The top guy matters!

It is indeed true that any organization is only as good as its top guy. If the top guy is good, the organization prospers, if not it goes down or sinks depending upon how nincompoop the top guy really is. Yet it is the misfortune of the nation that in sarkari organizations cutting across sectors and services, the criterion for selection of the top guys is generally based on subjective parameters other than deliverance and human values.  

The examples of rampant manipulations invariably set by the railways in selection of its top guys invariably leave a bad taste in the mouth. Murky dealings, few cases of which have tumbled out of the cupboard by chance not by design, rampant manipulations by the outgoing top guy to choose an unworthy successor, the search for a pliable spine and the web of complex rules of selection, all together have brought the organization to such a pass that make me certain that by the time the haze clears, we would once again have a master manipulator occupying the corner room.

Yet in official forums the debate continues, endless debates by people who are not delivering where they are planted yet consider themselves fit to pass value judgement on all matters under the sun. The “Know all’s” outnumber the “do all’s” by a wide margin and therein lies the tragedy of organizations like the railways. The top guys in railways do not lead and are invariably with rare exceptions of-course, never a part of the team. The job of the top guy(s) remains confined to finding faults with their team for activities being undertaken by them on their own or under the direction of the top guy.

Never before in the history of the railways has one witnessed an outpouring of hate and venom cutting across departmental and zonal boundaries as in the case of the current outgoing chief executive. The previous guy also achieved the distinction of the worst ever only to be overtaken by the current guy who would go down as the first top guy in whose regime the railways achieved the twin distinction of going bankrupt and and also losing its image. The unfortunate part however remains that the future appears to be as hazy as earlier with meager hopes of a humane leadership emerging at the apex level.

Yet with hope we live on.

Amen! 

Obsessive designations

Whether the designations in railways are obsessive or we are unusually obsessed by rank is a subjective matter but the fact remains that rank has a major role to play in the lives of senior railway officers. Else how does one explain railway wives being addressed even in formal functions as Mrs GM, Mrs DRM, Mrs CRB and so on and the gentleman carrying his rank on his sleeve, even during morning ablutions.

I always been under the impression that jobs, unlike human beings remain singular in nature, but my return to railways amazed me no end when I realized that each job or a designation also has a spouse attached. So while the gentleman sits on the official chair, the spouse occupies the spouse chair with pride and authority, that often exceeds that of the gentleman and gives others a simpler access route to the official.

My above impression is based on experience, for I never heard the wife of an army officer being addressed as Mrs Chief of Army Staff or the wife of an IAS officer as Mrs Chief Secretary or Mrs Cabinet Secretary or Mrs Tourism Secretary. Blasphemy it shall be, if ever a railway officer is placed on these pivotal positions for then the better half would demand creation of designations that never were.

And it is not untrue that being formally addressed as a Mrs CRB/GM/DRM confers authority that merely being addressed as a Mrs X fails to give. And therefore we regularly witness the shameful spectacle of senior railway wives blasting railway officers in full public view or placing undue demands on the system that she would have been unable to do as a mere Mrs X. Outside railways, I have witnessed the wives of senior officers being given the respect that they are due but without even a tinge of any sycophantic connotation, yet it is only in railways where in their eagerness to please the boss through the wife route, the wife of one rising star was even equated to Julius Caeser.

He came, He saw and He conquered and She came, She saw and She conquered.

Yes the eulogy was conducted in full public view to the accompaniment of atleast two pairs of beaming smiles. Hats off to  the winner of the sycophants trophy.

Perhaps the obsession with designations especially the general management ones, lies in the low esteem we have of ourselves. As an assistant officer we compare ourselves with our IAS & IPS counterparts and curse ourselves. As the difference in status widens, so does the levels of frustration. And therefore at the first available opportunity, when we occupy a general management chair, power goes to our head. Power to ridicule and demean, power to shout and abuse and the power to punish and obstruct, it is almost like the tandav of Shiva. With passage of time, the officer rises in rank and the tandav that is conducted in pairs also reaches its pinnacle. Ugly sight it is for all those who have even a bit of self respect left in them.

As one turns sixty, so do the tables. The man who never thought of himself as a human being and was always glorified by the seat he rested his backside on, is left high and dry. But by then it is too late to make amends, the lady however is luckier for she gets her true name back, though much to her discomfort.

Amusing it is!