The Hindu Business Line : PM’s focus on probity

As usual, the Prime Minister has once again called a spade a spade, this time spelling out the words slowly so that no one should make a mistake about what he is saying. The subject: Probity in public life, where ‘probity’ does not only mean honesty but a general uprightness on the part of a public servant when going about his work, for which the taxpayers pay him his salary.

On Monday, while addressing civil and Defence officials in New Delhi in the wake of the controversy over the pay-rises proposed by the Sixth Pay Commission report, Dr Manmohan Singh said that while he would like the services to be “properly rewarded” — a truism because no fair-minded person would want anyone to be ‘improperly’ rewarded — he would also like them to keep in mind the fact that they must also “deliver and break their stereotype-image as non-performers”.

The point, in fact, has been made before, and there is little harm if it is repeated once again because, to many people, the subject is so serious that it could make or break the nation in the years ahead. Among other things, Dr Singh said that it was time to “introspect and recognise that there is great public dissatisfaction with the functioning of the Government — at all levels”. He exhorted the civil services to face the challenge and do something about it, “the most important challenge (being) to instil confidence in our people that our civil services are fair, honest as well as efficient.”

Perceptions matter

The immediate inference is that this ‘confidence’is lacking, which is why there is the felt-need to boost it. But Dr Singh is, by nature, a fair-minded man himself, and so he has not ruled out the possibility of perceptions differing from reality. But, in a democracy, more than in a non-democratic set-up, perceptions matter. Therefore, his considered advice to the officers was “not only should the civil services be fair, honest and efficient, but they should be seen to be so, and endeavouring to be so”.

Image of the services

Furthermore, the Prime Minister has pinpointed specific areas where the image of the services has taken a severe beating. Thus, he said that “the poor and the under-privileged say the Government is biased against them. The business class complains the Government is excessively intrusive and slow to act. The middle class says the Government is corrupt and unresponsive”. Each section of society, therefore, has a grievance, “and the civil service has its own”, with one difference of course, namely, the services are paid their salaries by the people, which is not the case with the other sections of society whose earnings and salaries are (for the most part) not borne by the national exchequer.

The all-important issue is whether Dr Singh’s exhortation will bear any fruit, and if it does how soon. One, rather morbid, guess is that the standards simply will not improve because the problem has become too extensive and deep-rooted in Indian society today.

Theoretically, Parliament should initiate the cleaning-up process, a hope cherished by millions of Indians — for the sake of their children and grandchildren. But, as of now, the chances of such a thing happening are practically nil. Indeed, some politicians are so concerned with rising prices (and prices are really rising) that they find no time to attend House sittings discussing the phenomenon and hold State-wide bandhs instead (as in West Bengal on Monday), the general effect of which is to make life even harder for the average citizen.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY