The suspension of senior IPS officer A B Venkateswara Rao from services pending enquiry in Andhra Pradesh is now a hot topic.
The State government had placed him under suspension for his role in purchasing some equipment for the police department and it is alleged that the officer floated the norms and awarded the contract to the firm headed by his son.
The charges are to stand scrutiny of the law of the land – both the courts and the tribunal. This might take some years to prove the officer guilty or the government wrong. But, this becomes a black spot in the career of this bureaucrat.
Venkateswara Rao is not the first officer to face such charges by the successive governments in AP or other states. There were many such officers in the past and there would be many in the years to come.
This is because, for reasons known to them, some bureaucrats fail to keep in mind that the leaders elected or the party that forms the government, is only for five years, while they have three decades of service.
Some bureaucrats, surprisingly and shockingly, try to be more loyal to the leaders than the political loyalists of the leader.
The bureaucrats forget that there is a thin line between the system that they represent (executive) and the system that the leader represents (legislature).
While bureaucracy is permanent and continuous, the legislature is time bound and changes or returns for every five years.
The bureaucrats have to work with the elected leaders assisting them in administration, but not cross the line and be their political loyalists for any reason and for any benefit.
This loyalty, crossing the border line, costs them dearly and we have seen several such incidents in the past.
It is time, the bureaucrats learn lessons and limit their association with the leaders within the boundaries of the executive and be fully aware of the term of the legislature.