Civil Service Reforms-India
Published in B&E
The strange case of mr. patil and the hen
Politicised; pliant & pressurised is what the political class has reduced the civil servants to. Killing the very spirit and purpose of service, the government is hell bent on making good governance an ever elusive goal.
“The civil service should be accountable, effective and transparent in its functioning. It should be proactive and produce results.” What we need is a “fair, just and equitable” system of governance. These prophetic words belong to none other than our reformist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who in his initial (after taking over as the PM in 2004) rush to change the system had made bold statements. Three years hence all we can say is, it was mere rhetoric; a humbug. Like all politicians, Manmohan Singh too got embroiled in the political mess, with no time to for definitive policy making. The result is, today, we have unnecessary & avoidable controversies pertaining to lack of transparency in filling the high profile posts in the government. If only the PM had persevered, we would not have seen Kiran Bedi washing her dirty linen on television channels. Earlier, another woman in MEA, Veena Sikri was overlooked for the post of Foreign Secretary, Chokila Iyer who finally managed to get the highest post in MEA had to go through a series of struggles. All these examples may make us wonder if gender is the major criterion for the government to fill high profile jobs. However, a closer scrutiny of the system reveals that womanhood is certainly not the sole reason, why Kiran Bedi has been denied the top-cop post in the national capital. The malaise runs far deeper & therefore, cannot be ascribed to one single reason alone.
The rather sick Indian bureaucracy has plunged itself into an unfathomable pit of unholy nepotism, favouritism & corruption, reducing itself to being the midwives of politicians. Adding punch to the negative assertions about civil services and their impact on the armed forces, Lt. Gen. (retd.) Raj Kadyan told B&E, “A bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defence asked me to pay up Rs.5 lakhs, for an assured promotion to Army Commanders’ post. The General added finally “everything boils down to demand & supply. The top posts are very few & the queue is too long. Those who have the power to decide these appointments exploit this demand-supply gap to their advantage & showcase their power and reach.”The bureaucracy is so deeply embedded in a nexus with the politicians that they have simply forgotten the very purpose of the profession. This fact is corroborated even by the politicians from time to time. Former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma had remarked “We have a highly flawed system of management of administration.... Our administration, including the police force, has got significantly politicised.” The politicians cannot pass the buck, because it is they who are required to reform the system and create healthy work environment for the civil servants. That the political class has totally failed to provide a congenial workspace culture is proven by the fact that grievances within the services is at an all time high. The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT-which deals with the grievances of government employees) has 24,585 cases pending as of June 2006. Although the CAT since its inception in 1985 has been maintaining a case disposal rate of almost 90%, but the fact that these cases are on the rise, shows that somewhere down the line the administrative reform process which the government claims to be pursuing for last so many decades have failed to produce results and provide India with a well-oiled administrative set-up.
“The civil service should be accountable, effective and transparent in its functioning. It should be proactive and produce results.” What we need is a “fair, just and equitable” system of governance. These prophetic words belong to none other than our reformist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who in his initial (after taking over as the PM in 2004) rush to change the system had made bold statements. Three years hence all we can say is, it was mere rhetoric; a humbug. Like all politicians, Manmohan Singh too got embroiled in the political mess, with no time to for definitive policy making. The result is, today, we have unnecessary & avoidable controversies pertaining to lack of transparency in filling the high profile posts in the government. If only the PM had persevered, we would not have seen Kiran Bedi washing her dirty linen on television channels. Earlier, another woman in MEA, Veena Sikri was overlooked for the post of Foreign Secretary, Chokila Iyer who finally managed to get the highest post in MEA had to go through a series of struggles. All these examples may make us wonder if gender is the major criterion for the government to fill high profile jobs. However, a closer scrutiny of the system reveals that womanhood is certainly not the sole reason, why Kiran Bedi has been denied the top-cop post in the national capital. The malaise runs far deeper & therefore, cannot be ascribed to one single reason alone.
