Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s babu barb at IAS officers in February 2021 seems to have hurt them deeper than one might think. A few weeks ago, I was sitting with an additional chief secretary in a state capital when his son came to say bye before leaving for Delhi. “Studying,” he told me when I enquired about his son. “Preparing for Civils?” I asked, thinking that I already knew the answer. I was taken aback as the officer flew off the handle: “NO! To become what? A babu? You don’t work so much all your life and be called a babu. He will do anything with his life but not become another babu like me.”
The officer calmed down soon but he left me wondering. Was it only the PM’s speech that hurt him so much? Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Modi had said, “Sab kuchh babu hi karenge. IAS ban gaya toh woh fertiliser ka kaarkhana bhi chalayega. IAS ban gaya toh who chemical ka karkhana bhi chalayega. IAS ho gaya toh hawai jahaaj bhi chalayega. Yeh kaun si badi takat bana kar rakh di humne? Babuon ke haath mein desh de karke hum kya karne waale hain? (Will everything be done by the “babu”? If they became IAS, they will run fertiliser plants, chemical plants, and fly aeroplanes. What sort of a big force have we created? What are we going to do by handing the nation over to the babus?)”
Thanks to their long and close association with politicians, IAS officers know when they play to the gallery. That civil servants, not ministers, run the government at the Centre is no secret. K. Kailashnathan retired in 2013 but continues as chief principal secretary in the Gujarat chief minister’s office after seven extensions. The 1979 IAS officer has been the de facto chief minister of Gujarat since Modi moved to the Centre. The current principal secretary to the PM, PK Mishra, who was also principal secretary to Modi when he was Gujarat’s chief minister, retired from the IAS in 2008. He turned 74 last August. The prime minister isn’t letting him hang up his boots, the grapevine has it. Therefore, IAS officers have to be extremely sensitive and touchy to think that PM Modi was seeking to belittle them by calling them babus. India’s steel frame is known to be anything but that.
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Troubles of babus in UP and MP
Uttar Pradesh’s civil servants, however, have many other reasons to be sulky. State ministers, BJP MPs and MLAs are making it a habit to criticise and humiliate them. First, it was Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, an Amit Shah protégé, who went after UP’s additional chief secretary in the health department, Amit Mohan Prasad, a Yogi Adityanath confidant, writing to him and seeking explanations about the transfer of doctors. The Deputy CM’s letter, like many of his other communications, was all over social media shortly, and predictably. It was embarrassing to CM Adityanath. The ACS was transferred to another department a few weeks later but he continues to be in the CM’s inner circle. Pathak’s action triggered attacks on other civil servants from other ministers as well.
Minister of state Dinesh Khatik sent his resignation to Union Home Minister Amit Shah alleging corruption in his Jal Shakti department. He accused officers of not listening to him. His resignation letter was all over social media, predictably again. Then followed the attacks on babus by BJP MPs and MLAs. The latest to join was the second Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who publicly targeted another IAS officer from another ministry — a special secretary in the higher education department — for relocation of the directorate of higher education from Prayagraj to Lucknow.
“This directorate will not be shifted to Lucknow,” tweeted Maurya who holds rural development portfolio. He had lost the last assembly election but thanks to the BJP’s high command, he managed to become deputy CM again. Maurya was a front-runner in the chief ministerial race after the 2017 assembly election but Yogi Adityanath had tripped him then.
Politicians targeting civil servants is not a new phenomenon. What can give UP bureaucrats some solace is the fact that their counterparts in Shivraj Singh Chouhan-ruled Madhya Pradesh are also at the receiving end of such attacks from ministers and MLAs. Last September, two ministers, Mahendra Sisodia and Brajendra Yadav—both Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalists—accused Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains of running an autocratic administration. During an internal party meeting the same month, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya slammed the state bureaucracy for their ‘uncooperative’ attitude.
But UP civil servants are wringing their hands in despair. Because, unlike Chouhan who cautioned party members against airing their grievances in public, CM Adityanath has remained mum.
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UP CM—the rising star
Yogi Adityanath may very well be listening to Shamshad Begum’s song Kahin pe nigahen, kahin pe nishana as his ministers and legislators target civil servants are known to act at the CMO’s behest. In a government run by a strong chief minister like Adityanath, what gives ministers and legislators the guts to target him, howsoever indirectly through bureaucrats, is enigmatic. Have you heard a word of complaint from any BJP minister or MLA against CM Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government or his trusted civil servants in Assam? It’s not just because Sarma has Amit Shah’s blessings and no one in the BJP dares to rub him up the wrong way. It’s also because most of these MLAs and ministers owe their election victories to Sarma’s charisma and their future depends on him.
But that should hold true to a great extent in Adityanath’s case as well. The future of BJP MPs, MLAs and ministers — in UP, at least —is closely tied to Adityanath. Unlike Shivraj Chouhan, who is seen as a setting sun in the BJP, Adityanath is a rising star and putative successor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Why would he not come to the babus’ rescue and put down seeming rebellion and defiance by ministers and legislators? Is it because they have powerful backers in Delhi and Adityanath doesn’t want to get sucked into an avoidable war of attrition? Not at this stage.
His detractors may not see it but Adityanath is totally focused on trying to reach the $1 trillion economy goal in UP. When he comes moderately close to it and the trickle-down effect starts showing, it will silence the snipers within and outside his party.
That’s why his government is going out of the way to make a success of the Global Investors’ Summit slated next month. Adityanath was reportedly planning to visit London, New York, Chicago and San Francisco to interact with prospective investors. There were plans for roadshows. If PM Modi’s show at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 was a stepping stone to his Vishwaguru image, CM Adityanath’s receptions in different cities abroad would have taken him into a different league. But Adityanath didn’t go. He sent his ministers instead. If one were to believe sources in the BJP, his planned Europe and US visits didn’t get clearance from Delhi.
Adityanath will be attending the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week. He will get to interact with global investors. But it won’t be the same as holding roadshows or addressing Indian diaspora in London, New York and other cities. In Davos, there will also be four Union ministers, two other chief ministers—Eknath Shinde and Basavaraj Bommai—and Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Meanwhile, as his detractors plan more distractions for him, Adityanath may want to switch from Shamshad Begum to Kumar Sanu: Kuchh na kaho, kuchh bhi na kaho. kya kehna hai, kya sunana hai/ mujhko pataa hai, tumko pataa hai.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)