1984-88: First Innings in SSC-Part II A FB follower had advised me: “Why are you uploading tour biography on facebook sir, people are making fun of it!”. Friend, it requires courage to talk about one’s life publicly and even more courage to continue to do it regularly. I am aware that only about 6000 of my friends, followers and relatives read it and a few of them may poke fun at it. After all, they are brought up in an environment where they believe that all officers are Government of India, especially the IAS officers, lead a life of luxury which is true only in a few cases. If my experiences kindle a desire at least in a handful few that they should follow a tight value system and follow work ethics it is adequate as far as I am concerned. I have lived life on my own terms and I will continue to do so. Anyway, thanks for your comment. Now back to my narration. The Pay Commission’s recommendations were accepted by the Government of India in 1987 with effect from 1st January 1986 and for the first time gave respectability to the Central Government Employees financially. The credit should go the then Congress Government, more specifically Mr Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister, and Mr P Chidambaram, Minister of State for Personnel, who believed that good salary would improve performance and ethics . I was also benefitted and our financial position became comfortable after that. The concept of Government job for only Prestige changed after that and the government employees could look forward to an attractive pay package though banks and public sector employees continued to have an edge over the government employees till 2007. We splurged a part of the pay arrears on buying gold and diamond jewellery after several years. Our house was let out and we continued to occupy Central Government accommodation and payment of EMI towards Hire Purchase of the house also became easily manageable. We had moved into the newly built Type V Quarters in Besant Nagar, Chennai in January 1987 which further improved the quality of life. I had informed the Chairman, SSC, about the difficulties I faced in commuting to the office by public transport or two wheelerand he graciously gave special permission to use the new office staff car, an Ambassador, to commute to the office. Only Joint secretaries and above are entitled to commute using government car and it was a nice gesture from him in recognition of my work. Small little gestures like this from superior officers improve the morale of their subordinates to work harder. Several Deputy Secretary and Director level officers used and still use government cars for travelling from office to residence and vice versa without any authority. Either they manipulate the log books or records stating that files were taken from office to residence in the staff car. Some officers have a bundle of ‘files’ which is never opened but utilised as the excuse for commuting in office car. There was no Transport allowance those days; it was introduced much later. The easiest way to victimise the officers was to find ‘misuse’ of the office staff car and several officers fell victim to it. However, armed with official permission to commute using the office car, I was saved from the worry of such persecution. Compulsory training of the IAS officers was introduced in 1986, an innovation in the civil services in India. There was vertical integration of the training cutting across seniority and officers of 9 years service and above underwent training together. Many senior officers did not like it and, as it was compulsory, had to bear it. I remember the Chief Secretary of a southern state standing at a distance of ten feet and watching us undergo basic training in computers in a reputed institution in Hyderabad. Some training institutions were so carried away by training the IAS officers that in one of them e and Beer were served in the inaugural function. But such aberrations were rare and I for one thoroughly enjoyed the training programmes. I applied for registration for part time Ph D in Department of Humanities, IIT, Chennai in 1986. I was shortlisted and called for personal discussions. Unfortunately, I had to travel to Hyderabad to organize and chair the interviews for Income Tax and Central Excise inspectors and my request for postponement of personal discussions was turned down by the IIT. Thus for a second time I lost the opportunity of obtaining a Ph D. It was a consolation in 1988 when I was invited as a Speaker in the same Department when they organized a Symposium on Personnel Management. The paper on Selection of Personnel in the Government Sector presented on the occasion was modified by me and later published in the ‘Open Page’ of The Hindu. This was the first of a short series of publications in The Hindu. The honorarium paid by the daily was a pittance compared to the effort which went into writing, rewriting, editing and reediting the pieces and the last of the articles was published in The Hindu in the mid 1990s. After that there was neither any time nor inclination to write for publication in the newspapers. For holding interviews in places other than Chennai we had to depend on the infrastructure of Income tax, Customs and Central Excise Departments. While some of them would go the extra distance to provide support including organization of lavish lunches some others would make all out efforts to make us feel miserable. I remember funny instances in Cochin where the Income Tax office did not even provide writing papers and pads and we had to hurriedly send an Assistant to the market to fetch them. Next time when we organized interviews there excellent arrangements were made as by the they had come to know that the SP, CBI, who had earned a big reputation, was my batchmate and that I had met him in the CBI office during the earlier visit. Radha Vinoda Raju was an IPS officer par excellence and was a legendary figure in Kerala. I believe the film ‘Oru CBIin Diary Kuripu’ was based on one of his investigations. He had a long stint in the CBI and passed away a few years ago in Delhi where he was holding the post of DG. Because of the confidence the Chairman, SSC, had in me he authorised me to chair interview boards for all posts irrespective of the basic pay. Only Regional