Babus come under fire from Jethmalani, Dhavan

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While Jethmalani slammed politicians for using religion for political gains, Dhavan said he had lost faith in the bureaucracy that has “destroyed the city entirely to a point where it cannot recover for the next 50 years”.

“I have been objecting to what you are imparting here. You are servants of the people and certainly not the servants of your immediate boss or the bosses of the boss. It is a happy coincidence if the ideals of requirements are in total conformity to the demands of your boss, but if there is non-conformity, you need to side with the poor people,” Jethmalani said.

“The fundamental rights of people are enshrined in the Constitution and that is your scripture,” he said.

“The Bhagwad Gita is one of the greatest scriptures of our civilisation, but I do not agree with the politicians who remarked that the Gita should become the national scripture.”

Dhavan, a senior lawyer at the Supreme Court and a human rights activist, said civil servants had lost direction.

“As a citizen of this city, I want to ask, what did your predecessors and you have done to my city? You have given us roads, but they are problematic. You see these children on roads doing gymnastics because they need Rs 5. You see people puking on roads and wailing because they have nowhere to stay. You have destroyed the city entirely. You will never get social justice in this city for another 50 years… I ask you what are you going to do for the city. Second question is, why should I trust you. I have no trust in you…,” Dhavan said.

“Many of you will be faced with the temptation of money. Incentives today means money… The challenge is corruption, your inability to deliver is another challenge. This great bureaucracy, which kept the nation together, is crumbling from many vital places,” he said.

On Arvind Kejriwal, Dhavan gave examples of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau.

“This is the biggest surrender that society ever made to politics. You must surrender power to politicians, otherwise civil society will collapse, Locke said surrender part of your power, Rousseau said surrender all your power… the Kejriwal revolution is surrendering all power by an ordinary citizen to the politician,” he said.

He also spoke on the ongoing controversy within the AAP.

“If this government is going to deliver anything, it will have to combine social and political in one. If not, they will be thrown out. This is the paradigm change. Political and bureaucratic power must be subject to some social power,” he said.

Reminding the bureaucracy of what was expected of them, Dhavan said, “We have distinguished administrators who deliver. The heroic people who were actually killed… What are you willing to do in order to be the best of the best.”

“Bureaucracy is now all about signing and hiding the documents. Bureaucracy is meant to deliver with courage, craft and contention. I can understand you are living in difficult times. The temptations that you will face, the questions of transfers… because somebody does not want to attend to this particular file,” he said.