An Open Letter for Ashok Khemka, and for all of India:

Dear Ashok,

I always believed, during my teenage years through middle and high school, and during our time at IIT Kharagpur, that notwithstanding the authority, respect, lifestyle, power, and privileges afforded to India's IAS (Indian Administrative Service) cadre, the Service, and, perhaps, in a larger context, the nation was spiraling down the vortex of doom in a self-fulfilling prophetic way.

The Government of India goes to enormous lengths - the UPSC's (Union Public Service Commission) application process, written examination testing across 2 subject majors (unless that has changed now), and its selection interview process to identify and select India's 'Best and Brightest' into the IAS cadre.  

I also spent some time in Musoorie, India, (during the 1980s), at the IAS training campus, and I was very impressed with the post selection training program the Indian government had established for the civil services. The government's investment in recruiting, selecting and training of the IAS cadre (and other civil service cadres) is absolutely necessary and warranted, for the - the IAS cadre was designed to administer a nation of a Billion plus people in the 7th largest country (by geographical land mass) and the 2nd most populous country on Earth.

I decided to walk away from even trying for the IAS service opportunity because of my grave personal concerns about the ability of an individual IAS officer to stand up to, and the change the system, despite my firm belief, even back then, that the service and the system were seriously in need of large scale changes and reforms. Both continue to seemingly suffer from want of such true reforms (despite the socio-economic reforms, in India, of the last 20 some years).  

I had come to truly get to know you as a young man, Ashok Khemka, not just as the brightest young man on campus (trust me, despite his PGDM, the 'other guy' could not hold even a dim candle next to you, even on his best day), but also as one of the most decent, honest, sincere, and 'straight-up guys on campus. We traveled together a few times and I can still recall our conversations. I remember visiting your family home in Calcutta (or, should I say Kolkata), eating a meal with your family, and discussing issues of social and economic concerns across India.  

I knew, at the time we graduated, that you were different from most, and that someday you would change the world. But, that thought was in the context of your education in Computer Sciences, and about you developing some super-cool mathematical algorithm that would solve some extraordinarily complex challenges - the next C. V. Raman, Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar, or the next Stephen Hawking. 

About 20 odd years ago, I was surprised, and quite shocked, when I learnt about you joining the IAS cadre.  I believed then Ashok, that the system would beat-up your spirit, and bend you to its will.  I did not think, that any individual IAS officer who dared to try to change the system:  to stop corruption, bribery, favoritism, political nexus based exploitation of the nation, in order to serve and protect citizens, and the country, would inevitably be crushed and destroyed by the system – the politicians who IAS officers report to, and the IAS cadre itself.  The cadre, you see, has always had, and continues to have, an ample population of ‘rotten apples’ - those that benefit personally, from acts of omission and those of commission, that enable ‘grand-mal-intended-schemes’ and plots of politicians, and of corrupt businesses.

During the course of the last 20 odd years, I have watched and read about the 'Indian Economic Miracle'.  But, more importantly, I have also followed reports of rampant corruption across most Indian theater: the elected politicians, members of the cadre, and increasingly, opportunistic individuals who bend and abuse the system to gain advantage for personal gain. 

The Indian psyche is seemingly stuck, as if Indians were still under Imperial Colonial rulers when people lived in fear of the British administrators - the Collectors, and the Civil Law Enforcement officers of British elk. The Indian mind, it still seems, is trained from birth to be in awe and fear of authority figures - civil servants, et al.  

Combine that with the inherently selfish values of humans in general and the “Jugard” (the Hindi word for as in making arrangements, legit or otherwise, to achieve a goal most expeditiously and to one's own sole benefit) and expediency based values of Indian people, most of whom only seem to care about 'getting their own personal matters expeditiously resolved, and you have a potent mixture of opportunities for mass exploitation, and, I believe, eventual self-destruction of the democracy, to be replaced with horrors of unimaginable proportions.  

Only this time, the new rulers, of the Indian landscape, will be from among its own people – people of power, privilege, money, and of opportunity, out to accumulate more of the same at any and all costs to the country and its masses.

India's history is, and should always be a reminder that some Indian(s) has/have repeatedly sold out, inviting new dynasties and rulers to occupy and lord over her for hundreds of years.  This is a lesson that cannot, and should never be forgotten, for what is at risk is the largest true democracy in the World, and the Freedom (and all the civil and constitutional rights that flow from being a free country), that was so hard fought by our grandparents and their generation.  

Note: Indians forced the Imperial British to voluntarily leave the country - without a protracted civil war, and without mass bloodshed, because the Indian people collectively, and in sufficient numbers, decided they had had enough of the exploitation, the racial discrimination, and the lack of opportunities that came with being a subject of Her Majesty, The Queen of England.  The Brits did not just get up and leave because the their subjects wanted them to.  They dug in their heels, and retaliated with brute force.  They killed innocent men, women and children.  They threw thousands in to jail. For any reason.  For no reason at all.  However at the end, Great Britain had no choice but to leave a country they had ruled, raped and exploited for over 200 years, because they were no longer welcome, and they realized that they could no longer keep the Indian aspirations of Freedom, Democracy and Equal Rights and Opportunities under Imperial denial.  

But, I digress, and thank the reader for staying with me.  A more detailed note on the British Empire is coming.  Soon. That is a promise.

A national economy that was massively regulated by the Federal government, and State run Enterprises were perhaps the only prescription to India's dilemma of severely under developed industry and infrastructure that was, in 1947, in shambles - both a gift of the British rulers.  