The rather sick Indian bureaucracy has plunged itself into an unfathomable pit of unholy nepotism, favouritism & corruption, reducing itself to being the midwives of politicians. Adding punch to the negative assertions about civil services and their impact on the armed forces, Lt. Gen. (retd.) Raj Kadyan told B&E, “A bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defence asked me to pay up Rs.5 lakhs, for an assured promotion to Army Commanders’ post. The General added finally “everything boils down to demand & supply. The top posts are very few & the queue is too long. Those who have the power to decide these appointments exploit this demand-supply gap to their advantage & showcase their power and reach.”The bureaucracy is so deeply embedded in a nexus with the politicians that they have simply forgotten the very purpose of the profession. This fact is corroborated even by the politicians from time to time. Former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma had remarked “We have a highly flawed system of management of administration.... Our administration, including the police force, has got significantly politicised.” The politicians cannot pass the buck, because it is they who are required to reform the system and create healthy work environment for the civil servants. That the political class has totally failed to provide a congenial workspace culture is proven by the fact that grievances within the services is at an all time high. The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT-which deals with the grievances of government employees) has 24,585 cases pending as of June 2006. Although the CAT since its inception in 1985 has been maintaining a case disposal rate of almost 90%, but the fact that these cases are on the rise, shows that somewhere down the line the administrative reform process which the government claims to be pursuing for last so many decades have failed to produce results and provide India with a well-oiled administrative set-up.
The bright, young men & women, who are fortunate enough to enter the corridors of power, are not born corrupt. They are neither traitors, deliberately intending to harm the nation through their misdemeanours. The question is – who converts these talented civil services rookies into crooks of highest order? What lures the civil servants to debase their values system and become subservient to the dictates of the political class? Majority would say that it the system which induces the fear in their minds – the fear of being left behind in the rat race – the paranoia related to being posted to the remote corners of the country, where their families will have to bear hardships. It is these small fears which lead them to abandon their dignity at the altar of power & pelf. Therefore, instead of choosing the harder right, they conveniently opt for the easier wrong. The harder right of course relates to serving the country and its people at large. The easier wrong under which majority of the bureaucracy takes refuge is – in a democracy they serve the nation by genuflecting in front of the elected representatives of the people. Therefore, they are doing no harm by following the illegitimate dictates of their masters. It is this very thought process, which makes aspiring professionals into diminished; pliant individuals, incapable of rendering selfless service to the nation.However, there are a few officers who uphold the principles & values and refuse to compromise with the system. But such ramrod straight individuals earn the wrath of their seniors as well the politicians & end up being superseded. This dejected lot leaves behind a trail of discontent, which not only displays the rot in the system but also adversely affects the overall performance of the service machinery. Noted bureaucrat and former Chairman, Central Vigilance Commission (CVG) N. Vittal, told B&E that the government’s skewed policy “doesn’t adequately reward achievers & punish the non-performers. As the Peter Principle states that in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence, if you don’t take adequate measures to stem this tide through proper policy of rewards and punishment all you get is a cipher.” There is absolutely no reason to dispute the former CVG’s assertions, because the motivational plans for the civil servants are simply based on patronage system. The ‘time-scale’ promotion system dovetailed with ‘security of tenure’ adds a sense of complacency among the bureaucrats, thus making them less accountable to the system and prone to corruption.
The entire country understands the ills plaguing the system. The sham & vain efforts of the government to reform the system have produced zero results, aggravating the situation ‘beyond economic repair’ and mercilessly killing the very essence of nationhood & people’s faith in the state.
2 comments:
Good writing.....Keep it up.....soon I will also add on this subject
Dear Atul. Interesting reading all your posts. Keep writing. Nothing is going to change. It looks getting worse everyday. The Indian academia must invite people like you to schools & colleges. Maybe there will then be a revolution. Please spread your message around quickly.
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