Arre yeh to hamare Collector saheb the,'' someone whispers, pointing towards a tall, bearded man addressing an impromptu election meeting at Bhopal's New Market. People in the crowd look up, but Ajay Singh Yadav who quit the IAS last year without any provocation and is contesting for the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate appears oblivious of the interest he is generating.In a battle between titans like BJP's sanyasin Uma Bharati and Congress Seva Dal chief Suresh Pachauri, he is surely the odd man out. And his views are totally unorthodox. In a system of electoral politics where caste plays a pivotal role, he advocates abolition of caste.``Political parties today do not reflect public opinion but their own interests. The people are forced to vote for them because there is no option. That is why I am in the field,'' he says. The prospect of failure doesn't daunt this 1976 IAS officer. ``I define success and failure in a different way. To my mind real failure is in not being ableto live up to your convictions, in not trying to work out your dreams,'' he says.When he left the IAS, Yadav had more than 16 years of service left. After a fairly long stint as Collector of many districts, he had worked as the head of many important departments and was a secretary to the government when he decided to seek voluntary retirement in 1998.Son of an IPS officer, Ajay knew the extent as well as the limitations of state power even before he joined the IAS in 1976. ``I realised I didn't fit the moment I became a civil servant. I found myself in perpetual revolt against the norms and conventions of the civil service. In every gathering I was an outsider; in every meeting, I was the devil's advocate,'' he remembers.Rid of the ``bureaucrat's burden'', Yadav is now happy being a farmer, a freelance writer and a champion of unpopular causes. He has written a book Why I am not a Civil Servant while another, Maneater Wolves, based on his experiences as Collector of Astha district, is in the press.He is now working on a novel on Hindu-Muslim interface in Bhopal.What prompted him to turn to politics? Yadav quotes Plato in support of his belief that power should not be given to those who love authority. ``The field of politics belongs by right to those who are inspired by the ethos of public service and have a clear blueprint for a better world,'' he argues. He insists he is in politics because he has an agenda to change things for the better.And at the top of his agenda is the establishment of a casteless society. ``An institution which is a source of social, economic and cultural disparities can never be used as an instrument of justice,'' he says. He scoffs at messiahs of social justice like Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav. Instead of reservations, he calls for the right to work.Will people listen to him? ``If you want to change things, somebody has to make a beginning,'' he says. And since the political parties in India have failed to live up to our expectations, ``independentsof proven integrity and background should enter the field to provide people with an option,'' he says.
