Calling a spade a spade!

Calling a spade a spade is a rarity in the India of today. Its sarkari mulazims would invariably, with exceptions of course, identify a spade as whatever is conveniently the need of the hour. It goes without saying that the need may change from moment to moment and from person to person.

Why has remaining truthful emerged as an impossibility in present times? Why are fudged figures, rather than the truthful ground reality more acceptable to the powers that be? Why figures that are meant for internal assessment more important than the ground realities that affect the public at large? Why matters have to be complex and cannot be simplified?

The biggest advantage of being truthful is that there is no need whatsoever to remember what one said or wrote, including the when and where. It is rather unfortunate that the sarkari maze is full of complexities, managed by complex people and based on baseless presumptions and figures.

The Anna Hazare crusade that hogged headlines today, appears to be the only ray of hope in the cesspool that the sarkari tantra in India has emerged as.

Mediocrity Rules

Unfortunate but true. Bide your time doing nothing and if one also has the age on his side, the sarkari tantra is all yours to rule. The highly complicated art of not making decisions and the simpler mechanism of maintaining a disconnect from the ground reality is all that has to be mastered for an elevation to the top slot(s).

And so one has a battalion of men, over twenty million of them in the country biding their time and at the same time maintaining the nation in a sort of suspended animation. Led by the officers from the All India, Allied, Central and Other services the men quickly learn the art of survival and extracting the maximum juice from the system for personal gains - petty and not so petty.

If the aim in life is to occupy a slot, after the slot is occupied, the aim shifts to maintaining the occupation and later before the tenure ends, the aim shifts to finding another slot, occupying which shall continue taking care of the petty and not so petty needs of the person. And this precisely is what babudom is all about - the business of slots.

The babu's march forward in carefully crafted steps and the nation stays where it is, even at times sliding backwards.

It stinks!