A UP Minister recently criticised the bureaucrats for behaving like Kings with the people  and pleaded for the abolition of the civil service, which he feels should have been done immediately after independence.

To add show abysmal ignorance he added that developed nations like Britain, Russia, China and Japan don’t have civil services in their countries, and the same should have been abolished in India also after the country attained independence.

Each country in the world has a system of recruitment to its civil, military, diplomatic service.

It may not exactly be, what we have an India, but a system of civil service prevails in every country. It could be an outright patronage or appointing party people, or experts to the top jobs, as in USA.

But the basic structure of bureaucracy has to be there and has been there since the known history. It is a simple truth, that if you do not know something, keep silent, instead of speaking and revealing your total ignorance.

One cannot deny and it will be the travesty of the truth that instead of being a help the bureaucracy has become a bottleneck to the common man.

In an interview to a Hindi newspaper here, the same Minister, who studied in Aligarh Muslim University, claimed that during training, it is put in the minds of IAS and IPS officers that they are going to be the kings.

Having been trained in the Indian Police Service, at Mt. Abu as well as IAS Academy, Mussoorie, the least I can say, that it is not even a lie, but a fertile poisoned thinking. Nothing of this kind is in the Syllabus or even remotely connected in the training of any official.

Out of t he 543, Lok Sabha MPs, 162 (30 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves and 14 per cent of the current Lok Sabha MPs have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

A total of 1,258 (31 per cent) out of the 4032 sitting MLAs from all state assemblies have declared criminal cases against themselves and 15 per cent of them have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

A leading newspaper undertook a survey about the State Of Affairs of the Administrative Service, which is likely to be the same for IPS and other top services/ The findings are as under; 6154 is the Total authorized strength of IAS Across India ( 1st Jan 2013) 4377 is the Number of serving officers Research Organisation C fore conducted the survey among IAS officers across the country.

About 500 IAS officers were contacted for the survey. 63°/o of the respondents were below 40 years and 37% of the respondents were between 40 to 60 year of age. The questions and answers were as under

Are you facing/have faced political pressure at any point in your career? 82% yes 18% no.If yes, has the pressure been? Severe 63% Moderate 32% Mild 5%.

Dissatisfaction with the political class is clearly visible as more than4/5thof those surveyed faced political pressure in making their decisions.

Was there any pressure to take a decision by your seniors that you didnt want to take?

86% yes 14% no What is the biggest roadblock while performing your duties? 

Political interference 84% Red tape 16% Local mindsets 0%.

It’s not just politicians that influence officers, the survey reveals, seniors too influence them.

Have you ever taken a decision that went against political pressure/popular opinion?

78% Yes 22% No. If yes, how did your senior react? They have not supported 80% They reprimanded 20% they have supported 0%. They rewarded 0% Looking back, would you still choose IAS as a career?   Yes 60%   no34%.

Incidentally, the Government has not hesitated to take action even the dishonest, as the following figures will show; 35 Bribery case registered by CBI in four years (2009-1012) against IAS officers 200 IAs officers suspended over last two decades 47 IAs officers facing cases punishable with dismissal

Politicians have tasted blood of corruption. Except for a few honourable exceptions, most of the scams, whether it is the fodder scam, or 2 G, or CommonWealth Games, or Rail gate or Coal gate, are the doings of the politicians, to quote a few. What has been unearthed thanks to a vigilant media, is only a tip of the Ice Berg, as it 9/10 remains hidden.

The role of the Civil service is not that of the opposition party. Politicians may consider it an evil, but it is a necessary evil.

Surely, the Politician would not sit in the office of the Sub Registrar to register deeds, not would he sit at the reception to direct the patients to the concerned doctor, nor would he like to work as a cook in a Government guest house.

In my personal view, we have given over protection to the bureaucracy in weeding out the inefficient and dishonest and it takes ages to get rid of the corrupt. This needs to be changed.

The position now is. that the distinction between the workers and shirkers has been obliterated. After all, no democracy, can function which is half good and half criminal or which is half rich and half poor. Once a former Congress President, D. Sanjivya, talking about corruption in 1962, when I had just joined the Indian Police Service said that Congressmen (The only ruling party) who were paupers, have become Lakhpatis. It is because, nobody had a Crores of Rupees. In India, the civil servant, is sometimes like a broken cannon – it won’t work and you can’t fire it.

If anything, there is a need to make an example and shunting our the dishonest and corrupt from the system, including the bureaucrats and politicians. The present situation in India is no different from what Mark Twain once said that .” the scams, whether it is the fodder scam, or 2 G, or CommonWealth Games, or Rail gate or Coal gate, are the doings of the politicians, to quote a few. What has been unearthed thanks to a vigilant media, is only a tip of the Ice Berg, as it 9/10 remains hidden.

The role of the Civil service is not that of the opposition party. Politicians may consider it an evil, but it is a necessary evil. Surely, the Politician would not sit in the office of the Sub Registrar to register deeds, not would he sit at the reception to direct the patients to the concerned doctor, nor would he like to work as a cook in a Government guest house.

In my personal view, we have given over protection to the bureaucracy in weeding out the inefficient and dishonest and it takes ages to get rid of the corrupt. This needs to be changed.

The position now is. that the distinction between the workers and shirkers has been obliterated. After all, no democracy, can function which is half good and half criminal or which is half rich and half poor. Once a former Congress President, D. Sanjivya, talking about corruption in 1962, when I had just joined the Indian Police Service said that Congressmen (The only ruling party) who were paupers, have become Lakhpatis. It is because, nobody had a Crores of Rupees. In India, the civil servant, is sometimes like a broken cannon – it won’t work and you can’t fire it.

If anything, there is a need to make an example and shunting our the dishonest and corrupt from the system, including the bureaucrats and politicians. The present situation in India is no different from what Mark Twain once said that .”life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session. It is anybody’s guess, as to how much of the above applies to India. – PTI Feature