Director, Mumbai, besides me, had this authorisation. Sometimes there was a piquant situation when I, a Deputy Secretary level officer, chaired the interview board and a departmental representative much senior in rank assisted the board. There were several interesting experiences during interviews. The most memorable of them came when we were conducting interview for the post of Fieldman for an organization under the Ministry of Agriculture. A candidate attended the interview in torn and dirty clothes. Often the candidates do this deliberately to gain sympathy of the interview board. He was carrying a dirty cloth bag and I chided him for attending interview in such clothes and asked him to open the cloth bag. It had a pair of even more dirtier and torn clothes. It was obvious that he was extremely poor and had put on his ‘best’ clothes for the interview and we were shocked and speechless. After the interview of the candidate the Departmental Representative who was Director of the organization for which recruitment was made started crying inconsolably and could not stop himself for over 30 minutes. Later, he revealed that he was reminded of his own past. We had a discussion among ourselves and ensured that the candidate was selected though he was not among the best candidates. This was a rare occasion when I let my heart rather than my head decide. Recently, I chaired an interview Board in the JE (Civil and Electrical) Examination in the SSC and ar candidate broke down when I asked him about Ice Age and whether he had seen any of the Ice Age movies. He has a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering and is working as a lecturer. The question on Ice Age was in the context of land mass of Tamilnadu which went under sea several thousand years ago. According to him; he is from such poor family that he had no money to see any English movies though the family has a TV. We considered It an act by him to gain sympathy and rejected his explanation. Several girls interviewed for the post of Si and ASI in CAPFs, especially from Rajastan and UP, would claim in Delhi Interview Boards that they assist their parents in agricultural operations. After the concusion of the interview I would shake hands with them wishing them good luck. The hand shake was to see whether the palm hard which will be the case if they actually work in the field. In 90% of the cases the palm would be as soft as sponge. I had posted a few months ago on cheating in academic and competitive examinations. Cheating in SSC examinations is not new; it is only the approach to cheating which has changed from time to time. Technology is used by the unscrupulous now and it was impersonation thirty years ago. The central and eastern regions of SSC unfortunately witnessed occasional cheating in examinations thirty years ago and it is no surprise that they continue to maintain the reputation. There were rumours of a few officers in these regional offices being involved in the cheating as is the case now too. Additionally, Northern Region has now joined the bandwagon of cheating due to organized groups operating from places around Delhi and due to incompetent officers who do not venture out of their offices for examination arrangements. Several steps were introduced by the SSC to root out this evil in the 1980s and the fight continues till today. Within my knowledge there was only one occasion where the SSC HQ erred in giving wrong keys of some question papers in one examination in 1986 which came to light during a case in Patna High Court. The Chairman, SSC, rushed to Chennai as usual to consult me when this came to light. He was looking emotionally unstable and upset and told me that he had decided to resign taking responsibility for the lapse. On my request he got a trunk load of computer print outs of evaluation of the question papers of the examination to Chennai and we spent four days to find a way out of the mess created by an Under Secrretary due to lack of supervision over his officials at the time of preparation of the keys. I advised him to submit before the Court through an affidavit that serious mistakes had indeed been found and that if the Court allowed the papers would be reevaluated and a revised merit list drawn up and as many from the earlier list had already been appointed and joined, revision of results would be done ensuring that the marks lowest ranking candidate already appointed would be the cut oiff for the revised result. He agreed to do so and the Patna Court appreciated the transparency displayed by the SSC in admitting that a mistake had indeed happened and also finding a solution acceptable to all. SSC, on my suggestion, published a notice owning up the mistake and assuring that all additional candidates would be accommodated against existing or future vacancies. For the next few years there was no new recruitment in Bihar from that examination till all backlog candidates, from the revised result, were accommodated. A potential crisis, which could have led to resignation of the Chairman, SSC, and possibly the Minister of State for Personnel, was defused by displaying the willingness and honesty to admit that a mistake had indeed happened. When I think of my first stint in the SSC I always remember my friend and batchmate Mr V Gunasekharan, IAS, who unfortunately passed away in 1988, putting a premature end to an outstanding career. He belonged to a Scheduled Caste but had an excellent academic record in Loyola College, Chennai, where he did his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Economics. To top it he qualified for the IAS as a general category candidate and was allotted Tamilnadu cadre. He was one of the few from my batch who opted for a stint as Under Secretary in Government of India after completing only five years of service and had the misfortune of working under a Joint Secretary who was opinionated and anti Scheduled Castes. With determination he overcame the scar the Delhi posting left on him and was known for his efficiency and impartiality. He had a long stint as the Joint Commissioner, Land Administration after a stint as Additional Director of Industries, Government of Tamilnadu. I would visit him once in a month or so for a snack or working lunch and he would reciprocate with occasional visits to SSC