By: Parmanand Pandey, Advocate, Supreme Court (Secretary General IPC)
Some officers have an insatiable thirst for publicity and in the process to achieve it they forget even the minimum courtesies. The level of perversion of such officers has gone so deep that in order to get support from a section of society, they do adopt some shocking steps. What has, however, crossed all limits is that a Karnataka Cadre IAS officer Mohammad Mohsin, who is posted in Odisha on poll duty has conducted surprise search of the chopper of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and delayed his schedule by 15 minutes. He has not been able to give any convincing answer as to why he checked the Prime Minister’s chopper. Some say that he checked it because he had information that there was a black suitcase containing bundles of currency notes and if he had found it, he would have become the instant hero of the opposition parties and the image of the Prime Minister and his party would have tarnished beyond recovery.
This officer appears to be of very a low IQ and he does not deserve to be in service even for a moment, who takes such impulsive and foolish actions merely on the basis of rumours, without any verification and cross-checking, that too, in the case of the Prime Minister of the country. More so, about a Prime Minister, who is known for probity and honesty throughout the world. Cynicism has got no place in the administration, but this officer seems to have his mind placed in his feet. Prime Minister of the country is the most important person and he enjoys the highest protection. If a mentally sick IAS officer can subject the Prime Minister of the country to such an insult and humiliation without any concrete proof and information, then one can easily understand that how do they behave with the general public?
It has also been seen that such officers, badly bitten by the publicity bugs, are very unscrupulous and corrupt in their administrative functioning. Not long ago a lady IAS officer in U.P., who became darling of the then, Chief Minister, used to throw her weight around but later it was found that she has accumulated huge money and built the empire of the properties. She comes from Andhra Pradesh and used to abuse anybody whosoever, asked some difficult questions to her. Being physically beautiful she had been levelling baseless allegations against many journalists, politicians and even fellow officers for making advances to her.
Some years ago, there was an IAS officer, one Goswami, who was posted as the District Magistrate of Patna, who suddenly went up to the dais when the then Home Minister of India Lal Krishna Advani was addressing an election meeting and he switched off his mike. Mr Advani, a meticulous follower of rules, was about to conclude his speech in a minute two after 10.p.m. but the arrogant District Magistrate, that he was, forgot all courtesy and politeness to ask him a few minutes before the time limit to finish the speech. He was obviously working at the instance of his then boss Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was ruling Bihar at that time through his illiterate wife Rabri Devi. When this uncouth officer was humiliating Advani, some other important leaders of Bihar like; Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan and Sushil Kumar Modi were also present on the dais and they were all stunned at the uncivilised behaviour of the DM, who is, unfortunately, now no more in this world.
These IAS and IPS officers lick the boots of their masters for their self-interests but otherwise they think themselves to be the ‘monarch of all they survey’. They must be given rigorous training to work in a democratic country without throwing the culture and polite behaviour to the wind.