Dr Rao VBJ Chelikani
The citizens have eagerly awaited the 21 April 2022 which is the Civil Services Day to find out whether there is any
reflection or discussion on their part on the ongoing crisis in the domain of
public administration. This year too, the day is observed largely as a protocol
of self-congratulatory speeches and awards of excellence to some officers by
the prime minister, who is the real-head of the entire Executive machinery. He
exhorted the government functionaries to attend to their prime responsibility,
which according to him is to commit themselves to three goals: bringing a
positive change in the life of the common people, taking decisions in the
global context, and strengthening the country’s unity and integrity. It is
indeed a noble exhortation appropriate to the occasion, but there was no
reference to the inevitable transformation in the nature or the spirit of their
vocation. He wanted, naturally their full cooperation to successfully implement
a plethora of programmes he has been ushering in regularly. The civil servants
themselves apparently did not think it fit to discuss any issue in a
self-critical manner on a public platform, though the day is not only for
thanks-giving. Even during the Doctors Day observed by the civil society
organisations, after offering a bouquet, the doctors are involved to discuss the current needs of both the
parties i.e. the healthcare professional services and their consumers. In the
case of this CS Day, it was not to be so. Probably, they would prefer to do it
in a more discreet way through other channels, but the stake-holders or the
end-users of their services would never know about it.
Sri. Venkaiah Naidu, the
Vice President speaking on the same occasion from Hyderabad, nevertheless
called a spade a spade and did express some of the concerns that are shared by
many in the country. While affirming that all is not well with the civil
services, he highlighted some of his concerns. The immediate problem that he
identified is that there is an alarming trend of a rising nexus between the
political executive and civil servants to the detriment of the collective
welfare. Apart from the classical
problem of inordinate delays, camouflaged wastage and corruption at the lower
levels, there is diminishing levels of efficiency, transparency, accountability
and social responsibility. While most of the political executives limit their
role to get their personal agenda executed without dissent; and they do not,
effectively have the time and competence to manage independently the portfolios
that they are in charge of. Consequently, we are gradually entering into a
regime of over-powering authoritarianism to the benefit of the elected
executive and administering officers.
Since the time of Morarji Desai there have been attempts to form
committees for administrative reforms and this initiative too became a part of
the routine bureaucratic procedure. Now, as never before, it became imperative
to redefine the role of the Executive, particularly of the appointed permanent
executive organ of the state, to be inspired by the democratic values of
liberty, equality and fraternity. As envisaged in the Constitution, Power
should be exercised separately or autonomously, under checks and balancing
among the organs of the state to avoid excesses. But, we initially inherited a
system that is designed to facilitate the rule of the British Majesty over
their loyal subjects. The transfer of loyalty and services of the entire civil
services framework towards a native independent and democratic state, no doubt,
had been smooth. Nobody ever accused them of being in the class rooms, while
other youth left schools and colleges and were courting jails; and that they
lived well by collaborating with the foreign ruler, while many of their
generation sacrificed their careers. After independence, in order to establish
a ‘welfare state’, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Home Minister Vallabhai
Patel had heavily leaned upon the administrative machinery to initiate several
far-reaching measures and set up new institutions in all spheres – economic,
social and cultural, in addition to the political governance. In this process,
naturally, the governance became Bureaucratic instead of being Democratic with
too much of interference in all aspects of a citizen’s life, thereby retarding
human development which takes place only when there is citizen participation.
Since then, during these 75 years, though India has grown and human
life has become highly sophisticated, and the citizens of the feudal society
have now become empowered enough to govern themselves in many aspects of their
lives, the state remains still authoritarian and bureaucratic, thereby causing many hardships
to the citizens. The present prime minister is making the right diagnostic, as
no other prime minister has done before,
that there should be less of government and more of governance in the society,
and that the bureaucracy should restrain itself from causing obstacles to the
Ease of Doing Business with the Administration, and in a general way, to the
Ease of Living of the citizen. On the
whole, we urgently need, not just reforms in administration but reform of the
Administration with the objective of further democratization.
On the occasion of the Civil Service Day, we expected in vain some
open introspection on the part of the civil servants, as an expression of their
social responsibility. Hence, the problem that we are facing now is what to do
when the Administration is not even admitting that there is a need to reform
itself and when it is not able to be critical about itself. Added to this, the
un-initiated political executive who is there for short periods is more
pre-occupied with his or her achievements for survival has not time to try to
bring in any enduring reformation. However, in the interests of a healthy
evolution of our democracy, we cannot allow the once-highly admired
‘steel-frame’ of civil service to corrode and degrade into an authoritarian
bureaucracy, in which a co-citizen exercises and enjoys opportunistic Power,
instead of assisting and serving the citizens.
Then, there is no other better
remedy than peoples’ direct action to democratize the civil services. We, as
people should urge and demand the associations of the functioning and retired
civil servants to be conscious of their social responsibility, as much as they
are questioning the social responsibility of the private entrepreneurs.
Competent civil and professional associations in the society should carry out
systematic and regular ‘social audit’ of all administrative performance and its
impact on the society. Especially, the Public Expenditure of the tax-payers’
money should be discovered and made transparent in the first place. Citizens
Chartered are to be made justiciable. All loss, damage, injury and harm to the
citizens or to the society due to administrative delays and corruption are to
be exposed and brought before the judiciary under Torts law. At present,
justice is deliberately delayed in the case of prosecution of a government
official. The civil societies should come forward on every occasion when the
Police and security personnel are prompted to ignore basic human dignity and
fundamental human rights of the residents. All the self-governing local bodies,
especially urban bodies, including the Resident Welfare Associations and other
grass-root organizations should involve and associate themselves in the
implementation of various government programmes, schemes, projects and
campaigns. In many matters, citizens’ non-cooperation and even civil
disobedience would be justified to prevent official over-reach.
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