The Wages of Indiscipline

- Dr. Ramesh N. Rao

When the Minister of Communications, Ram Vilas Paswan announced a package of goodies for the workers in the Telecom sector costing the government Rs. 1200 crores, and when the media reported that this package was a gift by the minister without the consent of the Cabinet, we were told that the Prime Minister, Mr. Vajpayee was unhappy. The media then reported that the Finance Minister Mr. Yashwant Sinha was furious at his colleague's indiscretion and his indiscriminate spending of government funds. Most newspapers and magazines published letters from angry citizens who said Mr. Paswan was behaving like a feudal lord who did not have the country's welfare at heart. Every newspaper published an editorial condemning Mr. Paswan's largesse to his "vote bank". What happened?

Two weeks later the same newspapers reported that Mr. Paswan was able to "convince" the Prime Minister that it was ok for the government to spend that money. We were never told what the minister's argument was and how it was that the Prime Minister bought that argument. Later (June 11th, Deccan Herald) it was reported that the Finance Minister had diluted the free-phone bonanza that his colleague had gifted to the 320,000 employees of the Departments of Telecommunication and Telecom Services. The newspaper did not report how much this "dilution" would save the exchequer. Out of the Rs. 1200 crores given away by Mr. Paswan how much was to be recovered, and more importantly how much would it still cost the government to supply free telephones to those hundreds of thousands of telecom workers? Was the government being coy about the "savings" and the newspapers lax in reporting the "cost"? What had the Prime Minister told his cabinet member? Had he chastised him? Had he warned him? Thus we could do nothing but speculate that somehow Mr. Paswan was able to pressure and blackmail Mr. Vajpayee. After all, Mr. Vajpayee is the head of a behemoth coalition government of more than twenty parties with each one of those parties having their own agenda and their own prima donnas who have really very little clue about the direction the country should take. These "parties" and these "leaders" are merely the myopic teams of local and regional lords who have a few members in parliament selected by a largely illiterate, uneducated, and caste-based voting public. The BJP, led by Mr. Vajpayee, is thus under the gun of these local chieftains and clueless ministers who can at any time say that they are going to withdraw support to the government and thus let chaos reign all over again.

On June 26th, Rediff.Net reported that the Supreme Court had issued notices to the Union Ministries of Communication and Finance on a public interest litigation challenging Paswan's decision to give free telephones to 3.2 lakh employees in his ministry, at a loss of over Rs. 200 crores. The PIL, filed by the non-governmental organization Common Cause alleged that the minister's decision to give free telephone connections to employees would cause a loss of Rs. 126 crores on non-recurring expenditure front and an annual recurring loss of Rs 100 crores. So, would the government claim that from a whopping Rs. 1200 crores to a more modest Rs. 200 crores is a savings of Rs. 1000 crores. This is how "compromise" works in India, and this is how indiscipline is punished.

Or is that so? Are the BJP and its leaders really reading the public's mind correctly, and are they aware of their own strength vis-à-vis their constituent parties' strength? What if the Prime Minister had told Mr. Paswan that he had gone against the government's policies and that he should resign as minister? What if Mr. Vajpayee had told Mr. Sharad Yadav, the Minister for Civil Aviation, that his "hijacking" of a regularly scheduled Alliance Air flight from New Delhi to Patna via Lucknow directly to Patna on May 12th so that some Bihar MLAs and MPs could reach their homes early was a vulgar display of feudal power, and that Mr. Yadav should also resign? Really, what would have happened? And what has happened with the excusing by the Prime Minister of such aberrant behavior by these ministers?

