Chapter 18 - Indian Information Service (IIS) | A Bouquet of Services by IPS Lohit Matani and IPS Vishal - UPSC PDF Download

18.7    Perks, Privileges and Advantages for an IIS Officer

1. Colloquially, IIS is also known as Indian Individual Service. The growth of an officer is dependent on the individual efforts made by him/ her. His/ her growth depends very less on external factors like political contacts etc.
2. A good IIS officer can excel at various levels of the service.
3. A good aspect about the service is that officers do not have much financial discretion with them. Thus, they are less concerned with issues of financial accountability and vigilance.
4. Officers in IIS maintain a high amount of indirect influence with higher authorities at all levels of government as well as private sector.
5. The role of information and publicity played by IIS officers is important in directing the policies of government of India. The feedback brought by IIS officers is essential in deciding the policies of Government of India.
6. In the future, this service will become prominent as the role played by media is increasing in an exponential manner. Media was the only sector which grew at the rate of 13-14% during recession. Government will have to play a great role in using media to its advantage and increasing its public relation in this time of globalization. Thus, the significance of IIS officers is bound to enhance with respect to other civil services.
7. This job provides essential opportunities for maintaining a good work life balance.
8. The postings are mostly in big cities.

18.8 Occupational Hazards

The job of an IIS officer provides growth advantages to officers having individual capabilities of excellence, networking and hard work. However, an average officer who tries to follow his/ her regular duties without any additional efforts for excellence is bound to suffer in this service. Secondly, the feedback provided by IIS officers is essential in deciding the governmental policies. However, the role of IIS officers is only of a recommending nature. They don’t have direct influence over the governmental schemes and programs. Thirdly, the influence over public is not as significant as in All India Services. Finally, although the officers are supposed to have a high amount of indirect influence over authorities at all levels, but the amount of direct influence over other government departments and authorities is less. This happens because majority of the IIS officers are posted in Directorates only.

18.9    Case Studies Indicating the Work, Challenges and Ethical Dilemmas                                         Faced by an IIS Officer

18.9.1 Role of Media during Terror Attacks- Action by IIS Officers

The role played by media during certain terror attacks has been very disturbing in certain cases. The media has played a very negative role during 26/11 terror attacks. They telecasted the live coverage of the operations conducted by police and NSG. The media clippings helped the terrorists in maneuvering their position and increasing the damage.

The same role was played by one of the electronic media channels during Pathankot attacks. The channel revealed strategically sensitive details on the television during the attacks. The information could have been picked by the terrorists, compromising not only national security but also the lives of civilians and defense personnel.

Ministry of Home Affairs gave a notice against this behavior of that news channel. After a period of 6 months, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting gave a notice for banning the channel across all media platforms for a day. The day chosen for executing the ban was crucial as it was on the day succeeding US elections. Therefore, the news channel suffered a huge economic loss on this account.

However, the channel retracted by saying that it has only published the information available in public domain. It claimed to have been singled out in this step and remarked that the decision represented an attack on the freedom of media.

Q. What are the ethical issues involved in the coverage by this news channel and decision taken by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting? Is it ethical to suppress the freedom of media when national security is at stake? Could this situation be managed in a better way by the ministry? If yes, then how?

18.9.2 Containing Negative News

An important aspect of the work profile of IIS officers is to contain negative news going viral in the media. However, containing such news becomes difficult when the issue becomes politicized and emotionally charged.

Similar difficulty came when a boy from Scheduled Caste community committed suicide in his university room. The incident became viral when the videos and photographs of suicide were circulated in the media. The news also led to law and order problems in certain parts of the country. The news also maligned the image of India considering the situation of SC/ST discrimination in India. The issue brought forth the message that the boy committed suicide because of discrimination faced by him on account of being a part of a lower caste.

However, such a message was not completely factual. It became the duty of concerned IIS officers to contain such news and supply factually correct information to enlighten the public. Officers publisher a narrative given by the Vice Chancellor of the University; the VC said that the there is no discrimination in the University and suicide was not a result of SC/ST discrimination. He explained the incident by giving certain facts about the past history of the deceased (such details are immaterial to be produced over here). IIS officers also held a press conference through the aegis of Minister of Human Resource Development. The Minister said that there was a malicious intent to represent this incident as a Dalit versus Non-Dalit issue to ignite passions.

In containing this issue, the officers of IIS faced an ethical issue of supporting the truth. However, reaching the truth is sometimes not easy. Many times officers end up propagating the stand of government institutions rather than supporting the truth. In this case, officers tried to propagate the narrative of the VC of the university.

Q. What ethical issues were faced in this situation? How could the situation be managed in a better way? How politicization of issues diminishes the truth behind them? Give another example to support the answer.

Hint: 1. the flow of information from different sources (important as well as unimportant) should be well analyzed). 2. Authenticity of each and every information should be verified before publishing. 3. Fact finding committee from the concerned Ministry should come forward and support the IIS officers in knowing the truth.

18.9.3 A Great Role in Containing Naxalism

The role played by IIS officers in suppressing naxalism is as important as that of police officers. Naxalism as a movement cannot survive without the support of local tribal population. To gain the support of the local tribal population, the naxal leaders try to show that the democratically elected government is against the interests of the local tribal people. They project that all the development in the country is favoring the rich while exploiting the tribal people. Further their propaganda ensues that police forces want to suppress local tribal people.

However, such propaganda by the naxal leaders is completely wrong. The role played by the police forces is to arrest naxalites and bring them to justice. However, they lack expertise in propagating the developmental work done by the government in the tribal villages. The expertise of IIS officers come in play in this case.

Similar was the situation in Gadchirolli district of Maharashtra State. The IIS officer posted in the district conducted a publicity campaign to earn the good will of the local tribal people. The team under him circulated pamphlets highlighting the benefits of development and employment. They circulated success stories of village people who received education from governmental schools. They showed how people from their villages have benefitted from schemes like Maharashtra Darshan, skills training, and so on. They also circulated stories on how the naxalites have made the life of villagers miserable. They also brought out the image of police forces in positive light.

Their campaign led to positive results in many fronts. Many naxal leaders as well as newly recruited naxals surrendered in front of the government. However, the publicity team always circulated the facts given to them by the police as well as the local revenue department. They did not focused on the complaints of the local public like lack of development in their villages and the human rights violations committed by the police force (these complaints may have been baseless and motivated).

Question: What are the ethical issues involved in this campaign by the team of IIS officers? Can this issue be better tackled? Suggest a strategy in which all the ethical issues enumerated by you can be satisfied?