Satyapal Singh effect: Spike in ex-babus diving into politics ahead of polls

The political success of former Mumbai police commissioner, Satyapal Singh, who resigned from the IPS on 31 January this year to join Bharatiya Janata Party may be prompting several retired government servants to try their luck in the upcoming state elections in the state. [caption id=“attachment_1697449” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Former police commissioner Satyapal Singh. Image courtesy: IBN[/caption] Now, several retired officers and bureacrats, impressed by Singh’s success, are knocking on the doors of either BJP, Shiv Sena or RPI. And the list is not a small one, says a The Times of India report**.** Former additional director general of police P K Jain joined the RPI led by Ramdas Athavale a day after retiring. CS Sangeetrao, former secretary to the then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, joined the Shiv Sena while his son Ranjeet joined the BJP. Former Konkan divisional commissioner V S Nahata joined the Shiv Sena while another former Cidco managing director, N Ramarao, is likely to join the BJP. After retirement, Ramarao had joined Praja Rajyam Party along with former bureaucrat T Chandrashekhar. Bureacrats jumping into politics wagon isn’t a new trend but the 2014 general assembly elections seems to be seeing a spike in the trend. A report in T****he Times of India which analysed how the trend is fast catching up said that the paradigm shift from being a bureaucrat and becoming a politician has a problem though. “For instance, a senior bureaucrat who has carried out government orders to tackle the opposition, may feel a little uncomfortable when the opposition orders a probe into such controversial actions soon after coming to power.” The election watchdog has since 2010 has been trying to impose a quarantine period between a bureacrat’s retirement and their foray into politics. However, even top political leaders are happy to use hand-picked people capable of running the administration, but don’t have mass support thereby posing no threat to their political careers.