I have always held Pandit Nehru’s vision for Indian economic development in high regard, but I have also always had trouble accepting the rational of allowing any elected politician (and not just the Prime Minister) the power to control the careers, lives, and destiny of career IAS officers.  

The average Indian politician, today, is nothing short of a hooligan, and a gangster - most of them lack even the basic education, a fact that is perhaps masked with fake college diplomas and degrees that are illegitimately obtained by force of intimidation, or though bribery.  A majority of these village- idiots are quite simply ignorant, and do not have any particular vision or passion that motivates them in to entering Public Life, except their grand design and desires to accumulate wealth and power.

The cadre itself suffers from the 'Orphan Syndrome': while IAS officers are selected by the Federal apparatus (yes, there is a parallel system of state level civil services, but the scope and authority of the IAS officers dwarf those of their state counterparts) and they are assigned to states across India.  All of that is fine, except: the system gives state level ministers the power to assign and reassign IAS officers, at the politician’s whim and fancy.  Even the most insignificant, and inevitably the most corrupt link in the system – the politician, is handed a sword over the lives and careers of the ‘Best and Brightest’.  As a human being with the need for security and safety, even the most upright IAS or civil servant is thus under constant pressure to bow to political master-class.  No one likes to be shunted around jobs, deputations, and different cities across their designated state because the personal upheaval is too enormous.  

I can understand shunting around poor performing officers, but this power structure creates distortions and disruptions that are hurting the country, its citizens, and the IAS officer who dares to make a principled stand against a corrupt nexus between businesses and politicians.

I became aware of the massive public controversy that erupted, last week, in the State of Haryana, India: Ashok Khemka, IAS officer, was reassigned within a few months of taking charge of enforcing, among other things, laws related to government land control – the purchase and sale of government lands to private parties.  Khemka had apparently discovered massive irregularities in land purchase, and sale/transfer transactions between a Mr. Robert Vadra, an Indian business man, and DLF Corporation – one of India’s largest, if not the largest property developer: Mr. Vadra apparently received advanced payments, from DLF, in the millions to purchase ‘farmland’.  But, he was only the front-man: the property was promptly and illegally converted to ‘commercial’ land use status, and sold to DLF, for an estimated 19 times what Mr. Vadra apparently paid for the farmland.  All of this transpired in a short period of about 3 months.

That is a Bribe, if there ever was a Bribe! It is, as they say here in the United States - "Pay to Play" economics.  It is abhorrent, and even in India, it is illegal.

 

On the face of things, Vadra is not a bad investor now, is he?  1900% returns over 3 months, or 7,600% annualized! Perhaps Vadra should immigrate to the United States and help us manage our property woes across America!  

Vadra is no investor extraordinaire though.  He is married to Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of Sonia Gandhi, the President of India’s Congress Party, and Rajiv Gandhi - son of Indira Gandhi, and grandson of Pandit Nehru, all three being former Prime Ministers of India.  

The patriarch, Nehru, was a Leader and a Statesman of extraordinary caliber; Indira Gandhi, despite her brazen and paranoid acts of fascist proportions during India’s “Emergency” of 1970s, at one point was hailed as “Indira is India and India is Indira”, and Rajiv Gandhi was the leader who set India’s economic wheels of freedom and regulatory reforms in to motion.  

India now has to contend with a dying dynasty without a moral compass, led by the former Italian citizen – Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka, both rumored to be mediocre leaders at their best.  If they are leaders at all, that is.

 

Given the power and influence of the Gandhi family, in India, even extended family members – Vadra – are out to make the most, as in financially raping, pillaging and looting the public and the country to accumulate vast personal fortunes.  It is estimated by some that Vadra is worth a cool 2 Billion.  That is in US Dollars!  Clearly, his handicrafts based export business did not generate such wealth.  The recent DLF transaction, in it of itself, netted a tidy USD 10 million for the Vadra family. DLF, I am sure would erect yet another mega mixed-use complex on this piece of land and rake in a pretty penny for itself.

Unfortunately, the transactions came under the purview of Khemka.  Knowing what I know about Ashok, he cannot be bought.  Khemka immediately initiated a formal investigation into the land deal transactions of Vadra. The following day, he was ordered ‘transferred’ out of the land control office by the Chief Minister (in the US context, Governor) of Haryana, Mr. Hooda.  Hooda, of course, is in political bed with Sonia and her Congress Party.

Khemka, on his part though is a tough cookie – prior to handing over his official duties and while still vested with the authority of the land control office, Khemka issued orders that effectively nullify the most recent Vadra-DLF transaction.

So, a corrupt system has finally and in a very public manner collided with a truly principled IAS officer.  The Federal and State government are now actively trying to destroy Khemka.  As if his 43 previous transfers in 7 odd years was not enough!

From this point on, Ashok, you will be publicly humiliated.  You and your family will be threatened, and may even suffer harm.  You have put yourself in grave danger because you chose to take on the Gandhi family.  You will find, soon, that none of your IAS colleagues will support you, or want to continue to associate with you.  The isolation that is coming will be complete.  You will face enormous vilification through media.  Your health will suffer and you will have to deal with ever increasing levels of mental stress.

I never doubted, Ashok, that someday you would change the world.  And that moment, it seems, has arrived.  It would no longer serve you, or the country, for you to continue to be a part of the apparatus. Trust me Ashok you have made me extremely proud today.  The mere fact that I knew you in college is an honor.  But, you, and only you have to bear the enormous burden of not letting this firestorm overwhelm you.  

I know you are one of the smartest people in the World.  Put that brilliant mind to work, and put that spirit you have to the cause of ridding India of the malaise of rampant corruption in public life.

I know you can do it.

-from an old time friend.