Dear
friends and comrades,
With today’s UGADHI starts the
celebration of the New Year as per the Indian Calendar in most parts of our Country. In various regions it is known by different
names. But the spirit of welcoming a new
year remains.
The month of Ramzan has also
started. That is also a new event just
as the Easter that has just gone by. All
these are in a way ushering in a new year.
WE WISH EACH AND EVERY ONE OF OUR
MEMBERS AND THEIR FAMILIES A VERY HAPPY HEALTHY PEACEFUL AND PROSPEROUS NEW
YEAR AHEAD.
Everything new is welcomed with
enthusiasm just like we invite into the world every new born baby or a flower
from a bud. The belief that a New Year
will on its own give us fortunes is also only a childlike belief. Once the belief is put to test by means of
the events of the past year or of our lives so far, we will find that the
events in our life are the ones that merit our attention. Time gains importance when associated with
those events. When it is true of the
past, for the future, time gains importance because, our efforts when done with
regard to the right time or when restrained when the time is not ripe, matters
a lot in achieving our goals.
Arnold Toynbee in his ‘A study of
History’ reveals a great secret about the cause of survival or perishing of
civilisations. He underlines the
importance of ‘Challenge and Response’ and concludes to say that whichever
civilisation was able to rise up to the challenges in right measure, survived
and whichever civilisation either over-reacted or under-played the challenge,
perished.
The above theory holds good for any
society, nation, group or class of individuals, family and individuals
themselves.
As far as our cadre and its
organisations, (Inspector or Supdt) our history is that we have failed to take
note of the challenges posed. We ignored
them and followed a path of self-indulgence at the cost of denial. The meagre activity in the name of
organisations arose when there were Transfers round the corner and elections
for the posts. Even the elections did
not take place in all regions in a timely manner. Our cadre organisations have played second
fiddle to the administration instead of standing on an equal footing and putting
across the views of the cadre for the proper administration. The system of checks and balances envisaged
after Independence was in fact meant to make the representatives of the cadre a
part of the process of administration by advising them on matters concerning the
service conditions of the cadre. But the
administrators wanted and leadership of the organisations condescended to being
just seekers of welfare of the cadre.
This concept of seeking welfare became narrow in many cases and got confined
to lesser and lesser numbers over a period of time. This enabled to create entrenched vested
interests in several pockets.
At an All India Level, even today we
have failed to identify ourselves as a cadre.
We primarily identify ourselves as regions. Hence the regional interests
have dominated the affairs of the All India bodies. The All India leadership which was a
convenient alignment of regional forces based on mutual interests ultimately
was not able to take forward the real cadre issues head on. It enabled a situation where even normal
activities of the administration could be permitted to gain an importance of
huge magnitude to be achieved only by the intervention of these leaders. The real fact has been that these leaders made
noises and tried to give an impression that what was normally taking place was
being conducted as per their requirement/demand or request.
The administration in our department
has been behaving all along as if only what they would will could come to
pass. No organisational pressures had
been heard of. No amount of judicial
intervention could help. The
administration has the capacity to elongate proceedings endlessly and beat the
energy out of the litigants. The number
of cases (leading up to the highest Court of the land) on the Group A Recruitment
Rules and how the ratio between the Central Excise and Customs is continued to
be maintained in an openly disproportionate manner is the most classic of all
cases.
When organisations representing the
cadres in different departments were agitating to be heard and taken seriously,
we lost the bus by feeling as an elite class.
The feeling was perpetuated by the administration purposefully (by using
the scintillating ghost called uniform) and to their advantage. Even the other day I was intimated about a
purported post by an esteemed senior officer in our department wherein he had
given a discourse about the difference between unions and Associations and the
difference between their rights. Our
people also thought that all other departments were allowed to have ‘Unions’
and go on strike and that we alone were a different category. That in all other civilian departments also (from
Postal, Income Tax, IA&AD to Railways) it was only the same Service
Association and as per the structure under the same JCM has not yet sunk into
our mind set. Merely that some organisations
may use the name Union does not in any way put them or ourselves on a different
footing. Right to strike is not granted
to any of us. But organisational show of
protest is always a way forward. Every
other organisation has faced several disciplinary proceedings for such
organisational actions. Our sole
instance has been the three day mass casual leave (not even a strike as very
often our Income Tax colleagues indulge in) in 1998 which we still call as a ‘historical
event’. That has been the primary reason
why our cadre is at the bottom of all benefits when compared to other departments.
Immediately our members will compare the
situation with the Customs. That is a
totally different ball game which is hardly organisational as far as parameters
of Service Association and constitutional methods are concerned. Such small pockets of vested interests are
always loved to be created and perpetuated by any intelligent administration.
Thus, our cadre in general, like the
child like belief that the new year will automatically bestow all the good
fortunes, has continued for generations to believe that a Chairman or a Member
(P&V) or one Office Bearer will come and deliver the cadre from all its
ills. But a rational mind will show that
unless the cadre is prepared to see the challenges ahead and prepare to calibrate
its response with the right quantum of energy, there will be hardly any
improvement.
The generation that had been selected
through the All India SSC Exam but through regional selection is at the threshold
of exit in the coming decade. For them
the next Cadre Review is the defining moment.
After that the department will be wholly in the hands of the members
recruited through the same All India Exam but on All India Merit. The issues for both these differ on the
periphery. But substantially it is the
same. The question is whether at least
in the coming days the administration of the CBIC will consider these cadres
who are really contributing in the field as thinking and feeling humans. While those in the higher rungs of the ladder
in the administrative set up can pat their own backs for the ‘achievements’ in surpassing
targets, they have to be made to understand that all this is only because ‘we’ were there to really contribute in the field. Might be they may take pride in projecting that
they could push us into doing it. But
essentially, when there is no potential, pushing around can only be a wasteful
affair creating discomfort to all involved, at the best. And how many are there to push us around? While they know that very well, it is
unfortunately we who have not realised it.
The cadre has been all along
surrendering its collective self-respect by bartering these achievements for
individual recognition, in whatever methods it may be. But unless we come to understand that we are
treated as a different class, that even as a class we deserve to be respected for the
performance of this class, we cannot get our dues.
This realisation may be very late in
our career. But it is still better late
than never. Let us therefore be
conscious of the ‘time’ so that our cadre does not continue to suffer the ignominious
condition in the coming days atleast.
With expectations for a bright future,
Fraternally yours,
R. Manimohan,
Secretary General.
