as Joint Secretary while he was Secretary, DOP&T. He later became Chairperson , UPSC in 1996. He had been under acute depression for about three years. A rare IAS officer of 1962 batch. A highly regarded officer.
A K Saxena ( A former civil servant)

Customs department has begun faceless assessment, recently, with a motive to end interaction between importers and the officers of the department, with a motive to end the culture of bribes. Hence neither the importer knows which officer has dealt with is bill of entry, nor the officer knows the importer. It was a fine step in the direction of good governance. But still it is surprising that officers are in their office at 7 in the morning, and giving queries to the documents, so that the importer is bound to find the location of officer and pay him usual fees to get his document cleared. It is not only in the morning, but even at eleven in dead of night that officers have dealt with documents, and raised queries, with the same motive. It may be right to point out that there is no shift system in the assessment work, and all the officers are expected to work in office hours, which begins at nine thirty in the morning and ends at six in evening. What is the motive of these officers to work at eleven in the night, or at seven in the morning, when they are not supposed to be in office? Do'nt their higher ups know that these officers are working at such of hours of midnight, or dawn, for some ulterior motive. The motive of working at late hours is to assess the document, at a time when investigation agencies have generally left for home, so that before they come to office, and open their role in the system, the goods have left customs station. Working at such odd hours itself points towards connivance, and some ulterior motive. The department knows it, the higher ups know it. If Railways, a bigger organization, can work from eight to eight, only, for ticket booking, why not the customs department also follow office timings, if they want to end corruption? After all, there is no overtime allowance at the level of assessing officers, except what they mint from importers as their pound of flesh. They would not work, without any motive, at such odd time
Amit Mahajan
Who has crossed and grabbed our land ?
Does any one of the Modi Cabinet Ministers knows if the Government have resolved to recover the occupied land since 30.4.2020 in Ladakh from foreign troops across the LAC ? PM does not takes the name of China as the aggressor. Then who has crossed and grabbed our land? A million dollar question unanswered to date.
Harish Kumar