The Sixth Pay Commission has taken up the onerous tasks of focusing on good governance and sprucing up the bureaucracy to provide cutting-edge administration. It has adopted the maritime mantra of ‘shape up or ship out’ to send a clear message.
The Fifth Pay Commission had attempted something similar without any success. While its recommendations on downsizing and linking compensation to productivity were dumped, an increase in salary beyond the recommendation was implemented, putting an additional burden of Rs 17,000 crore per year on the Central government’s finances. The state governments followed suit.
The result was that, while government finances have been badly ravaged, there has been neither downsizing nor improved productivity. On the contrary, the bureaucracy has fattened by capturing and subsuming a myriad of commissions and regulatory bodies!
The new Pay Commission is under Severe pressure to further profligacy. This could increase inflation and stifle economic growth. Also, once the impact on states and other quasi-government bodies is factored in, it could cost 1.5 per cent of GDP, something India can ill afford.
The Pay Commission
is under pressure to
further profligacy.
This could increase
inflation and stifle
economic growth
To bring about good governance and administration, and contain profligacy, two types of issues need to be attended to. One is systemic, which the Administrative Reforms Commission should address. The other is behavioural, which the Pay Commission can deal with. This concerns the myths and mindset influencing civil servants.
Bureaucratic gagging is passed off as a philosophy – “a civil servant should be seen, not heard”. This archaic perception, decreed by our erstwhile colonial masters who only wanted a “lackey service”, is wasting some of India’s best minds in the IAS by making them mere status quo time-servers. Worse, by remaining silent and being unable to speak up against corruption and misrule, the honest and conscientious among them are fast losing principles and personality. This is certainly not conducive to good governance.
Then there is rampant political partisanship. IAS officials align with the ruling party. This is based on the wrong assumption that ruling politicians represent all the people and their interests and what they say should be the final word in matters of policy and governance. The founding fathers’ rationale for the creation of an elite All-India Service viewed IAS officials as having a constitutional role to play in giving honest, fair and just governance to the people, irrespective of party affiliation.
Too much “protection” can reduce a person to cowardice. This is what is happening to IAS officials – they willingly become cowards since they do not have the courage even to face a transfer or some minor inconvenience for upholding the principles of good governance. Like the proverbial coward who dies a thousand deaths, they compromise and acquiesce repeatedly.
The practice of being a jack of all trades and master of none is the villain of professionalism and performance in governance. Nowhere in the civilized world can one find experienced and competent technocrats and professionals being compelled to take orders from greenhorns with negligible knowledge of the subject, just because they belong to a particular pampered service.
Besides perpetrating non-professionalism and non-performance in governance, this feudal practice enables politicians to play favourites and gives them unbridled power in postings – the main criteria being pliability.
Not all India’s elite civil servants are greedy. What they crave is a professional and dignified ambience wherein they can give their best without being harassed, constrained and choked by political skullduggery, archaic rules and procedures. This is what the Sixth Pay Commission should aim to achieve.
