Character certificate

The inquiry was ostensibly meant as a routine security exercise since the concerned officials are to participate in a conference in which the Prime Minister is also expected to be present later this month.

In the best traditions of babudom, the order was duly communicated through the facility of a teleprinter to various departments, including the intelligence unit of the UP government, which in turn nudged its men to do their duty. Itwas under such circumstances that a certain sub-inspector, totally innocent of the normal courtesies of human interaction, turned up at the door of the octogenarian father of Air Chief Marshal S.K. Sareen last week and demanded that the old man reveal the “character and antecedents” of his son forthwith.

All this would have been good for a few laughs, if it wasn’t also fraught with serious administrative implications. In the first place, isn’t it a bit late to stage such a probe since the three service chiefs are well into their various tenures?

The air chief marshal, ironically enough, is due to retire in a couple of months’ time. Besides demonstrating the ham-handedness of the Vajpayee government, which has always seemed pretty clueless about what its various gendarmes are up to, it sends out the shocking message that the country’s political masters do not quite trust the defence establishment.

Not surprisingly, the move has upset defence personnel a great deal and they have reportedly lodgedstrong protests with the ministers of Home and Defence on the issue. This has had the salutary effect of having embarrassed the government enough for Home Minister L.K. Advani to order a high-level inquiry into the incident. So, once again in the best traditions of babudom, there is to be an inquiry into an inquiry – which should keep a few bureaucrats gainfully occupied for a few weeks.

There may, of course, be occasions when the loyalty and competence of senior personnel in both defence and civilian fields need to be reviewed, but inquiries of such a sensitive nature cannot be handled in the cavalier manner that characterises the present example. The whole incident reveals that the surveillance resources of the government are both shoddy and indiscreet. Established norms and procedures cannot be given short shrift.

Police officers of junior rank cannot be unleashed on men who have put in long years of service for their country and in whose hands the defence of the nation rests.