Shivraj Singh Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai

DB POST 30 July 2017

Why MP CM wants to hang Collectors “upside down”?

NK SINGH

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is, normally, polite to the core. Social grace, or small talk, may not be his strong point. But friends and foe agree, alike, that he is courteous. “I try not to hurt even a worm, I sidestep it,” he said in MP assembly earlier this week, describing his own personality.

Hence he took everyone by surprise last week when he publicly threatened to “hang upside down” District Collectors if they failed to clear pending land dispute cases. Warning the officers of strict action on pending patta (land ownership right) and demarcation cases, he said: “If they don’t resolve the issue within a month, I would make sure that they are removed.”  Collectori karne ke layak nahi chhodunga, was the colourful phrase used in colloquial Hindi.

Chouhan is being hauled over coal for his comments, and rightly so. The Opposition Congress leader criticised him for using “inappropriate and intemperate” language against civil servants. Among the bureaucrats, both serving and retired, there is a sense of disbelief.

“I can’t believe that CM could have used those words,” MP IAS Officer Association chief Radheshyam Julaniya was quoted as having said. Commented a former chief secretary: “This is not the language of a chief minister. I suspect he has been watching too many Bollywood movies.” Officers are miffed that it would send a wrong message to BJP workers. “Would not they be encouraged to use similar language against officers,” pointed out a Principal Secretary.

The remarks have triggered an avalanche of jokes on social media. A wag suggested that Institute of Good Governance, started by the Chouhan Government, should start a crash course on how to hang officers upside down. Sample another stinging one.

Hanging upside down from a roof one bat asks another: “How are you feeling.”

“Like a Collector,” came the reply.

It ought to ring a warning bell when subjects start making jokes, whether printable or unprintable, about rulers. Remember Rajiv Gandhi’s last few months in power. His catch phrase, “ham dekheinge, hamein dekhna hai” became a butt of joke. So did the thundering threat – “nani yaad dila denge”.

Social scientists believe light hearted political jokes trending on media are not to be taken lightly. “In a democracy, jokes can help shape public opinion,” says an analysis of jokes in the revered Foreign Policy magazine. “A joke shared through the media has so much more value than a whispered one. Ultimately, this strengthens civil society and can translate either into votes or calls for action.”

Most agree that Chouhan’s remark was in bad taste, if not downright insulting. But let us also analyse why someone as polite as Chouhan lost his cool? What caused the outburst?

The recent farmers’ movement was a watershed. It signalled the first ever decline in Shivraj Singh’s popularity. As he started clearing the agitation’s debris personally and interacted directly with farmers, he discovered that many of his Collectors had managed – without any assistance from political class – to alienate farmers by neglecting their primary duties in revenue department.

The neglect of this basic task that is expected of each Collector has resulted in huge pendency of land transfer and demarcation cases. E-Khasra has become a nightmare, with reports of farmers’ lands being recorded in the name of other landowners. The Government has added to the farmers’ woes by going in for a digital system of dubious pedigree, creating a cesspool of corruption.

The scenario in parts of rural Madhya Pradesh still looks straight out of Raag Darbari, the immortal Hindi classic by Shrilal Shukla, incidentally a member of IAS, written almost half a century ago. Langad is still making round of tehsil office to obtain his ‘naqal’, a certified copy of application.

Who is responsible for this mess that revenue department had landed itself into? It is the sole creation of IAS officers, and lesser mortals like tehsildars and patwaris – as corrupt a tribe as you can imagine –who are directly under their command. The Government recently unearthed a mammoth land scandal involving officials in Revenue Board, the dumping ground of discarded bureaucrats. There are talks of disbanding the archaic Board because the feeling is that it has become the latest breeding ground for unbridled corruption.

The irony is that most of the Collectors, whom the Chief Minister is threatening to “hang upside down”, were handpicked by him. Grapevine has it that Chouhan directly talks to DMs and SPs, bypassing divisional commissioners and IGs, often ignoring even his political colleagues. He depends upon them for delivery. The sense of hurt is more when people you rely upon fail you. And that is why Shivraj Singh Chouhan is angry.

My column Powers That Be in DB Post of 30th July 2017