Re-orienting Civil Services
in tune to the concept of ‘Good Governance’
[A memorandum by AIACEGEO to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India]
Before proceeding to place some of our suggestions/concerns in this regard, we would like to cite some of important points made by one of India’s leading statesman Shri. Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, in his inaugural lecture under the name of ‘A Good Administrator’, in the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Memorial Lecture Series:
“The people expect a rise in the general standard of comfort, and this, too, not for one class at the expense of another but among all classes generally, urban as well as rural.
The psychology of the caste nexus and of class differences is strong in India. All the greater is the need for firm and impartial officials, and the common people know this.
If anyone investigated into what most people in India desire as regards government - whether they want democracy, or whether they want a federal or a unitary government, or whether they want the American type of democracy or the British and so on - I guess we shall see that what the people want were honest, efficient, prompt, just and sympathetic officers.
Bad temper is not a substitute for firmness. It does not pay. It leads to being surrounded by worthless people who can stand bad temper. The better men drop off from one who exhibits ill temper or threatens every moment to do so without adequate reason. And the going away of the better men leads to a double loss. You lose good men and you get flatterers and worthless men.
What is essential at the top is the capacity to judge upon relevant advice and to decide promptly and rightly in executive matters. Judicial offices are not the only places where the capacity to judge is essential. To decide in matters executive, quickly and correctly, is a gift of the Gods. And this is it that makes a good administrator. In small as well as great affairs, he proves to be a good administrator who has this talent for right judgment and quick decision.
Character is as important for administrators at every level, from the Chief Secretary down to the last grade servant, as sunlight is to every form of life.”
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Administration was supposed to have been entrusted into safe hands - to deliver. The machinery was to be put to proper use for this purpose. Machinery included manpower.
Over a period of time, the sense of self protection and self pampering has become so overpowering that all powers are used mainly for advancement of pompous exhibitionism. Either they are personal in nature or class specific.
All resources made available for administration - whether it is office space, residential accommodation, vehicles for performing official duties, finance made available for running of offices, grants for allowances – are taken for granted, to be the private property of the head of administration at each level and within their discretionary ambit. Any questions regarding propriety of use or misuse of these and any suggestions regarding any rules that exist to the contrary would be treated as an affront to authority and viewed with animosity. Any person who would dare to point out the same would be hounded out of the way of fulfillment of the insatiable appetite towards exercise of such discretionary authority.
Misuse of machinery is indeed the stepping stone for corruption. Either it is perpetuated or tolerated. Misuse at every level, to the extent possible, therefore becomes a norm.
The next major setback faced is in perpetuating the feudal mind set by continued entrenchment of the ‘psychology of class difference’ already prevalent. The manner in which other staff members in an establishment are being treated goes a very long way in revealing ‘Character’ and ‘Culture’. We are coming across with increasing frequentness, Direct Recruit Civil Service Officers, being abusive to their subordinates, irrespective of age, rank or experience. They think that being ill-tempered, shouting, abusing or making disparaging personal remarks (even on files) is a way to show their authority. They want only a group of ‘chamchas’ around, to increase their ambit of unrestricted exercise of discretionary authority to abuse the system. Ill temper or bad manners are not used by them just as a substitute for firmness, but even more, to hide their incompetence and at the same time establish their authority over their subordinates and to reiterate that they are the lords of the rings.
Immediately after Independence, the basis for entry into the Civil Services had been the pride to serve the Country and to be of meaningful help to the society. But from that tall pedestal, the services have come down to being the minions of power brokering, self-aggrandizement and corruption. The ‘netha-babu’ nexus was conveniently created for this purpose.
Transfers have become a major source of trading and profiteering. Transfers also serve as a tool to keep the subordinates under a tough leash, in mortal fear of being separated from their families and of being put to great unaccounted financial loss and psychological pressure. This mechanism, in the name of discipline and administrative requirement, has been exercised quite arbitrarily, but with such an uncanny knack that any judicial intervention will itself become a long drawn process, only increasing the nightmare of the litigant. The system has been tailored and tightened to suit the ends of the administrative class, in protecting their ‘class interests’.
Even when an individual makes a representation, or seeks implementation of a judicial verdict, the norm that has come to rule, is to play safe or convenient, in the name of being faithful to the organization, unmindful of the dictum that a Good Administrator should also take proper and quick decisions, judiciously.
Injustice, corruption and favoritism perpetuated within the system, will automatically boil over the delivery mechanism. It has a cascading or even a spiraling effect.
Thus, when there is a contemplation regarding the change in the method of assessment of the new recruits into the Civil Services, as it appears from the letter of the JS (Admn) of DOPT cited above, it requires to be reinforced that the Civil Service Officers are to serve the nation and society and not just make a cozy living for themselves and their families.
The fundamental change in the mindset of these highly qualified, intelligent young men and women entering the Civil Services has primarily happened due to the earlier governments falling between two stools ideologically. On one hand it was stated that ‘it was not the business of the Government to do businesses’. At the same time, on the other, it was stated that, ‘performance indicators were paramount for a successful governance’.
Due to the insistence on performance indicators, the system has gone on an overdrive to create statistics to prove its own worth. Towards that, ‘by hook or by crook’, has become the norm. That verily destroyed ‘best judgment’ and ‘good governance’ and profiteering became the motive.
In ‘good governance’, administrators had to be people with equanimity, integrity and character. Intelligence and strategic capacities were supplementary. As Norman Schwarzkopf said, ‘Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy’. But what we are increasingly coming across is that character and civility have been substituted by craftiness and coarseness.
Hence, at this juncture, it is requested that the Government may seriously consider re-orientation of the recruitment process of the top most Civil Servants of the country, so that the true worth of freedom as enshrined in the Constitution could be delivered to the Citizens, as would be expected of an egalitarian and cultured society.
Strict assessment on a 360 degree basis should be insisted upon for any subsequent promotions in their careers, to improve accountability and impartiality in administration. Erroneous decisions having consequence of harassments should be strictly dealt with like any departmental disciplinary issues. Of course, these parameters need to be applied for the serving Officers too.
By ensuring this, a great revolution would have been made to the basic structure of Civil Service Administration in this country.
(R. Manimohan)
Secretary General
