Dear Mr. Sagayam IAS...
Dr.
T. CHINNARAJ JOSEPH JAIKUMAR
(Former Principal& Secretary
The
American College, Madurai)
47/23,
Old Natham Road,
Madurai-
625 014.
To,
Mr. U. Sagayam, I.A.S.
Dear
Mr.Sagayam,
This open letter, I am prompted
to write as a responsible citizen of India and as a senior academician-teacher
who has been working with the youth of Madurai for about four decades. Though I
have not personally known you, I have not failed to notice your activities as a
public servant with keen interest. This is simply because you have proved to be
one among the few civil servants in Tamilnadu, why, even in the whole of India
who continue to carry the rare DNA molecules of the service in terms of
intelligence, professionalism, personal courage and commitment to public duty.
These DNA molecules somehow through some strange mutation, have vanished from
the genetic store of your esteemed colleagues who have taken to political
share-cropping, corruption, looting and begging for post-retirement positions
crawling on the floor and touching the feet of the politicians. In such a
vitiated milieux, civil servants like you always have to dare to weather the
storm alone. You proved your mettle during your short term as the Collector of
Madurai during the 2011 Assembly Elections and thereafter, probing the granite
scam.
Although
you deserve applause for all that you have done, only luckily, I would say only
luckily you got the opportunity to demonstrate your calibre as a civil servant.
It is quite an irony in India that only an election commission or a law court
can identify an honest bureaucrat to be given special assignments, and not the
elected political executive. In such shuffling of dice of bureaucrats, many of
your honest and able colleagues do not get such opportunities but simply fade
away living in the fringes of the bureaucracy.
Let me
come to the present issue. All of a sudden, close to the forthcoming Assemly
Elections some people of Tamilnadu, has simply created an icon out of your ‘honestyimage’ using the social media. They
also shout from the roof top that you must become the next Chief Minister of
the Tamilnadu. My first question is, “Are you aware of this in the first place?”
When I saw the pamphlets yesterday morning
announcing the ‘Ilaingar Elluchi
Maanaadu’ at Madurai, the first thing I did was to call the organisers and
ask, “Is Sagayam attending?” The answer was “No.” My second question was “Is he
at least aware of the fact that you are calling for the conference in his name?
This time the answer was a vague “No.” My two other questions were, “Is he
going to be your Chief Minister candidate? And has he given his consent to be
fielded by you?” The answer from the other end was sadly disappointing. “Sir,
only people like us must compel him to take up the responsibility. Please come
for the meeting.”
Though I
was considerably peeved by the misgivings, I decided to attend the meeting with
my wife on 3rd Jan 2016. The first thing that drew my attention in
the venue was the LCD sign board where I could see your face along with that of
Dr. Abdul Kalam with some slogans iconizing you both for ‘honesty.’ My idle
mind immediately asked me why Mahatma Gandhi’s face, the time tested ‘honesty
icon’ was left out? I also asked myself, “Was it because Gandhi was not a Tamil,
and not a career bureaucrat like you and Kalam? Or is it because, our youth do
not read history anymore?
The meeting started with thappattam followed by thamizh
thai vazhthu and some kind of convictionless oath taking. (I have enclosed a copy of the oath for you to read).
This was followed by a 30 minute rhetoric by a 10 year old child prodigee. A
few organisers spoke with great angst overcome by apocalyptic gloom that
Tamilnadu will be lost forever if Sagayam fail to take over as Chief minister
of Tamilnadu.’ (They were however careful not to dilute their desire by using
the phrase ‘Sagayam like people’).
Two other interesting things drew my
attention. First, though there was a lot of rhetoric about corruption, no
mentioning of names of a single corrupt politician in power was made.
Corruption was presented as something akin to a big monsoon failure leading to farmers’
suicide. The second important thing was that they profusely thanked the ‘police’
for their cooperation in putting up the conference.
Apart from making a spectacle, the meeting
in my opinion was devoid of an agenda that can promise to radically change the
corrupt political system. The most disappointing thing for me was the complete
absence of leaders among the youth who could lead from the front. One reporter
of a leading English newspaper covering the event told me, 13 out of 20 organisers/volunteers
he met, wanted to remain anonymous and plainly refused to give him their names.
Then,
I was met by a reporter of The Hindu (English) who asked me for my opinion. I
said, “It looks like a shift from celluloid leadership to virtual space
leadership. These people are projecting him [Sagayam] as the change [leader].
Mr.Sagayam should clear the air and not mislead these youngsters by remaining
silent”. And this was carried by The Hindu on 04/01/2016.
In this context, I urge you to seriously
consider the following in the public interest:
1.
Perception matters in Public Life
Right perception matters in public life. Some see you as a ‘superman’
who can give Tamilnadu a corrupt free Government as its next Chief minister.
Some see you vaguely as a ‘messianic hope’ for the entire future. Many youth
see you as a ‘role model’. (But the same youth would not lead themselves but ironically
ask you to lead them). People like me,
see you as an upright civil servant who can diligently and honestly do what is
expected of him to do. Worst, some see in you, a publicist. This is really
bad for you. Therefore, I say that the time has come for you to make a public
statement as to what you want to see of yourself as a public personality and what
do you want to say to the expectant public who in my opinion
misrepresent/misuse your image. Your continued silence would make you a
suspect.
2.
