Kumar Sonali - The Outsider’s Curse: A Memoir of the First “Outsider” Lady IAS Officer of Jammu & Kashmir

THE OUTSIDERS CURSE: A MEMOIR OF THE FIRST OUTSIDER LADY IAS OFFICER OF JAMMU & KASHMIR

SONALI KUMAR

PRASENJEET KUMAR

Copyright Sonali Kumar & Prasenjeet Kumar 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

The spellings used in this book are British, which may look strange to our American friends, but NOT to those living in Australia, Canada, India, Ireland and, of course, the United Kingdom. This means that color is written as colour and so on. We hope that is NOT too confusing!

Cover Designer : Alerrandre

Edited by : Arun Kumar Ph.D.

Disclaimer

This book is a memoir. It reflects the authors present recollections of experiences over time. The conversations in the book are not written to represent word-for-word transcripts. Rather, the authors have retold them in a way that evokes the feeling and meaning what was said and in all instances, the essence of the dialogue is accurate.

In the event that these narrations hurt the feelings of any person, living or dead, or of any group or community, or appear to damage their reputation, the authors assure that it has been never their intention to deliberately cause any such hurt or damage and that the same is unintended and unintentional.

Although the authors have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the authors do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

Dedicated to all those 1000-odd outsider, non-state subject, All-India Service officers who have given their best years to the Nation while serving in Jammu & Kashmir.

Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.

African proverb

A NOTHER MEMOIR? Of a bureaucrat?

GROAN... YAWN... Oh No... o... o... o...

What new can you talk of, except of cataloguing the postings you suffered and the successes you had over some boring 37-years of service in the government?

Whats new about Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) too, when there are so many books already on the subject?

On the Kashmir dispute in the United Nations, on the valour of the Indian Army and how they foiled the evil designs of our enemies in 1947, 1962, 1965, 1971 and 1999, on the beauty of Kashmir, about the pilgrimages to Vaishno Devi and Amarnath Shrines and on J&K as a wonderful tourist destination.

And then there are biographies, hagiographies and auto-biographies of politicians ad nauseam .

The pain and suffering of the Kashmiri Muslims in those curfewed nights of the 1990s have already been catalogued. The Kashmiri Pandits too have written about their horrific exodus, how they lost their little paradise-on-earth, and what is stopping them from regaining that paradise.

Agreed.

But what I found missing waswhat an outsider Indian Administrative Service (IAS), or for that matter, any officer belonging to any All-India Service (AIS) like IPS (Indian Police Service) or IFoS (Indian Forest Service), goes through while serving in J&K. In my case, there was an added disadvantageI was the first outsider lady IAS officer serving my full term in this cadre.

In India, most people have either a love-it-or-hate-it relationship with the IAS. They like it for being the meritocratic steel frame that is supposedly keeping the country together. And dislike it for being a favoured, twice-born service that rides roughshod on the aspirations of all other government services in India.

Little do they realise the silent war that most All-India Service officers have to wage against corruption and nepotism in a hostile state cadre that is imposed on them for the entire duration of their career. Unlike the Army, Para Military or the Central Services who can escape from any such bad posting after a two-year stint.

Willy-nilly, we in the IAS become the nameless faceless bureaucrats who perform the thankless task of holding the country together especially in the North-east and in states like J&K. In J&K, the fight is even more difficult. Because to rampant corruption and nepotism, that every IAS officer is forced to fight everywhere else, is added the deadly ingredients of: communalism, anti-nationalism and, in my case, gender bias.

But what is the big deal Im making of being an outsider in J&K? Arent about 50% of all IAS officers in every state, by design, outsiders?

Well, the difference is that unlike any other state, in J&K, an outsider or a non-state subject cant buy property, cant educate her children in any technicalmedical or engineering college, cant get her spouse or children to find employment with the State Government, can neither vote in nor stand for any state-level elections even after retirement, cant even get her son married to a local girl because that will immediately extinguish that girls state-subject status, and so on.

And why? Because a law passed by the Maharaja of J&K in 1927 (20 years before India became independent and J&K acceded to India) says so. The law was enacted by Maharajas Hindu advisors primarily to keep other Hindus of India out of J&K. And the same law is now coming in handy for Kashmiri Muslims to keep everyone else out!

But what happens to the Indian Constitution and my (and those girls who have committed the cardinal sin of marrying non-state subjects) fundamental right to property, employment or franchise?

Shhhhh... Dont even talk about it, lest you upset the fragile Hindu-Muslim amity in the country.

Okay, so let the Government of India then look after the interests of these All-India Service officers by letting them to come to Delhi (or whichever place in India they belong to) to construct their homes, to look after their old parents who cant do durbar move in the sunset of their lives in J&K, to let their children study or to find employment for them...?

Hah, are you in your right senses?

Government of India instead loves dragging back to J&K even those All-India Service officers who may have with proper permission come to Delhi (or to whichever place in India they belong to) for any of those normal human needs.

And what happens to their service interests when they get back to J&K? Are they allowed to hold the cadre posts that are meant to be manned by them under rules made by the same Government of India? Do they get their latest Pay Commission or even Dearness Allowance benefits announced by the same Government of India when their compatriots elsewhere get it? Are their seniorities protected under rules made by the same Government of India? Do they get their pensionary benefits in routine as their batch mates get it elsewhere without fighting for it every inch of the way? Can they hope to get official accommodation in J&K the same way as they get while they are with the Government of India?

Now, you are rocking the boat too much!!! You need to be taught a lesson you will never forget.

So thats the CURSE of being an outsider in J&K Im talking about.

But what about the curses of that outsider to J&K? Are you sure the present problems are ONLY communal, i.e. how can the Muslims in J&K live with a Hindu India? Or instigated by Pakistan? Or because of the Kashmiris genuine desire to separate from India?

And NOT because of those tears of the outsider, shed while serving as bonded labour in J&K?

Just think about it!

On a side note, many people speak about the bureaucratic hurdles they face in their everyday lives. Funnily, whether it is water, electricity, telephones, or any other thing, they always blame the IAS for all ills. Not even knowing whether IAS is indeed responsible for it or not.