06-06-2008, 12:31 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It's not all over for bureaucracy
India's 'steel frame' may be rusting, but it does not seem to be beyond redemption, writes MV Kamath (Pioneer, 19 May 2008)
The Changing Face of Bureaucracy: Fifty years of the IAS Author: Sanjoy Bagchi Publisher: Rupa Price :Rs 795     Â
Never before has the Indian Administrative Service, the successor to the famed Indian Civil Service (ICS), come under such sharp criticism as Sanjoy Bagchi's book has done. This is not the work on outsider, nor is it a reflection of one's animus towards one's colleagues.
Bagchi joined the IAS in 1953, served it for two decades abroad, before returning to India, only to find his beloved service going to pieces. Shocked, he sought the views of his contemporaries and colleagues. To his dismay, he learnt that what he thought was the steady decay of the IAS was only too true. He attributes it to Emergency declared in 1975 by Mrs Indira Gandhi.
If, as Bagchi sees it, any one person can be charged with distorting the image of the IAS, it was Mrs Gandhi. He writes, "A reincarnation of despotic Mughal durbar
Writes Bagchi, with seeming contempt: <b>"The different (IAS) youngster of the early idealistic years, in course of time, is transformed into an arrogant senior, fond of throwing his weight around, he become a conceited pig." Harsh words surely and unlikely to be applicable to all IAS officers and Bagchi concedes that. But he insists that "the knowledge about corrupt IAS officers is spontaneously known to their superiors and Ministers". The "real problem" being that "it is difficult to take disciplinary action against a corrupt IAS officer because he is entitled to protection according to principles of natural justice".</b>
Bagchi is very crucial of the CBI as well. He writes, "In recent year, the CBI has been dismal comprehensively," adding, "The CBI has increasingly started resorting to framing false cases, with a shrewd eye on the political who's who." The book has to be read to be believed.
Bagchi traces the history of the civil services from the days of the East India Company and the role that the District collector had to play for decades. It is a detailed study of the administrative structure in India throughout the British regime. No matter how much one hated the British rule, the fact remains that the ICS was held in high esteem because it was accessible to the common people in rural areas. It was admired for its impartiality and efficiency. It had no political axe to grind.
Independence and the rise of political parties changed the contours of the IAS, which followed its predecessor ICS. Vallabhbhai Patel, who was responsible for the setting of the IAS, would be now crying in shame to see what has happened to it. Bagchi is clear that the IAS today is not the meritocratic entity which one would associate with the premier civil services, is not the lean and compact organisation which it was when first it came into existence, has no shared vision and it has now become customary for IAS officers to attach themselves to sub-goals like caste, communal or political for IAS officers to attach themselves to sub-goals like caste, communal or political assignments.
Bagchi asks a sensible question: "Should there be a brand new service to take the place of the IAS, avoiding the defects that have been plaguing it?" We need a Central service to remind regional Governments that the ultimate power lies in Delhi, which is the final authority in a united India. Under no circumstances should the IAS be dissolved.
Indeed, Bagchi agrees with this when he says, "It is evident that winding up the IAS without finding a substitute service is not a workable proposition, particularly in view of the complexity and diversity of the huge country with varying economic and political conditions in the States." What comes a s relief is to hear him say that "the IAS does not seem to be beyond redemption." There is still hope. This country does not lack idealistic young men and women. Only they are waiting for leadership. had been created in the Prime Minister's house; the rule of law has broken down and the wishes of the 'Empress' and her minions, lawful or otherwise, became the directives of state policy. Personal freedom was severely circumscribed, the Press was muzzled and the most atrocious deeds were perpetrated by the state agencies." As Bagchi saw it, for the IAS, the desire to please the dictator at all coats has become the prime motive.
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_...t&counter_img=3
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Decline of IAS: Entire blame rests on political parties
By Rajinder Puri (FPJ,
If the IAS has lost its shine, the blame rests solidly on our ruthless political parties with their own agenda. Repairing the administrative system, then, must begin with repairing the political system. And the task must be immediately taken on hand. And that is the responsibility of the citizens and the people who have the power to vote out the corrupt.
A few years ago, the nomination of M. S. Gill by the Congress Party to the Rajya Sabha had raised some very valid questions of propriety. The induction of the same gentleman into the Union Ministry as a Minister of State on April 5, raises even more disturbing questions.
Gill, it may be remembered, was once the Chief Election Commissioner of India. Should a one-time civilian, to whichever cadre he belongs, have the privilege of being nominated to membership of Parliament, let alone to a Ministry? What kind of message is the Congress Party sending to civilians, more notably the Indian Administrative service? That they can expect higher positions in government after retirement, if, as civilians, they serve the party's interests faithfully? Even as matters stand, the Indian Administrative service (IAS) is under heavy attack.
