Nothing civil about attempts at calumny

Rattled by the brave position that a bunch of bureaucrats has taken against wrongdoing and shot into media attention, vested political interests have launched a tirade against the civil services
An Uttar Pradesh Minister has criticised bureaucrats for behaving like kings and pleaded for the abolition of the civil service, which he feels should have been done away with immediately after independence. To add insult to injury and to display his abysmal ignorance, he also said that developed nations like Britain, Russia, China and Japan don’t have civil services.
That is far from the case. Each country in the world has a system of recruitment to its civil, military, diplomatic service. It may not exactly be what we have in India, but a system of civil service prevails in every country. It could be an outright patronage or a system of appointing party people or mechanism for getting experts to do the top jobs as in the US. But the basic structure of bureaucracy has to be there.
Yet, one cannot deny that instead of being an enabler, the bureaucracy has become a bottleneck for the common man. But the rules it implements have the approval of Ministers, most of whom are either illiterate or do not spend any time on the Government files, or are busy politicking or making money to spend on the next election.
In an interview to a Hindi newspaper, the same Minister, who studied in Aligarh Muslim University, claimed that during training, it is put in the minds of IAS and IPS officers that they are going to be the kings. Having been trained in the Indian Police Service, at Mt Abu as well as at the IAS Academy, Mussoorie, the least I can say, is that this is not just a lie, but a poisoned thought.
The Minister is ignorant of the fact that the officials are asked to stand up for integrity and honesty. The Minister and his ilk prefer civil servants who are doormats or who dust their shoes or touch their feet, or who will be their yes men. We even have a State Minister, who once told his officials that you can indulge in corruption as long as you do not overdo it.
This is not surprising given that 48 per cent of the State’s MLAs who have been elected on SP tickets, have declared criminal cases against themselves. Parliament is no different. Out of the 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 162 (30 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves and 14 per cent of the current Lok Sabha MPs have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. A total of 1,258 (31 per cent) out of the 4,032 sitting MLAs from all State Assemblies have declared criminal cases against themselves and 15 per cent of them have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. A leading newspaper undertook a survey about the state of affairs of the Indian Administrative Service. Here are some of its findings which is likely to be the same for IPS and other top services
As of January 1, the total authorised strength of IAS across India was 6,154, but there are only 4,377 serving officers. About 500 IAS officers were contacted for the survey. Sixty three per cent of the respondents were below 40 years and 37 per cent were between 40 to 60 year of age. They were asked: Are you facing/have faced political pressure at any point in your career? Eighty two per cent said yes; 18 per cent said no. When yes, the pressure had been severe (63 per cent), moderate (32 per cent), and mild (five per cent). Dissatisfaction with the political class is clearly visible as more than 4/5th of those surveyed faced political pressure in making decisions.
When asked was there any pressure to take a decision by your seniors that you didn’t want to take, 86 per cent said yes, 14 per cent said no. When asked what is the biggest roadblock while performing your duties, 84 per cent said political interference, 16 per cent said red tape but nobody blamed local mindsets (zero per cent).
It’s not just politicians that influence officers, the survey reveals that seniors too pressure them. When asked if they had ever taken a decision that went against political pressure/popular opinion, 78 per cent said yes while 22 per cent said no. If yes, how did your senior react? Eighty per cent said they have not supported, while 20 per cent said they have been reprimanded. But none were rewarded or supported. Yet, when asked if looking back, would they still choose IAS as a career, 60 per cent said yes and only 34 per cent said no.
Incidentally, the Government has not hesitated to take action against the dishonest, as the following figures will show: 35  bribery case registered by the CBI in four years (2009-2012) against IAS officers; 200 IAS officers suspended over last two decades; 47 IAS officers facing cases punishable with dismissal.
But politicians have tasted blood of corruption. Except for a few honourable exceptions, most of the scams, whether it is the fodder scam, 2G Spectrum, or Commonwealth Games, Railgate or Coalgate, are the handiwork of the politicians. What has been unearthed, thanks to a vigilant media, is only the tip of the iceberg.
The role of the civil service is not that of the Opposition.  Politicians may consider it an evil but it is a necessary evil. Surely, the politician would not sit in the office of the Sub-Registrar to register deeds, nor would he sit at the reception to direct the patients to the concerned doctor, nor would he like to work as a cook in a Government guest house.
The Ministers are welcome to review the work done, in their respective departments, as per the laws and rules laid down. But the Government cannot lay down one set of rules and expect the civil servants not to follow it, as it does not suit a particular Minister. It is tiring to hear that our democracy does not work. In the ultimate analysis, we are the ones to work it. After all, only in a democracy, can we ask the powers that be, whether they should be that powers that be. We have given over-protection to the bureaucracy in weeding out the inefficient and dishonest and it takes ages to get rid of the corrupt. This needs to be changed.
The position now is that the distinction between the workers and the shirkers has been obliterated. No democracy can function which is half-good and half-criminal or which is half-rich and half-poor. Once, a former Congress president,  talking about corruption in 1962, said that “Congressmen (The only ruling party) who were paupers, have become lakhpatis. It is because nobody had a crore of rupees. In India, the civil servant is sometimes like a broken cannon — it won’t work and you can’t fire it”.
If anything, there is a need to set an example by shunting out the dishonest and corrupt from the system, including the bureaucrats and politicians. The present situation in India is no different from what Mark Twain once said that: “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress. No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” It is anybody’s guess as to how much of the above applies to India.
(The Author is Former Director CBI, India.)