THE INVISIBLE CRUSADERS

By Desaraju Surya

Hyderabad: There is something serious happening in the state administration, the bureaucracy in particular. It's nothing fishy, of course.

Five young Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers of the state cadre have teamed up to fight corruption within the administration. For now, nobody knows who the officers are, what they do and how they do but the group does its job silently, within its means and tries to correct a system -- to the extent possible. The group has a mentor, a senior bureaucrat known for his integrity, who guides it by offering advise and all necessary inputs. Informally, the group members call themselves "The Invisible Crusaders." The group's modus operandi is something like this: Each officer first identifies the sincere and honest employees under him and with their help identifies the corrupt ones as well. Thus begins the fight. Rather than taking disciplinary action straightaway, the officer would initiate steps that would clearly let the corrupt ones know they are being marked. At an opportune time, the corrupt ones will be hit. "Once hit, the corrupt employee will be doomed for life. Our action will be so drastic, within the legal means," an Invisible Crusader said. The idea for forging the Invisible Crusaders' group germinated when one of these young officers got frustrated with the so-called "red tape." "Before joining the service, I always wondered what this 'red tape' is. Once in service, I slowly started understanding it. Would anyone believe that one department employee has to grease the hands of his counterpart in another department for getting an official file cleared? As an IAS officer, I am witness to such blatant corruption in the administrative ranks. I discussed this with some of my fellow bureaucrats and thus hit upon the idea of forming a group that fights corruption in the ranks," the young IAS officer pointed out.

Bureaucrats normally know the antecedants of their fellow babus and it's not so difficult to mark the black sheep. The Invisible Crusaders would also like to list out the corrupt babus in their ranks and collect necessary evidence to get them nailed. "There are many officers with utmost integrity like there are the notoriously corrupt ones in the IAS. These days, some officers are getting into the slush even in the early years of their career, which is a highly worrying trend. Such elements are further degenerating the bureaucracy. To the extent possible, we shall fight such elements as well," a key member of the Invisible Crusaders said. For now, the Invisible Crusaders will have just five members but may add some more members in the days to come. "Our wave lengths should match. Only then can we take some more officers into our fold. But ideally we want to restrict the maximum members to 10. Some upright senior officers will always be there to guide us from outside," the key member added.