ACADEMY and its shame !!!

KANGAROO COURTS AND THE ACADEMY         

The recent uproar on the influence of the Khap Panchayats and the other Kangaroo courts on infringing the basic human rights, principles of natural justice and the rule of law seems to find an echo in the method of working in the Academy. The Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of Administration that thrives on teaching values of ethics, good governance and the rule of law seems to be teaching values of violating these very same ideals.
          This hypocrisy has been profoundly brought out in the latest issue on travel to Korea for the Phase III of the IAS 2010. The faculty circulated a paper that asked for preference of those officers who wanted to travel by Air India. It had already been announced on 24th June 2010 by the Course Team that in addition to the National Carrier, Thai Air would be flying the officers to Seoul. The paper that was circulated in the class did not mention any other fact except for preference of officers who wanted to fly Air India. But, the paper that was circulated had all the officers specifically from the 1999 batch and the 2000 batch writing their preference to fly "Cathay Pacific" !!! As per the instructions of the Course Team the Phase III 2010 was to travel Air India and Thai Air ONLY. There was no mention of a change to Cathay Pacific also as an option. Thereafter on the completion of the last lecture on 25th evening, Mr. Ashish Vachhani and Dr. Prem Singh announced that the lady officers would be flying Air India (with 2 Gentlemen Officers), 14 people (incidentally ALL from the 1999 and few from the 2000 batches) who had given their "preference" to fly Cathay Pacific would be allowed to fly Cathay and the rest would be accommodated onto Thai Air.
There was no prior information on the availability of the  3rd option of flying with Cathay Pacific and it seemed that all the officers of the 1999 and 2000 batches were privy to this information. Thereby, keeping the entire group in dark, they colluded to do the following:
1.     Colluded with the faculty into obtaining this information and then keeping it from the Group
2.     Ensured that only the 1999 and 2000 batches would fly Cathay Pacific as when other officers asked about why was Cathay as an option being filled, the said officers said its all being done in a lighter vein. Thus, most of the other officers refrained from mentioning Cathay as a flight preference.
3.     Shouted and jeered down protests by others on this open demonstration of abject disregard to any proper values of freedom of equality and expression.
Whilst this entire episode was going on when the officers of the 1999 batch virtually hijacked the entire class and the microphones, the faculty kept silent. In fact they went a step further and gave this open defiance of rule of law and propriety a tacit go ahead by announcing that the said officers of the 1999 and 2000 batch would fly Cathay Pacific. The class became a fish market where the officers who are supposed to uphold the law and order themselves perpetrated its breakdown. The whole affair went on for a while much to the amusement of the support staff and the bearers from the Officers' Mess (who were serving tea outside the class).
          The others kept quite after a while as they were quelled down, intimidated, shouted down or merely wanted to keep the decorum of the class intact. This left the two faulty members to announce the inevitable much to the discomfiture of the startled class.
          The questions that remain are that how did the officers of the 1999 batch in particular and with a few officers of the 2000 batch know this detail of the availability of a 3rd Airlines (Cathay Pacific) before the entire class? Secondly, why were the two faculty members quite about the entire episode and the manner in which the whole class was being held hostage to the vociferous outbursts of the 1999 batch? Thirdly, how did the faculty give in to the drama by a handful and why did they not ensure that dignity of the Academy was not belittled before the others in such a deplorable manner?
          Just a few days ago the same faculty spoke at length about the Khap Panchayats and their decisions taken in typical Kangaroo Court style. Attention is invited in finding difference in the ways of functioning of the faculty in this said episode. The existence of Kangaroo Courts has emboldened a handful to feel they could subvert the law as per their whims and fancies, thence non cognition of this sheer shameful event would smack of hypocrisy at the helm of the temple of training and the initiation of the OLQs in the Gangotri of the IAS fraternity.
regards to all.


Hope and sincerely pray for understanding the reasons of anonymity as the very people who were to control and mitigate such an occurance have been party to the malady.