The conscience keepers either sleep or connive with the devil and the system goes haywire. This unfortunately has been happening with the nation as well as its lifeline during
the last couple of years. What transpired recently in the railways was an unassailable symptom of the conscience keepers at the apex levels conniving with the devil,
directly or indirectly for personal gains or out of fear.
The problem is deadly yet has a simple solution. The conscience keepers who are fairly senior in the
pecking order have to be fair and firm regardless of the consequences. Is it
indeed asking for the moon?
In a Loktantra, the real power
vests in the elected representatives yet the job of the conscience keeper is
assigned to the permanent group, that of the bureaucrats. These servants of the
republic confer a sense of permanency to the government that otherwise puts on
a new cloak every five years. And therefore they have a major role to play,
that of the guardians of the rules, procedures, processes and the conscience of
the collective, yet the role is generally found wanting.
The various scams of the 2G, 3G,
CWG, Adarsh, Coalgate and Railgate varieties to name a few would not have happened had
the conscience keepers played their roles with impunity. A bureaucrat merely
has to place in writing the facts of the case, the correct rule position, the
ethical stand and the course of action that he feels is the best fit in the prevalent
circumstances and then it is for the competent authority, at times the elected
representative to take a call in tune with the noting or otherwise. It is
plainly as simple as that, yet almost a rarity!
Why the conscience keepers are generally
a dismal failure despite the protection afforded to them by virtue of a permanent
job guaranteed by no less than the president of the republic is rather difficult to fathom?
It is fairly obvious that the
sarkari tantra over a period of time has emerged as an organ primarily suited
for self aggrandizement of its constituents. A budding youngster of today joins
the services not inspired by lofty ideals but for the ample opportunities the service provides
for accumulating wealth and flaunting power in the public domain. A servant of
the public at large desirous of extortion from the system and flaunting power
over people he is paid to serve! The entire concept of selfless service has
perhaps been thrown out of the window in this wonderful nation of ours.
It is indeed time that the
concept of selfless service is reinforced down the throats of all those who are
paid to serve yet serve to be paid!
