Public servants and constitutional obligations 

Under the Indian Constitution, IAS officers are bound by principles of secularism and non-discriminatory governance. Articles 25-28 of the Constitution establish the framework of religious freedom, explicitly prohibiting the state from promoting or endorsing any particular faith. Additionally, the All-India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, specifically Rule 5(1), mandate that civil servants must maintain political and religious neutrality in official functions and refrain from activities that could be construed as aligning with any religious ideology. The question arises: Does this visit align with these constitutional mandates, or does it indicate a shift towards a religiously aligned bureaucracy?

Religious bureaucracy: A growing trend? 

1. Babri masjid demolition and civil servants’ involvement

This is not the first time such an event has occurred. Since the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, there has been a visible shift in the engagement of public servants in religious affairs. A senior IAS officer from the 1992 batch recently admitted to celebrating the Babri Masjid demolition while undergoing training in Mussoorie. In her social media post, she justified the act, calling it a moment of “something powerful, something positive, something auspicious.” The revelation underscores a troubling history of bias within the bureaucracy and the risks of a majoritarian outlook creeping into civil services.

2. Lifting of the ban on civil servants in RSS

In 2023, the Central Government revoked a 58-year-old ban on civil servants participating in RSS activities, further eroding the secular principles of governance. Critics argue that the RSS ideology conflicts with constitutional morality, which emphasizes pluralism and inclusivity. This move has sparked significant debate on whether civil servants can maintain impartiality while being affiliated with an organization that has strong ideological leanings. The decision raises concerns about the politicization of the bureaucracy and its impact on the neutrality of administrative functions.

3. The Kerala WhatsApp group controversy

The Kerala government recently suspended two IAS officers, K. Gopalakrishnan and N. Prasanth, for misconduct related to a religion-based WhatsApp group. Gopalakrishnan allegedly created the group, named “Mallu Hindu Officers,” which included only Hindu officers, prompting objections for violating secular values. Following widespread criticism, the group was deleted, and Gopalakrishnan claimed his phone was hacked. Intelligence agencies raised concerns over this first instance of a religiously exclusive group among IAS officials. This incident follows another controversy involving IPS officer M.R. Ajith Kumar, who faced scrutiny for meeting RSS leaders without government approval. The Kerala government swiftly suspended the officers, reinforcing the principle that religion should not influence administrative duties.

4. The Tamil Nadu preaching controversy

Tamil Nadu IAS officer C. Umashankar, a 1990 batch officer, was prohibited by the state government from engaging in religious preaching. A Dalit Christian convert, he had been leading evangelical sessions, arguing that his fundamental rights under Article 25 of the Constitution allowed him to propagate his faith. The Tamil Nadu government, however, warned that this violated the All-India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, which require civil servants to remain neutral in religious matters. Former Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Subramanian commented that civil servants cannot publicly profess religion and must either resign or abide by service rules.

Impact on governance and public perception 

The IAS probationers’ visit and other recent developments have broader implications for secular and non-discriminatory governance. If civil servants are trained in the management of Hindu temples, should similar training be extended to mosques, churches, and gurdwaras? These incidents raise concerns over bureaucratic alignment with religious institutions. The increasing alignment of bureaucracy with religious groups erodes constitutional democracy, which is based on pluralism and separation of powers. Minority communities may perceive bias in governance, weakening trust in an impartial administration.

The way forward 

While public servants must understand diverse cultural and religious contexts, their training and conduct should be neutral and inclusive, covering all major religious institutions. They must avoid direct participation in religious rituals and focus on administrative management rather than religious engagement. Adhering to strict secular principles is essential to prevent the politicisation of the bureaucracy. With secularism as a basic feature of the Constitution, ensuring that public servants uphold neutrality is crucial.

These recent developments, from WhatsApp group exclusivity to bureaucratic celebrations of Babri demolition and participation in religious management, raise critical questions on the evolving relationship between state and religion—questions that India must address to remain true to its constitutional ethos.

Related:

When the Supreme Court Firmly De-linked Religion from Politics

Behind the BJP’s move to lift the 58-year-old ban on the participation of central government officials in RSS activities

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New Delhi: In April this year, Shah Faesal, a J&K bureaucrat, tweeted about the components that make a rape republic. He wrote, “Patriarchy + Population + Illiteracy + Alcohol + Porn + Technology + Anarchy = Rapistan!” to describe the rape culture in South Asian countries. He recently received a show cause notice by the central government that ordered disciplinary action against him as the “Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training saw it as his failure to maintain absolute honesty and integrity in discharge of duties.”
 
Faesal, 35, is the only IAS officer from Jammu and Kashmir to have ever topped the civil services exam. He is the former Managing Director of J&K State Power Development Corporation. The 2011 batch officer has inspired many others to join the civil services and is currently an Edward S Mason Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School on study leave.

