IAS: Steel Frame or Steel Cage

Indian Administrative services is the premier civil service of the Indian government with its members function at the highest levels of executive. IAS constitutes permanent executive body. It can be regarded as legacy of British government. It was known as Indian Civil service during British rule. It along with police and military formed an important pillar of British administration, entrusted with especially revenue collection. Government of Independent India recognized importance of ICS in the day to day governance and adopted it from British administration.

Realising the scope of Indian Administrative Services, first Home Minister of Independent India Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel labelled it as Steel Frame of Indian System. Detailed analysis of India and role of IAS officers will reveal that this labeling was not an exaggeration, neither it was just an adjective. The phrase "Steel Frame" was entrusting a responsibility to officers to IAS to lead the developmental path of Independent India. During last 65 years IAS officers have played excellent role in shaping India's fortunes. Role of IAS officers in day to day administrator is too exhaustive to be summed up in few words. I will try to touch upon certain aspects of IAS officers' role in following paragraphs.

IAS officers have to work at very diverse level during their tenure. This diversity ranges from remote area to capital cities in terms of geography; from district level to secretariat in terms of job profile, from department to agriculture to department of science annd technology in terms of departments. Also IAS officer is made part of various quasi-judicial bodies to function as jury.

During initial years of the service an officer is posted at district and sub-division level. At this level he is entrusted with responsibility of execution of various policies and plans of central and state governments.Thus he functions as chief executive of the district. He works as leader, chief regulator and motivator for various government employees to get work done, to ensure good governance. Though by and large his work is limited to execution, he has many delegated functions to perform. With his innovative ideas he tries his best to provide maximum output with limited resources.

When an officer lands in secretariat his job profile changes radically. In a parliamentary system, highest executive is drawn from legislature. Various ministers work in capacity of political executive. Here due their inexperience in the filed of administration they have to take help of permanent executive that is senior IAS officers. Therefore at this level IAS officers play key role in policy planning. In planning a policy they have to use all their experience earned at grass-root level. Further, although laws are passed by legislature, they originate in ministries. Therefore IAS officers play important role in drafting of laws. In his capacity as policy planner he has to be flexible to all suggestions, in order to make it comprehensive.

Further because of being generalist in nature, these officers are entrusted to work in various departments during their tenure. Though general in nature, working a particular department needs certain level of technical knowledge for the best results. Therefore an officer has to be in learning mode throughout his life.

After working under such diverse conditions an IAS officer earns vast on job training. His experience is used as mentor, guide after retirement either as advisor or member of some committee. Therefore we can conclude that an officer of IAS is essential to Indian administration. Because of its challenging nature it is regarded as the most prestigious service and attracts talented youths from throughout the country.

However, with advent of time IAS has been losing its charm. Increasing work-load, political interference and materialistic greed has made it to be perceived as reluctant, corrupt and disconnected from the people. When seen in terms of salary even senior officers of IAS are not paid the salary earned by junior level executives in corporate sector. To compete with contemporaries in corporate sector and fulfill materialistic desires one takes help of corruption. Thus becomes caged to his desires.

Further due to being subordinate to political executives permanent executives can not exercise his discretion independently. Further in absence of any mechanism to determine the best policy, an officer has to remain a mute spectator of poor populist policies, mal-governance and some times corruption. Acts of political executive is not always in the best interest of nation rather political and personal ambitions prevail in his decisions. Thus IAS officer becomes caged to ambitions of political executive.

IAS can be either steel cage or steel frame depending upon individual personality of the officer, political situations and strength of institutions. Individual personality is assessed at recruitment level but human personality is dynamic in nature guided by circumstances. Therefore no recruitment method can be perfect to assess all aspects of individual's personality. Assessing background of candidates, work experience etc may help to recruit better officers.

With increasing politicization of people, technological expansion, political accountability is being ensured. If improvements keep on happening at current pace there is hope that political executive will be reformed thus letting IAS officers work independently.

With vibrant and independent judiciary, institutional reforms are also taking place. Judiciary has intervened time and again to ensure independence of IAS and other civil services. Clear cut guidelines with respect to transfers, postings and promotions etc will help to free IAS from clutches of politicians.

Diverse and challenging nature of the job, enormous scope and substantial impact on day to day administration makes IAS steel frame of Indian system. Their supervision and regulation by political executives, personal desires make then caged. With political empowerment of people, activist judiciary and institutional reforms cage can be broken and IAS officers can again become steel frame.

Opening Up Political System

Constitution of India guarantees a democratic and republic government. Indian democracy has thrived successfully through last 67 years and consolidated itself. India has gone to become largest and possibly strongest democracy in the world. Child of a tea vendor becoming head of the government and a three year old political party getting unprecedented success in capital state are signs of maturity of our democracy. Such outcomes seem to decorate success stories of Indian constitution.

