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Journalism of Courage
It is a bit unfair to say government servants don8217;t work. They can work with a rare diligence and efficiency should the moment demand it. One such moment arrived on the morning of December 14, when the occupants of the Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh were brought face to face with electronic time-keeping machines installed to make sure they kept to work timings.
In a matter of two days, they had ensured that nine of the 16 contraptions into which they had to punch such offending details as their arrival and departure timings, were mysteriously damaged. Their bosses, unable to cope with such a unanimous and telling response, quietly bowed to their collective wisdom and removed the intrusive machines from the scene of the crime. And crime, make no mistake, it was. The president of the Haryana Civil Secretariat Employees8217; Association was at his most eloquent when he roundly condemned the administration for failing in its supervisory duty to ensure punctuality among employees by introducing thosemachines!
For too long has government work been synonymous with imbibing vast quantities of overbrewed, oversweet tea. Since everyone recognises that all work and no play can make people dull, the ability to play a quick game of cards is increasingly being viewed as the hallmark of a true government servant. There are, of course, enough paid employees of the state who will look upon playing cards with disdain and will never themselves stoop to indulge in such wasteful activity. Instead they place their entire professional attention on knitting a nice little sweater for junior back home. What unites all government servants in the length and breadth of the country is their undoubted ability to communicate with each other through lengthy confabulations on issues ranging from TA/DA entitlements to the misdemeanours of the boss8217;s wife. After such a punishing pace, is it any wonder that these worthies display an allegedly inordinate desire to leave the office before time? Truly, in India,work is worship 8212; something to be deified from a distance.
