End This Obsequious Protocol Now!

Moneylife Digital Team 17 October 2017

Public Interest

A few years ago, the head of a leading public sector bank startled us with this admission: ‘We may not have a good salary and perks but the one thing you have in plenty in a public sector undertaking (PSU) is staff—there are always dozens of people around you.’ One of the things these hangers-on do is to suck up to the bosses. It is a standard protocol for a group of seniors to drop all work and land up at airports to receive and send-off their bosses. This obsequiousness is unavoidable for

those who want promotions; heads of State-owned institutions, who have gone up the ladder doing exactly this, are unwilling to put an end to this colossal wastage of valuable time.

And so it was that a bunch of top railway officials landed up at the Mumbai airport to receive Ashwini Lohani, chairman of the Railway Board, after 23 people had been crushed to death at Elphinstone Road Station in Mumbai because of their criminal negligence in providing basic infrastructure.

Fortunately, this story has a positive twist. Mr Lohani had made it clear that he should not be received at the airport. Clearly, the ‘senior official and heads of departments’, who turned up, believed it was a display of fake modesty. But Mr Lohani blasted the officials for their red-tape and ‘babu culture’, reports media. He asked his staff to give him an entire list of officers who had received him and promised action against them. Mr Lohani told the media that he had ‘finished the protocol culture at Air India’ and will ensure that it is ended in the railways too.

Mr Lohani needs a big ovation for this move. Even if he achieves nothing else at the railways, ending this dubious protocol alone with mean saving thousands of man-hours of senior management time which should have been employed in ensuring that critical safety-related work is done. We now need to urge the prime minister to take note of this and end this culture across PSUs as well as the mindless protocol attached to 20-odd parliamentary committees that are waited upon by senior management of PSUs.

Comments

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Ramesh I

9 years ago

This is a welcome move and should be adopted by all top bureaucrats and also Ministers. Sadly, even after its so-called 'freedom' in 1947, PM Nehru adopted the very same bureacracy which the British used to oppress native Indians. It was evident even back then that the British era civil service was designed to RULE over Indians, not to SERVE Indians. Yet, neither in his 17 year long tenure as PM, nor his celebrated dynasty, including Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi bothered to review and overhaul the British era systems and practices. So much so that even 70 years after India's so-called 'freedom' majority of the laws in effect were enacted during the British era. I single out the Nehru clan simply because they alone have enjoyed absolute majority in parliament, to bring about radical reforms and legislations overhauling British legacies in administration & legal systems. I hope the present Narendra Modi Govt will identify all such practices (and laws) and discontinue them, to make our public administration lean and efficient, instead of bloated and corrupt to the core.

Sairam Maganty

9 years ago

The information is very lmportant in the public interest. If only if everyone in positions practice, the culture of working will become better.

Dharam Singh

9 years ago

This is all along the hierarchy and not just top management. This is what we Indians have converted our culture into. This has to be changed at grassroots school and college level. Society has to take this initiative to condemn such cultural abberation. A person must be known by his work and not his ability to lick the boots of his seniors.

A BANERJEE

9 years ago

Why, does anyone think that the poor (and corrupt) bureaucrats are free from this disease?

Gopalakrishnan T V

9 years ago

These things do happen in almost all Institutions and no one cares on the loss of manpower and wastage of money to attend to obsequious protocol and other miscellaneous duties related to. Every body meeting and every visit of Board Members involves protocol duties for lower level staff and the expenditures incurred to take care of the events have no limit. The visits of MPS and various committees headed by them are to be treated as Festival events and are chances to spend and make money. The useful of meetings, visits are seldom analysed and evaluated. The minutes prepared after meetings are not even read and action taken report if any required are not even insisted upon or followed up. There are generally blanket sanctions for expenditures of such periodical meetings , visits and protocol duties and no questions can be asked or entertained is the ground reality. the need for periodical visits and meetings these days in the presence of advanced technology available for video Conferences etc is questionable and definitely avoidable. Even the meetings are held at some places of tourists interests explicitly indicating the objective of meeting is to have some pleasure for all at the Institution's cost. Time such extravaganza is avoided at tax payers cost.

t j ethiraj

9 years ago

This protocall of receiving and seeing off must be stopped for all public servants all over India.Even president and prime minister should not be an exception.Several lakhs worth of petroleum products will be saved