Bureaucrats should not be made scapegoats in the tussle between Centre and state: T S R Subramanian

Interview with former Cabinet secretary

This past week, the Delhi government suspended Yashpal Garg and Subhash Chandra, two DANICS ( Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) officers, for their refusal to sign a notification regarding grant of higher pay scales for the staff of the prosecution department and the prisons department. The two officers, in their defence, say they could not have signed the files since the Lieutenant Governor had already referred it to the President. Most of the 150 DANICS officers decided to go on mass leave on Thursday as a mark of protest. T S R Subramanian, former Cabinet secretary to the government of India, talks to Dhruv Munjal about the raging controversy, its implications and the key role bureaucrats play in the functioning of a government

The ministry of home affairs has deemed the suspension of the two IAS officers by the Delhi government "null and void". From a constitutional point of view, does the state government have the power to carry out such an action?

It is very important to understand that Delhi is a Union Territory, which puts it in the same category as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands or Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The only exception in Delhi's case is that it has a state Assembly. Delhi is a centrally administered territory and that has been the case for the last 50 years. The officers who form a part of the Delhi government come from Union Territory cadres and belong to the home ministry. Key decisions such as suspension, postings and transfers have always been taken by the central government.

Kejriwal is trying to dispute that. But from a constitutional point of view, his government has no authority to suspend officers. He cannot unilaterally change what has been happening for the last so many decades. The status quo on this issue rests with the government of India. Only the Lieutenant Governor can suspend DANICS officers with permission from the home ministry. Kejriwal always has the courts at his disposal; he can request for a hearing of the Supreme Court to amend the powers. But any kind of confrontation won't help matters.

How do you view the officers' decision to go on mass leave as a mark of protest? The IAS officers' association too had called upon all its members to take half-day leave.

I do not blame them. Any organisation that has any amount of self-respect would have taken a similar step. How can you blame the officers or the association? Such an action is natural, since the officers are caught in the crossfire between the state government and the Centre. They are getting contradictory orders from two different bosses, which can act as a major hindrance in the functioning of any government. It's like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. Bureaucrats should not be made the scapegoats in the tussle between state and the Centre.

Kejriwal went to the extent of saying that "DANICS and IAS associations in Delhi have become full-fledged B-teams of the Bharatiya Janata Party."

IAS officers have always been neutral. Such statements will only make them take political sides. I don't understand Kejriwal's thinking. How can you abuse and question the officers who run your government? They are the ones who help in the smooth functioning of the government.

By making such ludicrous statements, Kejriwal has lost the trust of his officers; he has cut his own legs. Such a hare-brained approach can never work. If Kejriwal has a problem with the Centre, he must deal with it directly. Making the bureaucrats suffer is no solution.

The chief minister wants to replace IAS officers with private professionals and experts. Can that work?

I sometimes wonder if Kejriwal has come from Mars. There is no government in any country in the world that functions without bureaucrats. If he wants to replace them with private professionals, then that's his choice. Anybody joining the government will have to be presided over by the Constitution, which means that Kejriwal will need the approval of Parliament to implement such a change. But I have my doubts if such an idea can actually work.

How key a role do bureaucrats play in the functioning of a government? Is their role sometimes overstated?

You can do without MPs and MLAs, but not without bureaucrats. Most states, in fact, run better without an Assembly. In any administrative set-up, you need check points and bureaucrats provide you with exactly that. No government can survive without the services of bureaucrats; the whole system will collapse. It's like a traffic cop going missing on a busy street. Within minutes of him going missing, there is complete anarchy on the road. A machinery bereft of bureaucrats will meet a similar fate.