It has been a fulfilling year for former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan after he quit last August. A bureaucrat of the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre, Gopinathan’s resignation raised eyebrows as he ascribed his decision to the imposition of restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir after the Centre abolished Article 370.
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The government’s uneasiness grew when a spate of resignations followed Gopinathan’s exit. In September 2019, IAS officer S. Sasikanth Senthil said that it was “unethical” to continue when the “fundamental building blocks of our diverse democracy are being compromised”. The same week, AGMUT-cadre officer Kashish Mittal, who was posted in the NITI Aayog, resigned after he was transferred to Arunachal Pradesh.
While civil servants leaving the profession for better avenues is not unusual, the resignation of two officers over ‘national issues’ has once again turned the spotlight on the politicisation of the civil services and the immediate need for reforms in the sector.
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Gopinathan, a 2012-batch officer says he faced immense political pressure to jail people with a political ideology different from that of the ruling dispensation. “The government even wanted to invoke the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act (PASA) to harass people,” he says. “The bureaucracy doesn’t have an independent mind. Bureaucrats are like chefs. Whatever the customer orders, they provide. That’s what the current dispensation is doing with the bureaucracy. It’s like a sub-system existing to serve a larger political or social system.”
The past year has been gratifying for the former civil servant and he does not intend to return to the service. “We saw massive people’s movements across the country against the CAA-NRC-NPR. I left the service to fight for the values of the country. I have travelled across 19 states and I am glad that young people are asserting their right to democracy and dissent,” he says. Gopinathan does not get bogged down by the government’s response or questions regarding the outcome of the movement. He believes that history cannot be written in six months or a year, that it will be a long haul.
Senthil, the 2009-batch Karnataka-cadre IAS officer, also does not regret his decision. Though he didn’t face political meddling in his job, Senthil felt restricted by the ‘conduct rules’, which do not permit a civil servant to express dissent. He says that he cannot be silent when the country is facing a crisis. Senthil is now engaged in grassroots activism.
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“It’s an ideological fight. We have to be prepared for the difficult days ahead. In the coming days, I might be jailed. The way out is to resist and sensitise people. Fascism has gripped the country and we have to act fast. A great people’s movement happened in December, but it halted because of the pandemic. In my 40 years, I haven’t witnessed such a movement,” he says.
Some civil servants admit to Outlook that the three resignations indicate a rot in the system, which needs to be rectified. They point out the examples of officers like Harsh Mander, who quit after denouncing the government’s alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Regardless, the Union civil services continue to be the top choice for aspirants. More than a million graduates register for the examinations every year.
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Those Who Quit
(From left) K Annamalai, Shah Faesal and Sasikanth Senthil..
Retired IPS officer N.C. Asthana says that the civil services are feudal and need to be disbanded. “I appreciate the idealism of the IAS officers, but these are isolated cases. Thousands of aspirants are still toiling to get into the service. It’s the combination of prestige, recognition and the power that lures Indians to this profession. Not many join with idealistic intentions. It is difficult to bring in changes as a part of the system,” he says.
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While many leave the service to take a plunge in politics, bureaucrat-turned politician Shah Faesal quitting politics sets a bad example, says Asthana. “It shows he lacked conviction,” he explains. In the second week of August, Faesal stepped down as president Jammu & Kashmir People’s Movement, the party he had launched in March 2019. “I have quit politics because I don’t want to give false hope. Rather than telling people two decades later that look, I can’t do it, I am doing it now. I don’t think I can ever come back to this field,” he said.
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In 2010, Faesal, an MBBS doctor, became the first Kashmiri to top the civil services exam. He quit the service in January 2019 after serving for nine years. After the revocation of Article 370, Faesal had expressed his resentment against the move. He was arrested on August 14, 2019, at the Delhi international airport and was put in preventive custody. In mid-February 2020, the Public Safety Act was imposed on him. He was released in June and put under house arrest.
Gopinathan says the system failed Faesal. “I honour his decision. Faesal thought that he could fare better in the political space. Again, he was showing trust in India’s political system. We should have welcomed this move. We arrested him and put him in jail for a year like a criminal,” he says.
Gopinathan feels the government retaliates against those who exited by harassing them. While there are two FIRs against him, Senthil says that he gets indirect threats and is being stopped from participating in public meetings. An FIR was filed against Gopinathan in April for not reporting to duty as directed by the government during the pandemic. “I was asked to rejoin duty in April. Strangely, senior officers who were drawing salaries were not asked to join, but a person who had already resigned was asked to,” he says.
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While the government’s rules state that resignations of members from the service should be accepted, the resignations of Gopinathan and Senthil are yet to be accepted. However, K. Annamalai, who quit as deputy commissioner of police (Bengaluru South) in May last year, didn’t have to wait for long. The 2011-batch officer, known as the ‘Singham’ of Karnataka, says that he quit the police to pursue “public service”. His resignation has been accepted. The 34- year-old has set up an NGO, We The Leaders Foundation, through which he is fostering people’s participation in nation-building. He hopes to join Tamil Nadu politics soon.
Annamalai believes that power is a burden. “I don’t have any regrets,” he adds. “Before taking the plunge into politics, I want to work at the grassroots level and bring change. You need not quit in anger. You can quit looking at the bigger possibility, without taking a stand against the government.”
Annamalai feels that the Indian civil service needs immediate reforms and that it should emulate the US civil service system. “Even after 74 years of independence, the civil services continue to be the same because new energy is not coming into the system. Like in the US, officers should be allowed to work for private companies for five years. Lateral entry is a welcome step,” he says.
Despite the flaws, Senthil believes that civil services are the best option for young people to contribute to nation-building. He, however, has advice for aspirants: “We have to understand that our allegiance is to the Constitution. If this understanding is there, we will do a great job.”
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