Politicization of Bureaucracy

  • Over the years, whatever virtues the IAS possessed – integrity, political neutrality, courage and high morale – are showing signs of decay. Some civil servants are deeply involved in partisan politics: they are preoccupied with it, penetrated by it, and now participate individually and collectively in it.
  • One of the main reasons why systemic reforms have not been taken up earnestly by the states is the lack of stable tenure for IAS officials.
  • Transfers have been used as instruments of reward and punishment, as tools for controlling and taming the bureaucracy. There is no transparency, and in the public mind transfer after a short stay is categorised as a stigma.
  • Officers who are victimised are not in a position to defend themselves. Internally the system does not call for any reaction to explain one’s conduct, while externally public servants are debarred from going public to defend themselves.
  • A high degree of professionalism ought to be the dominant characteristic of a modern bureaucracy. The fatal failing of the Indian bureaucracy has been its low level of professional competence.
  • A civil servant spends more than half of his tenure on policy desks where domain knowledge is a vital prerequisite.
  • However, in the present environment prevailing in the States there is no incentive for a young civil servant to acquire knowledge or improve his skills. There is thus an exponential growth in both, his ignorance and arrogance.
  • For instance, it is said that in the house of an IAS officer one would find only three books – the railway timetable, because he is always being shunted from one post to the other, a current affairs magazine because that is his level of interest, and of course, the civil list – that describes the service hierarchy!
  • An important factor which contributes to the surrender of senior officers before political masters is the total lack of any market value and lack of alternative employment potential.
  • Of late, some senior officers are being hired by the private sector, not so much for their professionalism, but for their ability to influence government in favour of the hiring company.
  • Bureaucrats remain busy in tadbir management instead of trying to improve their capabilities since party “loyalty” and strength of tadbir are the only requirements for getting promotion.
  • The most threatening thing is that thousands of brilliant civil servants have been penalised from time to time in the name of “loyalty.” Such a situation will certainly discourage qualified and talented graduates from competing for the civil services.