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 3^rd 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