One has only to read the newly published book on fifty years of the IAS by Sanjay Bagchi, himself a retired member of the elite service to realise to what depths of degradation the service has come to, Bagchi had joined the IAS in 1958 and was one of its proud members for the next quarter of a century.
He says he was fortunate to receive "unlimited co-operation from a large number of IAS officers" in writing of his book which constitutes the most damning indictment ever written about the Indian Administrative service. The condemnation is total and unreserved which makes one wonder whether the government and the country should not give serious attention to new and more efficient ways of running the government.
The IAS was set up, following India's attainment of independence and the inevitable winding up of the then prestigious Indian Civil Service (ICS), which was a pure British invention, because nothing like that had existed in India from the days of Ashoka to the end of the Mughal Empire. The ICS was efficient; those were colonial days and the ICS reflected colonial government at its best. In retrospect, they were easy days when industrialisation was in its infant stage, technology was just a dream and there were no specialised fields in which expertise was needed.
Officers, in the circumstances could be transferred from one Ministry to another with ease, since the issues arising in any Ministry were largely administrative in content and could be tackled with reasonable case and efficiency. Our present governments do not seem to have realised that times have changed, that specialisation has become the order of the day and what seemed justiciable in the days of the ICS cannot be defended any longer.
But the IAS is following the ICS path. As Bagchi has correctly noted, members of the IAS "roam from one department to another, from one field to another, and from generalised administration to somewhat specialised functions" being "neither masters of a particular discipline nor really jacks of all trades".
They have become the laughing stock of administrators in private industries. As an IAS Officer can be a Secretary of, say, Ministry of Commerce, to take up in due course the Secretary-ship of another, totally alien, Ministry, without knowing anything of his new assignment. There have been IAS officers who have never held a camera in their lives, know nothing of mutli-camera production, have never written a script or a play, cannot distinguish malhar from malkauns, never ever asked to summarise parliamentary proceedings or summarise a speech given by a public figure, wishing to be Directors General of Doordarshan or All India Radio.
The presumption was that Journalism is an easy subject to Master and isn't the applicant a member of the elite IAS anyway? The senior members of the DD and AIR staff, professionals to their finger-tips, who have spent a lifetime of service in their respective fields cannot aspire to be Directors General even when they are professional experts. What is even more tragic about the IAS is the quota system.
The promotion quota was enlarged to 33 percent from 25 percent in 1979. A massive quota was introduced for OBCs in 1994, which together with earlier quotas for SC/ST, removed one half of the annual intake from the merit criterion of open competition of the IAS.
Currently, the merit criterion has been substantially diluted, being limited to merely 33 percent of the Service and, if Bagchi is to be believed, "it could be further curtailed in the near future". If this is what the future is going to be, why have the IAS at all? Bagchi has no doubt that quotas ab initio, reduce quality and efficiency of the service. Following the Emergency says Bagchi, "the desire to please the dictator at all costs became the prime motive" of the IAS cadre and "sycophants from the cadre ruled the roost".
Apparently, the IAS has tended to become highly politicised and "increasingly corrupt" since then. For that, one supposes, one has to be thankful to Indira Gandhi to whom is ascribed the dangerous decline of the IAS. From what one gathers, the top levels of state administration now contain the good and the bad in "almost equal" proportions.
Promotion has become a rat race with "consummate operators in the Civil Service routinely making use of the services of power brokers, fixers et al. The IAS gives the impression that it has gone down the drain and lost its moral standards. With the quota system it had long ceased to be a elite club. The time has come to rectify the situation before it gets worse.
The obsession with the quota system must go. The management of state enterprise must be taken out of IAS hands and must be given to professional managers of whom there is no dearth in India. Indeed, in every department of administration where expertise is clearly called for, the manning of the same must be entrusted to professionals, as in the Banking Sector, and never to IAS Officers.
According to R. K. Trivedi, a very Senior IAS Officer quoted by Bagchi, the most question is "whether the IAS as a potent tool should be allowed to degenerate and destroy itself or whether corrective measures are still possible". One suspects that it is never too late to learn and certainly, it is never too late to restructure the entire IAS edifice. Obviously, winding up the IAS, as it is, without finding a suitable alternative is foolish and, in the long run, damaging.
