HVK Archives: The rusted frame
The rusted frame - The Observer
Nikhil Chakravartty
()
20 January 1997
Title : The rusted frame
Author : Nikhil Chakravartty
Publication : The Observer
Date : January 20, 1997
Sharp changes in political developments have their inexorable
impact on institutions which constitute the political structure.
That is how, for instance, has emerged the new phenomenon of
judicial activism and with it, the resentment and criticism about
it of some sections of the Parliament and legislature. In this
context, it is worth noting the vicissitudes through which an
important element of our state structure, namely the bureaucracy,
has been passing through.
When independence came along with the partition of the country, the
bureaucracy which had been. serving the Raj, came over lock, stock
and barrel to the new government of independent India Krishna Menon
used to, call this transformation as "one of the hazards of
peaceful transfer of power". Under Nehru and Patel, the civil
servants who had served the British were taken on trust. The
convenient plea then in vogue was that if a bureaucrat could serve
the foreign government so loyally, what prevents him from serving
the government run by Indian leaders?
The bureaucracy played a crucial
role in the formative years of the new Indian state. While on one
side they had experience, on the other hand their outlook was
largely conditioned under the colonial rule. Although Gandhiji did
not live beyond five months of independence, his ideal civil
servant as "the servant of the people" never took roots. Many of
the officers were highly competent persons and many were inspired
with a sense of dedicated service. But what they lacked was the
orientation of a people's administration. For their intellectual
moulding then was only occasional exhortations by political
leaders. But there was no sustained education.
Along with the structure of governance, the personnel running it,
by and large, followed the colonial legacy, and there was no
appreciable break under the new conditions of independence. There
was certain amount Of strained relationship between the old ICS and
the new IAS, but these were normally about perquisites and
lifestyle, and very little about any radical reorientation about
the nature of the service to the state and the public.
In the hot-house euphoria that overtook the political atmosphere
after Indira Gandhi split the Congress and swept the poll with her
garibi hatao slogan, a new dispensation was sought to be set up.
The idea of 'committed' civil servant became the order of the day.
It was originals meant to convey that the civil servant was the
servant of the public, but in actual practice it meant that the
civil servant must be totally subservient to the ruling elite,
which at that time meant Indira Gandhi and her court.
Very soon, the committed civil servant became another name for a
courtier, ready to carry out orders at the master's behest. The
climax of this distortion could be seen during the Emergency days.
It is worth noting that about this time, not only the bureaucracy
but even the judges in the court of law were expected to be
'committed', as one heard about the committed judiciary. The
result was that some of the upright judges were superseded, and
during the Emergency one found the judiciary almost totally
subservient to the wishes and dictates of the authorities which
arbitrarily ran the Emergency.
In fact, the Emergency period inflicted the greatest damage on the
bureaucracy, as the political bosses of the day demanded total
subservience on the part of officials at all levels. The
independence and self-respect of the officers and employees in the
administrative system were sought to be destroyed and the old
slogan of 'committed' officialdom meant subservient officials of
the new authoritarian regime.
If the Emergency broke the back of the bureaucracy, there was
veritable chaos once the Emergency was brought to an end. In the
chaotic political climate that followed, with unstable politics all
around, the old fibre of the bureaucracy was destroyed. If
servitude was the gift of the Emergency, the bureaucracy became
corrupt and unreliable in the years after the Emergency. As
politicians were found indulging in large scale corruption, the
bureaucracy by and large became their helpmate.
The more honest among the bureaucrats, in most cases, found
themselves isolated or shunted away, and the intriguer and the
corrupt among them flourishing all the time. In the magnum size
corruption cases, from the Bofors onwards, the civil servant became
the instrument of operation for the guilty politician. Even in the
giant-size securities scam, it was the lack of vigilance plus
corruption on the part of the big shots of the finance ministry
that enabled the guilty to go ahead under the very nose of the top
officials.
Today, one finds some of the senior bureaucrats being hauled up
before the court of law for having been involved in some of the
most spectacular scandals such as the housing scam, the
telecommunication and petroleum scandals. In every one of these
cases, the political bosses had to find accomplices among the
bureaucrats to carry out their nefarious jobs.
All this has no doubt corroded the reputation of the bureaucracy,
once considered 'the steel frame' of the entire administration.
With the collapse of values in political life, bureaucracy is badly
smeared. The thousands of administrators doing their jobs in
various walks of life are certainly not corrupt, but the tone of
the administration, as also its reputation in the public eye - all
these are vitiated by the disrepute of the degenerate elements
among the bureaucracy who have become notorious in the public life
along with their political masters.
Against this corrupt circle, one has to take into account the
overwhelming number of administrators who are clean and uphold
public morality in their functioning. The government sometimes
wakes up to the urgent need for modernising the administrative
structure. There are useful training centres for the
administrative cadre. With all this, however, what is missing is
the understanding that no administrative machinery steel frame or
rock-hewn - can endure unless and until the political life of the
country is purged of its dross.
Only a clean political system can ever hope to run a clean
administrative machinery. Bureaucracy does not subsist on its own.
The morality of the bureaucracy depends on the political quality
of the masters it serves. What is missing in this understanding is
that the bureaucracy looks up to the elected representatives as its
masters, as it should be. But the real master in a democracy is
the people, the common humanity that sustains the system. With the
panchayats spreading all over the country, the bureaucracy too will
have to change its focus There, in the dust-laden village, the
bureaucrat has to find his new master ruling through the panchayat.
>From the ministries to the gram panchayat - the change of focus can
bring new sustenance to the bureaucracy.
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