Whispers Forum

If indeed the Government is deciding to lower the retirement age of Government employees, it is a retrograde step. This again proves this Government is anti employees and does not care for the bodies like Pay Commission under whose recommendations the retirement age was increased from 58 to 60.With longevity having gone up and people remaining quite young even at the age of 60 there is actually a case for raising the retirement age and why not. If politicians can go up to 75 or even beyond it why the Govt. employees can not work up to 60 or even 62.
Aarti Khosla
Sandhu comes up with elegant anecdotes
Sandhu comes up with elegant anecdotes, that strikes a chord in many field officers. This putting 'topi' on the lower level field officers for splurging on the senior officers' visits and of ministers is widely prevalent in many states. One expects the PM, with his honesty worn on his sleeve, would put and end to this. This is happening in different ways even now, by the ruling party in the districts be it BJP or other parties. Kerala is somewhat of an exception, not so much. There, the lower level officers are blunt and direct. Even in Tamil Nadu it is that way. When I was in the field, I used to insist that whatever food expenses was met for me, I would pay. The officer demurred and said that it is a small amount and don’t worry. But I insisted. Then he said that sir, apart from you, your driver, your camp peon, other officers who come to meet you, all are being taken care of by us. I then said, that I will pay for me and my driver. He said sir you will not be able to afford it and came up with a high value. The break up included fire wood, chicken (I am vegetarian), booze, and said all this is expected. It is difficult to stem this. Sandhu should bring out more anecdotes like this.
Ravi Srinivasan

This year the Board of Direct taxes supported by senior IRS officers has taken two important steps to eradicate corruption in their department. First is the amendment to the law to the effect that cases more than four years old cannot be opened. More important is that dealing in these cases will be faceless. This means a permanent loss of power of harassment as also 'extra' income for the junior officers. But junior officers are smarter than the Board imagined them to be. To compensate for the forthcoming loss, the junior officers opened a large number of 5 to 10 year old cases before the four year rule came into force. Now they have time up to 31st December 2019 to harass the assessees either for extra income or for ego massage. Most of the victims are salaried persons. The loss of reputation to the Income tax department is immense but there is little the Board or the Minister can do about it.
Prof. N. C. Saxena

India invites 27 members of European Union Parliamentarians to show normalcy in Kashmir. One wonders why so much hue and cry is being raised by the Opposition ?
It is India's sovereign right to invite anyone for mobilising international opinion. This will bolster up our stand on Kashmir especially as the EU had recently expressed concern about the situation in Kashmir. More importantly, India must gather support of as many countries as possible before embarking on legitimate annexation of POK including Gilgit and Baltistan.
The Congressmen and pseudo intellectuals were blocked from visiting Kashmir due to their unholy nexus with Kashmiri separatists and the ISI. It was , a clear threat to national Security at that point of time.
There could possibly be no issue with MEA's invite to the EU lawmakers to visit the valley, though selection of delegates could have been arbitrary, based on pick and choose. They allegedly belong to the right wing parties of Europe. The entire west is turning to right-wing ideology, anyway.
So far ,so good. But, I am somewhat perplexed by the private nature of the visit (not officially sponsored by the EU). Will the MPs influence their countries, back home ?
One hopes, the foreign jaunt does not end up as a 5-Star holiday, enjoying MEA’s hospitality. Surely, the decision on invite must have been taken by the MEA on holistic considerations after taking into account all secret aspects to which the critics are not privy.
PM will surely be able to convince the Indian Parliament, starting from Nov 18,2019.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Day in and day out IAS officers are promoted on fastest track and boss over other Central Service officers even upto officers of 5 years senior batches. No one sees anything wrong here specially IAS who consider themselves God’s own creation. How demoralising it is for other Services, no one realises. Just to please one Service i.e. IAS, entire government machinery is relentlessly working. Why be then concerned with one IAS officer of a batch becoming boss of another IAS officer? When will anyone realise and end completely unjustified hegemony of IAS ? Their 87 batch got posted as a Secretary and 91 batch as Additional Secretary ? Will any one see situation in other Central Services ? Are those not doing important work ?
Devendra Sridhar

