Honorable Prime
Minister Sir,
I am Abhinav Pandya from St.Stephens college,Delhi.I read your
speech on civil services day in which you urged the babus of India
I have
closely observed bureaucracy right from my child hood.Infact I myself wanted to
become an I.F.S officer at one point of time.I cleared prelims,mains (UPSC
exam) and appeared for the interview where I missed it by a whisker (luck was
not on my side!!)I read a lot about international affairs and public policy matters
in various foreign as well as domestic magazines and then when I look at our
babu world then I realize that the whole chapter has to be done and we have not
yet made a beginning.On top of it ,it is we who are going to face the most
difficult exams of governance and diplomacy.I worked with civil society in the
tribal districts of southern Rajasthan and estimated the cost (I wish some
mughal prince had made a measurement stick for this too) which nation bears for
inefficient,arrogant,dishonest and status
quoist officials.I saw a society and tribal world which has all conditions
ready for naxal advent just due to poor governance.
Here I am
not raising a finger on politicians because they have limitations of working in
an electoral democracy.Still they have to face people after every 5 years but
or babus enjoy a 40 yr tenure without any assessment of the performance.Our
babus enjoy a huge sphere of autonomy where they have the authority and freedom
to take decisions but, they do not, which happens majorly due to their inefficiency,feudal
mindset,technological backwardness, selfish motives,lack of confidance,
outdated skills,ignorance of what is happening around them in international
world,civil society, academic world and partly due to political
interference,democratic compulsions etc.
Ministers
come and go but the nitty-grittys of the governance are controlled and managed
by collectors,S.D.Ms S.Ps ,Chief secretaries and secretaries so if we want to
bring a real change in India (in every field,esp. in grassroot progress and
happiness) then it is bureaucratic set-up and system we need to reform.This
needs to be the most urgent and important priority.
In this
letter of mine I am going to discuss the ills of the administrative
system,substantiated with a lot of personal experiences and larger causes of
the malaise and in my next letter I will
discuss the reform measures which ,in my opinion, need to be taken to fix the
problem.
Sir ,a lot has changed since 1960s
and 1970s .In those days babus were educated from Cambridge and Oxford like Mr
Manishankar aiyar,TSR subrahmaniam,Rahul Khullar,J.N Dixit,Jagat Mehta etc.They
were called the steel frame and they had no parallels in terms of
integrity,efficiency and honesty.But now things are very different.The changes
began in 1990.With globalisation came the private sector and with them came big
salaries,diverse jobs,new avenues in media.And yes, 90s brought populism and
cheap politics(which became worse with the passage of time) and OBC
reservations.As a result the cream of indian students ventured into the other
lucrative fields.The myth of steel frame was broken and civil services no more
remained the most sought after career.With this, also began the invasion of
people into civil services whose only charm was authority which comes with that
and the opportunities of earning illicit wealth.The ideals of public service
and figures like Harold laski,Bismarck,Count Cavour,Woodrow wilson,Sardar patel
no longer inspired them.What kicked them was the good dowry( it is almost in
crores)which comes with IAS and the crude power which gives them the right and
authority to insult commen people,accept bribes and get things done "anyhow"
for their kith and kin.
The quality of
our officers recruited through civil services examination has gone down.I do
not intend to raise doubts on efficiency and integrity of UPSC.It is a great
institutuion and has given great public servants but now certain things in it’s
style of functioning and recruitment have become redundant.The entrants in
civil services after 90s are those people whose parents spent their life in awe
of the power and prestige which IAS/IFS/IPS enjoyed.The entrants from all
communities,be it newly empowered OBC communities,SC,general and ST communities see it as an advancement of
their caste and community interests.The candidates steeped in feudal values and
beliefs,were reared in strong patriarchal and feudal environment as a result of
which they worship the power most.A big section comes from rural backgrounds
and urban middle class background but even then they are insensitive to commen
man’s problem.They value civil services as a medium for aggressive assertion
of their political and communal identity.This
is the reason why Gujjars in Rajasthan ,Jats in Haryana demand more and more
reservation.Infact now even Rajputs and Brahmins ask for reservation, as the
only way to secure communal interests and acquire control over the affairs and
resources of the state is entry into civil services.So the motive is a good
career which can provide power,status and money.The esteemed ideals of Public
service,nation-building and honesty are nowhere in the scenario.
