Inderjit Khanna
Inderjit Khanna is one of the civil servatns covered in my book on Effective people published by Random House recently. I wrote the following about Inder in my book:
" Inderjit Khanna joined the Indian
Administrative Service in 1966 in the Rajasthan Cadre and after initial years
as SDM, Collector, Deputy Secretary and Director Education he spent fairly long
periods of posting in the fields of Rural Development, Education, Planning and
Finance. This included two tenures of over 6 years each with Government of
India including as Secretary UGC, and a spell of 2 years as a Visiting
Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad from 1981 to 83. His
last posting for three years was as Chief Secretary, Rajasthan. After
retirement in December 2002, he was appointed and worked as the State Election
Commissioner, Rajasthan for 5 years. He is currently associated with the Gita
Mittal Foundation which is running 3 Centres for Skill Development of youth in
Rajasthan. He is also on the Committees and Boards of 7 institutions in the
fields of Health, Education and Rural Development. Inder is highly value
driven person. After having worked for his entire life as an IAS officer he
leads a simple life in Jaipur as he followed all the values a civil servant should follow-
honesty, integrity, commitment to public service. In
his own career a when faced with the choice between going to work in USA or UK
on study leave or to work at IIMA, Inder chose IIMA as a visiting Professor
quite unlike many civil servants who would prefer a stint at JF Kennedy School
or some such place. The
following is a quote from his paper he wrote in memory of Udai Pareek[i]:
“Corruption has emerged as one of the most pernicious threats to
governance in India. There is a perception that it encompasses all spheres of
governance. The bureaucracy, being under constant glare of the public has,
therefore, necessarily to raise much above this perception by not only being
honest but, as stated earlier, appearing to be honest.
The basic objective of governance is to provide well being, comfort and
happiness to the people. This can be done when those who are entrusted with the
responsibility to govern do so with a sense of responsibility, in an
environment of transparency, exhibiting a culture of accountability and as people with integrity.”
[i] Khanna, Indejit, Importance of
values in Civil service, in HRD and Institution Building for Development”
edited by T V Rao and Anil Khandelwal: New Delhi Sage. Udai Pareek Memorial
volume (forthcoming)
Two days, two Incidents –
contradictions and some learning
Indejit Khanna, IAS (retd.)
Former Chief Secretary
Sunday 17th January 2016, did not start well
for me. Around 6:30 am I received a phone call that a very old and dear family
friend had passed away around 4 am at Gurgaon. The funeral was to be at 4 pm in
Gurgaon. I reached Narayan Singh circle, Jaipur around 8 am only to find that
there was no seat available in the forthcoming Volvo buses of Rajasthan
roadways (RSRTC). I, therefore, boarded a Haryana roadways ordinary bus and was
bound for Delhi by 8:15 am.
Around 10:30 am the bus stopped for 20 minutes at a
dhaba a little beyond Behror. The usual visit to the wash room and a cup of tea
were necessary. As soon as I saw the conductor come out from the dhaba after
eating his lunch, I went to the wash room which was merely 15 feet to the side
of the bus. After about two minutes, as I turned around I was aghast to find
that the bus had already departed. Another Haryana roadways bus happened also
to have stopped subsequently at the dhaba and so I went to the conductor of
this bus and explained my predicament. Not only did I have to reach IFFCO Chowk
by 2 pm, but even my brief-case was in the bus which had moved on. The
conductor asked me to sit in his bus which would leave in 15 minutes. When I
offered to pay for a fresh ticket, the conductor said this was not necessary
since I already had a ticket issued by the Haryana roadways. Further, the
conductor telephoned his counterpart on the first bus and informed him of this
sequence of events, presumably asking him to wait awhile at IFFCO Chowk for me
to arrive in this bus following. During the journey to IFFCO Chowk, on my
reminder, the conductor reassured me that they would be able to get me in time
to IFFCO Chowk to enable me to retrieve my brief-case.
As they approached IFFCO Chowk the conductor turned to
me and pointed out that the bus ahead was waiting for me. I was able to get his
brief-case, reach the bereaved family’s house and attend the funeral at 4 pm.
The 2nd incident began at 8 am the following
day, 18th January. I reached Bikaner House, Delhi to find that there
was a Volvo bus at 8:30 am but I happened to be the first passenger and in case
there were not adequate number of passengers, the 8:30 am bus was likely to be
cancelled. Fortunately, by 8:30 am 7 passengers registered (bus having capacity
of 40 passengers) and the bus moved for Jaipur. At Dhaula Kuan it could not get
any more passengers but at IFFCO Chowk one lady did board the bus. As the bus
moved on, the conductor came to this lady and asked her to buy the ticket. She
stated that she already had a ticket which she showed him. The conductor
retorted that the ticket was for the 9 am Volvo and not for this bus and so she
must either pay for a fresh ticket or get down on the highway. The driver did
mildly suggest that since she had a ticket and the bus had 33 vacant seats, she
could be allowed to continue to Jaipur. However, the conductor was adamant and
had his way. The lady had to get down from the bus and possibly take an auto
back to IFFCO Chowk.
From these two
incidents the contradiction is obvious, it is in terms of the diametrically
opposite responses of the two conductors. That of Haryana roadways went out of
his way to help and sort out my difficulty.
The RSRTC conductor was adamant and rule bound even at the cost of
inconveniencing a lady passenger. Which response was correct, more appropriate
and more human ? Normal perceptions
indicate that the public system and its representatives in Haryana are likely
to be less responsive than those from Rajasthan. The current 2 incidents
establish the contrary. What then could be the likely reason ? Is the public
perception wrong or do the public systems depend so much on the individual’s
human response to a particular situation? Discussions with some friends seem to
suggest that in our country the response of functionaries within the public
systems is less systemic and more personal. If this is largely true then what
steps are required to bring about changes in the system to make it a more
responsive one, rather than a system depending upon individual preferences?
Of course, the
start has to be made in the life of the each human being as he/she grows from
childhood to maturity. Critically, the family, the school and teachers, peer
group and the society at large impact individuals as they grow. That, of
course, holds for everyone. However, when we face the world of public systems
and their delivery, the start is at the time of recruitment. If we don’t look
for the right qualities in the persons that we are recruiting, that is the
first mistake that we make.
Next comes the period of induction training. At this
stage, what probably needs to be
emphasized most is the need for public servants to be more human in their
approach, rather than being rule bound. No doubt, rules and guidelines are
framed to be followed, but when situations require, the public servant must do
what is proper in the interest of public convenience with, of course, reasons
as to why he is deviating from the rules / guidelines.
Moving on from
the stage of induction training is that of periodic in service training. This
aspect is often not given due importance. Rather, it needs to be emphasized
much more.
Talking of
training, it is necessary to mention that the staff of training institutions
has to be carefully selected. Training institutions should not be seen as
dumping grounds or as places for officials to get posted to, not because they
are keen to be trainers but because this gives them a foot hold for being at a location
where they want to be. Further, training
institutions should seek out persons like the Haryana bus conductor who have
intrinsic qualities of a good and responsive human being, sometimes without
even knowing it themselves, to come forward as resource persons in appropriate
training programs.
Leadership of training institutions is also very
important. Unfortunately we often find that the post of head of a training
institution is kept vacant for long periods, since not much importance is
attached to it by the government. Further, even if a head is finally appointed it
is generally a case of a square peg in a round hole. Such situations do not
provide for appropriate confidence in the training process.
Finally, to
build a responsive administration the entire gamut of administration must have
leaders who set good examples by their own actions, and their actions in turn
are supported by their superiors.
January
2016
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