tarnaka times - Sustainable Hyderabad

esults, wasting colossal amounts of public money, our
national development is dragging its feet. All new
challenging jobs are being entrusted to the in-house
old-style all-India services, when, outside, in the
society, many brilliant, qualified, talented, imaginative
and productive managers with proven success are
readily available in the open market, who do not ask
for life-long security and training.
Apart from pragmatic reasons, there are
serious issues of democratic values involved in the
present functioning of our civil services. In the district,
the Collector, like the young and brilliant English officer,
has been standing much above the local people. Still,
the docile and obsequious gumasathas or clerks, the
‘Daffedaars’ and all the middlemen perform all the
usages of a ‘durbar’. Being accustomed to many
protocols in their rural stint, the IAS, IPS and IFS cadre
are having difficulties to adjust with the ordinary people
in the urban areas. However, it is interesting to notice
that those who work in the Union government do not
feel that ‘distinguished’. The civil society activists that
come to them are treated as unconcerned outsiders.
They are comfortable with the politicians, whom they
recognize as entitled to power. Recently, in Andhra
Pradesh, when CBI made enquiries on financial scams
of politico-administrative nature, the association of the
IAS officers in A.P. wondered that they were treated
differently from the ministers! Our ambassadors and
the Foreign Service too function as anachronistic
symbols. Our defence services and the police
personnel are oppressively hierarchical. China and
Israel have injected democratic values into the
functioning of their defence personnel with better
results. In our country too, recently, the Supreme Court
has saved a U.P.police constable from being punished
for having disobeyed illegal orders of a higher officer.
It is time to reform our public services. If, at all, we
need a frame, we need a frame made of lighter metals
that do not corrode.
In India, we have democracy in the elections
and in the recruitment but once appointed, the
incumbents form a ‘class’ by each category and resist
all further democratization. Many of us, still, look at
‘Power’ as a struggle to be the ‘ruler’ and not to be
‘ruled’. However, we obey to the hierarchy within our
‘classes’. Civil services as well as personnel working
in the private sector have to be voluntarily accountable
to the public or transparent with social responsibility,
without exception.
Any provider of goods and services has
obligations towards the consumers. All employees of
the public administration have obligations towards the
citizens, since all citizens are consumers and all the
public servants are paid by the tax money. Even the
poorest Indian pays some tax directly or indirectly. As
such, between the Administration and the citizens,
there is only a contractual relationship and the
administrators do not have any inherent power or
authority over the citizens. Their implicit contract is
Tarnaka Times, Feb.-2012 2
governed by the laws. An officer exercises a servicerendering
profession and, as such, he must exhibit the
art of service, a code of conduct and professional
ethics. It is the same, whether one works in a private
company, a P.S.U. or a department or a Board. At
present, only civil service has no scientific parameters
to asses its perfomance, except seniority. Their
'Associations' do not watch over their conduct. Outside
enquiries are subjected to 'Single Directive'.
Should not all the public servants, whether
from the Executive or the Legislature or the Judiciary
be treated equally? Is a serene selection by open
competition inferior to a tumultuous election? Instead
of public ‘servant’ or ‘master’ let there be only public
functionary. In a democracy, the public functionary shall
not remain an agent of power. We must aim at
destroying the feeling of exercising some power over
the co-citizens from the mind of any citizen, whatever
might be the importance of the profession.
Our understanding of democracy is historically
conditioned by some foreign experiences and it is,
further, very formal and limited. It is time to explore
new opportunities to assign new democratizing roles
in all spheres of human relations, whether in home, in
school, in games, in office or in field. In an ideal
democracy, we should eliminate the interplay of Power,
whether within the institutions or in inter-personal
relations. Liberty, equality and fraternity should be
reflected in all our relations.
- Dr. Rao VBJ Chelikani
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