Two December Elevens: From a Silvery Morning to an Overcast Sky

December 11, 2007

The story of my present travail starts on the slightly mist-veiled, silvery, sunny day of December 11, 2004.

I have always had the luck of having the sympathy of almost the entire village, complimenting me on my academic pursuits. They wanted me to get my prize.

That day, the panchayat almost rubbed shoulders with the crowd around Haryana Chief Minister Shri Om Prakash Chautala. The village elder, tall Lakhiram, whom the honourable CM knew by name due to the sheer tallness of the fellow, slipped him a message that the darling boy from their village had been selected as HCS officer.

And the all-powerful CM, who, like all other CMs throughout India, I believed controlled the State Public Service Commission through favourable officers nominated as its members, declared, “This boy has got the job through sheer hard work. Bahut bahur badhai!” There were many appreciating pats on my back. 

There has been a very bitter reality about state public service commissions in India. Their statutory powers remain on paper and most of them are run by loyalists of the serving chief minister. It is grossly unconstitutional for a Chief Minister to usurp all the powers of a constitutionally autonomous body like the State Public Service Commission. But then, in this country, all paths to all destinations lead through political lanes.

In any case, after cracking all exams from NDA to CDS to IAS to PCS, here was the local favorite with a HCS selection in the name of his academic brilliance and hard work and discipline. 

I had finally got selected.

But then the seat of power had another man. Since the new one could not kick the rival, he threw brickbats at us.

He flayed us, in fact. We were denied appointment by the incumbent. 

During this period of three years, I came to know how powerful the state is. An individual, or even a group of individuals, doesn't stand anywhere in comparison with it.

When we finally lost our case in the Chandigarh High Court, everybody consoled us that the Supreme Court is the august institution where there is no scope for foul play by power-drunk politicians.

Driven by this belief, we filed an SLP.

It was accepted, but then we got numerous occasions for our enthusiasm to be dented. Dates were delayed many a time. It took fifteen long months for two or three hours of debates to be concluded.

For around a hundred days, the judgment was reserved.

And after creating this show of make-believe justice, the Supreme Court said, on another December 11—December 11, 2007—that it could not interfere in the working of the state government. The state government was within its rights to deny us the appointment.

During all this judicial hara-kiri, one simple logic has been lost like a needle in a haystack.

If the present government has the constitutional right to deny us the appointment, then what of the rights of the past one, which got the recruitment done?

So it is a mercilessly cold, gloomy, overcast sky today when the Supreme Court has given the verdict.

In my anger and disappointment, I have every reason to suspect that political influence in Delhi has played its part, just as I suspected it had in Chandigarh.

Law and constitutionality are, after all, the kickballs of these khadi-clad, naughty, errant, vagrant bad fellows. They just kick them around all corners of the field for sheer enjoyment.

I find myself wondering whether judges and officials who reach high positions through systems of nomination and recommendation can ever remain completely untouched by a feeling of obligation towards those whom they perceive as having helped them reach there. Almost in all spheres of life, people at all levels—in governance, administration and enforcement—seem to go out of their skins to repay favours.

So December 11, 2004 to December 11, 2007 has been an eye-opener.

Though I have been punished like a criminal, it has opened up some understandings.

One of them concerns the judiciary.

I have come to feel that, by taking some tough and praiseworthy stand in a high-profile case, the judiciary can perform something like a PR exercise. Because such a case hogs the media limelight due to the high status of the person or issue involved; it washes its black face in order to win accolades from the poor, dumb, wit-ignorant masses.

And under the blinding glimmer of this bright shine of judicial accountability, I suspect countless little cases—the cases which don't hog the limelight—can be disposed of according to the wishes and interests of the political class.

So let the fools enjoy over their follies.

The time will perhaps come when all this becomes crystal clear even to the masses.

Perhaps things will change then.

Till then, let us suffer with our little, little draughts of injustices.