Gautam Goswami
Laying Down the Law
By Aravind Adiga
Posted Monday, October 4, 2004; 21:00 HKT
When flash floods hit the Indian state of Bihar in July, millions of people were displaced from their homes, many without access to food or drinking water. A catastrophe was looming, and Gautam Goswami did more than anyone to avert it. As the district magistrate—the top bureaucrat—in Patna, Bihar's capital, Goswami coordinated a massive relief effort that involved the Indian government, army and international aid agencies. At 4:30 each morning, Goswami was at Patna's airport hangar, seeing off helicopters loaded with food, drinking water, tents and medical supplies; then he made sure truck convoys headed off to areas that could be reached by land. Goswami, 38, and his team toiled for a month, until the floods receded and the displaced returned home.
Bihar is India's poorest state, and one of its most violent. Many Indians view the territory—which is infested with gangsters and Marxist guerrillas—as a basket case beyond redemption. But Goswami is helping to save it. For example, after three successive parliamentary elections in Patna had to be either partially or entirely countermanded because of violence and electoral fraud, Goswami was put in charge of the ballot in 1999. He barricaded Patna, so that gunmen in cars couldn't enter the city, and set up telephone lines for citizens to call in with complaints. In 1999 and 2004, with Goswami as the overseer, Patna had the two fairest elections it had seen in years.
Goswami's reputation for upholding the law improves the image of a civil service perceived by many Indians as corrupt or inefficient. Says Goswami: "There are so many more ways to help people in this job than in any other."
With reporting by Faizan Ahmed/Patna
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