what’s with the hype?
Is the civil service contribution to the nation any cause for celebration?
At his second Civil Service Day ceremony on April 21, PM Manmohan Singh called upon civil servants to acquire “new skills and capabilities”. Today’s civil servants do need new skills and capabilities. How else would they implement the government policy of establishing fiefdoms of private-gated “cities and enclaves” in the garb of SEZ? They require special skills to deprive landless labour, urban poor, small farmers and traders of their livelihood to facilitate 100 per cent FDI in real estate and retail business! And to usher in the model of “inclusive growth” by providing 100 days of work a year at Rs 50 a day to a few thousand rural unemployed!
The PM exhorted bureaucrats to remain “politically neutral and professionally competent”. He assured them the government was trying to ensure that “the honest and motivated” were rewarded, and “the dishonest are punished”.
Let us hear some civil service stalwarts….
“Look at how the civil service is viewed by the public. They are seen as corrupt, communal and parochial … run by the elite, liberal, upper-class families.” This is Nirmal Mukherji, one of India’s most eminent civil servants. In 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi removed him as Union Home Secretary to facilitate proclamation of Emergency. After Emergency, he returned as Cabinet Secretary.
This is how Jayaprakash Narayan, at present a member of the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), describes the state of India’s governance:
“We have everywhere innocent persons who are afraid of police constables, people who cannot gain access to a government office without a bribe, parents who cannot get decent education for their children in government schools, consumers who do not get provisions in a ration shop, citizens who cannot vote freely, children who do not get immunization in health centres, farmers who cannot sell their products in fair markets, commuters who cannot reach destinations on time, public utilities that overprice services without amenities, and litigants who cannot get justice for years. In such a milieu, democracy becomes a meaningless concept and governance becomes constitutional brigandage.”
Former UPSC Chairman P C Hota, when in the saddle, had remarked on the crisis of identity in the civil services. He deplored politicians’ attitude towards civil servants and said the former expected the latter to be “meek” and carry out their orders as “submissive agents”. Hota said that if a civil servant “dares to revolt”, he is transferred, denied promotion or recognition.
Civil servants seem to have created an impression that they are mainly interested in promoting their careers and getting plum post-retirement sinecures by “turning jelly” in the presence of political bosses. Surely things can change only if upright officers, even at cost to career, inspire their colleagues to live up to the expectations of the founding fathers who covenanted the civil service in the Constitution.
Will such civil servants stand up and be counted? When they do, we will celebrate the civil services with fireworks!
IAS (retd) with a distinguished career of 40 years - worked in Army, Govt, Private, Politics & NGOs.
