Refrain from projecting ‘Robinhood image’: Bihar minister to education secretary

In a note circulated to education department officials, the minister’s office lamented that information was being “selectively leaked” to make the official look good and malign the department’s image

Bihar education minister Chandrashekhar has expressed displeasure over the work attitude of his employees alleging that the department (education) officials are not working according to the state government rules.

Bihar education minister Chandrasekhar (File Photo)

On Tuesday, the minister issued a notice to the additional chief secretary (education) KK Pathak and asked him for adhering to the standard operating procedure (SOP) of the information and public relations department (IPRD).

In the notice, the minister has asked the top officials of the education department to refrain from projecting a ‘Robinhood’ image in the media YouTube channels, social media, WhatsApp groups and portals, which seem to have easy access to all the departmental decisions, confidential letters and meetings.

In a note circulated to education department officials, the minister’s office lamented that information was being “selectively leaked” to make the official look good and malign the department’s image. It asked officials to refrain from projecting what was described as “a Robinhood image” for individual officers on social media and YouTube, pointing out that confidential communication and departmental decisions were often circulated on social media without authorisation.

Chandrashekhar’s office lamented that the department was in the news for the wrong reasons. “The letters from the department seem to reach the media before reaching the minister’s cell. Instead of education, the news mostly relates to peripheral issues like salary cuts, suspension, dress code, tightening the screws…,” the note said, underlining that the political leadership should get credit for work done while civil servants operate in anonymity.

To be sure, the ministry said there was a need for the dissemination of important information by the department in line with the government’s stated policy but the leak of confidential information was a violation of conduct rules.

The letter has also cited an example of a TV channel doing live after office hours from the chamber of a director and a question-answer was also on with the concerned officer. “It has also come to light that the information regarding inspections, visits by officials also reach the media beforehand. It seems any particular individual is involved in planting such information in media for vested interest and malign the image of the government,” says the letter.

The letter further states that the department would have no hesitation in the dissemination of important information concerning the masses in accordance with the government’s policy, but leaking confidential and negative information is a violation of the provisions laid down in the Bihar government servant conduct rules, 1976 and the procedure made for sharing news through information and public relations department.

Meanwhile, political parties, including the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have come out in defence of the education official (Pathak) soon after the notice became public. “The minister is trying to blame his own failures on the IAS officer. If negative things are happening in the education department, the government should accept it, not try to paper over it and blame an IAS officer who is trying to set things right,” said BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JD-U) also defended Pathak saying that he is a senior officer and who is known for his work ethics. “Whichever department he has served in, he has updated it. Education is an important department. Pathak is trying to improve things with his experience. If anyone is upset with it, I am not aware. I have also come to know about the buff sheet through media only,” said a JD-U spokesperson.

The tenor of the education minister’s letter makes it apparent that he is not happy with the officer, who got posted in the department just a couple of months ago after reports that his predecessor was also uncomfortable.

Incidentally, on Tuesday, a delegation of the Federation of University Teachers Association of Bihar (FUTAB) met Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, who is also the Chancellor of state universities and submitted a memorandum questioning the move of the education department to seek an attendance report from all the colleges and universities daily.

Maintaining that it was against the spirit of autonomy of universities, FUTAB working president KB Sinha and general secretary Sanjay Kumar said that a similar move had been initiated in 2009 but was withdrawn in 2010 after the Chancellor’s office took notice and ordered all the universities to take directions only in academic and administrative matters, as per the provisions laid down in the Acts governing the universities.

“The letter of the education department is a violation of the governor’s directive. What is surprising is that a similar order had been withdrawn in 2010 after the Chancellor secretariat’s intervention and asked the universities to go ahead with their own system,” they said, urging the Chancellor to direct the universities to immediately stop the practice of sending daily attendance to the department.

This new development has taken place at a time when the universities are already in affix over starting the graduation programme in the new session due to the contrasting approach of the government’s objection to the Raj Bhawana’s move for starting the four-year-degree programme choice-based credit system (CBCS) under the New Education Policy (NEP).

The new academic session, as per the calendar issued by the Raj Bhavan, was to start on July 4, but even the induction programme is still awaited. Now, Patna University will start the session for the new batch from July 14. “It already has a choice based credit system and we will not have much problem adopting the new programme,” said dean, Prof Anil Kumar.