Regional Office especially when he felt the need for discussing his career issues. He was bypassed for posting as District Collector on a couple of occasions and I personally felt that it was only matter of time before the Government recognized his worth and posted him to a District. In early 1988 I went to Hyderabad on tour to preside over an Interview Board and suffered food poisoning. I rushed back to Chennai where I had to be hospitalized for a few days. When I returned home after discharge, I was informed that he had called on a few occasions. Within a few hours I was informed by Mr Balabaskar and Mr Manoharan, my batchmates, that he had passed away that morning. We rushed to his residence and were informed that his remains had been taken to the burial ground. We went to the burial ground but by then his remains had been buried. We cried and cried but that was all we could do. I lost a dear friend and blame myself even today for not being with him when he might have needed me. My wife was in the hospital with me and landline was the only source of communication at that time. Even today 26 years later the feeling of guilt persists. Sorry, Guna, I was not there when you might have needed me most. From the career point of view my first tenure in the SSC was really the take off point. I had outstanding ACRs for the period 1st April 1985 to October 1988 and till 2009 I did not have ever a single ACR which was less than outstanding. After I became the Chairman, SSC in April 2009 i stopped sending my Performance Reports to anyone for report or review. But the first stint also distanced me from most relatives and friends who just could not understand how an officer who was recruiting about 2000 personnel from his region every year initially going up to 5000 by the time he completed his tenure could not help anyone known to him to get selected. They could not understand or appreciate that merit was the only criterion followed by the SSC. It took me considerable time to mend my relations with them. They came to know over a period of time that I am what I am and nothing could change or influence me. I regret one incident of 1987 when someone came to our house at about 8 pm and informed me that the venerable Mr Kripananda Warriar was waiting downstairs and if I agreed to meet him he would be carried to my apartment. I politely inquired about the purpose of the visit and when informed that it was in connection with a selection told the messenger that there was nothing I could do in the matter and Mr Warriar had to leave without seeing me. I missed a great opportunity meeting such a respected personality who was a legend in Tamil religious literature and discourses. Once, I received a call from the personal staff of the Speaker of Tamilnadu Assembly that he desired to meet me in his chamber. I politely declined the request but was told that it had nothing to do with the SSC’s recruitment. I did not want any unpleasantness as the Speaker had the reputation of displaying his chappals in the Assembly and after repeated calls from him I agreed to meet him on the condition that one of the Assistant Directors of SSC would be present during the meeting. He made a request to me about a matter in the University of Madras involving one of his family members and requested me to talk to Dr B B Sunderesan, Vice Chancellor. I told him that I would not like the Vice Chancellor to talk to me about any issue in the SSC and in the same manner he might not like me intervening in an internal matter of the University though I was the subject matter which led to the issue in the first place and I was not aware of it till the meeting with the Speaker. Sometimes scores between individuals are attempted to be settled using your name even without your knowledge. I did meet the Vice Chancellor later and requested him to drop the matter as I was the subject matter of the issue and he readily agreed. The family member concerned went on to become the Vice Chancellor of a University in Tamilnadu after 20 years. My son was in Class IX, a crucial stage of his academic career, when I handed over charge in October 1988 and I decided to seek a second consecutive deputation to Government of India. I sent a representation to the Government of West Bengal who readily recommended it. I called on Mr P Chidambaram, Minister of State for Personnel in November 1988 in Delhi and he regretted his inability to consider my representation. I pointed out that a batchmate of mine was on Central Deputation for three terms continuously and he informed me that the officer was a close relative of a Chief Minister and the Prime Minster had agreed personally for a third continuous deputation for her though he was opposed to it. Unfortunately, I was not related to any Chief Minister and was reconciled to returning to West Bengal after availing leave for two months. In the meantime my wife and I met Mr P C Alexander, Governor of Tamilnadu, in the Secretariat, seeking a short term inter-state deputation The assembly had been dissolved and President’s rule promulgated in Tamilnadu then. He was courteous and listened to us intently and promised help if the Chief Secretary recommended my case. We fixed up an appointment with Mr Rajendran, Chief Secretary,Tamilnadu. When we went to his chamber at the appointed time we were shocked to find that about thirty of us were herded into his chamber at the same time and it was a durbar. My wife and I sat in the chairs on the first row on our own and all others were standing all through the durbar, including a DIG of Police. He was rude and suggested that we changed the second language of our son from Tamil to Hindi so that he could be admitted to a school in Kolkata. We thanked him for his kind suggestion and left. He became the Governor of Orissa later on the strength of belonging to a OBC. Though I knew that it was futile to attempt a further posting at Chennai I had to try for the sake of education of our son and in the interest of staying with the family and failed.. I rejoined Government of West Bengal in early December 1988. I could return to Chennai in another Government of India post only after three years and seven months.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 17:02:54 +0000
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