In this age of soaring corruption, when fingers are being pointed at increasing numbers of our own bureaucrats who have so enthusiastically accepted and obeyed their political masters, the ADC looks back at the men whose names were a by-word for integrity, competence and good governance. Former journalist Dilip Chaware interviewed several retired chief secretaries of Maharashtra for an audio visual he is doing for the state government. This article is based upon observations made upon the late J.B. D’Souza, who died in September 2007, and set the bar very high indeed during his tenure as CS
BUREAUCRATS in Maharashtra are nowadays in the public eye, what with the Adarsh scam and many more such land grab cases. A state once upon a time reputed for its excellent administrative environment, Maharashtra is sliding in almost all spheres of public activity over the years. Part of the blame must be accepted by the bureaucracy. There were days when IAS and IPS officers used to opt as first preference for the Maharashtra cadre. It is no longer the case.
Men of the IAS officers like S.G. Barve are still remembered fondly. When a powerful minister tried to insult Barve at an official meeting, the ICS officer snapped, “Sir, one day, I shall be able to occupy your chair but it will never happen the other way round.” True to his word, Barve was later elected to the legislative assembly and became the finance minister of Maharashtra. He subsequently won the Lok Sabha election by defeating the formidable V.K.Krishna Menon but died in a plane on way to Delhi even before he could take oath as a member.
One of the giants in the line was J.B. D’Souza, who stood up to political bosses fearlessly on many occasions. Officers like him have made Maharashtra what it was. The tribe is vanishing fast.
Some of the experiences narrated by D’Souza for the audio-visual series I did are quite educative for the bureaucracy and students of political science and public administration. Incidentally, he was the first IAS officer to become a chief secretary of Maharashtra. The last ICS chief secretary was D.D. Sathe, who personified probity in administration and did not yield to political pressures. D’Souza was steeped in this tradition. It was mostly owing to D’Souza as Chief Secretary that the rigours of the emergency (1975-77) were softened in Maharashtra since he refused to carry out unjust orders.
A senior minister (whom D’Souza has named in the recording) conveyed to him a message, purportedly from Sanjay Gandhi, that slums in Mumbai (then Bombay) should be removed like the removal of slums from the Turkman Gate area in Delhi. D’Souza said, “I promptly ‘forgot’ the message, but not before appraising chief minister S.B. Chavan.” Fortunately, nothing more came out of it.
Another instance was when D’Souza received complaints that the Chief Executive Officer of a Zilla Parishad had suspended 180 teachers for not achieving vasectomy targets. When D’Souza asked for an explanation, the CEO replied that he had suspended 400 and not just 180. His grouse was that he was implementing the government directives and it was wrong for the chief secretary to interfere. Of course, D’Souza stopped the high-handed action forthwith, reinstated all the teachers and reprimanded the CEO. Chavan backed his action because he was certain that D’Souza would not do anything objectionable. This in spite of the fact that Chavan himself was an Indira loyalist.
D’Souza showed his mettle during the thick of the controversial Backbay Reclamation scheme, under which plots were sold under sea water to big builders at throwaway prices. The first tranche of the plots had already been leased away at Rs.4,400 per sq mt by V.P. Naik, soon after he returned as chief minister following the 1967 assembly election. At the time of awarding the leases for the second tranche, D’Souza was in the picture as urban development secretary. He remarked on the file that the lease rent should be increased to Rs.5,400 per sq mt owing to the annual 10 per cent inflation.
Even before the file had reached finance secretary P.D. Kasbekar’s cabin, revenue minister Haribhau Vartak summoned D’Souza to his office where there were seated many big builders. Vartak asked D’Souza to reconsider but he refused. Kasbekar, too, stood firm and backed D’Souza. The matter went to Naik but the officers refused to budge. When Naik signed the file and fixed the rate at Rs.4,400, D’Souza alerted Piloo Mody, MP, about the possible loss to the exchequer. In turn, the matter was referred to architect Shirish Patel and socialist leaders Mrinal Gore and Baburao Samant. The trio moved the high court against the government and finally, the price was fixed at Rs.7,400 per sq mt.
The most illustrative incident from D’Souza’s treasure of recollections was how he foiled a BEST strike, called by firebrand George Fernandes in 1969. Recently elected to the Lok Sabha by decimating the formidable S.K. Patil in the 1967 general elections, George was at the prime of his reign as a labour leader. Leaders like Y.B. Chavan and V.P. Naik were in awe of him and invariably gave in to his demands. “Sometimes, George got more than what he had demanded,” D’Souza reminisced in his typical tongue in cheek style.
The strike was called on January 29, 1969. D’Souza wanted to handle it in his own way. So he requested Chavan to bypass Mumbai and fly directly to Delhi from Pune so that there would not be any political interference. George was banking upon Chavan’s intervention. But he was frustrated when Chavan heeded D’Souza’s advice. Naik, too, was at a loss without Chavan’s presence.
Next, D’Souza used the English and Marathi media to highlight how the BEST workers were pampered with hefty salaries and incentives. The government shut its doors to the negotiations.
D’Souza had played a smart trick. Since the strike had been called at the end of the month, salaries of the BEST workers were withheld and the ration shops run by the BEST were shut down. Mumbai’s mayor was Leon D’Souza, who tried to intervene but to no avail. “It was playing one D’Souza against another,” J.B. said with a chuckle. Of course, neither he nor the government relented.
The workers were so demoralised that George was compelled on February 9 to call off the unilateral strike. “I used the politicians and the media and the trick worked,” D’Souza said. George’s clout began diminishing and he lost the 1971 Lok Sabha election and soon shifted base to Bihar.
“I don’t say it was because of me but surely, it was a beginning,” D’Souza explained.