March 07 : The Indian Police Service (IPS) officers have long vied for parity with their Indian Administrative Service (IAS) counterparts and the inter-service rivalry is one of the long-running battles in Indian babudom. However, the police babus may
find they have less to complain about against their rival service in the present Manmohan Singh dispensation. According to babu-watchers, the United Progressive Alliance government has been particularly partial to IPS officers of the retired variety, particularly while awarding plum post-retirement positions in the government.
To begin with, after the recent appointment of state governors, several states including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland, are now headed by former IPS officers. But since gubernatorial positions are limited, several IPS officers have landed other prestigious positions. Former Central Bureau of Investigation boss Vijay Shankar, for example, is a Member of the Commission on Centre-State Relations, R.K. Das, former director general of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), is now in charge of security for the Commonwealth Games. Times are also good for former spooks such as former Research and Analysis Wing chief A.S. Dulat, who is a member of the National Security Advisory Board. Interestingly, with the government now going into overdrive to recruit more IPS officers, there is hope for those officers who were allocated to the CISF after their recruitment and have been languishing there. According to sources, the government is considering reallocating some of these officers to the IPS or other Group A services. Clearly, things are looking up for IPS babus, retired as well as those still in service.
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Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar has taken his battle against the state’s much-talked-about “millionaire” babus (reported earlier in this column) to the next level. Corrupt bureaucrats may not just be out their jobs but may also lose their property, moveable and immovable, if convicted for corruption. The Centre’s nod to the Bihar Special Courts Bill, 2009, after more than a year’s wait, empowers the state government to confiscate assets of corrupt babus and set up special courts to hear corruption-related cases. With the enactment of the law, according to principal secretary Afzal Amanullah, Bihar has stolen the march over other states in the campaign aimed at nailing sarkari corruption.
Not one to waste a populist opportunity, Mr Kumar has announced that the state government would open schools in the confiscated properties. That should go down well with the janata, considering that corruption is likely to be a major issue when Bihar goes to polls next year. However, it may be too early to say whether the present euphoria would last until then or prove ephemeral. A year is a long time in politics and a lot will now depend on how Nitish’s government moves against the notoriously corrupt babus in the state. After all, as some veterans may say, we’ve seen it all before, in various guises. Stay tuned for updates.
By Dilip Cherian
