In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi had gone on his first foreign tour as prime minister. In one of his press conferences during the tour, Mr Gandhi was asked if civil servants in India were paid so low that corruption in government had become a big problem. It was an uncomfortable question as it came days after some Indian officials were booked on charges that they had passed on secret documents to a few foreign agencies.
Mr Gandhi, however, remained unperturbed. “We have no evidence from the western countries that higher pay for civil servants has completely removed corruption there,” Mr Gandhi said, thereby preventing the scribes from asking any follow-up questions on an issue that certainly could have been embarrassing for the young leader. Civil servants back home had praised Mr Gandhi for his quick-witted response and the manner in which he indirectly defended them.
A few years later, B G Desmukh, who was principal secretary to two prime ministers — Rajiv Gandhi and V P Singh — had an unusual meeting with Chandrasekhar, who succeeded Singh as prime minister in 1990. Mr Desmukh wrote in his autobiography that he had made up his mind to quit the PMO and told as much to the new prime minister. However, Chandrasekhar had asked him to stay on until the end of his tenure, which was to end about two months later. Desmukh agreed to stay on.
A few days later, however, Mr Desmukh was asked to quit as the government had decided to appoint S K Mishra, a senior IAS officer, as the next principal secretary. Mr Desmukh was furious. He met the prime minister and told him how disappointed he was by the turn of events. He resigned, but also sent a formal request to the government to allow him to work for the Tatas. Chandrasekhar told Mr Desmukh that he had no objection to his working for the Tatas after leaving the PMO. However, that permission never came and Mr Desmukh learnt from his successor that Chandrasekhar was opposed to the idea of an officer working for the private sector so soon after his retirement.
The two incidents took place more than two decades ago, but they underline certain aspects the current debate over corporate lobbying with government has completely ignored. These pertain to the importance of good conduct of civil servants — both before and after they retire from service. Within its own limitations, the Manmohan Singh government has done its best to uphold the principles of integrity and a code of conduct for serving government officials. However, its record in handling requests from civil servants for private sector jobs after retirement has been less than exemplary. Indeed, the United Progressive Alliance government has been a little lax about enforcing its rules on the mandatory cooling-off period all retiring government officers must honour.
First it was Ashok Jha, who retired as finance secretary a few years ago but got the government’s approval to join an automobile company. Now, the government may defend its decision to waive the cooling-off period usually enforced on all retiring government officers. Nor is there any suggestion that Jha misused his position as finance secretary to secure a post-retirement job with a private sector company. However, the government waiver did raise many an eyebrow. Should an IAS officer be allowed to take up a private sector job immediately after his retirement? Desmukh had sought a favour from Chandrasekhar, but the government did not grant the request. Jha also sought a favour and Manmohan Singh granted it. Who was correct? Manmohan Singh or Chandrasekhar?
Similarly, three senior retired officials associated themselves with corporate lobbying firms, directly or indirectly after their retirement. It is not just a matter of coincidence that all these firms have some connection with the ongoing lobbying controversy. Remember, these men were not ordinary officials. Pradeep Baijal was disinvestment secretary and later became the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Ajay Dua was secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and C M Vasudev was economic affairs secretary and a nominee of the Indian government as an executive director on the board of the World Bank.
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The three senior officers may like to qualify their association with the corporate lobbying firms in whatever manner as a way of defending what they did. It is also possible that these officials did no wrong during their short tenures with these firms. However, the question that remains unanswered is whether a retired IAS officer should ever be allowed to take up a job with a corporate lobbying firm.
That is the key question. It is time that the government re-examined the logic of the cooling-off periods for retiring government officials before they can take up jobs in the private sector. It is a certain kind of job that a retired government official should be barred from taking up in the private sector.
Unfortunately, current government policies do not make such distinctions. Thus, retired army officials can merrily take up jobs with companies that are selling arms to the defence forces, once the cooling-off period gets over. Should the government allow this? Similarly, IAS officers can be simply barred from joining lobbying firms or any company with which they may have had dealings with in their previous three assignments in the government. A blanket cooling-off-period rule is not strong enough to check the misuse of lobbying with unethical means.