The Election Commission of India issued a notice saying that the activities showcasing the achievements of the last nine years, by the District Rath Prabharis, should not be undertaken in the five states where the Model Code of Conduct is in force, until December 5, for the Assembly Elections.
Who are Rath Prabharis/Nodal Officers?
Rath Prabharis are Joint Secretaries/Directors/Deputy Directors of the Government of India who will coordinate the preparations, planning, execution and monitoring of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra- an event that is going to be organised across the Country for disseminating information, awareness and extending services at Gram Panchayat level from 20thNovember 2023 to 25th January 2024 and also to showcase/celebrate achievements of the last 9 years of Government of India.
The government too announced that Rath Prabharis will be called as Nodal Officers instead.
What is the issue and why is it an Issue?
Before the Election Commission notice, among other things, it was the lament of many that government officers and machinery are being used to influence votes by making them responsible for celebration of government’s achievements. This would have violated the Model Code of Conduct in the states elections are scheduled to be held. Former Secretary to the Union Government E.A.S. Sarma wrote twice to the ECI flagging the Union Government’s move. He has also written a letter to the Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba flagging the half-measure announcements and notice by the ECI.
Now that the question of yatra being held in poll bound states is solved, there is a more prominent question that needs to be addressed. Should Civil Service officers be used for political purposes by the establishment?
What is the issue with the government trying to showcase its achievements?
At the outset, there is nothing wrong with the government wanting to showcase its achievements at grassroots level or with want its workforce i.e., bureaucracy to establish a connection with the grassroots.
One must however remember that bureaucracy represents State Machinery and using state machinery in electoral processes had cost former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi her election. Therefore, there is a fine line as to when the civil service officers cannot be used for showcasing achievements. One might ask as to why is it an issue when the Yatra is being done in non-election times?
Prima Facie, it is important to make sure electoral processes are not unduly influenced and in the age of rampant usage of social media, it is important that there are no unfair uses of government machinery to influence the state elections. How can the ECI or anyone make sure that Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’s content on social and electronic media is not shown in the states where elections are being held? This, coupled with the fact that the content on social media could be posted by none other than the Prime Minister or other government accounts which cannot be traced back to a single political party makes it impossible for the content to be regulated. When its content cannot be regulated, can it not wait until the elections are over?
On a more magnified scale, it is also important to understand how politicised we want our bureaucracy to be. Here, the Civil Servants do not belong to the NDA or the UPA. They owe their allegiance to the Constitution of India. Therefore, to have them showcase a few years of government achievements in a nation-wide program would be equal to confining them to a party.
More importantly, the work of Civil Servants would be to make sure that the schemes have reached the masses. If there was a nation-wide yatra only to make sure every beneficiary gets the benefits of every scheme they are eligible for, and for that if bureaucrats had to be deployed, that would not have been an issue.
Here, the achievements of a particular government will be celebrated too, according to the Circular. This means that there will be more than just making schemes available to beneficiaries.
Although some or the other type of politics creeps into the transfer, appointment etc of civil servants, it is necessary that they are not used for political purposes, and especially for government campaigning. That would mean that one party in power can use a force that is supposed to be neutral for its own benefits, thus making it unfair for the other parties who would not have such resources at hand. The irony of the BJP led government issuing this circular when the BJP is dubbed as an organisational behemoth which does not need anyone for its wins in elections, should also not go unnoticed.
(The author is a legal researcher with the organisation)
Related:
Modi Govt backs down from dubbing IAS Officers ‘Rath Prabharis’, EC notice follows