The author was a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of the Tamil Nadu cadre from 1968 to 2005. The book deals largely with his experiences as a bureaucrat at the district, state and central levels. He had further assignments in autonomous institutions during 2005-2012.

The use of the term ‘reluctant’ in the title is puzzling. Can an officer be considered to be ‘reluctant’ when he has not only completed, largely successfully, his entire career in government without getting into a major controversy? Is he to be described as ‘reluctant’ only because he resisted political interference in a rural development project during his term as Collector and DM? Or are his subsequent experiences of humiliation during his government of India postings justify the description?

Most conscientious officials have had and still have similar and indeed much worse experiences. Several Secretaries to government of India have been subjected to harassment and humiliation while in office (see the discreet autobiography of TCA Srinivasavaradan and the more hard-hitting one of CG Somiah former Home Secretaries and of MK Kaw former Civil Aviation Secretary and indeed several others). The author’s reluctance to compromise with his basic principles of ‘neutrality, compliance and delivery’ in his work, is important but all good officials do function or have functioned with such principles.

Let us take up two remarkable experiences in this connection. The story of the President of India asking for the setting apart of two Air India planes for his travels to Europe and Latin America disrupting Air India flight schedules for two months and the ‘reluctance’ of the Civil Aviation Secretary, supported by the Cabinet Secretary, to comply with the demand on legitimate grounds, is narrated by MK Kaw, the then Civil Aviation Secretary in his outstanding autobiographical narrative (2010). These grounds were briefly the avoidable disruption of flight schedules and an earlier Cabinet decision to increasingly rely on the private sector on payment for this and other similar travels such as the annual Haj pilgrimage.

The Cabinet Secretary’s note reproduced in MK Kaw’s volume is eloquent in this regard. Kaw, further bracingly noted during the meeting with the President of India that the security of 350 ordinary Indian passengers was as important as that of the Hon’ble President of India! How many top officials would put up such resistance to the President of India though in the most polite manner? It is another matter that these two top officials were overruled by the political executive at the instance of the President. Neither Kaw nor the then Cabinet Secretary was subsequently invited to any Rashtrapati Bhawan function!

In another entertaining autobiography (2010), CG Somiah, former Union Home Secretary, narrates a request by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for the postponement to a more ‘auspicious’ date, the already notified date for the election of the successor to President ‘Giani’ Zail Singh. The Prime Minister’s astrologer behind this request was none other than the inimitable TN Seshan, the PM’s own security official! To comply with the request would have been illegal and Home Secretary and the then then Chief Election Commissioner Peri Sastri decided to reject the request. In doing so, Peri Sastri missed the offered opportunity to become a Governor! Somiah advised Seshan to concentrate on his job and not to interfere in the election process of the President of India. It is well known that many bureaucrats comply with such unseemly requests from the political executive in return for juicy post-retirement official positions.

Rastogi recounts his bad experience as a ‘non-glamorous’ Director of Investigations in the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Minorities Commission (1983-88). During his final innings (2000-2005) he had the experience of working in the Inter-state Council recommended by the Sarkaria Commission. The Council’s work, though important, remained otiose because of lack of legal powers. This was also the case with the earlier job with the CVC. The author retired as Secretary (Border management) in the Union Home Ministry.

The author waxes eloquent about federal governance but seems to have not seen former Union Home Secretary TCA Srinivasavaradan’s important autobiographical work on federal governance (1992), which identifies major challenges for the government of India: i) ‘fire-fighting’ operations such as dealing with drought, scarcity, famines and elections; ii) long term ‘nation-building’ tasks in the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir and Maoist violence. While appreciating the operational skills of the Indian bureaucracy, the author stresses the need for knowledge, skill, vision and expertise at the top. Ad-hocism and amateurishness have damaged policy making in the government of India. He also stresses the need to set up multi-disciplinary study cum action teams of bureaucrats, scholars and social activists to come up with recommendations on complex policy issues. However, the more recent NN Vohra Committee report (1993) brought out the emerging linkages between politicians, bureaucrats and criminals. Already in 1983, a foreign expert on the Indian police had noted that police officers in India were preoccupied with politics, penetrated by politics and were participating in it individually and collectively!

The author singles out the ancient Hindu text ‘Arthasastra’ but fails to mention the Constitution of India, which foregrounds the concept of rule of law. The Constitution’s Preamble, Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Rights form elements of ‘good governance’, which are seriously neglected. The author also fails to mention the recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2005-2007) and its fourth volume on ‘Ethics in Governance’. Governance in India is a vast and interlocking system in which administrative, legislative and judicial arrangements that bind the central and state governments together and inhibit efforts to bring about reforms.

What strikes one about the career of our indefatigable author is the lack of focus emanating from the multiplicity and complexity of tasks he has handled especially in the government of India and the state government of Tamil Nadu.

Ashoka Rastogi: ‘Reluctant Bureaucrat’, Authors UpFront, 2014, pp.229, Price not indicated

(KS Subramanian is a retired IPS officer, and is the author of several books on public order and governance).

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