Come, be my killer, comrade!

There is one fundamental right that is not spelt out by our written Constitution but all the same enforced with great zeal and precision by its beneficiaries. And while the declared rights apply to all the citizens of this nation, this unwritten right caters to just one category of special citizens who are where they are, not due to their dint of hardwork or any superior talent but merely owing to a stroke of luck aided often by the correct connections.

This chosen elite comprises the government employees, staff of various government undertakings and the like who all enjoy an unmitigated right to pay, perks, bonus and what not but with no return obligation of matching labour in order to earn them. In short their ‘ s is a Right to Pay, come what may.

Sure, the Constitution also talks of a right to work which automatically implies the Right to Pay, but then our shrewd ‘ servants ‘ know only too well that in a socialist dispensation rooted in political populism, the Right to Work is a matter of choice while the right to compensation (for what, eh?) is absolute. Lesser mortals outside government service will have to necessarily slog to earn their living but not these blessed souls who deem even the simple chore of signing the attendance register a great act of service to the nation!

No one starts a business enterprise just to pay his employees. The generation of employment is an incidental spin off. This does not mean that the workers are irrelevant but the point is that the welfare of the organisation is the spring from which the stream of benefits to the staff can flow. If the viability or the financial health of an entity is under threat, it automatically entails a cut in the emoluments of the employees subject of course to the guaranteed minimum pay that no one can do without.

And those organisations who are unable to manage even that simply go out of business. This is the scenario under which the bulk of the population lives in this country. But our chosen lot who constitute merely a miniscule minority work for the government – make it ‘ work ‘ -, which is not guided by the above mentioned rules of viability and ability to pay.

And of course, the government can never go out of business too. Job security and pay to this ungrateful mass, therefore has become an irrevocable guarantee, something that no other individual in India, nay, anywhere in the world enjoys. But could bonus also be deemed such a guarantee? It is when this easy going lazy lot up their demands for sky-high bonus just when the country ‘ s economy is actually hurtling down to bottomless depths that one is provoked to place them under a magnifying glass.

And what do we see? Most government servants believe that it is the duty of the State to take care of them, that their status as government staff automatically entitles them to shirk and strike work at will if their demands are not met and that their lives are secure, financially and socially, come what may. Does this attitude not reek of utter insensitivity and shamelessness in the face of all round deprivation and despair?

If the governments at the Centre and States and scores of government undertakings have turned from being model employers to model suckers, it is purely because of this insatiable crowd that has been milking them dry even after there is nothing left to milk! The great plunge from the much touted commanding heights of the economy to the demanding depths of rampant unionism has been at the expense of the tax-payer but he is the one who suffers the most because of the government staff ‘ s inefficiency at work and intrasigence when they strike. But then what can we do? We can change a government we hate at least once in five years but not these government servants of ours who are virtually immortal!

The only occasion when this predominantly inert mass swings into action is during strikes. If only they show such stupendous zeal at work the general populace would be living in greater comfort, but that would be too much of a boon to seek from this self-seeking crowd. And even if there are a few conscientious characters in their midst, the labour mafias masquerading as Unions will not allow them to do their duty, in the name of labour solidarity.

Faced with an existential crisis, for most Unions – that are almost always affiliated to political parties – the government staff constitute the only source of salvation. And here lies the greatest irony of the Union movement which historically gained ground owing to unmitigated exploitation of the working class by the Haves. Pray, where is the question of exploitation in government service? Can the government, as an employer, ever exploit its employees?

Is the government a bourgeois entity like those in the private sector where there is both a theoretical possibility as well as prevalence of exploitation? If there is any exploitation doing the rounds, it is only the one that is being perpetrated by the government staff and their mafiaso unions with the general public becoming hapless victims not to mention the ‘Have-not’ State, which has for all practical purposes truly withered away as predicted!

We pay them their salaries but they have no qualms about biting the hand that feeds them. And now, horror of horrors, they want more, in the true, unfailing spirit of all blackmailers, in the form of bonus. If ever there was a case of rewarding one ‘ s own executioner it would be this. That is, if we budge.