As an IAS officer in Manipur, I am witnessing the biggest challenge the All India Services has ever faced

I slept successful my authoritative quarters astatine the territory office that night, having decided to sojourn Moreh, the India-Myanmar borderline town, the pursuing morning. Everything changed successful the morning. The aerial was communally charged and fatalities were reported connected some sides of the sparring groups. Audio-visual clips of horrendous killings, gunshots and hatred speeches went viral connected societal media, offline and successful telephone conversations. Under the fast-deteriorating law-and-order situation, I was compelled to instrumentality my ADM, SDM and Grade IV unit and find a harmless hideout-cum-office. We took refuge successful the adjacent 20 Assam Rifles Camp aft trekking elevation routes successful the screen of acheronian successful a rescue workout by AR personnel. We operated from the paramilitary installation for the adjacent 15 days. It felt similar a constrictive and fortunate flight arsenic I witnessed the erstwhile DC analyzable surrounded by aggravated locals from the vantage constituent of my caller makeshift office. The rest, arsenic they say, is history.

After astir 17 months and a decease toll of much than 200 radical and 60,000 displaced, the struggle has created heavy responsibility lines wrong the state’s administration, fragmented on the ethnicity of the officers, particularly those from All India Services. The officers are isolated and confined to administrative cocoons: Geographical barriers and fearfulness psychosis person killed each keenness for tract postings. Venturing extracurricular “safe districts” is akin to termination successful the volatile ambiance (there are reports of authorities officials having been killed by mobs). I person encountered these limitations first-hand, and I americium definite my colleagues from the Kuki assemblage look akin constraints.

If this abnormality persists, the IAS, IPS and IFS officers volition person less opportunities for divers postings, which is indispensable for gaining tract experiences and anthropological insights that volition pass their aboriginal careers. This doesn’t bode good for the full cadre arsenic the “steel frame” envisioned by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is corroding astatine its edges, and the noble espirit de corps of its members feels the strain successful Manipur.

Hill and vale districts, erstwhile accessible to AIS officers, are present divided by “buffer zones”, defeating the national tone that underpins the expansive service.

Moreover, interpersonal relationships betwixt officers person go dormant, arsenic airy exchanges person been minimised astatine each levels and overshadowed by the intelligence malaise of a struggle that saturates nationalist discourse, some online and offline. Hate code and propaganda from assorted quarters person further polarised the atmosphere, making collaborations difficult.

The existent tensions correspond 1 of the astir terrible challenges faced by the IAS and different All India Services successful Manipur’s history. Given the peculiar challenges, the Manipur acquisition could besides beryllium an accidental successful disguise if it is taken up arsenic a lawsuit survey for probe and documentation by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) and different grooming institutes for the payment of its trainees. Original contented for caller grooming modules and capacity-building workshops tin beryllium tailored, particularly successful the country of struggle absorption and reconciliation, enriched by input from officers who person served successful conflict-ridden regions similar Manipur. These volition beryllium arsenic invaluable for world deliberation tanks studying ethnocentric authorities and responses successful a antiauthoritarian model similar ours. A readymade database of applicable dos and don’ts for officers posted astatine challenging places volition entreaty to many.

Seen optimistically, the much-criticised rigidity and impersonal quality of the Weberian bureaucracy whitethorn beryllium leveraged to bring normalcy to the strife-torn state. AIS officers are, foremost, batch mates, agents of nationalist integration and slightest apt to beryllium extremist sectarians plotting successful divisive echo chambers (I americium occupying the bureau enclosure of a Kuki workfellow connected loan). As professionals, fraternal feelings volition supersede different extraneous factors. This feeling of oneness among the cadre officers symbolises resilience and neutrality that tin beryllium harnessed during this conflict, whose fires stay to beryllium enactment out.

As of today, there’s an accidental for innovative unit absorption policies to prosecute officers successful peace-building efforts. For instance, implementing elemental but regular virtual meetings among officers from antithetic taste backgrounds tin foster unity and bring a semblance of normalcy, astatine slightest wrong the administrative corridors. Such interventions whitethorn extremity the administrative Siberias wrong Manipur and importantly facilitate the peacemaking process.

The writer is an IAS serviceman serving arsenic Joint Secretary (Home) for the Government of Manipur