It seems that the bureaucracy has gone into an overdrive as observed by Faesal himself. “Faesal said the action was “bureaucratic over-enthusiasm”. “I don’t think this warrants any action. Rape is not part of government policy that criticism of rape would mean criticism of government policy and invite action,” he told Indian Express.
 
On Tuesday, he posted an image of the letter he received by email with a message that read, “Love letter from my boss for my sarcastic tweet against rape-culture in South Asia. The Irony here is that service rules with a colonial spirit are invoked in a democratic India to stifle the freedom of conscience. I’m sharing this to underscore the need for a rule change.”
 
Former CM of J&K Omar Abdullah defended Faesal. “Looks like DOPT is determined to chase @shahfaesal out of the civil services. The last line of this page is shocking & unacceptable where they question Faesal’s “integrity & honesty”. How is a sarcastic tweet dishonest? How does it make him corrupt?” he tweeted.

 
Not an isolated incident
In 2016, the Centre banned civil servants, officials and bureaucrats from criticizing the government on social media.
 
“Faesal, however, is not the first bureaucrat to face disciplinary action by the Centre. A senior Madhya Pradesh bureaucrat Ajay Singh Gangwar was asked to explain his “purported” Facebook post calling for a people’s revolution (jan kranti) against Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” reported Firstpost.
 
“Gangwar, who was Barwani collector, was transferred to the secretariat in Bhopal by the BJP’s Madhya Pradesh government. “The state government has transferred Barwani Collector Gangwar as Deputy Secretary in the Mantralaya in Bhopal,” a state Public Relation department official had said. In the Facebook post written in Hindi, Gangwar wrote: “Let me know the mistakes that Nehru should not have committed… Is it his mistake that he prevented all of us from becoming Hindu Talibani Rashtra in 1947? Is it his mistake to open IIT, ISRO, BARC, IISB, IIM, BHEL steel plant, dams, thermal power? Is it his mistake that he honoured Sarabhai, Homi Jehangir in place of intellectuals like Asaram and Ramdev?” the report added.
 

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We are a group of retired officers of All India and Central services of different batches, who have worked with the Central and state governments in the course of our careers. We should make it clear that as a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but believe in the credo of impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian constitution. A sense of deep disquiet at what has been happening in India has prompted us to write this open letter to chronicle our reservations and misgivings about recent developments in the body politic. What has gone wrong?

It appears as if there is a growing climate of religious intolerance that is aimed primarily at Muslims. In Uttar Pradesh, in the run-up to the elections, an odious and frankly communal comparison was made between the relative number of burial grounds and cremation grounds. The question was also asked as to whether electricity was being supplied equally to different communities during their religious festivals. All this without any basis in fact or evidence. The banning of slaughter-houses targets the minorities and affects their livelihoods as well. Such intolerance breeds violence in a communally charged atmosphere – even to the extent of a local leader in UP provoking an attack upon the residence of a superintendent of police, whose family was terrorised.

Vigilantism has become widespread. An Akhlaq is killed on the basis of a suspicion that the meat he has is beef and a Pehlu Khan is lynched while transporting to his place two cows he had bought and for which he had the necessary papers. Nomadic shepherds are attacked in Jammu and Kashmir on some suspicion as they practice their age-old occupation of moving from one place to another along with their cattle and belongings.

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On Dussehra day, which fell on October 2 this year, the Dalits of India celebrated a great occasion. It was the golden jubilee of Dr BR Ambedkar’s Dhamma Deeksha (conversion to Buddhism). On the same Dussehra day in 1956, 15 lakh Dalits embraced Buddhism along with Ambedkar in Nagpur. The occasion was of such importance that Dalits who had embraced Buddhism arrived in lakhs, coming to Nagpur from all over the country as the jubilee neared. An estimated 16 to 20 lakh people thronged the streets of Nagpur and converged at Deeksha Bhoomi, the memorial constructed to mark Ambedkar’s great conversion.
 

A two-day World Buddhist Convention was organised as part of celebrations in the city along with scores of other programmes beginning several days prior to the actual celebration. The convention, which was organised mainly by a Dalit diaspora organisation, Ambedkar International Mission, included participants from 22 countries and comprised western scholars and experts apart from the monkhood from various countries.
 

In September 2006 the Western Buddhist Order, Birmingham, UK, held a Conference in London on "50 Years of Dhamma Revolution" and later organised an international meet at Nagpur as part of the weeklong celebrations in October.
 

One mammoth celebration was the "Dhamma Deeksha Suvarna Mahotsav" held by the Deeksha Bhoomi Committee of Nagpur at Deeksha Bhoomi, the site where Dr BR Ambedkar embraced Buddhism. The stupa at Deeksha Bhoomi, which was constructed as a memorial to the event, contains Dr Ambedkar’s ashes. Lakhs of Dalit Buddhists who arrived from all over India visited the stupa for a glimpse of the casket in which his ashes lie.
 