Let us look at the wages or costs of such indiscipline first. Indiscipline at the top filters down quicker than discipline at the top. It is thus we have officers and administrative staff in every government department who are corrupt, who do not attend office on time or regularly, who treat the public with scant regard, who keep demanding more wages and more benefits every year, and who basically have kept the country backward. Bureaucrats and bureaucracy have stifled the growth and the development of the country simply because ministers heading these departments have misused and abused their power. When Mr. Paswan so cavalierly gifted Rs. 1200 crores worth of perks to the telecom staff what he did was not increase the morale of that staff as much as make them aware of their own power to browbeat the public. And when Mr. Vajpayee succumbed to Mr. Paswan's machinations what he did was not to negotiate with his minister but to succumb to blackmail. More than that Mr. Vajpayee sent out yet another signal that in India rules are made to be broken and broken willfully, mindlessly, and at anyone's whim at any time. India can never join the ranks of developed nations until the rule of law prevails, and until justice is delivered swiftly and correctly.

In Mr. Paswan's case we still do not know what was behind the gift of free telephones to the telecom staff. Clearly, I don't think the minister cared or cares much about his department or the morale of his staff. Mr. Paswan is not dependent on his staff for votes. And his argument that these 320,000 employees should be provided telephones because they would be on call 24-hours a day is laughable. His "display" of power is, however, a signal to his electorate. His "gift" therefore was an exercise of his power aimed to impress his poor, illiterate vote-bank. He was also testing the NDA government, and the Prime Minister's strength. Mr. Paswan has shown that the government is weak, and the Prime Minister weaker. Next time around, and when Mr. Paswan flexes his muscle even more what will be the cost to the country, and what will be the fate of the BJP-led government? Those who have succumbed to blackmail, and those who have failed to negotiate effectively with "hostage takers" know that not only have they lost but have let themselves become vulnerable to more blackmail and more hostage-taking. This is evident already. On June 26th, The Times of India reported that the central government had given into the demands of the officers of the Department of Telecom Services who had been on a 25-day work-to-rule agitation. First the "employees" were massaged with the Rs. 1200 crore gift, and next the officers got what they wanted: the break-up of the department into two. Out the window went the government's promise to downsize government!

What Mr. Yadav did was to literally hijack an Alliance Air flight CD-7411. A report of the public interest litigation filed in this regard (Deccan Herald, May 26th) said that the diversion of the flight was ordered when the plane was taxiing for take-off on the evening of May 12th. There were 26 Members of Parliament from Bihar on the flight. (It is a tragedy by itself that this barbaric and backward state can send so many people to parliament, but that is another story.) Just as the plane was about to take-off the "honorable" MPs demanded that the plane fly directly to Patna without stopping at Lucknow. There were supposed to have abused the airline crew and the other passengers on the flight when they were told that should not be done. One of those MPs, Prabhu Nath Singh is said to have talked to Sharad Yadav on his cell-phone, and when a crew member told him that those phones could not be used on the plane when it was about to take off, the boor from Bihar is said to have shouted, "Shut up, I am talking to the Minister". Yadav is then said to have driven to the airport and ordered that a new schedule be drawn up for the flight and all the passengers who were on board made to disembark. Then the "special flight" was ordered to fly direct to Patna, the capital of the God-forsaken state where jackals are supposed to howl on the edges of the city after sun-down because it goes dark without proper power supply!

We were told that the Prime Minister was angry with his minister. So what? Unless such egregious acts of power wielding is punished, and punished effectively the ones to suffer most will be the people. Unfortunately, the "good" leaders of this country have not had the courage and the spine to punish the "bad". We are told that it is not the "Indian" way to hire and fire. In the long run, we are told, it is better to get along with people and that such matters of state and personalities will sort themselves out. No one is told, however, that in the long run we are all going to be dead. It is how we deal with the present that is important. If we are not able to discipline ourselves or discipline our errant subordinates then those who suffer most are those we are supposed to serve - the public. Thus Mr. Yadav's ugly and errant behavior led to the abuse of the fare-paying travelers of Alliance Air and the manipulation and abuse of the staff of the airlines. Moreover, this act of Mr. Yadav once again sent a signal to the rest of the world that India continues to be a "functioning anarchy" ruled by feudal lords.

Ramesh N. Rao

June 29th, 2000

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