By SARVESH KAUSHAL Hierarchical protocol is the bedrock of governance, and its absence is a horrendous anarchy. Respect is a voluntary feeling, but adherence to official protocol is not. Protocol is not a private subject, like individual's own choice of quantum of dignity that he has to assign to his family elders and others, but is the basic minimum dignity and respect that is officially prescribed as a hierarchical mandate upon every civil servant. The recent controversy involving the West Bengal Chief Secretary, who is the custodian as well as the chief watchdog of protocol adherence in his state, shows that whatever may be the political environment, highly adversarial and acrimonious by any standards, there was no need for a Chief Secretary to take sides on the considerations of personal expediency, but it would have been appropriate to go by the rulebook and rulebook alone. No one having even an elementary grounding as an IAS officer can imagine a Chief secretary and the DGP of the state not receiving the Prime Minister during his official visits in their respective States, except perhaps in case of being off duty for example with a crippling physical disability, or a personal tragedy back home, in which case the officiating Chief Secretary or the officiating DGP has to take over as such, with proper prior intimation. Is it very well in the knowledge of any seasoned bureaucrat of the rank of Chief Secretary that for him the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister, when it comes to adherence to protocol, are well established institutions and not individuals. A Chief Secretary is the Chief Secretary to the Government of a State, and not the Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister, much less a chief political secretary of the Chief Minister. A different level of maturity as well of a detached and uncoloured appreciation of every catch-22 situation is called upon from a career civil servant who rises to the post of Chief Secretary. In such situations, despite the proclaimed acrimony between the political bosses at the state and that at the Centre, the Chief Secretary has to play a crucial role in rendering the right advice to the state Chief Minister about protocol and propriety, rather than facilitating a breach in the reverse of it. The proximity of the Chief Secretary in day to day working with the Chief Minister should play a positive role bringing in the right amount of correction in prevailing thought process, rather than fuelling acrimonious protocol breaches. Chief Secretary is supposed to possess a different level of knowledge, maturity and understanding altogether. What to talk of Chief Secretary's level, even junior and middle level field officers are very well aware of the fact that as per SPG security drill, air traffic is always curtailed within a certain radius of air-space for anyone else when the Prime Minister is airborne to his destination, which is why usually all the relevant functionaries who have to reach at the same venue by air must essentially land almost one hour before the landing time of the Prime Minister. When the Prime Minister moves, he naturally has the precedence, and the Chief Secretary and the DGP always plan the minute to minute movement of the state level VIPs in such a way that they don't infringe upon the security restrictions meant for the safety of the Prime Minister. Such excuses like delay caused due to air restrictions do not hold good in knowledgeable administrative circles. It is quite clear that either the Chief Secretary of West Bengal did not plan as he should have, or he successfully planned a breach of protocol for whatever considerations he may have had in his mind. Politics in India has unfortunately come to theatrics, tantrums, rewards and retribution. But these mantras are not for the civil servants to practise. No Chief Secretary would ever have thought of skipping an official meeting presided over by the Prime Minister of India while in his own State, because there is nothing more important than that for the Chief Secretary, and if there is something more important than that, surely the Prime Minister knows that and, very surely, would prioritise accordingly. It is just as no Deputy Commissioner/ Collector / District Magistrate in a district would even think of missing a meeting presided over by the Chief Minister of a state while travelling to his district. No one can imagine that when the Chief Justice of India visits the State and presides over an official review meeting of judicial officers, the Chief Justice of the High Court of that State decides to abstain, or when the Chief of Indian Defence Forces visits the Command Headquarters for a review, the Army Commander decides to walk out and abstain. Such serious aberrations bordering on delinquency would render well-established hierarchical governance into the worst degree of anarchy. The West Bengal imbroglio is indeed a case study material for Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. The protocol breach that the West Bengal Chief Secretary has indulged in is perhaps the first and the worst of its type by a civil servant heading the Civil Services in the State. The issue of invoking punitive provisions of the Disaster Management Act against a State Chief Secretary will, most probably, land up in the Courts of law, being the first of its type, and will have to justify its tenability. Politically motivated commentary for or against is also likely to shroud the transfer of West Bengal Chief Secretary to the Union Government, which seems to have been rendered redundant after the retirement of the officer. But the scars of prima facie professional misconduct may remain for posterity to dwell upon. Sardar Patel envisaged the All India Services as the steel frame, and it will remain a steel frame only as long as it's members adhere to the basics of propriety. While the civil servants must go all out to carry out the policies lawfully framed by their political bosses in public interest without being egotist obstructionists pulled back by negative energy, it is extremely essential to draw a line and not to fall below the fundamental denominator of an impersonal neutrality in observance of the basic minimum professional standards of All India Services officers of Sardar Patel's dreams. If the steel frame itself becomes kinked on account of misplaced personal political alignments or lure of rewards, resulting into pliability in issues requiring righteous firmness expected from well-groomed All India Service officers, the resultant rot cannot be attributed to other stakeholders, who are too eager to exploit the civil services as tools in their political chess games. About the author: Sarvesh Kaushal is a former IAS officer. He was Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab (India) during 2014-2017. The views expressed are his personal. He can be reached at sarveshkaushal@gmail.com