Speaking out loud

The “I” pops up often when bureaucrats talk. “When I was posted in such-and-such district, I did this and I did that,” many intone. But while the stereotypical image of a Sarkari Babu is that of a person who likes the sound of his voice, what’s also true is that the reminiscences are seldom boring. It’s no surprise when former IAS officer Anil Swarup recalls that there was not a “moment of boredom” in his 38-year-long stint in the civil services in Not Just A Civil Servant .

Not Just A Civil Servant; Anil Swarup; Unicorn Books; Non-fiction; ₹499

It’s difficult not to be engaging when you have so much to relate. Swarup captures the reaction of then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh when the Babri Masjid fell. He was also a part of the cabinet secretariat expediting pending infrastructure projects, headed the coal ministry when it tried to clean its image after being tainted by scams, and sought to overhaul India’s education system. “I always wanted to pen my journey, so that the next generation could learn from my experiences in handling tricky situations,” says Swarup, who retired last June. Published by Unicorn Books, the memoir is slated to be launched on February 23.

There was a time when IAS officers seldom spoke in public. But today, many officers, especially those of the younger generation, express their views on platforms such as Twitter. The “I” element in their posts is rather strong.

For Swarup, though, the desire to speak out stems from excitement — the thrill that comes with all that the job entails. “The book is about trials and tribulations, and the successes and failures I have faced. It brings out the challenges in traversing the difficult terrain of governance and public service where there is no moment of boredom,” he tells BL ink .

The first segment deals with the formative years of the rookie UP-cadre officer. Swarup stresses that the management skills of a civil servant are not taught at the Harvard Business School. The skills required range from dealing with challenges as the collector of a district to executing assignments without authority.

A bureaucrat is also privy to information that the general public — or even the media — is not. Swarup, for instance, states that Singh was “devastated” when the mosque was brought down on December 6, 1992. I point out that the chapter ‘When it all came crashing down’ contradicts the general perception about Singh’s reaction to the demolition.

Swarup, who was district magistrate of Lakhimpur Kheri in UP, was the only one present with Singh when the news of a mob on the rampage in Ayodhya came in. “Yes, I have to speak the truth. He (Singh) was devastated hearing about it,” he says.

A substantial part of the book deals with his experience in conceptualising and implementing the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) — the government’s medical insurance scheme for the poor, launched in 2007. It was especially difficult to “deliver” the concept in the labour ministry, says Swarup, who was also director-general, labour welfare, in the ministry. The RSBY, according to Swarup, enabled the current government to formulate its much larger health insurance scheme.

What about life at the Centre? Parts of the book focus on his time as secretary, coal (2014-16), and education (November 2016 to June 2018). There is a segment that relates to serving the richest of the rich, too.

After a series of scams, most public and private projects came to a grinding halt, thanks to a climate of policy implementation paralysis. In its second stint at the Centre, the United Progressive Alliance or UPA-II government set up a Project Monitoring Group to fast-track clearances. Swarup was its chairman at the cabinet secretariat. The transparent and IT-enabled platform not only expedited clearances but also led to the resignation of Union minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who was allegedly sitting on a number of clearances.

Interestingly, Swarup had more cleaning-up to do at the fag end of his career, after allegations were levelled against the government on the allocation of coal deposits. He describes the exercise in his book but challenges the government auditor — the comptroller and auditor general of India — on the issue.

“The real story was not about the coal scams but the manner in which the coal production was increased to unprecedented levels,” he says. The issue, he believes, was not allocation of mines, but the method by which output — or money going to miners — was increased or shown to have increased.

After sweeping up the coal sector, Swarup suddenly found himself at the helm of education in a rather dramatic turn of events. The buzz goes that his transfer was a “political” one — because the government did not want questions asked.

The last part of the book relates to experiences in the education ministry — the journey from the dark dungeons of coal mines to a sector that seemed above board, but was not. “In the coal sector, mining was underground and the mafias were operating overground; in the education sector it was the other way around,” he states. The corruption came into focus last year when CBSE papers were leaked.

Swarup, however, stresses that his book should be seen as one about hope and the potential of what can be done despite hurdles. There are scandals and problems galore — but perhaps when the “I” rises, a lot gets done.

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