From Punjab comes this tale of an exemplary career in government being cut short because a senior bureaucrat came up against the first family of the state – the Badals – in a bid at public grievance redressal.
Forty-two years ago, on a winter morning, an 18-year-old lad peddled 45 km on a borrowed bicycle from his village in Ropar district to the hallowed portals of the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh. The intrepid teenager made the journey, carrying a bit of money for some food, to ask why he had been rejected after appearing for an interview for the job of a daily wage clerk. The officer he confronted had no response and offered to take him on. Thus began Jasbir Singh Bir’s career in government, which saw him work his way up from the grass roots to the post of Commissioner, Patiala.
Sadly, four decades later, this impeccable service record has come to a bitter end with Bir opting for voluntary retirement in April. The decision to terminate his career came after he was unable to remove a “public nuisance” in the form of luxury buses that are parked near a market in Mohali. The buses belong to private operators and some to the family trust of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. No one is prepared to take on the Badals and Bir ultimately gave up his lonely battle.
It is yet another of life’s blows for Bir, who has weathered many since he first began earning for his family as a five-year-old by selling toys at fairs or helping lalaris (dyers) dry turbans. He contributed to the family income and paid his school expenses, and, after all this, passed the matriculation exam with distinction. Now, his great ambition was to get a “decent government job”.
Once hired as a daily wage clerk, he never looked back – impressing all his seniors with his diligence. Learning the office work by day, he attended an evening college and completed graduation by night. It was while working as a personal assistant (PA) to a PA on the Chief Minister’s staff that Bir was spotted by the then CM, Giani Zail Singh, and was nominated to the Punjab Civil Service in 1976 and subsequently elevated to the IAS’ Punjab cadre in 1992.
Last month, at the peak of his career as Commissioner, Patiala with additional charge of two other commissionaires, Bir felt he had no more “strength and courage to bear the pain of such a helpless administrative structure” and sought voluntary retirement, serving a three-month notice under Rule (16) of the All-India Services Act.
Bir had given the public an assurance that he would get the nuisance of the parked buses removed. Instead, he himself was shunted to an insignificant posting in the secretariat.
Despite a public outcry and orders by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the district administration did not act. The issue started to affect Bir’s health as he became increasingly prone to anxiety and frustration.
Though this is not the first such incident of his career and nor have they occurred only during the present Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP regime, Bir is reluctant to talk about it. “The fault is not with the individuals but with the system,” is all he states. Though his decision to leave is final, he is reluctant to hit out at anyone as long as he is in service. “I can’t open my mouth. After all, I am a government servant and am bound by rules and regulations,” he says.
The IAS officers’ association also did not come to his rescue though it initially tried to dissuade him from quitting. Later, it washed its hands of the matter, alleging that Bir had vested interests in the issue as he owned a shop-cum-office complex in the same market and his business interests were affected.
Bir refutes this, saying that neither he nor his brothers have any commercial property in Mohali or elsewhere in the country. “One brother was killed by terrorists and another is in the Punjab Education Board,” he says. Perhaps the president of the association is keen to improve his rapport with the CM’s family, he adds.
“Even if my family had premises in the market, that would have been more reason to see that illegal activities are not permitted under the nose of the Commissioner,” argues Bir, again emphasizing that the system stinks.
He points out that he has never petitioned politicians for postings and that, wherever posted, he always joined immediately. He does admit that he got plumb postings irrespective of the government in power.
But he is critical of many a Chief Minister, be it Zail Singh, Beant Singh, Amarinder Singh or Parkash Singh Badal . “I tried to serve the government of the day irrespective of its political persuasions because it had the public mandate while resisting illegal orders which are not in the public interest,” he states.
His friends claim that, in the early 1970s, he once proceeded on long team and was persuaded to rejoin by Zail Singh though he was then just a Punjabi stenographer. They say that the latest incident was the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back. His detractors, on the other hand, point out that he is a good orator, winning awards in his college days, and is eyeing politics. Though Bir denies it, they say his move to take on the Badal family was the first step in this direction.
