Dr. Ambedkar used to say we have to acquire higher education and technological knowledge so that our officers can occupy important and decision-making posts. By becoming low-grade clerks some may manage somehow but the Dalit society cannot come up. Unfortunately, during his lifetime a majority of those who became educated and established themselves through reservation did not do anything for society. Both Dalit 1AS officers and Dalit political stooges betrayed their society.
On March 4, 1995, a seminar on social justice was held at the Constitution Club, Delhi. About 400 Dalit class-1 officers — majority IAS —ventilated their grievances regarding the discrimination and harassment etc. meted out to Dalit officers. Some of the complaints are as follows: -
(a) Their annual confidential reports are spoiled to ruin their promotion. They are either posted in remote villages or kept in superfluous posts.
(b) They are denied the required training to become eligible for better posts. Despite specific govt. orders, the upper caste bureaucrats do not punish the offenders, nor do they reward the victims.
(c) They are always treated as inefficient and meritless.
There is nothing new in these charges. It is a fact for all Dalit govt. servants —high or low. The only thing new is that Dalit officers for the first (and last) time made such a representation to the govt. They always silently suffer all types of humiliation and injustices throughout their service. Even now they fail to see that their counterparts get their due promotion and posting in due time under Dalit governance of Dalit Chief Minister in UP and OBC Chief Minister in Bihar.
UP & Bihar cases: Luckily in recent years, three Dalit IAS officers have been able to rise to the occasion and prove their worth and mettle. They are: –
(1) Dr. A.K. Biswas, IAS, Bihar cadre, former Vice- Chancellor and at present a commissioner. He has been continuously serving the society by writing articles and authoring books to establish the facts that the culture, character, capability etc. of the Dalit Bahujans are in no way inferior to those of the Manuvadis. He proved all these by quoting govt. records and made the Dalit society proud and conscious.
(2) The second is Sher Singh, IAS, of the West Bengall cadre. He wrote a book, The Secular Emperor Babar, with the govt. permission. He proved the subject matter working in the Calicutt National Library and important” libraries abroad. But this hurt the Manuwadi govt. at the Centre and the Manuvadi sarkar of the Left Front in West Bengal. They dismissed Sher Singh instead of allowing him to receive the prestigious “King Faisal Award”. Undaunted, Sher Singh and his wife are continuing their intellectual works and social service.
(3) Balwant Singh, IAS, of the UP cadre resigned from the coveted service in protest the inhuman treatment, discrimination and deprivation meted out to him by his upper caste bosses. He preferred resignation to sacrifice of self-respect and surrender of Dalit rights. Despite similar injustices to each Dalit servant in govt., none protests, none revolts. In that sense his resignation is unique, and he refused to enjoy slavery. Thereafter he studied law and has been? practising as an advocate and drifted to political and’ social activities. He authored the following four books, so far: -
(a) An Untouchable in the IAS, his first book gives a vivid account of his 5 years’ service life in IAS including the position of the Dalit govt. servants and circumstances which led to his ultimate resignation.
(b) His second book, Struggle Against Slavery, relates 1o his life before entering IAS. He was forced to marry before higher studies.
(c) The Beauty of the Himalayas, his 3rd book, has not yet been studied by this writer.
(d) His fourth book, The Suffering People, contains his experiences and perceptions about the social systems prevalent in the different states of the country. He toured extensively and had interactions with Dalit and. elites, intellectuals of most of the states. This book will serve as a reference book for those who are interested in knowing the relation between different castes, subcastes and also between different communities of Bahujan Samaj. He says that there is little scope of developing unity and integration between OBCs and SC/STs or between Muslims and Dalits. It was expected that Singh with his vast experience, voracious study and an uncompromising nature would give a vigorous push to Dalit movement. Except endorsing (himself being not involved) conversion to Budhism and starting of a “Dalit media centre”, he fails to follow Babasaheb and his Dalit philosophy.
Lest our young generation is not misled by reading his three books, 1 had to point out some of his drawbacks and deficiencies in them.
