Sonali Kumar (IAS)(Retd)
Another Memoir? Of a Bureaucrat? Groan…Yawn…Oh No…o…o…o…
What new can you talk of, except of cataloguing the postings you suffered and the “successes” you had over some boring 37-years of service in the government?
What’s new about Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) too, when there are so many books already on the subject?
On the Kashmir dispute in the United Nations, on the valour of the Indian Army and how they foiled the “evil designs” of our enemies in 1947, 1962, 1965, 1971 and 1999, on the beauty of Kashmir, about the pilgrimages to Vaishno Devi and Amarnath Shrines and on J&K as a
wonderful tourist destination.
And then there are biographies, hagiographies and auto-biographies of politicians ad nauseam.
The pain and suffering of the Kashmiri Muslims in those “curfewed nights” of the 1990s have already been catalogued. The Kashmiri Pandits too have written about their horrific exodus, how they lost their little paradise-on-earth, and what is stopping them from regaining that paradise.
Agreed.
But what I found missing was-what an outsider Indian Administrative Service (IAS), or for that matter, any officer belonging to any All-India Service (AIS) like IPS (Indian Police Service) or IFoS (Indian Forest Service), goes through while serving in J&K. In my case, there was an added disadvantage-I was the first outsider lady IAS officer serving my full term in this cadre.
In India, most people have either a love-it-or-hate-it relationship with the IAS. They like it for being the “meritocratic steel frame” that is supposedly keeping the country together. And dislike it for being a “favoured”, “twice-born” service that rides roughshod on the aspirations of all other governmentservices in India.
Little do they realise the silent war that most All-India Service officers have to wage against corruption and nepotism in a hostile state “cadre” that is imposed on them for the entire duration of their career. Unlike the Army, Para Military or the Central Services who can escape from any such “bad posting” after a two-year stint.
Willy-nilly, we in the IAS become the nameless faceless bureaucrats who perform the thankless task of holding the country together especially in the North-east and in states like J&K. In J&K, the fight is even more difficult. Because to rampant corruption and nepotism, that every IAS officer is forced to fight everywhere else, is added the deadly ingredients of: communalism,
anti-nationalism and, in my case, gender bias.
But what is the big deal I’m making of being an “outsider” in J&K? Aren’t about 50% of all IAS officers in every state, by design, “outsiders?”
Well, the difference is that unlike any other state, in J&K, an “outsider” or a “non-state subject” can’t buy property, can’t educate her children in any technical-medical or engineering college, can’t get her spouse or children to find employment with the State Government, can neither vote in nor stand for any state-level elections even after retirement, can’t even get her son married to a local girl because that will immediately extinguish that girl’s state-subject status, and so on.
And why? Because a law passed by the Maharaja of J&K in 1927 (20 years before India became independent and J&Kacceded to India) says so. The law was enacted by Maharaja’s Hindu advisors primarily to keep other Hindus of India out of J&K. And the same law is now coming in handy for Kashmiri Muslims to keep everyone else out!
But what happens to the Indian Constitution and my (and those girls’ who have committed the cardinal sin of marrying non-state subjects)
fundamental right to property, employment or franchise?
Shhhhh… Don’t even talk about it, lest you upset the fragile Hindu-Muslim amity in the country.
Okay, so let the Government of India then look after the interests of these All-India Service officers by letting them to come to Delhi (or whichever place in India they belong to) to construct their homes, to look after their old parents who can’t do “durbar move” in the sunset of their lives in J&K, to let their children study or to find employment for them…?
Hah, are you in your right senses?
Government of India instead loves dragging back to J&K even those All-India Service officers who may have with proper permission come to Delhi (or to whichever place in India they belong to) for any of those normal human needs.
And what happens to their service interests when they get back to J&K? Are they allowed to hold the cadre posts that are meant to be manned by them under rules made by the same Government of India? Do they get their latest Pay Commission or even Dearness Allowance benefits announced by the same Government of India when their compatriots elsewhere get it? Are their seniorities protectedunder rules made by the same Government of India? Do they get their pensionary benefits in routine as their batch mates get it elsewhere without fighting for it every inch of the way? Can they hope to get official accommodation in J&K the same way as they get while they are with the Government of India?
Now, you are rocking the boat too much!!! You need to be taught a lesson you will never forget.
So that’s the CURSE of being an “outsider” in J&K I’m talking about.
But what about the curses of that “outsider” to J&K? Are you sure the present problems are ONLY communal, i.e. how can the Muslims in J&K live with a Hindu India? Or instigated by Pakistan? Or because of the Kashmiri’s genuine desire to separate from India?
And NOTbecause of those tears of the “outsider,” shed while serving as bonded labour in J&K?
Just think about it!
On a side note, many people speak about the bureaucratic hurdles they face in their everyday lives. Funnily, whether it is water, electricity, telephones, or any other thing, they always blame the IAS for all ills. Not even knowing whether IAS is indeed responsible for it or not.
Little did I realise that my entire career would be a fight against bureaucratic hurdles where my being in the IAS wouldn’t matter. But then, that was because I was in J&K, which as you would have guessed by now, is on another
planet.
I have worked in the J&K cadre for 36 and a half years and have spent another year watching events unfold as Arun, my husband, was still in the IAS there. This experience of 37 and a half years is something I thought I needed to share in this background.
For me, writing this book was a cathartic experience where all my pent-up feelings could finally find some expression. I expect little, but only hope this book proves useful both in understanding what the IAS does in J&K and in helping frame some national policies for dealing with the problems there.