Civil service must be given confidence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent the last two days of 2015 “brainstorming” with top bureaucrats. Perhaps he is aware that systems haven’t run smoothly and outcomes all round are short of expectations. It is the range of subjects on which the PM sought the views of the top civil servants — so that “transformative” ways may be discovered to achieve “breakthroughs” — that is so surprising.

Practically nothing of consequence has been left out, you name it: the Swachchh Bharat mission, the Ganga regeneration programme, good governance, employment generation, energy optimisation, agricultural operations and rural economics, innovative budgeting. This is almost the entire range of activity for which governments find a justification to exist. The top guns of the “steel frame” — as the top end of the civil service was once known but has slipped considerably in quality since the halcyon days — are to submit the findings of their deliberations to Mr Modi in the coming weeks. But he may find at the end of the day that there is no magic wand.

The pertinent question is if the various ministries and departments have not delivered in the routine course, can their heads find answers through a seminar crash-course, which is what the PM-led deliberations amount to? The Kelkar Committee recommendations, submitted recently to government, propose that suitable modifications be made to the Prevention of Corruption Act so that acts of malfeasance may be separated from honest errors of judgment, and that an honest civil servant is not hounded by CBI even after retirement.

This is likely to go a long way and remove apprehensions from the mind of senior civil servants. With the logjam in Parliament, the PM may well be looking to the administrative side to squeeze out advanced results in areas that don’t need legislation. Fundamentally, of course, it needs to be remembered that the civil service, if kept in good tone and given confidence, is indispensable to governmental performance. But it is not an agency for transformation, as is apparently being envisaged. That is the area of politicians with wisdom who must give guidance and direction, with a fair sprinkling or dispersal of power to various levels. In an over-centralised CEO-style governance, this is missing.
 

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