The Sun Cannot Shine from within a Glass Case
As on date, you continue to remain as an Indian Administrative service Officer
with obligations to discharge duties pertaining to public administration as
mandated by the elected government in office. The Civil Service Code limits
your role as a public servant and as such, you can do very little to salvage
the corrupt system. Only when you step out of the role of a civil servant, you
can enter real public life and risk an attempt to reform the corrupt system. I have no business to compel you to leave
the civil service as some of your fans would like you to do. But you owe an
honest answer to the ‘expectant’ followers of yours so that they get a clear
direction. As an honest civil servant, you also owe an answer to the general
public as to the true nature of your public identity. Allowing too much public
glare and publicity certainly vitiates civil service ethos. Don’t we criticise
our politicians for cheap publicity and populism?
3.
Civil Service Route to Politics
Civil Servants entering politics is nothing uncommon in India. One has
the constitutional right to do so. Many yester year civil servants have done
well in politics too. But the way a civil servant enters politics is important.
You might have noticed civil servants directly winning elections using civil service
vintage and move up in the party hierarchy. (Yashwant Sinha, Mani Shankar Iyer
types). Some are invited by established political parties for their expertise.
(Manmohan Singh types). Some develop additional six legs and move like spiders
chafing the feet of powerful politician while in service, the quid pro quo route. (This fast emerging
species is numerous that it is difficult to classify).
4.
From Admiration to Adoration to Adulation: Why
Civil Servants alone?
I am also
prompted to draw your attention to the question why an honest and diligent
civil servant alone is celebrated by the Indian/Tamil public, and not several
other honest but humle people. [Thank God they do not celebrate efficient Army
Generals as they do in Pakistan]. I will say that the creation of charisma in
favour of civil servants in India, come from two premises. First, it is the
colonial hangover that stokes the imagination that a civil servant is a ‘man
extraordinary’ who can shower any amount of benevolence if he wills. (The
corollary is, many don’t will). Madurai for instance, even now remembers Peter
Raus (Collector of Madurai between 1815 and 1828) through ballads. He has been
celebrated as ‘Peter Pandya.’ Interestingly, glorification by the then Madurai
public made him commit benevolent
excesses and overstep his shoes. Finally, he had to commit suicide facing
enquiries.
Only the
residues of colonial memory and imagination left in the collective
consciousness of our people make them think that civil servants are super human. You will appreciate the
point that in a democracy, an officer like you or any public servant for that
matter is entitled only to a rightful admiration
(meaning applause and acclaim). But what needs to be discouraged are adoration (reverence and devotion) and adulation (glorification and hero-worship).
If at all our democracy has gone toxic today, it is because of adoration and
adulation of leaders, leading to cult and hero-worship. Will you agree with me
on this? During yester years, these adulations came through creation of celluloid
images. Today, in your case, people are ironically creating it through virtual
media and by singing hosanna to ‘a prophet who would not arrive at the Gates of
Jerusalem yet.’
The second premise of admiration and adulation
of civil servants come from sheer abdication of personal responsibilities of
individual actors as citizens. When someone does not want to take minimum
personal responsibility as a citizen and pay the price for that, he or she
expects somebody else do the house keeping for him or her. They are the lot
unwillingly but selfishly subscribe to benevolent
dictatorship or authoritarianism.
Only inwardly weak individuals crave for ‘externally strong leaders to lead.’
And they want them to come from somewhere. They always like to be camp
followers without taking responsibilities. In no time leaders become gods.
In my grandfather’s days at the face of
political distress, people used to say, “The white man should not have left
this country…our people do not know how to rule. In my father’s generation I
used to hear sighs, “We need a military rule and not democracy…. Gandhi must be
blamed for all these democratic mess… he got freedom free… without sweat and
blood.” In my days, I have heard people saying, “We need an Indra Gandhi to
discipline this undisciplined, through another National Emergency.” Like me,
you also must have heard all these groans of desperation. Now, I hear the
slogan, “We need Sagayam to salvage Tamilnadu.” Perhaps you also hear this. (If
not, please see the pamphlet I have attached with this letter).
My point is that no one is
willing to acquire capabilities to be a citizen of this country; no one wants
to pay the price of being a leader, both the young and the old; no one wants to
understand that each individual in a democracy has a personal price to pay to
enjoy freedom and dignity. They want a messiah to arrive and shoulder the
burden of transforming Tamilnadu. In other words, the message is that they want
a cult figure whom they can worship; a dictator whom they can obey; and if
needed a messiah who can be sent to the sacrificial altar. We have had enough of this in the name of
democracy.
5.
Messiahs go to Live with the People
If by any chance Mr.Sagayam,
you choose to leave civil service and enter public life, do not get encouraged
to encash electoral politics. But start a grassroots movement. People like us
would hold hands with you. Even the greatest of messiahs like Christ and Prophet
Mohamed when they arrived, went down to the people of the lowest rung and gave
their sweat and blood. If you also commit to do that, you will build basic
capacities in people as citizens; help
the youth to lead from the front and not hide behind icons, real and
imagined. Then you will be at the head of a movement, and not a Chief Minister
of a ‘servile Tamil Country’ of cult worshipers.
Are you willing to do this Mr.Sagayam ?
I
would certainly appreciate a reply from you.
In Democracy we commit.
Your Fellow Citizen
05.01.2016
Madurai Dr.
T. Chinnaraj Joseph Jaikumar