Has India arrived? Or is it the beginning of a journey? Do all travelers know the destination? Who determines the mode of journey and most importantly the destination?
There are more questions, but Indian public is at a loss when it comes to identifying the source that would provide the answers. At current levels of maturity of democracy and public life it seems that the Government is the appropriate choice.
Most of the developing countries today have one thing in common: a core public service. In other words, a centrally controlled bureaucracy comprising a workforce engaged in ministries, departments and government agencies to carry
out the business of government. Historically, civil service structures have evolved around the idea that public employment is different from other types of work and therefore requires a special employment system and structure.
Public service consequently has traditionally offered a high level of job security, or even “life time employment”. But over the past few decades many areas of public employment have lost this distinctiveness, mostly because reform of the public sector has seen more and more functions moved into the domain of private sector. As a result, many of the underlying assumptions about the way the civil service functions are no longer valid.
Is civil service reform merely a quest to make it more and more like the private sector? Can the business of government be treated just like any other business, or are there any fundamental cultural values embedded in a national civil service which are important to the society and which must necessarily be safeguarded in the process of these reforms?
The current situation of Covid-19 pandemic around the world has subjected the organized civil services of all countries to a true test of grit and talent. The crisis of epidemic is unprecedented in its dimension, but definitely not unique in any way, because the world has witnessed such events in the past as well. However, Indian civil service & petty bureaucracy appears to have suffered a rude shock. In a society where VIP culture was so painstakingly nurtured & nourished by all the privileged elite, has suddenly found the greatest leveler of all times - the corona virus, which defies all status or assumed authority and brings it back to basics of who you are under your skin. This very physical parity among all humans is really painful for the elite of the society who have lived a life of exclusive privileges with a feeling of "well earned rewards" on the strength of their money, because suddenly no amount of money is a guarantee of life.
There are more questions, but Indian public is at a loss when it comes to identifying the source that would provide the answers. At current levels of maturity of democracy and public life it seems that the Government is the appropriate choice.
Most of the developing countries today have one thing in common: a core public service. In other words, a centrally controlled bureaucracy comprising a workforce engaged in ministries, departments and government agencies to carry
out the business of government. Historically, civil service structures have evolved around the idea that public employment is different from other types of work and therefore requires a special employment system and structure.
Public service consequently has traditionally offered a high level of job security, or even “life time employment”. But over the past few decades many areas of public employment have lost this distinctiveness, mostly because reform of the public sector has seen more and more functions moved into the domain of private sector. As a result, many of the underlying assumptions about the way the civil service functions are no longer valid.
Is civil service reform merely a quest to make it more and more like the private sector? Can the business of government be treated just like any other business, or are there any fundamental cultural values embedded in a national civil service which are important to the society and which must necessarily be safeguarded in the process of these reforms?
The current situation of Covid-19 pandemic around the world has subjected the organized civil services of all countries to a true test of grit and talent. The crisis of epidemic is unprecedented in its dimension, but definitely not unique in any way, because the world has witnessed such events in the past as well. However, Indian civil service & petty bureaucracy appears to have suffered a rude shock. In a society where VIP culture was so painstakingly nurtured & nourished by all the privileged elite, has suddenly found the greatest leveler of all times - the corona virus, which defies all status or assumed authority and brings it back to basics of who you are under your skin. This very physical parity among all humans is really painful for the elite of the society who have lived a life of exclusive privileges with a feeling of "well earned rewards" on the strength of their money, because suddenly no amount of money is a guarantee of life.
In such trying times also the petty bureaucracy has not been able to shed its feudal DNA and has taken upon itself the onerous task of "handling the masses", because that is the only thing it has a previous experience of . Right from the time of official acknowledgement of existence of a pandemic, the focus has not been on the disease, instead it has been on those who fell prey to it, almost attributing to them a volition at par with wilful sin. Provisions of acts and statutes as contained in acts related to disaster management are designed to enable state machinery to act in good faith for common cause of safety of public, and some individual rights may be temporarily pared. However, for petty bureaucracy it acts like a tequila shot, so the objective shifts from management of disease to management of those "who are dying to get it". Why else would such mindless provisions such as night curfew or restrictions on movement of private vehicles be considered as helpful in restraining the spread of virus, except to simply display the state authority and distract the citizens, leading them to believe that "something is being done". A single individual on a bike cannot spread virus, but one on a pillion can ! No risk of spread of disease till a moment from the time of commencement of night curfew, but next moment the air becomes toxic and disease can be spread by people moving freely.
There has not been a single unique initiative from bureaucracy in the matter of current crisis. The kind of guidelines which have been issued reflect the level of thinking of those in the government and their mental distance from the reality of streets. They have proved themselves incapable of even visualizing impact of their written commands even one day into execution. Does that not suddenly throw a light on why government policies are so poor in execution, & why the projects of the government suffer so many delays and after much delayed completion, fail to achieve very little towards what they had set out to achieve. Keeping the masses away from their daily struggle of life, which actually is the pulse of a live economy, is like slow poison. Material existence and survival of population is being subjected to lab trials of strategies perceived by a civil service, proponents of which have a security of tenure and a very comfortable increment of balance in their bank accounts. For many in the civil services this is a time of paid holiday, and even after unlock has begun the process has been cushioned in such provisions which has taken out the complete stress of performance & physical presence. Even the favorite pastime of meetings has been subdued, and strategic thinking has been outsourced to political advisors of the ruling party of the day.
is there hope ......
updated July 24, 2020
updated July 24, 2020
