Dear
friends, I understand that perhaps I am stepping into a minefield here. But
something has prompted this blog. When I was driving home one night recently with
my family, I met with a minor accident. It was raining heavily, street lights
were off, roads deserted and I could not see much ahead. Before I knew what was
happening, my car came to an abrupt halt with a couple of thundering noises.
Did I hit somebody, I wondered with a thudding heart. I got down and realized
that the car had climbed up a road divider. Luckily, everyone was safe. Later,
when the Maruti Service Centre people came and got the car down, I was told
that this was the tenth similar incident on the same spot during the past one
and a half months! Had there been an iridescent sign marking the beginning of
the divider, no untoward incident would have taken place. What about the
accountability of a public servant in such a situation where not doing one’s
duty could actually endanger the lives of others? Hence this piece and hope you
would bear with me.
Stooping steel frames and
Durga Nagpal
After
the initial hype, we have now all but forgotten Durga Sakthi Nagpal, the young
IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh who was quietly reinstated from suspension last
week. As a positive fallout, this case has helped in galvanizing public focus on
the necessity to provide sufficient safeguards to those public servants who do
their duties without fear or favour. Prospects of immediate course-correction
look bleak. But this time, for a change, there have been murmurs of disapproval
and muted protests by several associations of All India Service officers.
Before
we start demonizing the political executive, here also lies another important question
to ponder over. Are only the politicians to be squarely blamed for all that is
wrong with our bureaucracy today? Has
the conduct of the members of the higher babudom in India been above board? What has made the civil servants servile? Are
they not equally, if not more, responsible for every failure in governance?
This
is the feeling I get when I see the newly paved/repaired stretch of roads in
Bangalore becoming un-motorable after a few hours of drizzle or after one month
of regular traffic. Who approved the estimates of the road repair? Who
performed the works? What were the specifications? Were they adhered to? Who
inspected the work? Who passed the vouchers? Who was the contractor and how
much was paid to him? And finally, who is accountable for the bad roads? It is
pertinent to mention here that the president of a contractors’ association in
Bangalore recently confessed on a national television that they have to pay
40-50 % of the total work outlay to bureaucrats, engineers and politicians. Mr
Ashok Khemka hit the nail on the head when he told last month that ‘If the
bureaucrats were really public servants, there would have been no 2G or coal
scam’.
A recent
survey in Hong Kong by a reputed agency has rated India’s bureaucracy as the
worst in Asia. ‘They have terrific powers’, noted the report and observed ‘doing
business in India is frustrating and expensive’. So, when I read an article by a
bureaucrat recently (Mr Srivatsa Krishna on 15-08-13 in Times of India) about IAS
being, by and large, one of the finest higher civil services in the world, I was
truly baffled. The article blamed the lower bureaucracy for red-tape and dreaded
their ability to stymie any effort towards progress. Amazingly, the piece went
on to fault the Hazare-Kejriwal movement for the reluctance among the honest
officers to take right decisions.
The
Human Development report of 2013 released by UNDP ranks India at an abysmal 136th
position out of 186 countries surveyed. After 66 years of independence and
innumerable billions spent on development, we are decades away from providing to
the citizens the basic necessities of clean drinking water, reasonable
healthcare, good primary education, responsive justice system, durable roads
and working drainage. Isn't this a bit of a paradox while having one of the ‘finest
higher civil services’ in the world?
When
young men and women enter bureaucracy at the age of 23-35, their minds are no
more impressionable. They come into the Service with their own baggage of ideas
and ideologies. Once on to their field postings, they taste unbridled power, control
over huge government finances and face scant accountability. There are numerous
subordinates, contractors and businessmen who try to appease them with flattery,
gifts and cash for favors in return. Most succumb easily. For the honest, there
are challenging times in the form of political pressure, stress from the
superiors to bend rules and the threat of repeated transfers. Only the truly
principled and disciplined survive this test of character and come out clean
and unscathed. It is a miniscule of officers, not more than five to ten percent
by any stretch of imagination, who remain steadfastly honest, ethical and just
throughout their career. The rest accept and adapt to the system of complacency
and commissions. This is the tragedy not only of the IAS but also of other
Services as well. In several states, officers pay money or promise favours to
the political executive in return for prized postings. If some upright officer refuses to kowtow, there are many waiting with suitcases and stooping backs at
the doorstep of ministers. And we keep blaming only the
politicians! Steel frame, did anyone say?
Officers
like Durga Nagpal of IAS and Sanjiv Chaturvedi of Indian Forest Service are
exceptions and we are in dire need of such rarities. There are many more officers
from the entire spectrum of civil services who are struggling hard under trying
conditions to make a difference to the life of aam admi. Even though their
number is considerably small, it is they who offer a glimmer of hope in this
gloomy environment that is so all-pervasive.
Today,
our bureaucrats have scant regard for providing good quality of life to the
general public. Being on a higher pedestal from the common populace makes them
oblivious to their sufferings. Babus have no scruples in pocketing commissions
from the line departments like health, education, public works, irrigation etc.
Several officers display abject dearth of courage in the face of pressure from
seniors and politicians. When the officers enjoy perks like government quarter,
chauffeur-driven vehicle, attendants in office and at residence irrespective
of repeated transfers or place of postings, timidity cannot be accepted as a
virtue. The lack of basic quality like courage to speak the truth and act
accordingly cannot be blamed on Hazare-Kejriwal movement. The bureaucracy has
been cocooned for decades in shrouds of secrecy and now when the prism of
accountability is flashing at them through RTI and assertive and demanding
public, they are feeling uncomfortable.
In
essence, the bureaucrats run this country along with the politicians. They
formulate policy, oversee their implementation and share a strong bond with their
political masters. When things go well, they are quick to claim credit. But when
things turn bad, it is the fault of the subordinates you see! On the front of
accountability, the report card of the bureaucracy has not exactly been
spectacular. When it comes to prosecuting the corrupt, systemic brakes are
routinely applied. Departmental enquiries drag on for years and quickly fade
from public knowledge and scrutiny. With powerful friends in politics and
police, the criminal cases seldom move forward. Under these circumstances, bureaucrats
will only be fooling themselves by playing victim. It is time the higher civil
services of the country stopped blaming everyone else for their own weaknesses
and failures and start thinking of a clean-up within.
