Political Diary
New Delhi, 11 February 2012
Wonders Never
Cease….
BABUDOM TO GET A
CONSCIENCE?
By Poonam I Kaushish
Ever wonder why are humdrum and dull every day life is so
problematical and troubled? Be it when applying for a gas connection, ration
card, property registration, paying electricity and telephone bill et al. Thanks to our corrupt babudom which thrives on holding one to
ransom wherein nothing moves till its palms are greased. From the TC in the
railways to the traffic cop, there’s no questioning them. Big deal, if it’s all
about conversion of human energy into
solid waste!
But things are a changing, with the Government notifying a
rule making it compulsory for IAS, IPS and ‘deadwood’ from other all-India
services to retire in “public interest” if they fail to clear a review after 15
years of service. Those who continue would face another review after 25 years
of work or when they turn 50, whichever comes first. All to shore up its
governance credentials and instill some sense of responsibility in a heartless
officialdom.
True,
the rule could shake one of the main pillars of bureaucratic smugness: Security
of tenure. But the moot point is: Will the babus
have the courage to correct themselves
and overcome red tape? Highly unlikely. As today corruption has become a low
risk, high-profit area. The bureaucrat is the third angle of the triangular neta-babu-business axis which has
perpetuated a vulturistic culture of the winner takes all.
The
modus operandi has been perfected to the last, deliberate scarcity of goods and
services, red tapeism and delay, lack of transparency (no matter Right To
Information Act), the cushion of a babu
is innocent. Shockingly, a Transparency International 2005 Corruption
Perceptions Index found that more than 55% of Indians had first-hand experience
of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices
successfully. Ghoos by truckers alone totalled US$ 5b annually.
More scandalous, bureaucrats
cornered over Rs.92,122 crore or 1.26% of the GDP, through corruption which is
growing annually by over 100%. According to the CAG’s 2010 report scathingly
commented that “India
is a rich country filled with poor people. With corrupt officials making them
even pooere." It is no secret that only 8 paisa of Rs one
percolates to the aam aadmi.
Another 2009 survey of leading Asian
economies revealed that Indian bureaucracy to be not just least efficient out
of Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand,
South Korea, Japan, Malaysia,
Taiwan, Vietnam, China,
Philippines and Indonesia but also that working with India's civil
servants was a "slow and painful" process. Whereby, “high-level
corruption and scams are now threatening to derail the country's credibility
and (its) economic boom”.
What next? Arguably, 15 years is far too long for a first
performance review as in the private sector, employees are judged every year.
If the Government wants to ensure that babudom
functions efficiently and transparently, it should spell out what good
performance is. Else bureaucrats might busy themselves with trivia to appear
busy, without doing anything substantive.
To push it reforms agenda the Government must introduce a
system of lateral entry of people from the private sector who want to work for the
public good as in the US.
It must freeze the number of senior positions and desist from creating redundant
posts to accommodate its favourites.
More. It has to break the neta-babu nexus which helps them not only in being promoted
speedily without any regard to seniority or merit but also join the politician
in looting the country. In this scenario, a majority of babudom is more than happy to go along with their political mai-baaps. Rooted as it is in the firm
belief that, like their masters, they are a law unto themselves. Over the
years, they have become used to dispensing patronage arrogantly earning big pay
packets for non-productive work.
Thus, every political change of guard leads to ad nauseum transfers resulting in most officials
taking no initiative. In fact, the political identification of officials is
becoming so marked that even the bureaucracy itself is able to predict as to
who will occupy which top post, if ‘X’, ‘Y’ or ‘Z’ political party or
individual comes to power!
This must stop. Every transfer order should be justified on paper.
If babus are constantly looking over
their shoulders in fear of being booted out to some backwater, they will turn
into craven servants of netas, rather than working for public purpose.
Three, the system of detection needs to be overhauled. Today
all anti- corruption drives necessarily implies investigation by various police
agencies i.e. the CBI, vigilance, anti-corruption branch etc. These bodies are
empowered with sweeping powers to prove or disprove a person’s honesty. But
what does one do when the investigating agency is manned by an officer who
himself is corrupt?
Take the case of babus
children studying abroad. True, all declare the sources of financing their
education. But how much of it is correct? In the US college education costs anywhere
between Rs 25 to 35 lakhs per year. Where is the money coming from? It is
another matter that the children of bureaucrats studying abroad outnumber those
of the businessmen!
Importantly, the Centre needs to incorporate the Bihar
Special Courts Act, which provides for confiscation of a corrupt bureaucrat’s
entire ill-gotten wealth immediately. Alternatively, one would need to take
recourse to a reportedly extreme Chinese measure. Every year an example is set
by “eliminating” the corrupt. All it takes is one single bullet.
Once the message goes down the rank and file that all ‘haram ke kamayee’ would be confiscated,
then the burden of proof will be on the officer to prove that he got it
legitimately the Government must downsize. From the Secretary down to the chaprasi.
The writing is on the wall. It is time the bureaucracy
shrugs off inertia and restores its professionalism based on absolute, not
obsolete principles. Civil servants must give serious thought to determining
what action needs to be taken collectively to remove administrative
deficiencies, expose political malfunctioning and restore the system One way is to internalize the zero
tolerance principle and the "sunset principle" as in the US. Under
this method, justification for any governmental activity is all the time under
scrutiny so that no acts of misdemeanour take place.
Undeniably, if our babus
do not change their sense of values, they will become increasingly
irrelevant. See how the country’s is rapidly progressing despite the bureaucracy. It may exist by the sheer force of
Newton's First Law of inertia but it will not be playing a role which would
make it a meaningful part of the governance. Will our bureaucrats rise to the
occasion or will they allow the steel frame to rot and rust as they revel in
mediocrity? -- ? INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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