The notification of Transfers and Postings of IAS Officers in the website of the Government of Tamil Nadu during the first week of August, 2011 really made me a bit uneasy.
One aspect of the Supreme Court's judgement on 'Equitable Education' in Tamil Nadu, really annoyed me. That is, the way the Secretary to School Education, Government of Tamil Nadu has been implicated as if she had decided on her own to say "Equitable Education is Good" during DMK regime and "was solely responsible for fixing the price of Text Books, and now after ADMK popular government has sworn in, she had on her own stated that "Equitable Education is Bad and substandard".
Except implementing the policy decisions of the political executive, the Secretary could have no other choice, as per the cardinal principle governing Indian Bureaucracy. I do not know how her batch mates and other colleagues react at this, but I strongly feel that it is grossly unfair that a permanent civil servant is taken for a ride at the I feel, it is the moral responsibility of the Chief Secretary to have replaced the School Education Secretary as soon as the revised bill is tabled in the TN Assembly or at least asked her to proceed on leave and the bill could have been signed by anyone else other than the same person who have signed the previous bill that has been now challenged.
What this mean? Why the burden of policy shifts be rested solely on the shoulders of the Permanent executives?
It’s understandable that the Officers were blind and deaf when Mr.C. Uma Shankar was taken to task by DMK regime but this is really a matter of concern. I wish this precedent set some guidance for a Transfer Policy when the same ministry takes a reverse stand on Policy matters.
Yesterday I should not be forced to say "Vegetarian Diet is Good" and today I should not be compelled to say " Vegetarianism is Bad and people who say vegetarianism is Good are wrong" - This is exactly what had went with the case of School Education
I am just a bird watcher and have nothing to say more as a Teacher of Public Administration and a former Professor of LBSNAA and am deeply disturbed as I have always held the opinion that the Civil Servants of India are the last hope for a stable administration what India has been proud of and boasting in all these seven decades of Independence.
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