Some changes, but more needed

Is the bureaucracy gearing up for change? It should, but it is not. I have been officer on special duty (OSD) director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussorie.

Radical reforms are required. I have been the secretary of panchayati raj department at the centre (Delhi). The idea of panchayati raj is decentralisation of governance. The word used in the Constitution itself suggests that it is an unit of self- government at the village level.

This was the concept of Mahatma Gandhi. Has it happened?

No. There has been a certain degree of reforms and decentralisation. Now IAS officers are answerable to the state government and not to the centre except in certain departments.

But the radical reforms required after we became Independent has not happened. I have written about it. The point is our system continues to be based on the old colonial structure. We had a civil service which served in the field and went to become secretariat service.

Field service is based on the Moghal system of administration. The Moghal administration had a Amal Guzaar who was a district collector. It was from this that the British took the title of collector. The integration took place in the colonial era when the collectors’ office was vested with both revenue and police powers.

Under the Moghals, collectors only had powers to collect taxes. Law and order was looked after by the Khiledar, who was in charge of the fort. Revenue and law order functions were separate.

The Moghal district administration is a concept which continues till date. So we have to be grateful to Emperor Akbar under whom Raja Todarmal devised the concept. It was so effective that Britishers used it where ever they ruled.

I do not know whether we need to continue the system that contributed to the building of an empire. It needs changes. After years we now have panchayats. Panchayats needs to be administrative units at village, district and division.

Service officials should be those who serve in these panchayati raj units which is accountable and elected by people on the lines of county councils in Britain. A similar system exist in US as well.

We need to have such system to be a first scale democracy. At the moment, we do not have it. At present we have elected bodies down to the village level. But their functions are very very limited.

The law provides that gram sabha or villagers can take any decision about the administration. They have to meet regularly and tell panchayats what to do? Is this happening? The answer is no.

The answer to the question whether the Indian bureaucracy is gearing up for change is, yes it is. But it is gearing up for methods resisting that change. Bureaucracy is only one of the elements of governance. There is political authority. After several decades since Independence, the civil services continue to dominate. There was a political class but the real authority lay with the civil services. Now politicians have begun to assert. But it is neither organised, nor is it necessarily a constructive participation.

The political element is important in a democratic structure. The bureaucracy, police or security forces are also important elements of governance. The army was earlier kept out. They were called in only when there was an emergency but now they are very much part of the governance structure. They have to be. Media and business too are part of governance.

In the old days, governance was the monopoly of bureaucrats. But that has changed. But the question is are we gearing up for that change? It is not a question of adjustment to change. It is a question of changing yourself. That is not happening.

What does an official do, caught as he is between loyalty and obligations to the state and the centre? I think it is a political challenge. If you are serving in a state that is running a policy counter to the centre’s policy, you are responsible to the state. I do not think the bureaucracy faces that kind of challenge.

In Jammu and Kashmir (in my early years) one tends to feel the dilemma of a separatist movement there. In what I do could give a fillip to the separatist movement.

Fortunately you do not find such a thing in the rest of India. If a policy that is overtly political in a particular state, I am implementing it, do I give credit to the centre or state? There are several examples. Central government schemes are being implemented in states under different names. A person who set a precedent in this was former Andhra Pradesh chief minister NT Rama Rao. He put forth his own name and took the credit for its implementation.

Interestingly the BJP government in Gujarat and Dravidan rule (by DMK or AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu both have strongly asserted their state’s identity. Chief minister Narendra Modi often speaks about Gujarati pride.

Similarly the DMK movement was born out of a separatists’ movement. It is triumph of Indian democracy to see how separatists were integrated into the political structure to such an extent that nobody talks about separation anymore.

There are similarities and dilemmas. In Gujarat, the government has been accused by not just the central government but by its own officers of conniving in the 2002 pogrom against Muslims.

It is a major dilemma for any civil servant. I am not saying this because I know it. I am hypothetically mentioning it. Under the Constitution of India every citizen has the right to seek protection of the state. Any order asking you to compromise your commitment to the Constitution could be dilemma.

The choice is very clear. The commitment to Constitution of an all India officer, whether he or she is at the centre or the state, has to be paramount. Is that happening? I do not necessarily think it is.

All these will have a destabilising influence on the government. We need change and reforms. What will happen is when you adjust, you start compromising with situations. There have been attempts in the betterment of delivery mechanisms in Gujarat, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. It is happening across the country. Trouble is that progress in the scheme of e-Governance has been very slow.

As chief commissioners we have been calling for speedy progress and suo moto disclosures. Websites have to be used. Panchayats have to be used effectively to give information. The reason why people rallied around Anna Hazare recently is that people are fed up with poor delivery mechanism.RTI is only one of the measures but it is starting measure. Accountability and transparency in government should be woven into the system. All the elements are there but the adoption is not moving in that direction.