Off late,I
have come across foreign service officials who,after 7 years of service have no
idea of diplomats like Mr Jagat Mehta,public policy experts like Pratap Bhanu
Mehta,Francis Fukuyama,Samuel Huntington,Joseph Nye etc.In a chance meeting
with some foreign service officials I found them ignorant of think tanks like
Brookings Institution,concepts like soft power diplomacy.They have never read
an article from Economist or Washington Post or Newyork Times.I found that they
do not have any interest in foreign policy matters like China’s rise,middle
east-problem.Many new entrants do not know the basic things like difference
between the origins of Shias and Sunnis.Their standards of English are
atrociously bad.Their aim is to gain the
leadership position in their communities and caste groups and enter into
politics.
Similarly in
I.A.S , I met an officer who believed that people with mental problems like
depression,schizophrenia bipolar disorders are just fake people.They are losers
according to him.Imagine if he holds some post in National Mental Health
Programme!! I was sitting in his office
and he had time to chat on nonsense for hours with me but he had not
even a minute to speak with a poor farmer
clad in a dhoti.He made him wait for an hour.When I asked him he said,”
after all I am a collector yar”.When that poor fellow came inside he was not
even offered a seat and he was treated
as if he was some subject from old colonial mai-baap days.Then he told
me,’dekho collector yahan par bhagwan hota hai”.I said fine, but still, I
prefer transcendental gods.That officer had never heard of the term ‘Ivy-league’
and he did not know the famous names like Princeton,Yale, Cornell etc.He did’nt
even know anything about Non profit organizations like Oxfam,Pathfinder etc.In
the world of technology he could only send an e-mail and had no idea of the
importance and use of social media.For him Twitter was something like
anti-india because of Mr Tharoor’s cattle class episode.
My sister who has done Masters in
Public Health from LSTHM is working with NGO.They work in the implementation of
NRHM.She was almost hopeless about the success when she found that state NRHM
is headed by an IAS officer who is just a B.A ,with 10 yrs in IAS and no
intrest in public health matters leave aside experience in public health.For
her NRHM is just like one department
where she will stay for 1 or 2 years.To top it all, the best Public
health expert ( with more than 30 years
of experience in Public heath) has to follow decisions taken by her(which she
is hardly capable of taking)
One of my friend just finished his probation
in Maharshtra.I had a discussion with him about the state’s culture.He did not
know communities like Konkanastha and Chitpawan Brahmins.Neither was he
interested in knowing anything about the state.He suffers from typical elitist
values, prevalent in the premier colleges of the country,which inform him that
all politicians are corroupt.If the locals like sarpanches,corporaters business
people and religious heads want to meet him then they are seen as trying to
influence him for unethical ends.In his ideology all people with a skull cap
and saffron are fundamentalists.This is nothing but an outdated attitude
steeped in ideology.If the attitude towards politicians is such that they are a
rustic lot and corroupt then such officicials are not fit for
democracy.Democratic administration is based on a dialogue between various
sections of society.
There are many
examples but I will just move on to the causes of this quality decline.
The root cause of the issue is the motive for becoming a civil
servant or a diplomat.In UPSC interviews almost all the candidates say that the
want to serve the society but no one wants to serve the society in the capacity
of a docter,engineer,teacher,NGO volunteer,army officer,social
activist,scientist etc.Every one wants to serve the nation in the capacity of
bureaucrat.Why? Is it only the channel to serve the humanity.This year when I
read that a docter from AIIMS has topped UPSC exam I was quite disturbed.Why
will a docter from AIIMS want to be an IAS?.We are already a docter starved
nation.Even otherwise she could have become a great scientist.Students crack
IIT and when they are asked their future plans they say either IAS or some
MNC.No one wants to be good dam-builder,city planner or a railway engineer.This
is so because the motive for joining civil services is just power and pecuniary
gains.These days when I visit PHCs and CHCs I hear that doctor sahib to IAS ki
padhai kar rahe hai.Similarly in humanities no one wants to be a
historian,geographer,sociologist or an economics.Everyone wants to become
collector sahib.They are not interested in public service or anything related
to the world of public service like good public relations,desire to know about
the area and people they serve.But we have to realize that a nation is not made
by it’s bureaucrats but by it’s scientists,engineers and teachers.
