MUMBAI, July 7: If the top echelons of Maharashtra Government are worried that the Bombay High Court's judgement on Friday in the Khairnar case might signal the ``unloosing'' of more cannons aimed at people in high places, they need have no cause for fear. For the reinstatement of former deputy municipal commissioner G R Khairnar appears to have left everyone cold, including the protagonist himself.

Khairnar is recognised as a ``loose cannon'' who had the guts to break free from the shackles of babudom to take on the political establishment. However, the general opinion among former bureaucrats and politicians is that others are unlikely to follow in his footsteps, unless they are excessively courageous or foolhardy -- or both.

For, says S S Tinaikar, former Brihanmumbai municipal commissioner, the judgement is not a ``case-law'' (the law as established by the outcome of former cases) that would come to the aid of bureaucrats tired of the rotting system and wishing for a change. It is the decision of one judge who believed Khairnar was innocent while an earlier one had held him guilty, thus leaving a wide scope for interpretation on other cases of this nature. ``There are not many bureaucrats who want to do or face what Khairnar has done,'' Tinaikar notes. ``Very few have Khairnar's courage and forthrightness to face the consequences.''

According to former Punjab and Mumbai police chief Julio Ribeiro, the situation cuts both ways. ``If everyone is encouraged to flout discipline, it will be very difficult for the man at the top to run the Government. Yet it is the politicians themselves who have caused the muddle. So you have people like Khairnar and Sanjay Pandey who, in utter frustration, go to the Press and the courts.''

Ribeiro suggests that all disciplinary action against maverick officers as well as their transfers and postings in the normal course be handed over to a civil services board, over which politicians have no control. ``However, I do not think any party will agree to it,'' Ribeiro concedes.

Under the circumstances, it is only Khairnar who wishes that ``while the situation is hopeless, my case will aid the cause of a generational change in the system wherein the next line can acquire the necessary self-respect, dignity and courage to stand up to their political masters''. But even he is not enthused. ``I was sincere, incorruptible and disciplined. If despite all this, I can be damaged the way I was, how encouraging would it be to others? I will return to work only in so far as it helps my social crusade. Otherwise, I will call it quits.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.