Either you are secular or you are not part of my team. This is the message which has gone out to bureaucrats of the HRD ministry from their boss, Arjun Singh.On Tuesday, Singh called a meeting of his senior bureaucrats—of the rank of director and above—and told them categorically that there had been deviations from the secular path in the previous regime of Murli Manohar Joshi. And bureaucrats should remember that his government and he were committed to secularism. So, when the civil servants plan or implement policies, they must bear this aspect in mind.This was the first such meeting Singh had with his senior team. He had met them in batches but had never found time to explain to them how his stint would be different from that of his predecessor.Through a little note circulated among bureaucrats, Singh reminded them that they were sworn to the Constitution. This reminder could have been dismissed as innocuous had it not been for the tone or tenor of the pep talk he delivered.He made it clear that there was a perception that the spirit of the Constitution as far as secularism was concerned was not followed in letter and spirit during Joshi’s tenure. Obviously, Singh was alluding to what has been a common refrain in the UPA criticism of Joshi’s education policy. The underlying message to the bureaucrats was that saffronisation would not be allowed.Singh told the IAS officers—three secretaries, (higher education, elementary education and women and child development), additional secretaries, several joint secretaries and directors—that the Indian Civil Service had a great tradition. He reiterated the non-partisan role the civil service was supposed to play in society and how the conscious bureaucrat was not to surrender to unfair political pressure.He said that during the previous regime, it appeared that there had been instances of IAS officers succumbing to political pressure. Without taking names, he pointed out that some IAS officers had even gone out of their way to implement the political agenda of the previous minister.Though there was criticism of the bureaucracy’s role during Joshi’s tenure, he reassured them there would not be any witchhunt. But he asked them to be ‘‘self-critical’’ and bring to the notice of the ministry aberrations that had taken place.