This is where one has to address oneself to political parties which have been largely responsibe for damaging the IAS reputation. They must be made to realise that using the IAS for party benefits can only undermine the base of democracy and destroy the already rusting "Iron-frame" of administration. If the IAS has lost its shine, the blame rests solidly on our ruthless political parties with their own agenda. Repairing the administrative system, then, must begin with repairing the political system. And the task must be immediately taken on hand. And that is the responsibility of the citizens and the people who have the power to vote out the corrupt.
http://www.freepressjournal.in/08052008/Edit2.htm
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
India's 'steel frame' may be rusting, but it does not seem to be beyond redemption, writes MV Kamath (Pioneer, 19 May 2008)
The Changing Face of Bureaucracy: Fifty years of the IAS Author: Sanjoy Bagchi Publisher: Rupa Price :Rs 795     Â
Never before has the Indian Administrative Service, the successor to the famed Indian Civil Service (ICS), come under such sharp criticism as Sanjoy Bagchi's book has done. This is not the work on outsider, nor is it a reflection of one's animus towards one's colleagues.
Bagchi joined the IAS in 1953, served it for two decades abroad, before returning to India, only to find his beloved service going to pieces. Shocked, he sought the views of his contemporaries and colleagues. To his dismay, he learnt that what he thought was the steady decay of the IAS was only too true. He attributes it to Emergency declared in 1975 by Mrs Indira Gandhi.
If, as Bagchi sees it, any one person can be charged with distorting the image of the IAS, it was Mrs Gandhi. He writes, "A reincarnation of despotic Mughal durbar
Writes Bagchi, with seeming contempt: <b>"The different (IAS) youngster of the early idealistic years, in course of time, is transformed into an arrogant senior, fond of throwing his weight around, he become a conceited pig." Harsh words surely and unlikely to be applicable to all IAS officers and Bagchi concedes that. But he insists that "the knowledge about corrupt IAS officers is spontaneously known to their superiors and Ministers". The "real problem" being that "it is difficult to take disciplinary action against a corrupt IAS officer because he is entitled to protection according to principles of natural justice".</b>
Bagchi is very crucial of the CBI as well. He writes, "In recent year, the CBI has been dismal comprehensively," adding, "The CBI has increasingly started resorting to framing false cases, with a shrewd eye on the political who's who." The book has to be read to be believed.
Bagchi traces the history of the civil services from the days of the East India Company and the role that the District collector had to play for decades. It is a detailed study of the administrative structure in India throughout the British regime. No matter how much one hated the British rule, the fact remains that the ICS was held in high esteem because it was accessible to the common people in rural areas. It was admired for its impartiality and efficiency. It had no political axe to grind.
Independence and the rise of political parties changed the contours of the IAS, which followed its predecessor ICS. Vallabhbhai Patel, who was responsible for the setting of the IAS, would be now crying in shame to see what has happened to it. Bagchi is clear that the IAS today is not the meritocratic entity which one would associate with the premier civil services, is not the lean and compact organisation which it was when first it came into existence, has no shared vision and it has now become customary for IAS officers to attach themselves to sub-goals like caste, communal or political for IAS officers to attach themselves to sub-goals like caste, communal or political assignments.
Bagchi asks a sensible question: "Should there be a brand new service to take the place of the IAS, avoiding the defects that have been plaguing it?" We need a Central service to remind regional Governments that the ultimate power lies in Delhi, which is the final authority in a united India. Under no circumstances should the IAS be dissolved.
Indeed, Bagchi agrees with this when he says, "It is evident that winding up the IAS without finding a substitute service is not a workable proposition, particularly in view of the complexity and diversity of the huge country with varying economic and political conditions in the States." What comes a s relief is to hear him say that "the IAS does not seem to be beyond redemption." There is still hope. This country does not lack idealistic young men and women. Only they are waiting for leadership. had been created in the Prime Minister's house; the rule of law has broken down and the wishes of the 'Empress' and her minions, lawful or otherwise, became the directives of state policy. Personal freedom was severely circumscribed, the Press was muzzled and the most atrocious deeds were perpetrated by the state agencies." As Bagchi saw it, for the IAS, the desire to please the dictator at all coats has become the prime motive.
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_...t&counter_img=3
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Decline of IAS: Entire blame rests on political parties
By Rajinder Puri (FPJ,
If the IAS has lost its shine, the blame rests solidly on our ruthless political parties with their own agenda. Repairing the administrative system, then, must begin with repairing the political system. And the task must be immediately taken on hand. And that is the responsibility of the citizens and the people who have the power to vote out the corrupt.
A few years ago, the nomination of M. S. Gill by the Congress Party to the Rajya Sabha had raised some very valid questions of propriety. The induction of the same gentleman into the Union Ministry as a Minister of State on April 5, raises even more disturbing questions.
Gill, it may be remembered, was once the Chief Election Commissioner of India. Should a one-time civilian, to whichever cadre he belongs, have the privilege of being nominated to membership of Parliament, let alone to a Ministry? What kind of message is the Congress Party sending to civilians, more notably the Indian Administrative service? That they can expect higher positions in government after retirement, if, as civilians, they serve the party's interests faithfully? Even as matters stand, the Indian Administrative service (IAS) is under heavy attack.
