Roxna Swamy, who probably boasts of an even
better academic record than her Harvard-educated husband, Subramanian Swamy,
recalled in an e-mail that "in the early 50s an American journalist
interviewing Nehru expressed a desire to see the floods in Bihar from the air.
Nehru, always with a glad eye for a comely white woman, assured her he would
make her wish come true.
"Accordingly, he ordered the Defence
Ministry to make a plane available to the lady. The file came to my father, a
joint secretary, with a proper respect for the nation's property... A stickler
for rules, my father turned down the oral requirement of the PM. An indignant
Nehru hauled up my father's superior, H.M. Patel, and demanded to know who had
the temerity to disobey him. He ordered the errant officer to be hauled up
before him... My father presented himself before Nehru, who gave him a long
lecture on India and freedom and the need for sacrifice for the country and
demanded that my father sign the requisition.
"'Give to me in writing', said my
father. Whereupon Nehru treated him to further abuse of which the least
offensive was that he was 'a hidebound bureaucrat'. More abuse followed but
Nehru did not give the requisition in writing. The American lady was
disappointed... My father was sent to the boondocks with a reputation for being
difficult..."Her father, the late J.D. Kapadia, was an ICS officer, who
had served as the collector of Mumbai and Ahmedabad in the 1950s. Though
senior-most, he was denied the post of Chief Secretary of the newly-created
state of Gujarat because of his deserved reputation for being a stickler for
rules. He took premature retirement and pursued his academic interests till his
death.
However, the moral of the story his daughter
was keen to convey is simple. These days when asked to bend, bureaucrats begin
to crawl. All for private gains. This should stop if the quality of governance
is to improve.
If we do our duty honestly like Salman khan’s
body guard who till his last breath confirmed that Salman was driving the car
and he was drunk. He realized that duty of his job is to protect his employer
from outside attack but not to shield him if he does a crime. The world needs
more such persons.