As Dalit Buddhists arrived two days in advance, Nagpur city surged with a sea of humanity paying tribute and in reverence to both Ambedkar and Buddha.
 

Even as all this was happening in Nagpur, there was no trace or news of these events in the electronic media, which normally scours the streets for news. The only cameraman present at the site belonged to a local city cable network that was covering the October 2 evening Suvarna Mahotsav live. Why did the Indian electronic media ignore this event and reduce it to a local event fit only for a local cable network?
 

Interestingly, in an October 2005 issue of The Times of India with writer Vikram Seth as its special guest editor the paper had predicted in its headlines that the golden jubilee of Dr Ambedkar’s Dhamma Deeksha would be celebrated as a big event in 2006. Unfortunately, the Indian media turned a blind eye to the celebrations in Nagpur, a central Indian city considered the second capital of Maharashtra. If such an event had taken place in Mumbai, would the media have covered it? Just as rainfall in Mumbai or Delhi or Kolkata makes news?
 

Although Dr BR Ambedkar finally decided to embrace Buddhism in 1956, he had in fact already made his famous announcement at the Yeola Conference as early as 1935: "Unfortunately for me I was born a Hindu Untouchable. It was beyond my power to prevent that but I declare that it is within my power to refuse to live under ignoble and humiliating conditions. I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu."

Appropriating democratic terminology such as ‘we the people’, the media in fact treats Dalits as ‘who the people?’. Ignorance cannot be an acceptable excuse where such selective coverage of India and the Indian people is both misleading and dangerous

Dr Ambedkar eventually embraced Buddhism in Nagpur on Dussehra day in 1956, which fell on October 14 that year, and kept his promise made at the Yeola Conference in 1935. An interesting and little known fact is that the place initially chosen for the ceremony of Ambedkar’s conversion was Bombay (Mumbai). It was at the insistence of people from the Nagpur region that Dr Ambedkar shifted the venue of his deeksha to Nagpur. Later that year, on October 16 he converted another four lakh people to Buddhism at Chandrapur in Maharashtra. Even Chandrapur celebrated the event this year with a congregation of six lakhs gathering there on October 16. As usual the event went unreported. If Nagpur was too remote for the media gaze, Chandrapur was no doubt as remote as the Amazonian jungles!
 

Now, if Mumbai had been the venue for the conversion in 1956 and if the celebration were to be held in Mumbai, would the media have covered the event any more responsibly? This seems unlikely. About five lakh Dalits congregate at Chaitya Bhoomi, the site of Dr BR Ambedkar’s cremation at Dadar in Mumbai on December 6 every year, in much the same way that lakhs throng Nagpur to commemorate the deeksha event. Mumbai roads get blocked in early December every year with Dalits arriving days in advance to catch a glimpse of Dr Ambedkar’s ashes again at the city site. So far in all these years the lakhs of Dalits surging into Mumbai seem to have made no news. Since Dr Ambedkar attained mahaparinibban (death) in 1956, the year 2006 would mark 50 years of Dr Ambedkar’s mahaparinibban i.e. it would be his 50th death anniversary. The crowds are likely to be several times larger than the normal five lakhs that gather in Mumbai on that day. One can only wait and see whether this Mumbai event makes it to the news channels or not.
 

In an age where multiple channels vie for news, Nagpur did not figure as a newsworthy event. Even the annual Mumbai event of December 6, Dr Ambedkar’s Mahaparinibban day, has not been reported in all these years. What can one deduce from this? The media suffers from ignorance if not outright casteist sentiments.
 

Another event that also fell on October 2 this year was Dussehra, for which live television coverage of the Puja (read Pujo) pandals at Chittaranjan Park, in Delhi, in Kolkata, continued over days with glamorous anchor girls relaying events. News channels vied for live coverage from various pandals all over India. During all 10 days of Dussehra, viewers were also reminded, day-to-day, of the significance of each day of the festival. Media anchors, urban elite Oxbridge graduates oblivious to the happenings in the rest of the country among the masses of the Indian people, decided what to portray and how prominently and when to do so. Appropriating democratic terminology such as ‘we the people’, the media in fact treats Dalits as ‘who the people?’. Ignorance cannot be an acceptable excuse where such selective coverage of India and the Indian people is both misleading and dangerous.

October 2 is also the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. Even the birth anniversary of the ‘father of the nation’ ran into several pages of newsprint only because of the newly released film, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, which brought Gandhiism in contemporary packaging to film-goers. And yet Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday must voluntarily have been celebrated by only a few thousand Indians while hundreds of thousands of Dalits do not stop thronging to Nagpur, Mumbai and Chandrapur in reverence to Ambedkar every year. What will it take for the television cameras to gradually open their apertures to the brilliance of Ambedkar and Buddha, and report fairly on these events?

Archived from Communalism Combat, November 2006. Year 13, No.120, Cover Story 4
 

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