Second reason for this quality decline is
the recruitment procedure itself.The exam conducted by UPSC though tests(
previous pattern,before CSAT) the knowledge of the candidate but it is way too
traditional.Anyone good at rote learning can crack and with the ability to sit
for 10-12 hours can crack it.It does not test one’s analytical skills.Coaching
schools spoon feed the information and manufacture public servants.This pattern
tests the candidate’s ability to stay in the hovels of mukharjee nagar(Delhi)
in sub-human conditions but not his dedication for public service and his
passion for innovation.People write UPSC exam till 35-38 years and quite often
land up nowhere.There is a huge uncertainty in this exam.Not everything depends
on performance,luck plays an immensely important role.Interview is the most
unpredictable section.How can the same exam be the basis of selection for
diplomacy,civil services,police services,income tax services and accounts
services.All these are different kind of jobs which require a different set of
skills.People clear IAS with Pali or Punjabi literature and get to serve in
foreign service or revenue service.Where lies the connection?This exam pattern
,where people keep writing with countless number of attempts,drains a candidate
of all his energy and motivation.At the end of it, he is left with depression
and unfulfilled desire.Even if they join academics or medical field they carry
this frustration.So not only civil service but the whole system i.e health
sector ,eduction sector gets effected and it is actually in the state of
disfunctionality barring few places like D.U and J.N.U.Finally if a person
becomes a civil servant after facing this amount of heavy pressure,uncertainity
and years of toil then he can not be expected to take bold decisions.Timidity
and escapism become an inalienable part of his sub-conscious mind.I have seen
almost every IAS aspirant ,after one or two attempts seeking the help of
astrologers and babas.In the service his only goal is to preserve the esteemed
job as he finds it a priceless treasure.It is like nirwana for him after which
he has no desire to achieve anything higher.
Third reason for this quality decline is
insufficient training.Merely passing one exam is not sufficient.Most of the
babus today have no advance knowledge of things like public relations, conflict
resolution,media management,working with civil society,use of social
media,environmental issues,gender activism,negotiation skills etc.Recently a
lot was written about IPS officer’s death in M.P.But in that entire episode the
most sidelined issue was an inefficient and bad policing on the part of that officer.After passing the exam these
recruits hardly feel the need to brush up their knowledge and skills as they
are not going to be fired at any cost.
Fourthly the administrative set-up is also
responsible for this.New recruits come to their state cadres after having the
doses of arrogance.In states they serve a probation period for 2 to 3 years
where they are treated like future gods and then they are posted as districts
heads.They with their 2,3 years of experience have the authority to command
state service officials with 30 years of
experience.Nothing could be more ridiculous.In Rajasthan a female officer,whose
style of functioning was pathetic and personality, outrageously uncultured was
found unawares during gujjar reservation
movement.Senior officers from the state police service had to obey her
commands.She fainted and started crying when the situation became
uncontrollable.
One exam does
not make a difference.It can not be the ground used for claiming the life long
superiority of those who clear it over those who have experience of 30 years.If
the new recruits get a chance to learn form these officers, then only they can
learn something good for governance and all logic tells that this can happen
only if they function as subordinates of these experienced officers,not as
their bosses.This way they will get rid of the arrogance and realize the
importance of being humble in public services.
With this I end
this letter.In my next letter I will discuss in detail the changes and
innovations we need to make to correct these ills.
Yours sincerely
Abhinav Pandya
M.P.A, Cornell
University
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