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The Laahe Laahe Legacy Let Us Defenestrate This Damning Image.
By: R.S. Mooshahary

This story, at the risk of being repetitive, needs retelling. An American entrepreneur comes to Assam to set up an industry. He observes the people’s way of life and work ethics. He notices that every day the Assamese goes for fishing and returns home with just 2/3 catches. The American asks the Assamese ‘why can’t you catch more fish’? ‘Why should I’ quizzes the Assamese. ‘You can sell them in the market and earn money’ tells the American. ‘So what’ questions the Assamese? ‘With the money you can build a nice house’ is the American’s advisory. ‘So what’ insouciantly asks the Assamese? ‘Well, if you have money and a nice house you can relax’ assures the American. ‘Well, that’s what exactly I am doing right now’ the Assamese archly announces to the entrepreneur.

Apocryphal this story is no doubt but it typifies the nature of our people, their attitude to work, lack of enterprise and of course their capacity to be happy with the banal benevolence. They did not have to be industrious; the rich loam of the fecund earth yielded much for livelihood. Life was, for them, a gift of gaiety, fun and festivities in the innate simplicity of their rural milieu. They could not visualize that the world was changing and life was fast becoming a pursuit of greed.

We are stuck in a time warp – in a schizoid ethos of an antediluvian work culture. Our government’s catalogue of holidays has 59 fairs, festivals, commemorations, religious functions and other national events; 30 of them are full holidays and 2 restricted holidays. In addition, there are 51 Sundays, 12 second and 12 fourth Saturdays, which are holidays. Then each employee in a year is eligible for 15 days casual leave, 2days special casual leave, 30 days earned leave and 15 days commuted leave. There is also one day extra holiday, which the Deputy Commissioner can declare as local holiday for any event of significance in his district. That makes it 170 days of holidays.

And let us not forget the forced holidays on account of bandhs, strikes, hartals, chakka jams and other coercive protest forms, which are nearly a weekly event in many districts. Kokrajhar district – the corridor to the state – was immobilized for 6 days in December and 4 in January due to bandhs. This month began with a 24-hour bandh and there are already bandh calls by two organizations for today and tomorrow. Therefore, on a conservative estimate, it will be not less than 30 days forced holidays a year. That amounts to a 200-day holiday-filled year!

This translates into just about 3 working days a week – 18 hours a week @ 6 hours per day. Then when he is at work the employee carries with him the holiday hang over and keeps himself occupied in office with small talks, tea and work antipathy. Why work when you are paid for the whole year without doing anything really? This is taking us backward because others are moving ahead; we must break free from this state of lethargy if we have to survive with dignity.

In a meeting with the Chief Minister once, I was politely reminded that the work culture is different here from Delhi or Kerala - two places where I had spent many years of my government service - and that their work culture could not be replicated here. But people in Delhi or Kerala too do not work if they are not dragooned occasionally to accountability. Human beings by nature abhor work and love to laze; they have to be motivated to work by blandishments or possibility of punishment. Our work culture mirrors our self-limiting construct, which we must replace with self-expanding entrepreneurship.

In a plural polychrome culture of a polyglot state like Assam, the events for holidays would necessarily be more representative of the population index. It will be difficult to curtail anything once it is given in. Nevertheless, there is surely some way to make the government holidays less unproductive. There can be a package whereby the employees can avail of the same number of holidays at their choice without having to close the office except for some national events or festivals encompassing community celebrations. Many holidays are of segmented intersts and not for the majority of the population. In such cases, the interested employees may enjoy holidays while others can work.

The more important question is of output. The employees, even when they are in office, do not produce anything worthwhile. There is really not much difference whether they are in office or absent from it. So in the present system of functioning it will not matter even if the number of holidays is reduced. The absolute job security and certainty of being paid every month as a matter of right make the employees indolent and irresponsible. We have to rejig this archaic set-up to instill a sense of accountability and productivity.

There is one senior assistant in my office. He is very conscientious, industrious, and a model worker. He is an inspiration for others though he complains that in his 27 years of government service he had never done this type of hard work as he is now in the Assam information Commission. There are many individuals in the government service like him but they remain unrecognized and unappreciated. They slowly lose their spirit to work and go into oblivion in the crowd. Let us identify and give the respect and responsibility.

Here we have a different time zone – nearly an hour and a half ahead of IST. In Delhi, office starts at 9.30 am, this is three hours after the sunrise, which is like 8 here where the sun rises at 5, but we start here at 10.30, that is five and half-hours after the sunrise. And it is too late to feel energetic for work. We should start at eight in the morning and be free by 4 in the afternoon with half hour lunch break in between. There should be no practical problem in starting earlier – the Assam Legislative Assembly is doing it - because the employees themselves will have more time for their personal work.

With this schedule of work, there can be a uniform 5-day week – 37.5 hours a week. It will save government cost and enhance work efficiency. Of course, it must be clear to all that they must complete the day’s work and not defer it to the next day. Procrastination is the thief of time says the old saw and we must not become thieves in our job. No work and no pay - dies non – is an effective practice in Kerala in curing indolent absenteeism. We can replicate it here.

Our people are working 14/16 hours a day in private sectors – particularly in IT and financial organizations outside the state and proving their mettle. We can do that here too. We can create wealth by creating a climate of efficiency, which assures productivity and profitability. The American entrepreneur in the story will then put his money because he knows then that he can reap full catches.

The writer, a former Director General of Police in Kerala and Director General of the National Security Guard and the Border Security Force, is currently the State Chief Information Commissioner, Assam)