NEWS > 27 February 2006

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The Statesman - Kolkata, India
27 February 2006

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EDITORIAL:POLLUTED SERVICES

At the time of Independence, the civil services of India had a fair reputation for efficiency, integrity and discipline. The higher services enjoyed a sense of security and were, by and large, free from influences and corruption. If there were some black sheep they were very few. Members of the civil services were proud of themselves and their profession. The successors of the old imperial civil service having been appointed by the President owed allegiance only to the Constitution and were trained to uphold the laws and act in accordance with the rules framed by the government. They had a fair opportunity for advancement in their careers without any favouritism or injustice. They didn�t cherish any political ambitions.

Beginning of decline
When and why did the decline begin? One ought to look into those circumstances. To fill the vacancies at middle level after the departure of the British, the government started emergency recruitment. Mostly, some academics were selected. Many were inducted from those who had served in the Second World War. Some of these war and emergency recruits performed well but many were misfits. Then there was also a special recruitment � it is not known why. Under the All India Services Act and Rules provided by the Constitution, the bulk of the recruitment was to be direct � through an annual open competitive examination of young university men and women to be held by the Union Public Service Commission.
The regular recruits were trained in a central institution and in field conditions of different states before they were given positions of responsibility in the states and with experience at the Centre. There was also a fair provision in the rules for a 25 per cent promotion on merit-cum-seniority from the state civil services to the IAS and the IPS. Initially there was no reservation on the ground of caste, tribe or class.
For nearly two decades after Independence, the civil services maintained the tradition of efficiency, honesty and integrity, impartiality and discipline. Their relationship with the political executive was mutually correct. They were responsive to the needs and problems of a developing country. Their silent role was appreciated by political leaders and respected by people in general. There were few instances of their being used and made scapegoats by unscrupulous politicians or gheraoed, abused, assaulted by the cadres of some political parties and unruly mobs. The dividing year was, shall we say, 1967, from when the downward slide began.
Politicians were not interested in an incorruptible elite civil service. They needed pliable men and favourites of their own. They also needed to be populist to maintain their base within the electorate. So began the tinkering with the civil services which the politicians did not dare to do with the armed forces or the higher judiciary.

Distortion of cadres
The civil services of the states ruled by the princes were inducted into the all-India services. Reservations were introduced for scheduled castes and tribes and, later, for other backward classes. The Frontier Administrative Service recruited from the Army and the Police were merged with the IAS. Whatever the justification for these measures, there was no compulsion for the creation of numerous ex-cadre posts leading to distortion of the IAS and the IPS cadres of the states for the appointment of political favourites, initially, in Punjab, Utter Pradesh, Bihar, and then everywhere. Pratap Singh Kairon was the initiator of this device.
But the epoch-making event was the enunciation of the doctrine of a committed bureaucracy by Indira Gandhi which led to the establishment of extra-constitutional centres of authority for the selection of civil servants for the higher level posts. With all these onslaughts, only the innocent can be surprised at the demoralisation of the civil services. Where was the uniformity in the standard of selection; where was training, assessment of ability and experience; where was the expectation of solidarity and cohesiveness, apart from honesty and integrity? It was a heterogeneous crowd instead of a well-organised, disciplined civil service with a uniform standard and a common outlook.
The framers of the rules in their wisdom reduced the scales of pay for the successors of the ICS. The national leaders wanted to maintain a patriotic image. Even then the IAS and the allied services attracted the cream of the youth from the universities. There were neither the IITs nor the IIMs then. Good doctors and lawyers earned in a day the monthly salary of an IAS or IPS officer. Yet the civil services were then a contented body because of the pride and prestige of their position in society.
Prices began to rise. Everybody�s income was also rising except for those with endless work and high responsibility in the government. In the seventies, there was no dearness allowance for those in the so-called super time scale of pay of Rs 2,500 to 2,700 for the Divisional Commissioners, IGs of Police, Major Generals in the Army, etc. The total emolument of a durwan in the Reserve Bank of India with overtime allowances was then equal to the pay of a Joint Secretary at the Centre. It became a joke. It is only after the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission were implemented in the nineties that the civil services, the police and the armed forces were given a decent pay.

Dishonest politicians
During the eighties, the country was steeped in corruption. Bofors shook the country. Senior civil servants and police officers serving in Nagaland, J&K, Assam, Manipur, Bihar and West Bengal were killed, injured, assaulted and humiliated.
Some with weak character yielded to pressures from dishonest politicians. Temptations came from unscrupulous men in industry and business. Paradoxically, while the case against a woman Deputy Director of the central government was thoroughly investigated ending in conviction, the minister who applied the pressure was not touched. The officers involved in the fodder cases of Bihar are languishing in jail but the kingpins and prime movers are free.
There is no protection against character assassination. The press never loses an opportunity to ridicule the �babus� as a tribe. There are still many who work long hours throughout the year with honesty and sense of dedication. In fifty years, very few civil servants have been honoured by the state unlike, for example, in Britain.
The decline of the civil services has been disgraceful. An attempt to restore the confidence, integrity and self-respect in the services must be preceded by a sincere effort at cleansing the body politic. The country should think on new lines to establish a new civil and police service without making the mistakes of the past.
By DILIP KUMAR GUHA
The author is a former member of the Indian Administrative Service

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Article sourced from

The Statesman - Kolkata, India27 February 2006

EDITORIAL:POLLUTED SERVICES

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The Statesman - Kolkata, India
27 February 2006