3 young IAS officers’ fascinating posts of their past

Sweta Agarwal, IAS

FROM West Bengal cadre IAS Sweta Agarwal's childhood fascinations for the Khaki uniform to an Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS, Gopalkrishna Ronanki’s struggle from a study room with no electricity to turn an IAS topper, the Facebook posts of many a young officer are a fascinating read. Here below are the gist of three such posts, courtesy to an open FB page, Humans of LBSNAA:

“But life isn't about plans”; why West Bengal cadre IAS Dhiman Barai left a banking job to try his luck in IAS

FOR 2016 batch West Bengal cadre IAS Dhiman Barai, Indian Administrative Service was always a “default option”, but “not an immediate plan” after his MBA from IIM-B. But what made him plunging into IAS preparation, ending up getting his home cadre as an IAS. The IAS Association has recently tweeted a Facebook post where the officer narrated how his career choice changed after the demise of his father. The officer wrote, life isn't about plans. Barai, 31, grew up in a big…

Madhya Pradesh IAS who praised Nehru in a Facebook post transferred

Ajay Singh Gangwar, the 2005 batch promoted IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre and Barwani district collector, who had praised India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in a sarcastic Facebook post early this week, faces the music— yes, he is transferred. After the controversy erupted, the 55-year-old officer was brought back to the secretariat in Bhopal, as deputy secretary, in an order issued on Thursday. In the Hindi Facebook post that went viral in social media, Gangwar questioned:

"...I was a tiny girl asking them to help in the dark night"; What saddens this “divyang” IAS officer Ira Singhal?

Ira Singhal

ON Mann ki Baat radio address aired on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested that the term 'viklang' should be replaced by 'divyang' (divine body) for persons with disability. BoI here presents an incident which Ira Singhal, an IAS officer-trainee and the first differently-abled woman to top civil services exam, had narrated in a social media site. This "divyang" civil servant was coming back with three of her friends from LBSNAA in Mussoorie to Delhi on the pre-Christmas day. As they reached Muradnagar in UP, they saw a...

Young IAS officer Riju Bafna who filed a sexual harassment case says, "Idiots are lined up at every step"

Bafna's Facebook Photo

Riju Bafna, a young IAS officer of 2014 batch who had filed a sexual harassment case against a member of Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission for sending her “indecent messages”, narrated on Monday her unpleasant experience while pursuing the case. “Idiots are lined up at every step and people are highly insensitive towards our sufferings,” she said in a Facebook post that went viral on Monday. The officer, however, edited one line in her post where she said…

Are Indian bureaucrats a serious, longfaced, boring breed? Not really

IAS officer Alex Paul Menon who was kidnapped by Left wing extremists in Chhattisgarh, uploaded this photo in Facebook recently. It’s not about red terror but a simple shot depicting problems of a girl and a boy. He tweeted to say: “When it comes to other better districts. .. It’s the situation of a girl. Sukma is a lonely boy”. Menon was till recently the collector of Chhattisgarh's backward district of Sukma before he was appointed as CEO of Raipur Development Authority. 
Don’t think bureaucrats are too boring to think beyond file notings. Yes, many of them raise serious issues like governance, corruption, security, administration etc., also in social media. But here are 4 samples of bureaucrats’ Tweets which may help babus shedding their tag of “a boring, long-faced, unsmiling, serious breed”.

Asha Swarup panel wants govt to look beyond print, tap new media

Ex-I&B secretary Asha Swarup

AN advisory panel headed by Asha Swarup, a 1973 batch retired IAS and former information and broadcasting secretary, has recommended that the government should use new media while undertaking its media campaigns. Despite India’s net saavy Gen-X becoming increasingly hyperactive in new platforms such as blog, Facebook and Twitter, the vast Indian sarkari machinery is pouring its resources only in print and to some extent in TV.
Yet, the Prime Minister’s Office’s decision…

British civil servants told to do Facebook under ‘totally mad’ plans

THE British civil servants will soon be encouraged to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to engage with public and find out what people are thinking, a report published in London-based newspaper The Daily Mail said. It is an initiative of Sir Bob Kerslake, the new head of Britain’s civil service, under a plan titled ‘totally mad’, the report said.
This is a contrarian view of the use of social media sites by bureaucrats...

Why can't Indian bureaucrats try Facebook founder's hacker formula?

Zuckerberg listening to US president Obama

Facebook’s 27-year-old billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg has always wanted a hacker culture in his company. Usually, hackers mean those tech saavy bad minds who cripple websites and deface those. But in Facebook, hacker culture means giving an extra push to try out new ideas even if they fail. No wonder, Zuckerberg’s Facebook which was launched in 2004 (incidentally the same year the UPA came to power) is now a $100 billion company (about Rs 5 lakh crore). As many as 845 million users, meaning more than the entire population of Europe, now log onto Facebook.
But such fascinating stories of entrepreneurship like Facebook or Google which incidentally started in a garage, should teach lessons to mammoth government set-ups across the world, and India in particular. Why can’t Zuckerberg’s hacker attitude not inculcated by Indian bureaucrats who are brilliant, yet carry a baggage of laziness and negativity? Many bureaucrats will instantly dismiss such an idea saying that in government you have to do everything within rules, and leaving one mistake will mean you are culpable. But that’s an old-fashioned argument.
This is how Indian bureaucrats can use Zuckerberg’s hacker formulae of trying new things even if they fail.

a)      Be prepared for mistakes. If you have read the comments of Prime Minister, CVC etc. you would have realized by now that you will get away with “honest mistakes” even in government. So what stops you from experimenting new ideas, hackers’ way?

b)      We often forget that there are start-ups within the government too. Unique Identity, Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, new metro rail projects across India etc. are all start-ups. Read Zuckerberg’s philosophy and try to incorporate those in your government venture.

c)      Hacker’s attitude can also find place in old-fashioned large government offices. The Commercial Tax Department of the government of Karnataka, for example, has received the Central government’s annual e-governance award for creating a paperless system. One entrepreneur-like spirited bureaucrat at the top can change the entire system below.

d)      The departments like DoPT should also take note of such new ways of getting things done. The ACRs of officers should include a column where getting out-of-box ideas should be suitably rewarded.

e)      Finally, implementing Zuckerberg’s hacker’s attitude is not possible in government unless there is a team of like-minded people. Why can’t an officer choose his own men rather than getting satisfied with those who are given by his department? Is DoPT listening?

When Prime Minister’s Office is on Twitter, and is contemplating to have a Facebook account any time soon, Indian bureaucrats must read Facebook founder’s hacker philosophy and experiment things which are considered odds in government. If you want to follow babu blogger in Facebook, here is the address: http://www.facebook.com/babublogger