Transparent Government Recruitment Was Manohar Lal Khattar’s Biggest Strength; It’s Now His Biggest Weakness

A recent analysis by Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar of employee strength of Haryana government shows that not only total government workers per 100 people have come down but also the total workforce itself has reduced in the last three decades.

In 1991, there were 4 lakh sarkari employees in Haryana while the state’s population at the time was around 1.25 crore. This translated to about one government worker per 31 people or just more than three government workers per 100 population. Today, Haryana’s population has grown to 2.9 crore while employees on state’s payroll have come down to only 2.85 lakh, the Bhaskar report says. That means the government has only one employee per 100 people population on average.

There is good chance that the Bhaskar report doesn’t count contractual staff in various departments which forms a big chunk of overall state capacity today unlike three decades back. States have resorted to hiring more and more people on contract over the years as salaries have ballooned with each Central pay commission making permanent hires economically costly for the exchequer.

Nonetheless, the general trend points towards a serious problem. Haryana is not a poor state and can surely afford to increase state capacity, even if it it decides to do so smartly and focus on the right areas - police, healthcare, etc.

This was exactly what one expected from the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Haryana which won a second term on the back of its populist policy of filling tens of thousands of vacant government posts in a transparent manner. However, by its sheer incompetency, it has managed to turn its major unique selling point (USP) into its biggest weakness in just two years.

In 2019, when the BJP in Haryana under the leadership of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar went to Lok Sabha and assembly polls, its biggest strength was the sheer number of government vacancies filled during its term. That too, more importantly, in a transparent manner where no posts went to relatives of a politician in power or to workers of the political party running the government.

This was a radical shift from the status quo of decades in the state. After all, in 2019, former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his elder son Ajay Chautala were still lodged in Tihar, completing their decade long term imprisonment for exact sin of recruiting thousands of teachers by flouting all norms of propriety when they were in power. The accusations of doling out government jobs to own karyakartas were levied at Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as well.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that this had been the standard operating procedure of all CMs who got the shot at power. Giving out jobs, contracts, development works to areas in and around one’s political bastion had been the sure shot way of creating a solid electoral base which would last much beyond the present leader’s lifetime. It’s not without reason that so many dynasties flourished in Haryana with different strongholds - Bansi Lal in South Haryana, Bhajan Lal in Hisar, Chautalas in Jind and Sirsa, Hooda in Rohtak-Jhajjar-Sonipat triangle (Sonipat which used to be Chautala’s bastion was snatched by Hooda with aggressive development work during his two terms).

While caste factor always played a big role, the predominant strand of Haryana’s politics was more about region and people of all castes would benefit from that. Hooda may have given jobs to people from his stronghold but it wasn’t based on caste but whether one was his supporter or not. A Jat in Hisar would prefer Bhajan Lal over a Jat CM from faraway region simply because he was likely to benefit personally more from the former than the latter. It’s for this reason that a Jat in Jind was arch enemy of Hooda but many non-Jats in Rohtak were his hardcore supporters.

But Haryana’s politics changed dramatically after 2016 riots and the state got polarised purely along caste lines. The region was no longer the primary factor. In this scenario, CM Khattar’s policy on government jobs became a huge hit because the jobs on offer increased substantially and the manner in which they were accessible was nothing short of a revelation. The policy was welcomed by all across caste and regions as people could see even children from poor backgrounds grab the appointment based on merit alone. The positive change was felt in each and every village across the state and the government earned a lot of goodwill for it and was a major factor behind winning the second term.

It’s a surprise then that it has squandered away its biggest political capital in such a short span.

Earlier this year, Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) nullified the Gram Sachiv (panchayat secretary) examination held on 9 and 10 January because it busted a racket which had leaked the answer keys of paper even when the exam was going on. Around eight lakh candidates were reported to have taken the exam for 697 posts.

Last year, on 7 and 8 August, the HSSC was to conduct recruitment exam for 6,000 posts of Police Constables but it had to cancel the exam on the evening of 7 August itself even when thousands of candidates had yet to reach their homes after appearing for the paper. Tens of thousands had gone to different districts to sit for it on 8 August. Reason was the same - answer keys of paper had already circulated widely. Special investigation carried out by the Police later revealed that the paper had been leaked from the source itself, an employee of the Jammu-based examination agency which had been given the contract to prepare the question papers had leaked the questions and answer key, a modus operandi similar to one employed by criminals to leak Delhi Police Constable exam.

Recently, after investigation by Chief Minister’s flying squad, it came to light that the exam conducted last year for posts of Lower Divisional Clerk in electricity department of Haryana was also leaked.

Even Hindi paper of Class XII Haryana board had leaked last year.

In 2019, HSSC had to cancel the ITI Instructor exam when Chandigarh police conducted a raid just before the exam and nabbed individuals who were in process of selling the paper and answer keys for Rs 10-15 lakh to each candidate. One of the accused who had obtained the paper worked at a computer lab where the exam was to be held.

In the same year, paper conducted for 70 posts of Naib Tehsildar also got leaked online from a school in Karnal. The act was done by Block Education Officer (BEO) of all people and for an amount of only Rs 2.5 lakh.

In 2017, one of the most prestigious papers of the state - Haryana Civil Services (for Judicial posts which recruits judges) - got leaked. No less than second topper in general category and first topper in reserved category were nabbed for cheating and paying tens of lakhs to get the paper. It turns out that all the available seats had been pre-decided as question papers were circulated to that many candidates for a total of Rs 2.5 crore bribe. The level to which the process was comprised can be understood from the fact that mastermind turned out to be none other than the registrar (recruitment) of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Before that, Police had nabbed people for attempts to leak the paper of Excise and Taxation Inspector and even Bus Conductor.

Not just for state level exams, Haryana is earning bad reputation for spoiling the image of even national exams. In 2018, as per Delhi Police, some schools in Sonepat, Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh were suspected to be involved in the leak of Class X Mathematics paper and Class XII Economics paper of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Last month, even integrity of JEE (mains) exam came into question when CBI booked Affinity Education Pvt Ltd and its directors for "manipulating the online JEE (Mains) exam and facilitating aspiring students to get admission in top NITs in consideration of huge amount by solving the question paper of the applicant through remote access from a chosen examination centre in Sonepat (Haryana)”.

On and on it goes.

The incompetency and inefficiency of the state government has reached a level that paper leak mafia have grown too big for their shoes in the state and are now going ‘national’. If these are not reigned in, sanctity of all examinations will be compromised.

In August, the state assembly passed a stringent law aimed to prevent the paper leaks. Though, the problem is not as easy to solve as passing just another law. Complete overhaul of examination centres and institutions is needed apart from cracking down hard on the mafia.

It has become impossible for the state government to conduct any government examination these days without it being leaked. The issue of judicial intervention in appointment process was bad enough. But the government’s reputation is being hurt badly by leaks. If this continues, CM Khattar will have to pay dearly in electoral currency.