Of Uncivil Times

Godbole's first chapter is a blow-by-blow account of how Rajesh Pilot and S. Rajagopal, the then Cabinet secretary, conspired to finish off his career, by forcing him to take premature retirement. It demonstrates the problems a civil servant faces while caught between two warring political masters, especially where one of them is upstartish and wildly ambitious and the other helpless and mute. As Godbole says: "There are really no limits to which persons in power and the business lobbies can go to get rid of an upright officer." Indeed, Unfinished Innings amply demonstrates the absolute nadir of political and bureaucratic supplicancy; the extent to which the so-called respectable gentry of this country—be it those 'representing' the true interests of the people, or those who preside over the civil service or those who captain Indian industry—can fall to serve their own insular (and often immoral) interests at the cost of the nation as a whole.

The most significant chapter of the book is the one on the Ayodhya debacle, which squarely puts the entire blame for the demolition of the disputed structure on former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao for his policy of masterly inactivity. Godbole, through his narratives of confidential meetings, private conversations and other documents, brings out the rampant confusion that prevailed in the top echelons of government during those fateful days. In his side of the story, Godbole clarifies that he repeatedly tried to persuade the Centre to take over the state government for the latter had failed to carry on governance in adherence to the Constitution, but apparently his counsel was ignored. Godbole also states that the contingency plan of the Centre was nothing much to write home about and that the creation of the special Ayodhya cell in the Prime Minister's Office only enabled several non-official actors to become intermediaries (and thus add to the confusion) rather than help find any meaningful solution to the issue. While the chapter lucidly brings out the plethora of conflicting and confusing views prevailing at that time on the issue, it is surprisingly not very vocal about the state of the actors on the fateful day of the demolition itself. This is rather surprising for, being as they are the memoirs of the then home secretary, one would have expected some comment on the reasons for the acute paralysis of the government machinery on December 6, 1992, but this aspect is dealt with only in passing. Godbole repeatedly tries to project that his view on the entire issue was pushed into a minority till after the actual demolition. If, as he argues, the build-up to such an explosive situation was well known to one and all and the only thing which prevented any action was the trust and good faith placed on the BJP by a section of the decision-makers, basic common sense would have ensured at least the barest of minimal precaution, failing which he could have resigned in protest right then, rather than wait for this good faith to be tested on a wobbly touchstone! Yet the insider account provided by Godbole could well be used in a court of law as evidence as and when this issue is on the national agenda once again.

There are a number of other interesting chapters in the book, especially the ones describing the author's early days in service, which is a touching and interesting account of the struggles that a young officer has to go through, especially while setting up a family on the meagre income of the civil service alone. The one common motif underlying the various other episodes narrated by Godbole—the petroleum sector, restructuring the CBI, the urban housing conundrum, the state electricity board woes—is how there is a web of narrow vested interests whose principal objective is to appropriate larger shares of an ever-shrinking economic pie for themselves, often at the expense of the common weal. The narrative reveals how there are organised and often dangerous interest groups who would go to any extent, even outside the ambit of the law, to get their work done, and in the process an upright IAS officer is often the casualty.

Where Godbole really disappoints is in the last chapter on the crisis of governance facing the country. It is merely episodic, with the author narrating the various well-known problems in the existing system, especially in the bureaucracy, but offers little by means of any enduring solutions other than homilies. One would have expected certain concrete suggestions for reforming the existing system from such a senior civil servant, which is where he fails miserably. After taking the reader through an absorbing and incisive tale of the severe disarray among our leading individuals and institutions, Godbole's recommendations are simplistic and rhetorical in nature, which disappoint. He could have done well to also address the larger question of why the good do not get along? Having been on the hot seat during such a trying period, Godbole could well have tried to answer the question as to why collective action among the admittedly smaller number of good, like-minded individuals is still more difficult to create than among the larger, dissipated, mischievous elements—quite contrary to any theory of collective action?

Indeed, Madhav Godbole's memoirs make absorbing and interesting reading as to all that happens between the lines in government. Yet he disappoints in as much as one is left with the feeling that he knows much, much, more than whatever he has revealed, which in a way is a small disservice to the system he assiduously and loyally served for so many distinguished years. n

(The author is in the IAS. These are purely his personal views.)