Furious indignation, but is it righteous?

A serving IAS officer has written a furious article against the Prevention of Corruption Act, or PCA, which he says assumes guilt and is used to harass honest officers. His rage is because former Coal Secretary, HC Gupta has been charged for allocating coal mines to private companies, which had no need for coal. In an act of sheer drama Mr Gupta withdrew his personal bond to the court and expressed his desire to go to jail, because he has no money to pay lawyers. How honest he is! Mr Gupta now claims that he had passed on all decisions to the Coal Minister, none other than the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. Mr Singh has already proclaimed loudly and frequently that he is an "honest man". In 2014, the Supreme Court quashed the allocation of 214 coal blocks. Why is the IAS so angry with the PCA act? " There is no need at all to prove whether any financial gain accrued to the civil servant himself! Now a public servant takes - indeed is constrained to take as otherwise everything would come to a standstill - a number of decisions that would naturally benefit someone: be it allotting a plot of industrial land, granting a loan, awarding a contract or doing a purchase agreement. Whether all these decisions are in public interest is a very subjective question at the best of times," writes the officer. This shows the complete lack of understanding and the arrogance of IAS officers. And these are the fellows who essentially run the government. First, gain to an officer may not be financial. It maybe a job to a relative, a juicy sinecure after retirement or even a comfortable posting in Delhi, as opposed to a stint in Naxal infested Bastar. Second, Mr Gupta was the chairman of the Screening Committee. As a senior officer was it not his duty to eliminate all the shady customers? It is disingenuous to say that he did not know. It was his duty to know, else he should have asked a more competent officer to do the job. Third, the nation was losing up to Rs 400 billion a year in importing coal and the lack of electricity meant fewer jobs, hitting the poor. At the very least Mr Gupta is guilty of criminal negligence. Strangely there was no such indignation when Mr Khemka was persecuted by politicians for revealing corruption. As for corruption, the CBI has told a Parliamentary Standing Committee that over 2,400 top officers are corrupt. The IAS is seen as a continuation of the East India Company and is feared by the citizens. The IAS is supposed to be a service but it is more of a leg iron for the nation. " How about amending the Prevention of Corruption Act in the coming session of parliament without any further delay?" asks the officer. How about shutting down the IAS school in Mussoorie and be rid of this gang permanently, we ask.