A deeper analysis on Indian political system disappoints champions of republicanism. Today political system has become apparently closed for ordinary aspirant. First generation politicians have become rarity in younger cohort of office bearers. Many political parties have become family centric. For example all members of Loksabha of Samajwadi Party come from the same family. New experiment of Janata Parivar is going to have more of “Parivar” than Janata. Similarly most of MPs of Congress are fourth generation, third generation and second generation politicians. Top positions of the most of regional parties are occupied by family members of top leader. BJP which has been strong opponent of dynasty politics is not immune to this phenomenon. It maintained its ideal position only in its younger days. With advent of time it also has given space to second and third generation politicians. Left parties are the only group that has remained aloof from this.

It should not be mistaken that sons and daughters of politicians are not good enough to represent, administer or rule. Coming from political background is not a disqualification. History is witness that monarchy has often given good rulers. Ashoka, Akbar, Tipu Sultan are few examples of great rulers coming through dynasty. Point of argument is that such nepotism has given rise to “new Indian feudalism”. Automatic succession of political space by natural heirs rules out entry of ordinary citizens into political system, which is against spirit of democracy and republicanism. Proponents of family centric politics argue that sons and daughters of politicians are not appointed as MPs or MLAs rather they are elected. It is up to voters whether to approve or not. They claim electoral victory as endorsement of such politics. Here they ignore the ease at which such sons and daughters get accommodation into politics and favour in ticket distribution. Voters have no choice but to vote as per party ideology and for stability of government. Further politics is non-remunerative career and uncertainty of getting due position and chances of losing to dynasties discourage youths from taking politics seriously. This constitutes bottleneck in entry of fresh talent into Indian Politics.

Most of the fresh talents coming to politics have either fame in the fields of cinema, sports etc. or money power. People from both the groups have little interest in political discourse. Politics for them is either hobby or another means to earn fame, power and money. Another field contributing human resource in politics is bureaucracy and foreign services. Though they have political aptitude, many retired bureaucrats joining political parties and getting disproportionate space, their credibility of non-partisanism during bureaucratic career remain suspicious. There have been many recommendations with respect to certain period of moratorium over retired or resigned bureaucrats accepting political posts.

Student politics is at lowest currently. Very few products of student politics are at the helm of active politics of GenNext. Very few universities have reasonably good student political discourse. College and University politics is also marred with money and muscle power with few serious takers.

If not checked in time dynasties will grow, and Indian system will become democratic feudal system. Political leadership is ultimate decider of governance. With growing feudalism fresh talents will be more and more alienated from politics. Indian politics will eventually become slave of few feudal families. Political parties need to be more transparent and internally democratic to allow the best talent to get the best position. Opening up of political system for ordinary youths will make democracy more participatory and stronger. The perception that only money power and political background can get reasonable returns in politics needs to be changed.

Due to low inflow of human resource into active politics there will be dearth of good political leadership in next 20-25 years. This will in turn lead to low voting percentage and lower participation of masses in to electoral practice. Government of the day will have legitimacy crisis. General elections 2014 and Delhi assembly election2014 and 2015 have proved that fresh political leadership can revive the confidence of voters into electoral process. More is the voting percentage; more is legitimacy of government of the day.

The work of legislature to frame laws, deliberate over important policy issues and matters of public importance. Political experience has shown progressively decreasing debates and discussions both quantitatively and qualitatively inside and outside legislature. Since there is integration of highest executive with legislature in parliamentary democracy majority of legislative work is done by executive with legislature having ratifying roles. Anti-defection law has to some extent deterred members of legislatures to put forward their own opinions and contributions if contrary to party line. Also shortage of analytical minds is also contributory towards decreased debates and deliberations which in turn are caused by closed political system.

In any democracy an individual cannot be disqualified from political process based on family or professional background. But certain steps can be taken to ensure level playing field for every interested entrant into politics. Internal democracy within political parties should be strengthened with transparent internal elections for the party office bearers, ticket distribution etc. State funding of election expenditure in kind should be considered to minimize impact of money and muscle power into politics. Provisions for mandatory public debates over issues of importance should be made between candidates of a particular constituency. This will give voters an opportunity to make well informed choice during voting. Also it will infuse critical thinking among candidates. There should be criteria of minimum organizational work done by an individual before claiming stakes in party posts or tickets.

Above reforms will open up political system for fresh talents which will breed political leadership and statesmanship. It will help to tackle poor perception regarding politics and politicians among general population. Also it will infuse confidence in electoral process and give credibility and impart legitimacy to government of day.