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The case of the powerful, powerless sarkari officer -Yamini Aiyar

-Deccan Herald

My colleague and I were in a District Education Office in Bihar. It had all the typical trappings of power. The officer we were meeting arrived with a litany of staff carrying his papers (and lunch box). In the short walk to his chamber, he barked orders to his staff, and as he sat on his chair and removed his Ray-Ban glasses, he commanded waiting visitors (mostly local residents and schoolteachers) out of his room while he speaks to the “Delhi madam".

Yet, through the course of an hour-long conversation, he repeatedly described himself as a powerless, voiceless “post officer”. Government, he said, was all powerful. If Sarkar wants, it can do a lot, he added when we asked about improving education in the district. But he had no role and no power. All he could do is implement orders. This officer is not alone. Over nearly a decade, I have had interactions with bureaucrats at the frontline – village, block, district level – across states, and this story is repeated. We are powerless cogs, moving paper and responding to orders from the administrative hierarchy. We have no voice.

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