The Hindu Business Line : Giving wings to dreams

Rising levels of corruption — whether in the Income Tax department or Air India where she is now on deputation — are a cause of concern; "perhaps our moral values have eroded."

Whether in her parent organisation — the Income Tax department — or at Air India, where she is currently the Chief Vigilance Officer and director, she is concerned about the increasing levels of corruption. "Over the years I've found corruption levels going up, especially in the younger lot; they seem to be so commercial," says Manjari Kacker, IT commissioner, now on deputation to Air India.

When asked if she'd attribute this to the pressures of consumerism, she says, "Perhaps our moral values have eroded or maybe it is all percolating down from the top. Maybe the youngsters think that if these people can get away with it, why not us? And, corruption is no longer an issue with anyone. We've seen corrupt politicians coming back to power."

On the challenges in her present posting, she says, "Sometimes you feel frustrated, but you try to do an honest job. At times, when what you've recommended doesn't come through you try to console yourself that you've done your job. I don't take it personally. I've not taken a mantle to improve the system; I'm only trying to do a difficult job to the best of my ability."

Manjari refuses to comment on the recent controversy in Air India's acquisition of new aircraft, "It's too recent and too touchy, and anyway decisions on the purchase of aircraft come from the government; I don't deal with it."

Her responsibility is to look at complaints against AI personnel; "as per the CVC's directions we just file anonymous complaints and don't take them up." The main problem is that corruption-related complaints come either before a person is due for retirement or promotion and the bulk of them are anonymous. "I'm trying to improve the system and limit the scope of discretion as much as possible," she says.

Manjari grew up in Kanpur where her father was a doctor with the Indian Railways and mother was a college principal. She too wanted to become a doctor but gave up that dream after "fainting when I was given a pigeon for dissection".

She went on to complete M.Sc in Chemistry, wrote the civil services exam in 1974 and entered the IRS (Indian Revenue Service). In that batch of 82, there were only 12 women. At the Staff training college she met Ashok Kacker, currently IT Commissioner in Chennai, and married him.

Her first posting was as assistant commissioner of IT at Kanpur. "I liked the work; it gave you a lot of status and kept your mind alert. In the post-Independence generation — I was born in 1952 — unlike today, we were really idealistic and wanted to do something for the country. Also, I had opted for the service because I'd been told there wasn't political interference here."

Strangely, in 31 years, she has faced no political interference. For the first 25 years "I hadn't even received a telephone call from a politician." This changed with her posting in South Delhi; and even there she got just two calls, one from a Congressman and the second from the BJP; the latter was related to the assessment of the party funds.

When you express surprise that she has faced no political pressure at all, she laughs. "Perhaps people knew that here was a person who might not yield."

Was it because she was a woman?

"No, in this profession, you make your own reputation and people are afraid to talk to you; they think this person is straight, so better keep away from her!"

But then such a reputation doesn't do great things for your career, as Manjari discovered. "Quite often I found myself sidelined and they never gave me key postings. I was given vigilance, headquarters and tribunals where you represent the department."

Though for the first six years she did do assessments, it was at a junior level. "And postings were managed through influence; if you had influence you got a good posting."

For the most part of her career, field postings eluded her. When posted to Mumbai from 1977 to 1986 (as assessing officer, joint commissioner, deputy commissioner, etc) she did get field postings. But on transfer to Delhi as additional commissioner, these became rare.

"I was given a field posting when one of my bosses became a member of the Board (CBDT). I told him you must give me a field posting because people say I don't know how to work in the field. So he gave me a South Delhi posting... a field posting after a gap of 10 years."

Both Manjari and Ashok have found Mumbai to be "much more professional than Delhi."

Till 2002, she was posted to Baroda (for 18 months) and as the rules allowed her to choose a posting in either a PSU or a ministry, she applied for and got her present post in Air India. "I wanted to come back to Mumbai to be with my family. But now that I'm here, Ashok has been transferred to Chennai!"

Manjari thoroughly enjoyed her stint in Baroda, where as Director of IT Exemptions, she did assessment of charitable organisations. "Here I came in contact with several NGOs and that gave me a different perspective; I loved visiting the centres of CRY, SOS Villages, Sai Baba Trust, etc."

Would she like to join her husband in Chennai?

"I'd like to be with him, but we north Indians do have some reservation about coming to the south, especially Tamil Nadu." She thinks a place like Bangalore is less daunting than Chennai, where the language is a problem. "And at our age we want to be closer to our family; my daughter is in Delhi and son in Mumbai," she says.

Looking back, one stint she is proud of is when, as Commissioner, Appeals, she dealt with certain Harshad Mehta scam cases related to foreign banks. This was in 1996-97.

"Another challenge I enjoyed was being a departmental representative before the IT Appellate Tribunal. Here you're pitting yourself against the best legal brains; they work for lakhs of rupees and you for a salary of Rs 25,000 or so. And you battle with so many handicaps; we wouldn't get assistance from the field or files on time. The satisfaction came when you had made a good argument and won a point against senior counsel."

Manjari says she has been "singularly lucky" in that she has never faced a problem at work because of her gender; "neither discrimination nor defiance from my subordinates. Some of my colleagues did face discrimination from the seniors; maybe I had very good bosses."

She thinks women are less corrupt than men. Asked if this is due to a fear of being caught, she says, "I think women have a lot of willpower; of course there are exceptions but generally we are more contented. Once your basic comforts are taken care of... what do you do with the money? For instance, in Air India, my travel is taken care of; they've given me a car and driver, a house and a salary. What more do I need?"

On Air India, Manjari says the organisation has "good and god-fearing people. But somewhere down the line complacency set in as there was no competition and we lost direction in the late-1980s and 1990s. From being a premier airline it went down because we didn't buy new planes, the infrastructure deteriorated, we withdrew our operations, cut down from Amsterdam, withdrew from Australia, etc.

"Instead of building up, we cut down operations, shut down offices and sold our infrastructure because there was so much talk of disinvestment, which finally never came. And we shrunk into an airline owning hardly 20 aircraft. Now what can an international airline with only 19 to 20 aircraft do? Even now, of the 40 aircraft we have, more than half are leased; leased planes are old, there are maintenance problems and flights are cancelled. And today a customer has so much choice."

She hopes that once the new aircraft come in, things will improve. "But I wonder how much time it will take and competition is waiting in the wings to take on what you're losing."

But she does think the future will be good. "Our CMD is trying hard and pushing for an aggressive growth mode but it takes time being a PSU; we're bound by so many CVC guidelines and procedures."

Manjari enjoys reading, meditation and ... cooking, which she doesn't have to do daily though! She has already decided on her vocation after retirement — social work — and is currently associated with a girls' school in a little village near Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

A woman who was fortunate to get support from her husband in raising children ("in Delhi, where I didn't have a fulltime servant, Ashok helped a lot"), she wants to get into the area of women's empowerment, "particularly in UP where women's status is abysmal. After all, my mother had done her M.A. in pre-Independence India. Oh yes, I'm looking forward to retirement as I have lots of plans on that front!"

Picture by the author

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Making abortions safe

Green is the word

The Waiting

For the executive globetrotter

The queen's temple

Giving wings to dreams

`All my other work stems from feminism... '

It's a mag, mag, mag world