The Hindu Business Line : Dismissed TN govt employees

ALMOST everyone was taken aback that the Madras High Court did not come to the rescue of the dismissed employees of the Tamil Nadu Government, beyond the release of the nearly 2,200 arrested employees and directing them to approach either the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal or appeal before the appropriate authority (the State Government).

The employees — ranging from 1.6 lakh to 3.6 lakh, depending on whether the figures are of the State Government's or the employees' representative associations/unions' — had sought, through a batch of 11 writ petitions, a direction to the State Government to reinstate the dismissed employees and address the root cause of the strike through negotiations. The petitions also challenged the validity of the Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act of September 1992 and the subsequent Ordinance issued by the Tamil Nadu Government last fortnight. This Ordinance arms the Government with powers to dismiss striking or agitating employees without giving them any notice or hearing.

But the Bench found the petitions not maintainable, and ruled that under the Tamil Nadu ESMA and the subsequent Ordinance, the employees could either approach the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal or appeal before the appropriate authority.

As the petitioners' advocates pointed to the court, at the moment this Tribunal has only one member. How could he take up appeals from at least 1.6 lakh employees, and how long would it take for them to get relief? To this, the judges had this response to make: Just because the Forum has only one member "its very existence could not be ignored."

Directing the State Government to release the arrested employees, the court observed: "This court is not only a court of law but of justice too, and a court of justice does not mean anything if it is not tempered with mercy. For this reason we dispense with the formality of filing bail petitions and direct the respective jail authorities to forthwith release all the arrested persons who are in judicial custody."

The shocked government employees, who had gathered in the High Court complex in their thousands, had to turn back virtually empty handed. Of course, they got support from the Central trade unions, the Left parties and their supporters and the Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu, particularly the DMK. The DMK president, Mr M. Karunanidhi, had, even before the High Court judgment came, written to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal BihariVajpayee, seeking his intervention in this manner, though it is still to come.

Subsequently, the agitation was called off but there has been no softening in the stance of the Tamil Nadu Government. The Tamil Nadu Government has been criticised by all and sundry, and rightly so, for dismissing the striking employees, en masse. But the question is how come ordinary people are not really agitated and have felt no compulsion to come out in support of the employees? After all, the human dimension of the move — which will see at least a couple of lakh of families virtually without any means to manage their day-to day needs — is gigantic.

But even as we say that lakhs of people might end up on the roads — though not literally — is there not a nagging doubt at the back of our minds? The question that refuses to go away pertains to the rent-seeking behaviour of at least a segment of government servants. At some time or the other, all of us have had to pay more than the stipulated fee for a government service.

Even if you cared not for the few hundred or thousand rupees spent for government service, you certainly would about the sarkari daftar treatment. Irrespective of the part of the country you are in or the place you just have to mention the rudeness and indifference of the babu (no gender slur intended here, as female government employees are hardly the epitome of either courtesy or efficiency) and you will get an interesting story.

I got one from my colleague this morning. His relative needed a document signed by a gazetted officer a couple of weeks ago. He had to wait for four hours to get that signature. Next came the government seal or stamp on the document. At first he was told that as the head clerk was on leave and the drawer locked, this could not be done. When the gentleman questioned that surely the seal/stamp is required for innumerable purposes in the course of the day and there should be an extra key, an inquiry was conducted into the matter. The answer he got was that there were two extra keys, but neither could be located. He got his document stamped only after yet another visit to the office the next day.

While the lakhs of government employees who have got the stick from the Tamil Nadu Government deserve all sympathies for the hardship they face, they would also do well to use this opportunity to do some introspection on the arrogance, rudeness, indifference, sloth and inefficiency that most citizens encounter in a government office. They hold jobs that give them decent salaries. Most are in positions or possess skills that are neither irreplaceable nor indispensable.

This is hardly the time one would want to rub salt into their wounds by quoting statistics on the number of people who live below the poverty line, those without any job, and so on. There seems little doubt that the dismissed employees will be reinstated, later if not sooner than later, but the leadership at various levels needs to ask why not many tears have been shed for them by the people. Why are the letters columns in publications not overflowing with words of sympathy, succour and protest against the Tamil Nadu Government?

Having suffered such gross humiliation themselves in the last week, will the government servants become sensitive, at least now, to the kind of humiliation meted out to people who come to them on work?

(Response can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)

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