All terror alerts sounded are fake, fabricated. Mere tactics to create false scare in the public mind , divert attention amid political rhetorics by leaders with scant or no regard for security threats from across the border.
The leaders, after Assemblies’ poll results, are now obsessed with governments formations through horse-trading.
Scramble for power, quota-sharing of ministerial portfolios, sweet promises to public (Not necessarily honest) are prominent activities taking away their times. No time for offices and redressing public grievances.
Leaders are part-time ministers and full-time politicians.
At micro-levels, 90% time spent on politics and 10% on public welfare.
The gullible public refuses to react, protest. The paid media is callous, unfazed. Politicians' sole objective is to earn cheap publicity and brownie points for others' hard labour and achievements. How brazen?
Democracy, surely, is bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Dear Fellow Congresspersons,
Congratulations on the revival of the party's electoral fortunes, beginning with Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections. Government formation will, of course, depend on Dushyant Chauthala's stand and our ability to rescue him from Blackmail pressures being exerted by the BJP government at the Centre.
However, Haryana has finally shown the way to the entire Congress Party: when it comes to survival, State leaderships in the Congress Party can work together despite bitter differences.
Once old Congress hands come together, they can break all strategic shackles and self-defeating game-playing limitations imposed from within by the party's own central leadership which is being blackmailed by the BJP government into agreeing to sacrifice the Congress Workers, the state units and the Party's winning ability.
Hereafter, this is the way forward for the Congress Party.
Namit Verma
ICS officer Sen passes away
He was a very kind and large hearted officer. I was an undersecretary in the Dept. of Defence Production when he was the Secretary. On one occassion when I had a problem I approached him and he was gracious enough to guide me and help me out of the problem. I will never forget his humane approach.
Lakshminarayanan

Whenever an 'entitled' person in our society breaks the law, we see a strange reaction. If a case is filed on corruption charges against an official ( a genuine one ) his colleagues would react " बेचारा। फंसा दिया उसको। मंत्री चोरी करे तो कोई कुछ नहीं बोलता। " Or someone could say " CM is very vindictive against civil servants. X is much more corrupt but CM took no action against him as X is CM's caste.". In short, there is sympathy.
2. If an army officer is caught taking a bribe and action is intitiated, then people immediately say " Government shouldn't take such harsh action. He should have been asked to resign quietly. Otherwise, this would weaken our armed forces and help our enemies.".
3. When a PM/CM/Minister commits a crime, then his party takes a standard defence " This is political vendetta ". Once a CM was charge sheeted. In his defence he said " I did not understand these complicated financial things. The Secretary/CS recommended and i signed". I believe a PM recently also took the same line of defence.
4. If a /Supreme Court/High Court judge does something wrong, no one even mentions it for fear of contempt.
5. If a rich man commits a serious felony, he has a band of highly paid lawyers who will prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the alleged culprit :
- was not in town the day the crime occured, or
- the cctv footage or photograph is not genuine, or
- the complainant is a prostitute/pimp/blackmailer/mentally deranged blah blah blah, or
- new evidence is 'suddenly discovered' which demolishes the prosecution case. For example, a speeding SUV kills four people sleeping on a pavement but it had no driver!
Then, of course, the high priced lawyer has 'other' specialisations to win his case. It's just that the fees go up.
Likewise, doctors and scientists are holy cow. They can do no wrong.
Therefore, the expression " Be thou ever so high ............that the law can never catch you.".
In Britain, the PM and his wife had to go to the thana to get their son released. That is Rule of Law.
We boast of jugad or the Rule by Flaws.
Prabeer K Basu (R)
(BH:76)
IRTS can be abolished
IRTS cadre looks after the work of Transportation and Commercial matters in the Ministry of Railways. This service can be abolished and the work of Transportation could be handed over to the IRSME and the work of Commercial matters to the IRAS .
BBS

I have on two occasions brought out in the Forum the blatant injustice of using 360 degree assessment to empanel, promote or post officers of the IAS and other Group A services. This most unfair practice is keeping honest, hardworking and deserving officers out of their career advancement simply because a casual enquiry from any member of their service and a junior in their office has not brought forth a favourable appreciation of the officer out of jealousy, petty-mindedness or some grudge. I personally know of a very bright woman officer who was not empanelled as Joint Secretary because of unfavourable 360 degree assessment by a senior in her service and a junior in her office. One does not even know who were asked about her. In the case of this lady she learnt somehow about the senior who was asked. It was one whom she rebuffed as the man was trying to be funny with her. As for the junior he bragged about taking revenge from the 'madam' for scolding him once on his shabby office work. As brought out by another surfer today in the forum great injustice is being done by following this archaic practice adopted by Germany for their military personnel during World War II and later adopted and given up by USA because of lack of objectivity in such assessment. Lack of transparency is the hallmark of this vicious practice. This practice is totally illegal. But who will go to the court as people have lost their faith in the judicial system too.
Aarti Khosla

The Central government has made the annual appraisal process online with defined timelines. But still in Income Tax Dept senior officers continue to sleep over the requirement of timely appraisal of the performance of their juniors. This results in delays in career progression leading to heartburn and inefficiency. DoPT has not put in place a mechanism to monitor the system. The purpose of introducing online reporting is defeated. Adding to the woes is that tainted officers are also allowed to appraise their juniors. This also leads to a sense of despair among efficient junior officers
Satyavachakan
Not in good taste
It is not in good taste to imply that retired / aged people who are not healthy & unable to travel/ visit CGHS Wellness Centres/ hospitals are all corrupt!!!! Respecting old age & disability is also the mark of a civilised Society. There is also the universal truth that today’s youth will grow old too.
Vikas
It should be in all public dealing offices
I agree that in all public dealing offices/organisations there should be chit system with electronic display of numbers. This will definitely improve the situation.
S Gopal

