People in Tamil Nadu certainly expect honesty in public life, although it was time-consuming, said U. Sagayam, Vice-Chairman of Science City in Chennai and former Madurai Collector, while inaugurating classes for the third batch of students at Nermai IAS Coaching Academy here on Thursday.
Stating that honesty had become a dangerous word that invoked fear of getting isolated and boycotted, Mr. Sagayam said the situation was changing as people were beginning to embrace honest people.
Later, referring to a recent meeting organised in Puducherry by Makkal Padhai, an organisation doing social work under his guidance, Mr. Sagayam pointed out how around 5,000 people, predominantly youngsters, waited patiently to hear him even though he reached the venue 2.5 hours late.
Hindi or Tamil
He also recollected his recent deputation as an Election Observer to Uttar Pradesh where all the communications were in Hindi though the District Magistrate there was aware that he did not know Hindi. “At one point, a senior police official asked me to approve a file that was in Hindi. To make him understand, I asked him to bring it in Tamil, to which he replied that he did not know Tamil. Then I told him back that I did not know Hindi,” he said. “I can learn as many languages as possible. However, that should be my choice and should not be imposed on me,” he said.
Alleging that the District Magistrate there did not act on his request to provide an assistant who understood Tamil, Mr. Sagayam said that a young woman Trainee District Magistrate from the State but belonging to UP cadre came to his rescue. “She hailed from a humble family and studied in a Chennai Corporation school,” he said, urging the participants to take inspiration from her and become IAS officers.
Nermai IAS Coaching Academy, which provided free coaching to IAS aspirants with particular focus on differently abled candidates, had been named ‘nermai’(honesty) since that was the quality the country lacked, he said.
S. Ramakrishnan, Director of the Academy, said 50 candidates from poor socio-economic background, including two differently abled persons, had been selected for coaching this year.
M. Davamani Christober, Principal of The American College, where the academy would be conducting classes, appealed to students and IAS aspirants to read books instead of spending time on social media platforms to succeed.