Indian Tradition of not Accepting Resignations
In 1956 the then Minister of Railways and Transport Lal Bahadur Shastri submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He did so after about 112 people were killed in a railway accident in Mahbubnagar. Nehru refused to accept his resignation. A few months later he resigned again because of another rail accident in Tamil Nadu (144 innocent people were killed).
Pundit Nehru accepted his resignation the second time around. But in classical Indian tradition Shastri again became Minister for Transportation in 1957 and then later went on to become the Prime Minister of India in 1964. Many Railway Ministers have submitted their resignations since and many will do so in the future. The Indian government can launch rockets but is incapable of running a safe railway network.
The tradition of politicians failing at their jobs time after time but still managing to hold on to their jobs was established right after independence. Senior politicians and cabinet members are often given multiple chances at redemption that most Indians do not get in their day to day lives.
One of the key tools used by politicians for their survival is offering up resignations fully knowing that the likelihood of the resignation being accepted is almost zero. Immediately after the Telangana fiasco many MLA’s and ministers submitted their resignations. None of the resignations were accepted and almost all of them withdrew their resignations weeks later. This is a clear case of using the act of resigning as a threat more than anything else.
A few days ago India’s Home Minister P Chidambaram submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after over 75 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed by Maoists in Dantewada. The Prime Minister did not accept the resignation. But was this the right decision?
Chidambaram has a legal and financial background. His record as a politician and a minister has been unimpressive. For the past year and a half he has struggled as the Home Minister of India. The Indian Home Ministry is probably one of the largest bureaucracies in the world (very similar to the Homeland Security department in the United States). He has no background leading and managing such large organizations.
He has struggled to define a strategy to control the Maoist revolution (there is still debate on whether to use the army, air force or other military personnel or leave the fighting to entities like the CRPF). His decision to fight rather than negotiate is very controversial because unlike terrorism, Maoism for the most part is home grown and is similar to a civil war. Fighting an armed conflict against fellow Indians is never a good strategy. He has called the Maoists and other insurgents as “cowards” although they have dealt severe blows to the CRPF’s and the like. So resignation might be the right thing to do for him and the nation.
Refusing to accept a resignation is also very common in the private sector in India these days. Many large corporations are not allowing their employees to quit on their own terms. For many Indians the resignation “acceptance” letter from the employer is very important without which they might not be able to find another job. In some cases the “resignation” phase can drag on for months.
When a person resigns voluntarily it is in the best interests of all parties involved to move on. In many cases people quit trying or caring long before they officially resign. Resignation is the final nail in the coffin. What is to be gained by persuading such a person to keep working?
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Category: News & Government
YEh bharat hai.. here its all decided before hand , like the scripts of a hindi movie, that i will resign you DONT Accept.. EASY PEASY.. otherwise after the recent fiasco.. it is MORALLY right to resign and our dear PM sahib.. he is merely a No one in all that.. IT was already decided what the outcome will be of THIS DRAMA.. and so it was …
Worst things have happened still i dont see any resignations happening, the ones that happen are also on some sort of Understanding…
Mera bharat mahaan, HEre ek PEON se leke , minister tak resignation means nothing …
You are right Bikram. After what happened to our soldiers the Home Minister should have definitely resigned.