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GOVERNANCE

Indian civil services on the comeback trail

“Civil services at a crossroads,” “The more the civil services change, the more certainly in the period since Independence, they have been the ready-at-hand punch bag and they remain the same,” “Civil servants or uncivil serpents?” “Necessary evil.”

Well, these are some of the reactions that will most likely flit across the mind of a person in the street at the mention of civil services in India. It has been so throughout the time they have existed. Such reactions provide an emotional vent to everyone’s quotidian frustrations.

Let us not forget, though, that it is the lot of civil services in all countries, not just in India, to be the preferred target of pungent barbs from every section of society for most things that go wrong. At the same time, everyone realises they can be neither ignored nor done away with since they are indispensable to keep the wheels of governance moving smoothly. I am using the word ‘governance,’ and not the more common ‘administration,’ out of a deliberate intent: To highlight the changed context requiring the civil services to attune themselves to the demands of the 21st century.

Going by conventional wisdom, when India awoke to life and freedom (to quote Nehru’s immortal words) 60 years ago, the role of the civil services was a severely limited one: To assess and collect land revenue to meet the expenses of running the administration at its most basic connotation of maintaining law and order, keeping the peace and dispensing justice. This is not the whole truth.

Civil servants, of whom a significant proportion got elevated as Governors and Viceroys, were very much a part of decision-making for establishing the countrywide network of railways, roads, irrigation canals and post and telegraph offices, besides giving a push to reformist endeavours such as the rooting out of thuggery, abolition of suttee (sati), enforcing the ban on child marriage, and so on.

To them go the kudos for launching regular census operations, rekindling the glory that was India by means of archaeological excavations in far-flung locations and preservation of ancient monuments, and bringing out well-researched District Gazetteers and a series of books on the various epochs and personalities of Indian history. Almost every one of them wrote his memoirs, which have invested the civil services with a romantic allure to this day.

From the rising numbers of young boys and girls writing the competitive examinations and joining the services, it is evident that there has been no waning in the pull of the civil services. In fact, there is now a fresh burst of energy. This is because no other sphere of responsibility poses such an incredible variety of formidable challenges over such a wide spectrum of activities or gives such a great sense of fulfilment.

Members of the civil services work closely with the higher reaches of the political executive in making policies, drawing up and executing plans and schemes, ensuring purposeful utilisation of resources, formulating legislation and handling issues raised in the legislature. They work with civil society and members of the public. And they generally serve as a handy source of information and advice.

However, the changed context requires adjustments in their methods and approaches to meet the new demands of globalisation without being caught unawares. In the current situation they should make sure they are fully prepared to cope with the dizzying pace of advances in knowledge, communications, technologies, and social mores. They have to be abreast of developments and ready with solutions to new problems looming on the horizon.

Fortunately, there are good reasons to believe that India’s civil services will rise to the occasion. An increasingly prominent trend is the morphing of the composition of the civil services brought about in the last couple of decades by the entry of engineers, doctors, IT professionals, and the bright products of IIMs and IITs, spurning far more lucrative jobs in multinational corporations and in the financial sector.

The multiplier effects of this phenomenon are far-reaching. At the very least it strengthens governance by a cross-fertilisation of intellects, skills and talents, and raises the bar of performance for one another in a spirit of healthy rivalry.

The members of the civil services derive immeasurable benefit from the mutual exchange of lessons and experiences from the application to their tasks of revolutionary concepts relating to human relations, conflict resolution, negotiating techniques, technological content, project implementation, disaster management and environmental protection spawned by the diverse disciplines in which they are proficient.

This emerging new breed of civil servants is also expected to bring to bear on its duties a fresh mind and a high degree of initiative, drive, innovation, creativity, inventiveness, and risk-taking, cumulatively adding to its overall effectiveness. In a world without walls knit together by Bluetooth and BlackBerry, there is going to be greater convergence and rapport between the public servant and the public, the political class and the civil services, the service providers and the citizen-consumers.

The availability at the citizens’ doorstep of all the needed information and services bids fair to eliminate the scope for corrupt powerbrokers and wheeler-dealers, with a corresponding enhancement of the prospect of ushering in a corruption-free and value-based governance.

This is not wishful thinking. Here are a few examples to give a foretaste of the turnaround that the civil services could make possible: The magnificent resurgence of Surat in the aftermath of the plague sweeping that city; the efforts made beyond the call of duty in the matter of tsunami relief which was hailed as a model for all the world; the impressive computerisation of the entire railway reservation process; the thrust given to e-governance; the significant improvement in the quality of services of civic bodies by go-getting civil servants; and the sensitivity and commitment shown by many proactive district officials in addressing people’s concerns.

There are, nevertheless, two aspects of a civil service career that had always acted as a brake on the civil servants’ dynamism and effectiveness. One is ‘political interference,’ in the sense of pressure to comply with dictates of politicians in violation of propriety and probity. The other is ‘political seduction,’ in the sense of luring the bureaucracy into a collusive nexus by dangling before it preferred postings, coveted assignments, and other career plums.

The remedy for this is the combined power of four factors: the unyielding self-assurance of the civil services, induction into politics of enlightened and cultivated persons placing the nation’s interests above theirs or that of their parties, people’s watchfulness and the connectivities making for transparency brought on by information technology and the communications revolution. There are hopeful signs of growing maturity and wisdom on the part of the political establishment, and uprightness and public-spiritedness on the part of the civil services whereby the relations between the two reinforce each other’s capabilities to further people’s welfare and the national interest.

In conclusion, it is necessary to draw attention to the change in the context in which the civil services function. They no longer serve a know-all government, but a modest dispensation that will confine itself to playing the moderator, regulator, umpire and facilitator. The private sector and civil society have come into their own in a big way. The question is whether, and in what way, the civil services can make a difference in the new context.

There need be no doubt that the civil services will still retain their relevance and importance as a corpus of experience and expertise to draw on, as guides and counsellors, as trend-setters and path-makers, and as exemplars of accountability and rectitude. In short, the civil services, like diamonds (in this Diamond Jubilee year of Independence), are forever.