One has only to read the newly published book on fifty years of the IAS by Sanjay Bagchi, himself a retired member of the elite service to realise to what depths of degradation the service has come to, Bagchi had joined the IAS in 1958 and was one of its proud members for the next quarter of a century.
He says he was fortunate to receive "unlimited co-operation from a large number of IAS officers" in writing of his book which constitutes the most damning indictment ever written about the Indian Administrative service. The condemnation is total and unreserved which makes one wonder whether the government and the country should not give serious attention to new and more efficient ways of running the government.
The IAS was set up, following India's attainment of independence and the inevitable winding up of the then prestigious Indian Civil Service (ICS), which was a pure British invention, because nothing like that had existed in India from the days of Ashoka to the end of the Mughal Empire. The ICS was efficient; those were colonial days and the ICS reflected colonial government at its best. In retrospect, they were easy days when industrialisation was in its infant stage, technology was just a dream and there were no specialised fields in which expertise was needed.
Officers, in the circumstances could be transferred from one Ministry to another with ease, since the issues arising in any Ministry were largely administrative in content and could be tackled with reasonable case and efficiency. Our present governments do not seem to have realised that times have changed, that specialisation has become the order of the day and what seemed justiciable in the days of the ICS cannot be defended any longer.
But the IAS is following the ICS path. As Bagchi has correctly noted, members of the IAS "roam from one department to another, from one field to another, and from generalised administration to somewhat specialised functions" being "neither masters of a particular discipline nor really jacks of all trades".
They have become the laughing stock of administrators in private industries. As an IAS Officer can be a Secretary of, say, Ministry of Commerce, to take up in due course the Secretary-ship of another, totally alien, Ministry, without knowing anything of his new assignment. There have been IAS officers who have never held a camera in their lives, know nothing of mutli-camera production, have never written a script or a play, cannot distinguish malhar from malkauns, never ever asked to summarise parliamentary proceedings or summarise a speech given by a public figure, wishing to be Directors General of Doordarshan or All India Radio.
The presumption was that Journalism is an easy subject to Master and isn't the applicant a member of the elite IAS anyway? The senior members of the DD and AIR staff, professionals to their finger-tips, who have spent a lifetime of service in their respective fields cannot aspire to be Directors General even when they are professional experts. What is even more tragic about the IAS is the quota system.
The promotion quota was enlarged to 33 percent from 25 percent in 1979. A massive quota was introduced for OBCs in 1994, which together with earlier quotas for SC/ST, removed one half of the annual intake from the merit criterion of open competition of the IAS.
Currently, the merit criterion has been substantially diluted, being limited to merely 33 percent of the Service and, if Bagchi is to be believed, "it could be further curtailed in the near future". If this is what the future is going to be, why have the IAS at all? Bagchi has no doubt that quotas ab initio, reduce quality and efficiency of the service. Following the Emergency says Bagchi, "the desire to please the dictator at all costs became the prime motive" of the IAS cadre and "sycophants from the cadre ruled the roost".
Apparently, the IAS has tended to become highly politicised and "increasingly corrupt" since then. For that, one supposes, one has to be thankful to Indira Gandhi to whom is ascribed the dangerous decline of the IAS. From what one gathers, the top levels of state administration now contain the good and the bad in "almost equal" proportions.
Promotion has become a rat race with "consummate operators in the Civil Service routinely making use of the services of power brokers, fixers et al. The IAS gives the impression that it has gone down the drain and lost its moral standards. With the quota system it had long ceased to be a elite club. The time has come to rectify the situation before it gets worse.
The obsession with the quota system must go. The management of state enterprise must be taken out of IAS hands and must be given to professional managers of whom there is no dearth in India. Indeed, in every department of administration where expertise is clearly called for, the manning of the same must be entrusted to professionals, as in the Banking Sector, and never to IAS Officers.
According to R. K. Trivedi, a very Senior IAS Officer quoted by Bagchi, the most question is "whether the IAS as a potent tool should be allowed to degenerate and destroy itself or whether corrective measures are still possible". One suspects that it is never too late to learn and certainly, it is never too late to restructure the entire IAS edifice. Obviously, winding up the IAS, as it is, without finding a suitable alternative is foolish and, in the long run, damaging.
This is where one has to address oneself to political parties which have been largely responsibe for damaging the IAS reputation. They must be made to realise that using the IAS for party benefits can only undermine the base of democracy and destroy the already rusting "Iron-frame" of administration. If the IAS has lost its shine, the blame rests solidly on our ruthless political parties with their own agenda. Repairing the administrative system, then, must begin with repairing the political system. And the task must be immediately taken on hand. And that is the responsibility of the citizens and the people who have the power to vote out the corrupt.
http://www.freepressjournal.in/08052008/Edit2.htm
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->