The Elusive Honest Bureaucrat
A friend, brother, and mentor had told me three years ago that B Chandrakala, IAS, is thoroughly corrupt, and he feels amused whenever he sees her being promoted as anti-corruption crusader in media.
Later she was picked to head Swachh Bharat mission also.
Now after raids it has come to light that she is allegedly worth Rs155 crore just after eight years of service after training. I believe the figure.
There are many friends of mine, all in government jobs of course, who sickeningly continue to repeat that socialism and government enterprises would work if manned by honest bureaucrats. How they will find and recruit the honest bureaucrats they never tell. But repeat the same mantra once more: socialism is perfect, all we need is honest bureaucrats.
An infantile charlatan, a pure thug, Arvind Kejriwal, was leading a country of 130 crores by nose with exactly the same claim: corruption will end if we appoint “honest lokpal” with powers to arrest the PM and Supreme Court judges. And in this country of infantile dumbs he got so much traction that he is now a CM himself. He sacked his own party’s lokpal and has not appointed anyone else since.
But all government types still faithfully sing: socialism would work if honest bureaucrats are appointed in key posts.
Who is honest as per official definition? Simple, the one who doesn’t have a vigilance case against him/her. Like Chandrakala was till yesterday. Inquiry which has trapped her was ordered by High Court, otherwise she would have completed 37/38 years of service as a certified honest officer, worth at least Rs 1500 crore on the day of superannuation, for all I know.
How have we become so dumb and mediocre to believe such fiction of “honest bureaucrats?” And repeatedly fall for charlatans promising honest socialism: JP, VP Singh, Kejriwal?
Facts are as under:
1. Do honest human beings exist? Yes.
2. Is it possible to devise a test to find such human beings? No.
3. Does past honesty guarantee future honesty? No.
4. Does an honest person possess omniscience to detect others’ corruption? No.
5. Can socialism work if all politicians and bureaucrats magically become honest? No. It is a mathematical impossibility.
Corruption in fact is a first and unavoidable consequence of socialism. A most honest society will become corrupt if it adopts socialism.
So what about corruption?
Corruption can never be reduced to zero. Because government is a necessary evil. Without government we can not survive even a day. What matters is the size of the government and functions we assign to it. Corruption can be reduced to insignificance by complete separation of economy and state. More the separation, less corruption; less the separation, more corruption.
There is no other way. We may continue to stampede after pied pipers like JP, VP Singh, Kejriwal and waste a couple of decades every time drinking the kool-aid supplied by them; but we will always end with Chandrakalas, destroying our present and our children’s future.
In fact the year 2019 will be year of inflection. It will reveal whether we truly possess the wisdom to live as free born human beings, or are fit to be slaves only. Because now economy and state are actually being separated, and corrupts are ganging up together as a result. Whom we side with will reveal who we are.