HVK Archives: Bureaucracy bashing
Bureaucracy bashing - The Times of India
Madhav Godbole
()
14 May 1997
Title : Bureaucracy bashing
Author : Madhav Godbole
Publication : The Times of India
Date : May 14, 1997
"Uttar Pradesh", i.e. India, i.e. Bharat" was the common saying till a few years
ago. It may not be so any longer in terms of its hegemony in national politics,
but it continues to lead, or rather mislead, the country by its example in various
fields. The latest in such trail-blazing actions has been yet another onslaught on
the civil services in that state by the newly-installed BSP-BJP government. And,
as can be readily appreciated, this is really the last straw on the camel's back.
Confidential Reports
According to news reports, the chief minister, Ms Mayawati, has decided that the
annual confidential reports on the work of officers such as the district
magistrate, the collector and the superintendent of police will be written by the
district functionaries of the ruling political parties and, on this basis, their
work will be assessed by the government. The transfers of officers had already
become a wholesale market in that state. Each recent chief minister has tried to
outdo his predecessors by mindlessly transferring All India Service officers and
senior functionaries of various departments again and again. Some officers are
reported to have been transferred as many as four times in a year. lie Mayawati
government too has transferred more than 150 IAS and IPS officers since coming to
power recently. Ale suspension of officers had also been resorted to
indiscriminately thereby completely demoralising the services. So far it was
believed that the future prospects of officers, by way of their annual
confidential reports, will at least be safeguarded from the total politicisation
of the services. Even this last hope has now been shattered.
The entire institution of the bureaucracy, and more particularly the civil
service, has come under unbearable pressure in recent times. More often than not,
all the ills of government apathy, indifference, imperviousness and
wooden-headedness are laid at the door of the so-called unimaginative and callous
bureaucracy. The very term bureaucrat has become a swear word. "He is yet another
bureaucrat" is a common snide comment. Some prominent national newspapers have
added to this vocabulary by denigrating the civil services as babudom. The word
babu is now freely used for even the highest civil servants in the country, in a
supercilious manner, in the editorials of prominent dailies. It is time this
witch-hunt is stopped. This is not the way to bring home to the civil services
the need for improving their functioning. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is
reported to have said that he was disgusted by the way some officers in various
ministries delay action on the instructions given to them. He was lamenting the
fact that the bureaucracy was hindering the functioning of the government. This
was an amazing statement coming from a Prime Minister. We have indeed travelled a
long way since the days of Vallabhai Patel, the then Union home minister, who was
responsible for giving the services a pride of place by providing for
constitutional backing for the creation of the All India Services. But the
underlying faith, philosophy and trust in this measure have been completely lost
on the ruling political elite, irrespective of which political party it belongs
to.
In the initial years of independence, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru,
had proposed making provisions to protect the interests of the civil services in
matters such as promotions, postings and transfers. But the civil services had
such intrinsic faith in the political leadership of that time that the senior
civil servants themselves felt that such safeguards were not necessary. The
services are now repenting having foregone such a precious opportunity. For, what
is at stake now is the very survival of the civil services, with a modicum of
self-respect and social standing.
Most Unfortunate
It was most unfortunate that the Supreme Court refused to intervene and give any
directions in the public interest litigation filed by the Common Cause in respect
of indiscriminate transfers of officers by the state and the central governments.
Laying down guidelines for the purpose would have met a long-standing grievance of
government servants. The Sarkaria Commission on Centre-state relations had
commanded the performance of the All India Services and had emphasised their
importance in the federal set up of the country. At the same time, the Commission
had cautioned against the increasing tendency of the governments to "discipline"
officers by way of frequent transfers and suspension. Way back in 1978, Morarji
Desai, the then Prime Minister, had written to the chief ministers against
frequent transfers of field officers which result in lack of continuity, apart
from demoralisation of officers, and erosion of their prestige and position.
It is widely admitted that we have' decisively entered an era of political
instability, coalition governments and frequent changes in the government both in
the Centre and the states. Even the membership of the club of former Prime
Ministers is growing rapidly. The number of former ministers of the Centre and
the states, at any given time, is now in thousands. In such periods of political
instability, the civil services can play an important role in providing continuity
and creating a sense of confidence among the domestic and foreign investors
regarding the soundness of the basic administrative apparatus of the country.
This has been the experience in a number of countries the world over.
Unfortunately, we are doing everything possible to erode the people's faith not
only in the political parties and their leaders, but also in the permanent civil
services.
Public Good
Economic liberalisation and globalisation has been perceived as the withering away
of the state and the government by a section of the intellectuals in this country.
The experience in a number of countries points entirely in the other direction.
A number of regulatory and other mechanisms will have to be set up to ensure that
the larger public good is not compromised in any way at the altar of short-term
gains and profits. There is undeniably a great deal that is wrong with the Indian
bureaucracy, or babudom as some would prefer to call it. But it has to be
realised that it too represents all that is wrong with every other section of this
society. This marriage of the bureaucracy with society has to work. Deriding the
partner day in and day out will only complicate matters, leading to further
erosion of trust.
(The author is a former Union home secretary)
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