Expressing his disappointment at bureaucratic non-performance, in a longish speech in Parliament, on 10 February 2021, PM Modi broke an unspoken taboo, by questioning the operational capability of IAS officers. Actually, much before the PM noticed the declining efficiency of Government servants, citizens had often suffered when Government machinery failed them in crunch situations. Even after the PM’s tongue lashing, things are no better; one gets the distinct impression that tragedies like armed clashes in Manipur, riots in Haryana or floods in Delhi could have been handled much better.

On Independence, after the British left, and after the myriad rajas and maharajas had been pensioned off, the country expected that able men and women would take over the reins of administration and lead India to glory, but administrators of the requisite calibre were hard to find, in a newly independent country. Realising that the British had successfully administered India through the minuscule Indian Civil Service, the Indian Army and the Indian Police, Sardar Patel, decided to continue with these institutions ~ much against the wishes of his cabinet colleagues, including Pandit Nehru.

Imbued with a sense of patriotism, and the heady feeling of independence, the Indian bureaucracy fully justified the Sardar’s confidence. Acknowledging the contribution of civil servants in nation building, Sardar Patel stated in the Constituent Assembly: “I wish this to be recorded in this house that during the last two or three years if most of the members of the services had not been serving the country efficiently, practically the Union would have collapsed.” Sadly, post-Independence, a new generation of bureaucrats with totally different values, are in office. Under the guise of Indianisation, timeless values of honesty, integrity, and responsibility have been discarded ~ to be replaced by a culture of brazen commercialism and avarice.

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The same bureaucracy that was credited with rendering stellar service to the nation seventyfive years ago, now stands accused of runaway corruption and inefficiency. The primary reason for the diminishing performance of civil servants is the interference of politicians in bureaucratic decision-making. Before Independence, bureaucrats were accustomed to exercising unbridled power, but after Independence, real power passed into the hands........

© The Statesman