There is no need to feel inconvenience, if you are in the Rt Path. Addressing Sir is a voluntary and shall not come in the way of discharging your duties without in bias. I think that is what our PM believes.
A R Rao
Joys,Shocks and jerks of a by-poll
The general feeling about any state Assembly by--polls has been that the ruling party will win these.In Punjab ,since 1994,in 17 such elections, the opposition has tasted victory only in four,so this perception has a sound base..A political party had got unprecedented victory in the Assembly elections in the late 1990s.However ,a year after that ,in a by-poll, the party was utterly shocked at its defeat by a very very thin margin of a single digit.
After the elections, a meeting of the ministers and senior party leaders was held at the CM's residence to deliberate over the reasons of this unexpected defeat.A leader said,''CM sahib,we have been defeated by the partisan Returning officer.She is daughter of a senior leader of the opposition party.''He wanted to continue with his loud speech, but was interrupted by a senior minister,who said,''Sahib Bahadur,it was our legitimate right to get recounting done,but she did not allow the recounting.Even Election commission seemed to be mixed -up.It did not listen to our complaints''.Chief Minister was very seriously listening to the arguments being advanced.After the minister finished,he very gently said,''Oh ttan ji,har round tton baad ohne saare representatives de dastkhat laye si,phir recounting kis base te hundi ji?''(She was getting signatures of representatives of all the parties after counting of each round,then how could recounting be asked for?)One highly talkative minister said,''Sir,then what is our use to be in power and in government,if even junior officers do not listen to us.Dekho ji panj chhe votan da ki hunda ae,inna faraq ttan aiwen hi nikal janda ae(look the difference of five/ six votes could have been conveniently taken care of).The girl has intentionally defeated us,otherwise we had won the election''.A very soft-spoken minister added,''CM sahib, if the officers behave like this and do not listen to us,then how will we face our workers?Such officers must be taught a lesson.Saanu kaan(crow)maar ke tangna chahida a ji( We should kill a crow and hang it for the others to see)''.Many voices were raised in unison for taking action against the lady officer.CM said,''Oh ttan theek ae ji,par election commission di parwangi tton baad hi result announce kita si,kis kaaran action lawan?( true,but the result was announced after the approval of the election commission,on what basis i should take action?''.A party leader shaking his neck right and left and bringing some made-up anger on his face said,''We must take action ,otherwise who will listen to us.Our government would only be 'jholachhap',do something ji''.Two and three voices were raised together,''She must be suspended immediately ji.''To this the CM raised one hand and said with concern,''Dekho ji, kurhi barhi imandaar a ohnu suspend karan da sochya vee nahi ja sakda (look, the lady officer is honest, I cannot think of suspending her).''.The reaction to this came in spontaneously from one and all,'' Then she must be transferred to a insignificant post at a far away place.'' CM said that he would look into it and took up another important matter..
Deliberations were made to transfer her to Chandigarh. Sometimes some divine intervention takes place to safeguard the well-being of straight-forward and honest people. It was almost decided that she would be transferred to Chandigarh. An angel-like lady financial commissioner revenue got wind of this punitive and vindictive programme of the government. She knew that the lady officer had two small college- going children and it would be great injustice ,if the transfer was done at that particular time. She was in the process of transforming the Revenue department into the best administered wing of the government. She approached the chief minister through her chief secretary husband and with great difficulty got the lady officer posted in her own department at the same headquarter. However she was put on the post, which was not cadre or ex-cadre post of a PCS officer and on which earlier never a PCS officer was posted. She worked on that post for more than two years and brought laurels for the government. She has honorably retired as senior govt functionary, but not before showing to the world that nobody can harm a fearlessly honest government functionary.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, IAS retd

Days after Xi's exit from Chennai, he started his usual mind games by conducting military exercise in Tibet near Arunachal Pradesh. India had also recently conducted military exercise in Arunachal Pradesh. This was condemned by China through diplomatic demarche.
So, mistrust still exists between two neighbours. This will always remain. All words of emotional bondings uttered by President Xi at Chennai are farce. Let India’s diplomats demonstrate more foresightedness rather than be swayed by sweet pillow talks of China which is adept in playing mind games.
Consider a concomitant development.
India is making its presence felt by pledging a $1 billion Line of Credit for development of the Russian Far East. This region though minerally rich, has a hostile climate and is sparsely populated. Some separatists tendencies have reportedly been noticed, of late, by Russia in the area due to low investment on infrastructural development. Russia is suspicious about wily intentions of the expansionist China, having its eyes set on the area.
India is governed by its geo-political compulsions, not business interests. It is also trying to counter growing Chinese presence in Russian Far East. It would also guard against China's growing hegemony around south-China sea region.
Nations have no permanent enemies or friends. But, only interests are permanent.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)