Political Diary

New Delhi, 10 August 2013

DNA Of Babudom

POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!

By Poonam I Kaushish

A Government of India car drives into Delhi’s famous Lodi garden at 6.30am, the ‘saab’ instructs his driver to stay ‘right here’. Nothing wrong. Yes, there is. One, the car is parked in the area slotted for self-driven cars. Two, why can’t the officer who has come for exercise, disembark on the road and walk a few extra steps. Three, who call’s a driver at 6.30am when the drive is less than a km from a Lutyens zone bungalow? Bluntly, the saab is the law and cares tuppence. Welcome the DNA of India’s babudom!

In this milieu where does UP’s Durga Shakti Nagpal, Tamil Nadu’s Ashish Kumar, Haryana’s Ashok Khemka and Himichal’s Yunus fit in? Remember they took on their respective State Governments’ head-on over acts of commission and omission.

While Nagpal has been suspended for ostensibly ordering demolition of a mosque’s boundary which could lead to “communal disharmony”, the real reason is that she was an impediment for illegal sand mining. Both Kumar and Khemka have been transferred to another department. The Haryana officer for the 43 times in 20 years, recently due to Sonia’s son-in-law Robert Vadra's case. While Yunus was attacked by the sand mafia.

Questionably, are these young IAS officers’ isolated cases or a growing breed of bureaucrats who believe in doing their job diligently and honestly? Or are they victims of the petty self-seeking politicians, their mai-baaps? Alternatively, are both hand in glove with one hand washing the other? Is the bureaucracy a hindrance in modern-day governance? Is India’s administrative system going horribly wrong?

All this and more. Ulta Pradesh today represents the ugly truism. On the face of it, Nagpal and her ilk of fresh recruits are brimming with idealism of serving the country and the ills that afflict it. In a corrupt milieu if they refuse to go with the flow officers like them are certainly harassed.

But dig deeper it is a different story. Undeniably, the bureaucracy more than being a victim is a powerful lobby. An obscurantist force often rivaling politicians with its fair share of crooks, criminals and cheats. A majority of who work on the dictum, show me the face I will show you the rule. Which translates into grease my palms else I will read you the riot act and how!

Add to this, States are notorious for having a “committed bureaucracy” or being aligned to Parties, resulting in a spate of transfers and hounding out following a change in political dispensation. Asserted former Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra, “the problem is endemic in States like UP and Tamil Nadu, where Chief Ministers have failed to draw a distinction between "political direction and political interference.”

Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh abjectly confessed: “I am disgusted with the system”, when he discovered that even Cabinet decisions had remained where they were taken --- on paper. Perhaps, the file-pushers had to apply their heads to arrive at an agreed conclusion as to who should push the file. And on who’s orders? The Cabinet, their Minister or the political mai baap?

Said another Minister, “Bureaucrats were to be checks in the system. The checks have turned into cheques while the balance is out of the window! The civil service has become an elite self perpetuating club which protects its perks, turf and corners all top jobs.” Adeptly they have created jobs like regulators and committees, cornered by retired bureaucrats.

Worse, for every officer who refuses to sign a file due to political pressure, there are 10 others willing to do it. Think. Nagpal’s charge-sheet and suspension order was drafted by one of her colleagues. Moreover, our babus are infamous for their inertia, opacity and inefficiency. They can stall a decision or slow down a file. Said Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, “The world's most dangerous animal is our bureaucracy. One needs immense strength to deal with it.”

Last year, the Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy ranked our civil service as Asia’s worst, a 9.21 rating out of 10, worse than Vietnam (8.54), Indonesia (8.37), Philippines (7.57) and China (7.11), adding officials accept under-the-table payments, are rarely held accountable and are the root cause of mistrust towards the Government.

Can it be re-shaped to fulfill its role as a key deliverer of correct policy and innovative decision-making? Yes. Provided both neta-babu work in tandem.  Already, there have been various attempts at reform but none have been successful. See how the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendation of performance-linked pay has been ignored by most Ministries. A senior former bureaucrat even defended this, saying such a system would lead to “reward hunting.”

Clearly, the writing is on the wall. It is time the bureaucracy shrugs off inertia and restores professionalism based on absolute, not obsolete principles. Civil servants must give serious thought collectively removing administrative deficiencies, expose political malfunctioning and restore the system. It needs to internalize the zero tolerance principle and US’s “sunset principle”, whereby, any Governmental activity is all the time under scrutiny so that no acts of misdemeanour take place.

The Government must downsize from the Secretary to chaprasi. Non-performing officers would be forcibly retired at the end of 20 years service, alternatively, ruthlessly dumped. An exit policy of hire and fire is paramount if we desire an accountable, trustworthy and honest bureaucracy.

Importantly, the Centre needs to incorporate the Bihar Special Courts Act, which provides for confiscation of a corrupt bureaucrat’s ill-gotten wealth immediately. Along-with the State’s Right to Service Bill which envisages a stipulated time for services to citizens, like caste, income, residential and birth and death certificates, ration card, driving license and power connection failing which the babu would invite censure and punishment. Plainly, citizens no longer have to pay bribes and make multiple trips to get work done by the State’s notoriously inefficient bureaucracy.

Another way, make a fixed tenure mandatory at all levels, along-with making public the reasons for a bureaucrat’s transfer within three months of a posting. 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.

In today’s global village where highly specialized skills are needed the Government must introduce a system of lateral entry of specialists and technocrats 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 favourites. It also needs 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.

Undoubtedly, if our babus do not change their values, they will become increasingly irrelevant. Look 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? Nagpal has shown the way. Any takers?  ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)