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Overarching urge to go public
K.K. Luthria
Our bureaucracy was conceived to be an invisible spirit guiding the onerous task of nation building

IT WAS not until T.N. Seshan, who first cracked the whip at the errant political class, did we realise that the Election Commission was indeed vested with immense powers waiting to be exercised by an intelligent Election Commissioner.
The limelight generated by the media proved to be a heady brew for a bureaucrat, who till then was only too happy to live in the shadow of his political master. This marked an event-change from the laid back style of previous Election Commissioners and Indian bureaucracy in particular.
Our bureaucracy was not conceived to be a visible and voluble creature hogging headlines and taking credit for discharging its duties. It was conceived to be an invisible spirit guiding the onerous task of nation building by providing the necessary steel frame and, therefore, visible only in terms of good administration and good governance.
The addition of new fangled spurs in the cowboy boots of Mr. Seshan was made possible by the omnipresent media which is ever so hungry for juicy bits of sound-bytes for the ostensible benefit of its viewers/readers.
We also witnessed Mr. Lyngdoh following in the footsteps of his predecessor. He donned the role of a moral preacher, with the media dutifully in tow. His famous pose to an official was "Aren't you ashamed" despite knowing fully well that his visit to that State was only to assess and evaluate whether elections could be held.
The overarching desire to be seen, heard, noticed, loved, adulated is innate in every human being and it ranks just a notch below the basic survival instinct. However, when one is occupying a high official post, these instinctive urges have to be curbed, if not eschewed, for effective discharge of one's official duties. Nothing more and nothing less is expected in the first task of providing good administration and good governance.
Sharing sensitive details
Officials these days, whether high or low and whether from defence services, police or other security agencies, suddenly become very eager to give their version of the event besides sharing in great detail the modus operandi of the terrorist outfit, how they are identified from the dhobi mark, label of the tailor, undergarment labels, shoe make/brand, chits/receipts found in their pockets, mobile phone number, etc., instead of keeping all these sensitive details strictly under wrap.
The cable TV channels also revel in broadcasting crime serials that have the police crowing about their investigative skills, and how they cracked the case even before the criminals have been brought to book. This naturally affects their main task of preparing a watertight charge sheet.
Recently in the Ayodhya terrorist attack case, we saw both print and visual media spilling the beans as to how the police were able to trace the phone calls made by the terrorists by deciphering the unique identity number of each mobile instrument. This achievement was by all accounts a commendable piece of evidence collection. However, the question remains whether all these details should be in public domain and are we not alerting the terrorists and their handlers across the border the kind of steps required to be taken to avoid detection/identification.
To be precise, the handlers had ensured that the terrorists this time around should not have any identifiable marks/receipts on their person and as expected the security agencies are still clueless about their identity.
It will be appreciated that the lack of coherent policy guidelines from the Home Ministry is at the root of this problem. The question of releasing forensic and other details by the officials concerned should be proscribed without any further delay. The Ministry should come out with a coherent policy to deal with the release of sensitive details of terrorist attacks on the lines of recent anti-hijacking policy.
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