This is a
book by a former Secretary Coal ,
Government of India describing in detail
how a senior civil servant was made to
suffer, eight years after his retirement criminal proceedings against him, for
taking reforms in Coal sector forward. Mr. Parakh has impeccable reputation for
integrity throughout his service career. The book also goes on to show that economic reforms can be brought about only when reforms in judiciary and administration of
criminal justice are also taken up simultaneously.
The book deals with the case
pertaining to the allocation of a coal
block in Orissa, involving Hindalco
which resulted in criminal case against Mr. PC Parakh (the then coal Secretary),Dr.
Manmohan Singh(former Prime Minister of
India) and industrialist Kumar Mangalam
Birla. When , due to ignorance or arrogance , a citizen has to lose reputation and dignity , and has to suffer prolonged
mental agony ,no court in the country
has the capacity to compensate the
citizen for such a loss. As Mr. Arun Shourie in his foreword to this book says:”He must set out the truth in words that the lay
person will understand , not leave the matter to lawyers and their legalese.
The reputation has been assailed in public, it must be restored in the public’s
mind.”He goes on to say that in times like ours , to stand up to calumny ,to
stand up to an unjust system is itself
one of the tasks that the honest have to
perform for our country.
A law that criminalises an executive action on
the basis of one of the many multiple interpretations and which does not call for strict proof of
criminal intention , can be misused and abused
on the basis of subjective thinking .Such bad laws like Section 13(1)(d)
of Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988. (
obtaining a valuable thing or pecuniary advantage merely by abusing official position) must be
soon thrown out of the statute book by the Parliament .The sooner it is done ,
the better it will be for the governance
of the country. Otherwise civil servants will hesitate to take decisions,
resulting in poorer governance.
Mr PC Parakh has revised his views about a career in civil
service in India. It is not the smaller pay packet that civil servants get as compared to their counterparts in
multinationals .It is the real
possibility that a sincere and honest civil servant like Parakh , may be robbed
off his/her dignity , honour and self-respect , and be financially ruined by being
forced to run around investigators,
lawyers and courts in the evening of
life (Mr. Parakh is 71 years old and
still waiting for final decision of the
court).Incidentally, the book was self published by Mr. Parakh , as no publisher was perhaps willing to
publish it .
This book
must be read by all the serving civil servants .It must also be read by all
serious aspirants to a career in civil
service in India. And it should be read by
all citizens of this country (India) who want to see a better governance
and economic reforms implemented well .
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