Dilli Ka Babu: Clean-up time

The Modi sarkar’s crackdown on corruption is always ongoing. Recently, Parliament was informed that the government has dismissed two IAS officers and suspended nine IPS officers on charges of corruption in the past five years. This is apart from the sanction given by the Centre to prosecute 23 IAS officers and four IPS officers under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The campaign against corruption in the administration is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid to reform the bureaucracy in the public interest. Earlier this year, the government had compulsorily retired 27 officers of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) on account of corruption and bribery. The move had sent shockwaves across the power corridors since no government had ever acted strongly against those babus who faced serious charges of corruption. Having started with the tax babus, it was only a matter of time that the government focused on the other services too.

Understandably, babus are jittery as they have not faced such intense scrutiny for a long time. The message has gone out that what many perceive as unprecedented acts of the Modi sarkar are founded on rules that were rarely applied earlier. These are the days of a Swacchh Sarkar!

Defence babus worried
The announcement that India will soon have a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), who will become the single point of military advice to the government, has been widely welcomed as a much-needed reform. While the three services chiefs will continue with their current tasks, the CDS would be the main point of advice for the defence ministry and will ensure coordination among the Army, Air Force and Navy on joint operations, training and intelligence.

But there is one arm of the government that is unhappy with the news. A section of (anonymous) babus have taken to Twitter to protest the move and said they will fight it “tooth and nail”. It is not that they are opposed to the creation of the post of CDS, but they fear that this will be done by degrading the post of the defence secretary, who is the principal defence adviser to the defence minister. The appointment of a CDS would end that monopoly.

The IAS fraternity has been concerned about its losing grip over key posts in the government for quite some time now. The Modi sarkar has made decisive moves to appoint non-IAS service babus to senior positions in the government, much to the chagrin of the heaven-born. At present, more than 120 posts of joint secretary with the government are filled by non-IAS officers.

Crackdown on corruption
The Modi sarkar has again struck at corrupt government officials by compulsorily retiring 22 senior tax officers of the rank of superintendent. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has said that the senior government officials have been retired in “public interest” on charges of corruption. Barely two months ago, in a similar move, the government had retired 27 high-ranking Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers, including 12 officers from Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), also on charges of corruption.

The officials have been accused of conducting unauthorised searches and accepting bribes. Some of them are also being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

According to the rule, the appropriate authority has the absolute right to retire any government servant by giving at least three months’ notice in writing, or three months’ pay and allowances.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently referred to misuse of power by the “black sheep” in tax administration, who had been harassing taxpayers by targeting honest assessees or taking excessive action for minor violations.