The arrest and subsequent suspension of a senior home ministry official Ravi Inder Singh for corporate snooping is a major embarrassment for home ministry head honchos who had made internal security a prominent component of policy. While Mr Singh’s arrest has made headlines for the accompanying lurid tales of sex and sleaze, he after all, also happens to be the third home ministry babu to be held or raided this year for assorted crimes and misdemeanours. Earlier in April, the Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested O. Ravi, joint secretary, disaster management, on bribery charges. Another babu, R.S. Sharma, was also held on graft charges.
But Mr Singh’s highly publicised case has served as a rude awakening of sorts for the ministry. According to sources, home secretary G.K. Pillai, a no-nonsense upright babu himself, had ordered tapping of Mr Singh’s phone and investigation into his conduct which led to his arrest. Mr Pillai and his boss are determined to set their house in order. In the weeks ahead we can expect the ministry to exercise greater rigor in checking antecedents of officers before appointing them. So the Ravi Inder Singh episode may well have a positive fallout after all.
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On the run
Shouldn’t babus’ heads roll too, is a question often asked when the call goes out for fixing accountability and responsibility for a scam. Too often tainted babus have escaped largely unscathed while their political masters have had to face the music. Even after the Mumbai attacks, it was the politicians who got axed while the babus responsible for the various lapses carried on regardless. But this seems to be changing now in this season of sleaze and scandal. For once, as the nation is trying to nail the guilty in the 2G, housing loans, Commonwealth Games (CWG) and other grand larcenies, the babus too are beginning to feel the heat.
Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan may have taken the lead in coming down on babus involved in the Adarsh Society scam, but the trend is clearly spreading as the Central Bureau of Investigation goes after tainted officials involved in the CWG and housing loan scandals. Though this current enthusiasm to stamp out corruption in the corridors of power is driven by fear of a wrathful public and desperation to win back its trust, the present mood can potentially transform bureaucratic functioning, if the government can stick to this new resolve. We, on our part, are not complaining, yet.
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