To some of us, this seems like a bit of a slap in the face for Ladakh. An official who generated much public anger this week has suddenly been posted there, not because he’s the best man for a sensitive and cherished part of our beloved country, which is under threat from a belligerent neighbour, but because the place has been taken to be a ‘punishment’ posting.
The media was all agog on Thursday over this official, who was said to have had a public stadium cleared every evening so that he could take his dog for a walk there.
So, the powers that be apparently decided to send him a message of disapproval for treating public property as personal fief – by posting him to Ladakh. And, for good measure, his wife was simultaneously posted to Arunachal Pradesh, an equally sensitive and threatened frontier that ought to be nurtured with utmost care.
An IAS officer in Delhi, who was said to have had a public stadium cleared every evening so that he could take his dog for a walk there, was recently transferred to Ladakh; his wife has been transferred to Arunachal Pradesh.
That places like Ladakh and Arunachal, which have suffered Chinese ingress, get taken for granted as ‘punishment’ postings suggests that the powerful don’t care about the importance of these places.
The irony is that Ladakh was meant to have been connected more firmly with the Indian Republic when it was turned into a Union Territory in 2019.
The country needs to post officers who can win the cooperation of people in these places, so that they may together contribute to protecting those frontiers.
Since these are relatively senior officers, they will exercise much more clout in their new places of posting than they ever could in Delhi, which is stuffed full of very, very important persons. If indeed they have an unrestrained sense of entitlement, then that could run amok far more easily in a place where no ‘national’ media correspondents are normally present.
And yet, such is our system of mollycoddling those who pass an exam at some stage of their lives that such transfers to less preferred places are as much of a reprimand as is apparently possible.
Ladakh & Arunachal Need Committed Officers
What makes these postings especially undesirable at this stage is that both areas have faced belligerent ingress by Chinese forces over the past two years – and in the past.
Ergo, the country needs to post officers who can win the cooperation of people in those places, so that they may together contribute to protecting those frontiers.
The last thing those places need is officers who may alienate common people by, for example, prioritising their evening walk with their dog over the needs of those for whom public utilities are built.
The government may now argue that these postings had nothing to do with the sharp and critical media focus on their evening routine in Delhi, but the sequence of what has happened is quite clear.
Those who ordered these postings should introspect on the message that has been sent, even if inadvertently: that these are places to post officers who are being punished or held to account.
Posting Preferences Are Often Entertained
That places like Ladakh and Arunachal get taken for granted as ‘punishment’ postings suggests that the powerful don’t care about the relative importance of these places in and for the country, and for its national and security interests.
It has everything to do with the preferences of officials about where they wish to be located.
No doubt the officer couple would have preferred to be posted in the same place, as do other couples in various government services. Quite often, they are accommodated.
Indeed, many officers were distressed when news of these transfers spread. The refrain among some of them was that there should have been an inquiry, and that “you can’t respond to headlines like this”. One fellow officer argued that the transferred officer may not have ordered that the stadium be cleared, and that someone lower down the hierarchy may have tried to please him, without him even being aware.
Obviously, there would have been no written order. Far too often, a signal of what is required is enough.
One officer who retired as secretary to an important Central ministry said he had always found the officer who has been posted to Ladakh to be polite and nice. That may well be, but it has sometimes been noted that those who bully those less powerful than themselves tend to be obsequious towards those who are more powerful than them.
That brings me to another problem that has been growing silently. Those who want to avoid certain postings, or want to get prized ones, or want to ensure a post-retirement sinecure, are more likely to curry favour with political bosses, go along with questionable instructions, and make sure they do nothing that might even remotely displease anyone with power.
(In this light, what has happened would seem to indicate that the couple that has been transferred does not have influential ties.)
Ladakh People Felt Like Stepchildren
The sad irony is that Ladakh was meant to have been taken more firmly into the bosom of the Indian Republic when it was turned into a Union Territory in 2019.
Some of the people of the region had at times felt like they are 'stepchildren' when they were part of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state before it was reduced to two Union Territories in August 2019. That was an opportunity to show the people in Ladakh how much they mean to their country.
A major reason for their earlier resentment was that, since officers often did not want to go there, their work in some cases suffered owing to their resentment at having been picked for such an unwanted posting.
There were exceptions, of course. About 60 years ago, the then `Prime Minister’ of Jammu & Kashmir, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, asked a fine young police officer of the state to go as SP of Ladakh. The post had been vacant for a while, and several other officers had found ways to avoid the posting.
That officer, Manmohan Wazir, did a commendable job – after he and his wife (carrying their infant daughter in her arms) made the trek on ponies, yaks, and on foot to get to Leh. They stayed there for double the normal tenure. For, again, other officers found ways to wriggle out of being posted to replace Wazir.
Unfortunately, few other officers have had that sort of dedication to duty and patriotism. And so, Ladakh remains a ‘punishment’ posting in most minds, even though there are now not only roads but also airline connections.
Curbing Hubris
If an official is really to be punished for hubris, the person’s ability to flaunt pride and glory ought to be taken away – whatever the location. By sending such a person to a place with very few superior officers, no political bosses, or others who could act as checks, we are only giving hubris more opportunity to be flaunted.
In reality, all that is sought to be achieved is that the lens of the national media not be able to record their actions and thus embarrass the overall apparatus of governance. The basic idea is to remove them from the public eye. But, as someone correctly asked on social media: why punish Ladakh and Arunachal?
The sad irony is that several of those who made such comments on social media appeared to be from relatively neglected areas. ‘Mainstream’ public opinion across the country often missed the sad ironies of these postings. Many welcomed the ‘punishment’ postings. Others focused fortuitously on how the dog now had choice.
(The writer is the author of ‘The Story of Kashmir’ and ‘The Generation of Rage in Kashmir’. He can be reached at @david_devadas. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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