An IAS officer’s alleged abuse of a junior colleague exposes how split control between government and Lok Bhavan breeds arrogance.
The video is ugly. A senior IAS officer shouts down a junior colleague, insults her and orders her suspension on the spot. She had attended the meeting from home, on leave with a fractured foot.
The alleged conduct of Kumar Rajeev Ranjan towards JKAS officer Beenish Wani is not an isolated lapse. It is a symptom.
Since 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has run on a split chain of command. Officers apparently answer to the elected Chief Minister for daily work. For postings and careers, they look to the Lt Governor. Omar Abdullah conceded as much this week. Control over IAS officers, he said, rests with Lok Bhavan.
This arrangement rewards the wrong instincts. An officer who displeases the elected government can shelter behind Lok Bhavan. An officer who displeases Lok Bhavan can expect no help from the elected government. The sensible bureaucrat learns to please neither fully and answer to neither honestly. The result is arrogance. Officers speak to subordinates as if rank were a licence. They speak to the public the same way.
Note how this episode unfolded. Ranjan first suggested the footage might be morphed or generated by artificial intelligence. Then he expressed regret for anything said in the heat of the moment. His department called the clips selectively edited. That is the playbook of someone who expects the storm to pass. Wani says her earlier complaints against him went unheeded. If true, the system failed her long before this video surfaced. The officer is already being investigated by the CBI for issuing arms licences in good numbers.
Politicians have reacted loudly. Farooq Abdullah wants the officer thrown out. Mehbooba Mufti wants Delhi to act. Omar Abdullah says that with statehood, the officer would have been attached to the General Administration Department pending inquiry. Perhaps so. But statehood is not a precondition for decency. The elected government has a Chief Secretary, a General Administration Department and service conduct rules. It can use them.
The inquiry ordered under Mandeep Kaur must report within 15 days. That deadline should be treated as a promise to the public. The report must be published. The technical authenticity of the recording must be settled quickly. Wani must be protected from retaliation, as the Chief Minister has asked.
The JKAS Association resorted to flash day long pen down strike. Engineers have joined the demand for accountability. Employees want a time bound inquiry. This anger runs deeper than one meeting.
Jammu and Kashmir needs clear rules on who disciplines whom. It needs a transparent mechanism for complaints against bureaucrats. It needs a workplace culture in which review meetings measure delivery and do not humiliate people.
Until then, officers will keep playing one power centre against the other. And the people they serve will keep paying for it.
