Random Thoughts on the Puja Khedkar Issue, Civil Service Conundrum, Society and State

The trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar's case has brought in too many questions to the surface for the state and society to ponder over. The alleged notorious discrepancies, impropriety and misconduct on the part of the probationer in question must jolt us from within. It is also important to note that our collective societal efforts only will pave the ways for cleaning the rot. Like many other cases, the Puja Khedkar case too might have been swept under the rug had it not been for the media and civil society's collective efforts to keep the issue boiling. The social media too has played significant role in bringing the alleged notoriety to the public glare thereby invoking the anger and resentment against such misdeeds.

In my opinion, this issue also hints at the fault lines in our social consciousness. I wonder, why should the jobs in the civil services occupy such a high prestige and hype? The answer to that, in my opinion, is we have attached so much of importance to them. Why? Because there is power, public glare and a lot of money earned by using corrupt and deceitful practices. A lot of individuals in the public services are not at all happy with the salary that they draw for the jobs they do. In fact, they are constantly finding out ways to mint more money by indulging in all kinds of wrongdoings. 

There is then a broader question. Can individuals alone be held responsible for such degeneration? No, society equally is responsible for falling moral standards of our times. We revere heroes like Bhagat Singh and organize all sorts of drama on their birth and death anniversaries. But do we at all learn any lesson from the sacrifices they made for us? We want Bhagat Singhs but not in our homes. We want them to be born in someone else' place. Our wretchedness can be gauged in the fact that we become all happy when our family members earn huge money deceiving or harassing others who are in desperate situations.

Even a sacred institution like marriage is not untouched by this. The prospective groom who earns more money through corrupt means has a higher value and preferred more by the bride's side. In fact, the bride's side especially asks whether the boy to be married to their daughter earns anything over and above his salary or not. It is not possible for those who do small jobs to earn this kind of illicit money. But officers working in the central and state services have all wherewithal, power and connections. Not all but some rotten lot uses these means unscrupulously to fill their coffers. In certain parts of India these civil servants get huge money and other gifts in marriage as dowry. In fact, their family members insist on these demands from bride's family. 

The name and fame attached to these services is another allure when it comes to these services. Most of us on social media must have seen a young officer with cameraman filming his stunts or scolding his subordinates in the public. The young and impressionable minds watch this kind of undesirable public show and aspire to be somebody like the one in question. Then there is a coaching class industry that uses every kind of trick to seduce the naive young civil service aspirants. The industry makes them believe that everyone who joins a particular coaching class can crack the tough exam. A lot of bright youth then abdicate their steady career and spend years and years preparing for these civil services. Obviously, there are limited number of vacancies in the central and state civil services. Not every aspirant would be accommodated is the fact.

Approximately 13 lakh candidates appeared for the 2023 UPSC prelims with 1105 final vacancies. The same situation persists when it comes to most of the state civil services examinations also. Now the question is - where will the other aspirants go? Furthermore, since some of them have prepared for more than six years, they would not be considered in the fields which they were trained for. Now, imagine a situation in which a long standing civil service aspirant gets to work in the second or the third class service. Would he/she ever be happy in his/her life or would he/she ever do justice to the job? Therefore, I am of the opinion that the age limit for the civil services must be reduced substantially, say for example 25 years should be for the General Category, 27 years for OBC Non-Creamy Layer and 29 years for ST/SC candidates. It would help them plan alternative careers if not succeeded, as they are still young and can rebuild their lives. If an individual remains unsuccessful in the civil services after having prepared for 35 or 37 years, by the end of it all the person is all lost and broken. I personally know many such cases.

We also need to raise the questions on the selection process of candidates and their training in the institutes like Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and many others. What kind of training is imparted to the trainee officers who do not come out with certain sense of moral values and sense of responsibility? This question is pertinent as the trainee officer, Puja Khedkar, has allegedly demanded separate office and official car along with the unauthorized use of a beacon on her private Audi car. How could she still be inducted in the service despite she had skipped multiple appointments in Delhi for medical check-up to verify her disability certificate and then submitted a report from a private facility?

Furthermore, it is alleged that she did not fall under the OBC non-creamy layer as her father Dilip Khedkar, a former civil servant, had assets worth ₹ 40 crore. How could she acquire a fake certificate to fit in PwBD criterion when she doesn’t fall in the required disability parameters? Who issued these certificates to her? These are some of the hard-hitting questions we need to raise. Therefore, not only Puja Khdedkar but the ones who issued such fake certificates must also be taken to task.  There is also an ample space to believe that this must not be an isolated case. There must have been many other fraudsters to have escaped such public scrutiny.  We must address these lacunae in the system sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, the central and state legislative organs must develop a mechanism in which the income of households get properly measured. Otherwise, the non-deserving candidates will play with the system and usurp in the OBC non-creamy layer or EWS benefits depriving the deserving individuals. There is no space for the ones working in the organized sector to hide their income but business owners usually do that. Then they indulge in such forgery and also evade taxes on a huge scale. The civil services are also like any other public services and we need not attach unnecessary hype or fame to them. Public servants must be made accountable to people. They must be prevented from making public spectacle in a bid to grab attention in the print, electronic or social media.