The options before the India of 21st century were clearly what tools it needed to convert itself from a colonial legacy state into a clear headed democratic nation in pursuit of progress and prosperity for its citizens. In that direction the last seven decades have seen progress in many spheres and near misses in some, and over the period of the last two decades, many gaps such as sporting talent, private entrepreneurial skills and literary talent have been spectacularly plugged affording India a stature that is not commensurate to her material prosperity per capita.
Where India seems to have missed a trick is failure of Administrative reforms. While the career bureaucracy served India well in the immediate aftermath of Independence, as portrayed in Aram a Tamil matinee last year, a sincere bureaucrat has her task cut out for her, as she tries to operate in a situation where vested interests predominate and turf war is paramount. Though the movie focuses on administrative failure by contrasting how just miles away the rocket launchpad exists which takes India into a different orbit, even as a girl falls into a uncapped bore well with rescue efforts remaining conventional, including the great Indian rope trick! There is no winch, no equipment for tunnelling in soft soil, no robotic camera or guided wire. In a gut wrenching portrayal by Ms Nayantara, the collector just about manages to gather her wit and goes with her gut to save the day. In the process she antagonises her superiors and the politicians and now she must resign to save her scalp. She decides that she has earned her keep by her conscience and her goodwill amongst the local populace. Now why does India not think of an elective administrative echelon like we have in USA where DAs and Sheriffs are also public offices and appointments are based on ballot support. Imagine if the District Collector and District Magistrate are both elected officials?
It is also clear that our bureaucracy to survive gets ‘committed’ to one political worthy or party, and it is not exactly a professional environment removed from the all overwhelming contagion of politicking that permeates our social and governmental approach. So why not go the whole hog, and allow for committed middle level bureaucracy at present Group A and B levels who are elected officials? Current system of rotation, transfers, suspensions and resignations is self defeating, for neither continuity is maintained nor domain expertise generated nor is bureaucratic interference, dross or subversion through corruption contained. Only costs keep escalating, through TA/DA, salary and other emoluments that are needed to foot a career bureaucracy.
Domain experts are what the world over has now switched to. In fact, a glaring gap in India is how there is no connection between policy, statecraft and project implementation with academic research and studies. Our professors ideally should go into their fields, expose themselves to their theories and then revert back enhanced with experience to teach some more. Instead of career diplomats, economists by accident of post, strategic expertise acquired by prolonged exposure, we can have country specific experts, civilisational experts, economists and financial wizards besides thinkers and strategists to run ministries that require their domain expertise.
America showed last year a TV series on Prime Time called ‘The Looming Tower’, about how turf war, career intelligence analysts and bureaucrats operating in silos goofed up not once but several times, in the run up to 9/11. If even at any stage where information sharing, discussion with experts in the field and in academia had come about, the dots would have got connected long before Mohammed Atta and his fellow Saudis took their flights to crash into WTC towers and the Pentagon on that fateful day.
We will get there, to that point where we can show to ourselves how we slipped up in Uri, in our 26/11, in Pulwama only if we can transform into a professionalism that comes from earnest efficiency and intellectual honesty, both increasingly outside the ken of career bureaucracy.
indiarubberman.com 