India's babus need a mental makeover

Insensitive, indifferent, unresponsive, corrupt, slothful, arrogant and unintelligent – the typical Indian bureaucrat has been accused of being all this and even more.  The fact that bureaucracy, the`steel frame of India’ has rusted beyond repair and has lost the purpose of its existence, needs no overstating. Thus the fact that it has been ranked the worst in Asia by an international consulting firm, surprises no one. A survey by the Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd, rates Indian bureaucracy 9.21 out of 10 on the inefficiency scale, the worst in the continent. The rating causes some embarrassment as the country fares worse than countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and China. It reveals the depth of the rot in what is supposed to be the bridge that connects the government to the people. Among several observations the survey makes, two stand out. First, bureaucrats are hardly held accountable for flawed decisions and it is extremely difficult to challenge them in case of disagreements. “This gives them (bureaucrats) terrific powers and could be one of the main reasons why average Indians as well as existing and would-be foreign investors perceive India’s bureaucrats as negatively as they do,” the report says. [caption id=“attachment_179123” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The present system of selecting civil servants, a colonial relic, is outdated: Reuters”]  [/caption] Second, the report states that Indian officials are game for under-the-table payments and companies are tempted to play ball to overcome bureaucratic inertia. Neither of these observations should raise an eyebrow in India. Nobody ever wins an argument against a bureaucrat and if he messes things up for the client – the service receiver – he is almost certain to go unpunished. The bribe part is so common that it needs no further mention. The report also says that the civil service is a power centre in its own right and is too stubborn to allow change through reforms. It is a fact that the bureaucracy has an independent life of its own in the country and survives by its own rules. The regular bureaucrat has the security of legally guaranteed tenure, promotion in service and perks. He does not have to be accountable to people like his political masters. Unlike most other people in the country he enjoys the best of all worlds. Thus it is rather self-explanatory that he would not have any enthusiasm for reforms. That the Indian Civil Service has been churning out bureaucrats of poor quality has been a worry for the minders in the top echelons of the administration and government for a long time. Only recently, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, which trains India’s civil servants, has given serious thought to imbibing the culture of efficiency in them. According to media reports, it has tied up with the Indian subsidiary of the American Society for Quality, to train civil servants in better systems management. But it is a case of too little too late. Why can’t we have a system where efficiency and competence, at whatever level of administration, is rewarded? The country still produces a good number of capable officers who are sincere to their jobs and are sensitive to the service needs of the people. The current system, which works among several self-serving alliances of dishonest bureaucrats, is not likely to encourage them. The administrative reform initiave, if at all there is one, must take this into serious consideration. It is also clear that the present system of selecting civil servants, a colonial relic, is outdated. It is only good at producing clerks – actually, that was the original idea when the Britishers started it – not intelligent, perceptive officers. If many of them are incompetent, prone to shirking responsibility and bad at taking decisions, the blame lies with the way their knowledge and aptitude is put to test. Clever candidates can always find their way around to success. Serious efforts are needed to bring the Indian bureaucracy out of the rot it is in. There has to be a shift in the mindset of the bureaucrats and their worldview as well. The present arrangement, which makes bureaucrats the givers and the people the receivers, must change too. Will civil society take note of this? Fat chance. With politicians as a convenient target, the do-gooders may find little interest in serious matters like the bureaucracy.