INDIAN BUREAUCRACY

The modern day administration started with the advent of Europeans into the country sometime in the 15th or 16th Century CE when the Europeans who came for trading with India for its spices, silk, and various other produce, started usurping power and ruling in various pockets.  The British, who came to India brought with them their own idea of administration with a cabinet of ministers to help the viceroy (who was the senior most political person in the country and reporting only to the British monarch through the British parliament) and a plethora of administrators or bureaucrats who were selected based on an examination conducted and sent to England for training.  This service was called Indian Civil Service, ICS for short.  The people who were well qualified with a university education in various disciplines (there were only basic arts, mathmatics and science in those days) and who could speak English fluently were the ones who were selected in the examination for training.  The training was given in the way how the British wanted the occupied country to be administered and not the way the country deserved to be.

With the independence came the issue of the Indian Civil Service. For a few years the people were sent to England to get trained but later the training was given in the institute set up for this purpose at Mussorie in the year 1959. Various ICS and IAS officers who headed the institution instilled a greater pride and a purpose in the minds of the youngsters who were selected through a rigorous examination followed by an interview.

The civil service is informally known as the iron frame of the administration and a link between the elected representatives and the people through implementing the schemes formulated by the ministry headed by the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister of a state.  The bureaucracy has all along had been under the tutelage of various governments with different parties holding the rein of the government in different times.  But largely they had remained apolitical and never expressed any opinion about the political masters when in service or post retirement.

With Indira Gandhi ascending to power and trying her hand in twisting the bureaucracy to her whims and fancies, there emerged a section of officers who were particularly well disposed towards her and this practice continued even after her untimely death.  This has resulted in many of the officers developing vested interest in certain areas, and developing close contact and proximity with the political masters.  The actions of the administration at times were leaked to the opposition leaders with whom some of the officers were friendly.  This was amply proved when a copy of a memorandum that was to be submitted by the investigating agency in a case involving a former minister was found in the bed room in the house of the person himself, the house being removed from the capital of the country by about 2000 KM.  Such blatant actions on the part of the bureaucracy tainted the entire service and brought it under cloud.  Apart from this, the various corruption cases and seizure of large quantity of cash and gold from the residences, offices of the officers which were disproportionate to their known sources of income also brought the service under cloud.  

With all these, it was not too far, for the officers to talk about their erstwhile political masters in a distasteful manner after retiring or resigning from the service. In this scenario, it was not at all surprising to read about the interview of the former Finance Secretary when he aired some views about the present finance minister of the country. The former finance secretary, by voicing his difference of opinion on the lock down imposed on the country from the end of March this year has thrown open his ignorance about the preparedness of health sector in the country. But for the lockdown and the arrangements made by the government, be it Railway ministry, Health ministry, I&B ministry, the preparedness would not have happened in the way it happened. What Mr. Garg wants the country to do? Close the eyes and pretend that the pandemic will subside on its own and allow the industry to function normally to keep up the economic health of the country.  In his very first speech the PM had made it amply clear that the health of the people is of paramount importance than the few percentage points reduction in the GDP.  When these self serving bureaucrats are going to think in larger terms of the nation and its people?