The Hindu Business Line : Unsettling

As an old timer who had seen India before and after it became an independent Republic, as one brought up in the administrative culture and social environment of West Bengal, and as one who spent close to two decades at the Centre from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, I find some features of the Tamil Nadu's public life and political and administrative scene disquieting and perplexing.

I let pass as harmless the near-universal tendency of attaching bombastic titles to the names of politicians, literary figures, film personalities and persons of that ilk regardless of the value or merits of their contributions to society.

But, I find disturbing the sycophancy of senior officials, especially those in the police, queuing up to greet the Chief Minister and his colleagues in the Cabinet with shawls, garlands and bouquets, some even touching their feet while in full uniform. This is never the practice in West Bengal, and it was not in vogue in the Centre also at least until some 10 years ago.

For instance, I have seen four Prime Ministers forming Governments in the 1960s to 1980s, and other than calling on them and the Ministers of one's departments on their assuming charge, there was no custom of garlanding and the like.

The training of the earlier generation was that officials and government servants should maintain a certain dignity and distance, and concentrate on performing their duties to the satisfaction of the public rather than seeking to feather their nests by subservience to political bosses.

Much the more disturbing is the announcement of some of the sensitive postings, including of one allegedly involved in helping the accused connected with the deadly serial blasts in Coimbatore.

Very senior but now retired Tamil Nadu officials tell me that they find the appointment of some with known sordid antecedents unsettling.

One can only hope that principles of good governance would assert themselves to counter these unsavoury trends.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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