R. B SURI
Based upon his experience in administration for a pretty long time as also by remaining on the constitutional posts, former Governor J and K Jagmohan has made a mention of the officers ( IAS, IPS, IFS, IAAS) who usually remain at the helm of affairs in governance in the country. in his Book titled as ” Soul & Structure of Governance in India.” While giving the background of the civil services from ICS To IAS (in operation at the moment) he wrote in his book I quote,” that the decline in the working of officers was slow in the initial years but accelerated later on . He has categorised the officers into four categories which are reproduced as under :-
1. Officers who have brains as well as backbone
2. Officers who have brains but no backbone
3. Officers who have backbone but no brains and
4. Officers who have neither brains nor backbone
1. Officers who have brains as well as backbone
This is the first category of officers that is those who have the courage of conviction and also intelligence to argue their view point, is a rarity these days. They start asserting themselves in the early phases of their career. They support the ministers whole heartedly when they are right but oppose them when they are wrong . They also put their heart and soul in work. Unfortunately, most officers, even of this category, under experiences which embitter them, and they soon realise the futility of their conscientious stand and earnest work. The carry on, adjusting themselves to the circumstance in the best manner they can. If they are fortunate, they come into contact with the few well-meaning political executives who are still around and who have the inclination and good sense to reward merit and encourage dispassionate advice and constructive work .
2. Officers who have brains but no backbone
It is the second category of officers who generally aid and abet the wrongdoings of ministers. They using their intelligence and knowledge, informally advise the ministers how to circumvent rules and procedures and make wrong look right. It is they who usually secure plum postings and wield, under unhealthy political patronage, power much beyond their status. Sometimes, however, they come to grief and even go to jail along with political godfathers, as happened to about half a dozen senior IAS officers of Bihar as a result of the fodder scam.
3.Officers who have backbone but no brains
Officers of the third category are usually stolid and stubborn. Since they have little intelligence, they generally pick up the wrong end of the stick and in their attempt to be firm , persist with their stand, however negative and harsh it may be. It is their behaviour which public in general and politicians in particular have in view labeled bureaucracy as obstructive, in sensitive and wooden headed.
4.Officers who have neither brains nor backbone
There is hardly any distinct impact of the fourth category of officers. They are non entities of the system. Being weaklings, they are vulnerable to exploitation by senior officers as well as politicians.” Jagmohan further states,
“Clearly the civil services in India have lost their élan, their esprit de corps.
They have been fragmented and fractured. Of late, another factor has been adding to their fragmentation. Whatever be the justification for reservations and caste bound appointments and promotions they have, so far as the relationship between ministers and civil servants is concerned, injected another unhealthy feature in the functioning of public services. The officers belonging to a particular caste look to ministers of their own caste for advancement in their service career or for securing undue benefits or for warding of a disciplinary action that may be contemplated against them.” Former Governor J and K Jagmohan further advanced his view point that there may be nothing wrong in the reservation policy per se. But the way some politicians of the country and the civil servants are exploiting it has further deformed the already deformed structure of public governance in the country”. To me, another category of these officers has emerged with the passage of time which I am now discussing in this article and that can be described as the fifth one category .
Fifth Category; Officers have brains but they do not want to contribute
Officers have brains but they do not want to contribute as they are afraid of the consequences in the event of open aggression with the political bosses in power in the country. They just go on passing the time in manipulating their deputation to the Centre time and again as also for managing to proceed on the different trainings or completing their master degrees or the doctorate in any field irrespective of the fact whether it is helpful in their entire service career or not. This way our bureaucracy is taking the U- turn in governance. Indirectly they become the endo-parasites on the administration it self. The declining in the functioning of the administration is being noticed in every state which is not good and totally unbecoming on their part.
A sense of discouragement and frustration is prevailing in them, when they draw a comparison of their salaries in the government viz- a viz that of a corporate. Owing to this reason they go lethargic in delivering the goods to the society.
Pertinent to mention here that when one talks of the administrative officers of our State, the system here is all together different. Here the government functions in its own and novel way irrespective of the fact that it prefers to take the services of these officers from the State owned service (whether KAS or KPS) who work and dance on the tunes of the ministers throwing all the rules and procedures to the winds. There is an administration for the sake of administration only. Financial discipline in the State is the rarity these days. There is no question of maintaining discipline of keeping the officers on the post of tenure for at least two years or so as to assess his / her performance/weightage in the matter of delivering the goods in the public interests. There is a practice of shifting of these officers after every six months or so and rarely there are instances of a few officers who remained on the posts on which they were transferred, to two years. From going through the foregoing lines of this article, the readers may draw an impression that where we are landing in the matter of administrative officers in the State in delivering the goods to the society. According to the input assessed in respect of the officers of such like categories in our State i.e. first, second, third ,fourth and fifth category is to the order of 20,40,20,10,10 per cent respectively.
