This time it was the District Magistrate of Amreli, Gujarat. He bent to touch the feet of the chief minister. Was he thus letting others know that he has loyalties other than to the Constitution of India? It would be a rare civil servant even today who unhesitatingly avows fidelity to any party or person other than the law of the land. Yet far too many of them are into feet touching currently.
Earlier, another district magistrate explained his genuflection to Shibu Soren as a culturally done thing since Soren is revered in some parts of the country. Newspapers and TV channels obviously did not agree since they raised as much hue and cry about that feet touching episode as they did about some officers feeding another chief minister with birthday cakes. Apparently, the belief remains that public servants, by virtue of the term ‘public’ associated with their name, have a public identity that is much larger than the one they maintain for kinsmen and friends and of which neutrality and fairness are important components.
Neutrality in such a context would mean that the official should by definition owe allegiance to the Constitution of India first and foremost. Other allegiances, whether to one’s family or cultural messiah, tribal guru or religious leader, or to any overtly stated political ideology, would tend to undercut this primary allegiance. It is difficult to owe allegiance to any one person or group and not be biased against any one of a contrary persuasion. It is this latter fact that should normally determine the kind of public face that an official chooses to maintain.
Given that civil servants routinely perform tasks involving public interaction, be it maintaining land records, collecting revenue, administering the civil supply system, running a public utility or providing and maintaining urban amenities, the quality of responses any civil servant gets depends almost entirely on this public persona. Overt neutrality and strong commitment to the Constitution and the rules of the land make a bureaucrat function much better — even in the service of the political master. Moreover, the people do appreciate fairness. Witness the massive public response to the efforts made by the Election Commission of India over the last decade to enforce neutrality in the conduct of elections in India. It has made all the difference to the quality of democracy in our country. Some observers even say that the quality of...
