REFLECTIONS
ON DAD-DAY, OCTOBER 1, 2016
October 1 – the DAD-Day – every year is a time of joyous
celebration for all DADizens, past and present, of the Department. Meetings and
merriment in various hues are a natural accompaniment. The atmosphere is incredibly
electric, when everyone seems to be on a high – something reminiscent of a family
get-together. After all what’s DAD but an extended family!
What’s often forgotten in this rush of celebration when
the spirit is on a high, is that it is also a Day for introspection – to assess
how much we have succeeded in exceeding ourselves. This calls for looking
inward, of being honest to oneself, in asking hard, pesky questions, and
seeking honest answers. Introspection grants self-communing and self-criticism, even self-flagellation, and provides answers that can hit the mind hard. But
they are the truth, bald and honest; they are the conscience’s response, embodying
one’s internal moral compass that ought to be given free rein; and because they
show how much one is true to oneself during such moments of stocktaking. It is
also epiphanic. Eureka is not necessarily only Archimedes’s preserve – it is
embedded in every human’s wired mind, if only he or she is willing to get a
jump on it.
I say this in nostalgia, evoking memories. This, perhaps,
the first time in more than three and half decades, I’ll not be a part of the
celebration. But my mind is full of DAD-Day thoughts. Inevitably my mind travels
back to last year’s DAD-Day, when I had waxed eloquent in my address in Brar
Square that our Department has become, among all Departments in the Government
of India, the bellwether of Transparency in going completely transparent. The PCsDA
and CsDA had been instructed to upload the details of TA/DA claims and Office
Expenses with related office notes to ensure transparency in spends from
taxpayers’ money. Also, even more importantly, an arm’s length system with Defence
Accounts Placement Boards (DAPBs) with IDAS officers on deputation as Chairmen
and Members to ensure their independence from administrative authorities (so fundamental
to neutrality) had been put in place, to ensure fair and transparent decision-making
in matters of transfers and postings. This was in keeping with the Supreme
Court’s judgment of 2013.
My mind travels even further back to my days when I
worked as the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts at Bangalore. It was circa
2010, and I had invited Justice Santosh Hegde, former Supreme Court judge and then
the Lokayukta of Karnataka for the DAD-Day function. I had already begun the
practice of uploading the note sheets containing the transfer of staff and
officers under the PCDA Bangalore in the office website to ensure all
stakeholders are aware of the processes and principles involved in effecting
their transfers. An inveterate practitioner of honesty in public life, Justice
Hegde was the embodiment of uprightness and probity, and inevitably the discussion
veered around the issue of getting rid of nepotism and corruption. “To me, it
appears” I said, “the answer to getting rid of these cancers lies in complete transparency.
It auto-corrects wrong human impulses and as ombudsman, telegraphs clandestine motivations.”
He not only agreed but also highlighted the flagrant wrongs he had seen as Lokayukta.
Going back in time he narrated the case of supersession of Supreme Court judges
in appointment of the Chief Justice of India in 1973. “But it will take
enormous courage of conviction to put transparency and an arm’s length system
in place,” he said.
As CGDA and FA(DS), I found out why (more forthcoming in my Memoir).
Transparency strips authorities of their (perceived) authority, and complete
transparency strips authority completely! And what’s there without authority in a feudal set up like ours –
the power to help and reward, to punish and chastise with no reasons cited! As
a corollary, the transparency architecture discourages subordinates to cozy up
to the powers-that-be – and massaging their uncertain egos and uneasy vanities
– for the spoils and favours to befall them. Is this why transparency was
replaced with opacity? Transparency has a potential to write finis to the way of life the networked
and street-smarts have crafted out, who through manipulation and machinations and
by telling yarns, tall and magnificent, have kept going up and up the totem
pole without any self-worth. So entrenched and so insidious are they that, let
alone eliminating them, even a surgical strike at these networkers’ camps is
harder than striking the Pak terrorists in their launch pads. I call them
klepto-terrorists – they steal and ransack, they plunder and pillage the system!
I’ve seen how culprits (because they are ace schemers and networked) manipulate
the system to get away scot-free in typical insider trade and how innocents (because
they are naïve and un-networked) are pilloried. The system is so infested with
this networking instinct that its busting is dire.
Networkers, because of the nature of activity, breed all
ills: nepotism, corruption, shenanigan and every evil that we, as common men,
confront in our day to day life. Given the obstinate grip of the nepotistic
past, we must shout at the deceit of it. And transparency is the way to go in a
democracy. It’s time to demand transparency as one of our basic rights. A small
beginning has been made in the RTI Act 2005. But it demands more, a whole lot
more. It needs muscle, it needs the sun to shine brightly – to disinfect and
cleanse putrefaction. Complete transparency is the GPS for fairness, equity, honesty
and justice! We must download this app and switch it on – for a better tomorrow.
On this DAD-Day 2016, as a concerned senior, I wish all
members of my extended family a very happy, healthy, peaceful, and wonderful
journey ahead – filled with achievements, glory, smarts and happiness – this
coming year, and in the years ahead. Let the DADizens blaze a new trail and
become the numero uno among all other
participating organs of this proud country. Warm wishes and Godspeed!
