Harsh ManderA staunch believer in democratic processes
Harsh Mander, a 55-year-old bureaucrat-turned-social activist, refuses to give a black-and-white answer to whether fighting for justice from within the system was better than fighting from the outside.
"I value both the phases of my career…I can't say if one is better than the other," says Mander.
In this context, Mander says it is strange that he is working from within the system despite no longer being part of it and had worked from the outside as well when he was part of the system. A 1980-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, Mander quit civil services after the Gujarat violence. He was also the country director for ActionAid, a British charity, for a short while after 1999.
"I have always believed in the democratic process. My early years in the services trained me to objectively handle many issues. But there were times when one felt that one couldn't do so much from within the system. Similarly, after I quit the IAS, I've felt frustrated at the plight of the homeless children in Delhi," he says.
But he does agree that working in Chhattisgarh helped him understand several issues that he has canvassed for - viz; communal violence, homeless children and dignity to leprosy patients, among others.
Harsh Mander, a 55-year-old bureaucrat-turned-social activist, refuses to give a black-and-white answer to whether fighting for justice from within the system was better than fighting from the outside.
"I value both the phases of my career…I can't say if one is better than the other," says Mander.
In this context, Mander says it is strange that he is working from within the system despite no longer being part of it and had worked from the outside as well when he was part of the system. A 1980-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, Mander quit civil services after the Gujarat violence. He was also the country director for ActionAid, a British charity, for a short while after 1999.
"I have always believed in the democratic process. My early years in the services trained me to objectively handle many issues. But there were times when one felt that one couldn't do so much from within the system. Similarly, after I quit the IAS, I've felt frustrated at the plight of the homeless children in Delhi," he says.
But he does agree that working in Chhattisgarh helped him understand several issues that he has canvassed for - viz; communal violence, homeless children and dignity to leprosy patients, among others.
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