An MBA and an arts graduate, Sunny Singh, is a senior bureaucrat and the head of several crucial departments, a few of which are technical. In the corporate sector, the Chief Executive Officer may be preoccupied with running just one company, but here, it’s the state. Hemashri profiles a typical Mr Know-all, telling us how a bureaucrat thinks, in the weekly column. A Different Truths exclusive.
Sunny Singh is a typical capital-returned veteran Babu. He is a short, stout man in his late 50s with a glowing, fair complexion. Half of his hair has disappeared, possibly due to the excessive heat generated by his overactive bureaucratic brain. It is very obvious that he was a handsome man in his heyday. An MBA and an arts graduate, Singh, as a senior bureaucrat, is now the head of several crucial departments, a few of which are technical. In the corporate sector, the Chief Executive Officer may be preoccupied with running just one company, but here, a single bureaucrat oversees seven large departments whose operations span the entire state.
Field officers have a tough time explaining highly technical issues to Singh, but the great thing is that he knows everything about everything and can provide his ultimate authoritarian comment. As the head of the office, he is the Commander-in-Chief, and none can dare to disagree. The only advantage here is that there is only a process and no product. So the ultimate responsibility of the C-i-C is to keep the process active. A pregnant woman, after nine months of conceiving, delivers the baby. Here, the process from conceiving an idea to its delivery is lengthy and may take years, yet the outcome is highly uncertain. Besides, the incidence of stillbirth and miscarriage is very high. After pumping a huge amount of resources at the fag end of an irrigation project, the net gain could be only that water would be available during the flood season, or it could be the ultimate discovery that the project site was wrongly chosen. Anything absurd can happen at any time. This is great Indian bureaucracy, where people who may not know anything about it take crucial and critical decisions. Indian bureaucracy is divorced from specialisation or expertise because such generalists still rule the roost.
The tip of Singh’s nose is high up in the air with anger and arrogance. Singh is busy these days in a crucial meeting for an upcoming global conclave. Mr Singh’s “Iss state mein, naah?” comment disapproves of many of the suggestions from the experienced experts. (Not in this state) This is the kind of comment. If nothing good is possible in this state, then why are they organising such a mega event to lure investors? That is the big question. But who has the courage to ask that? Singh is a capital return with strong links. He is here only to complete the stipulated cooling-off period so that he can be eligible to return to the capital. With his family safely tucked away in the country’s capital, he has been shuttling between his two departments to manage all seven.
In an important meeting with the diaspora, Singh made it clear what the focus would be on to lure investors. He stated, “We have 5000 qualified engineers and no industry, so we can tell investors that trained technical manpower is very cheap here.” Singh was completely unaware that such a slogan could attract exploitative corporations and that paying less than what is due would violate labour laws. Singh is blissfully unaware that the engineers working with his team to make the conclave a grand success have been earning less than the government-prescribed minimum wage for skilled workers. He may know everything about everything, yet he does not bother to know what he must as the head of the department.
As the head of an important department, Singh proposed making the state a vibrant trade hub by constructing 65-storey twin towers. What remained a riddle was that the state falls in Zone 5, a
Yes, Boss, you are right! Who has seen tomorrow? But what we sow today, so shall we reap tomorrow!
©Hemashri Hazarika
Photos from the Internet
#ReapWhatYouSow #YesBoss #Bureaucrats #GovernmentOffices #GovermentGallimaufry #DifferentTruths
Hemashri Hazarika is an Officer of the Assam Civil Service since 1997. Her research on Assam Civil Service brought reforms in 2015. A first-class Postgraduate in Economics from Gauhati University, she was awarded JRF/NET by UGC in 1997. Her experience as a bureaucrat has sensitised her to human sufferings. A solutionist by passion, she takes an active interest in issues related to Governance, Development, Women, Children, etc. Reading, Writing, Speaking and Painting are her hobbies.
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