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Journalism of Courage
Age cannot wither her nor custom stale her infinite variety, wrote Shakespeare in his description of Cleopatra. Unfortunately, when it comes to India8217;s retired bureaucrats, Shakespearean poetry may not be adequate to describe the ageing variety of our ruling gerontocracy. Retired bureaucrats, as revealed in an exclusive column in the Sunday Express almost never fade away. Instead, they become advisers, governors, ministers of state, convenors of security cells and directors of RAW. The Indian veneration of age and seniority has created what might be called the Dhritarashtra syndrome, by which the aged and often infirm are entrusted with tasks suited for much younger people. During the riots of the forties, for example, critics of Sardar Patel argued that the lapses of security had resulted from the fact that the home minister was trying to handle as many departments as a 30-year-old when he was over twice that age.
In a civilisation blessed with the concept of vanprastha, or that stage of life after grihasthi when the householder retires from active work, retirement, as far as former babus are concerned, is simply a well kept official secret. Indeed, a glance at the newspapers, news channels and think-tanks all over India will prove that retired bureaucrats are reinventing themselves as journalists, strategists, historians and even novelists, their commitment to remaining employed as steely as the frame they once manned.
