The Hindu Business Line : India’s real problem

The Government is not part of the problem, it is the problem. Its brain is scintillatingly alive, but neck downwards it is completely paralysed, excepting for corruption, says T. C. A. SRINIVASA-RAGHAVAN.

Victory of any kind brings euphoria in its wake. So everyone is expecting the new council of ministers to perform miracles. But it is my doleful duty to point out that where the Government of India is concerned, this is a futile expectation.

The problem is easily identified: Above the neck, everything is mostly fine; below the neck, the government machinery is wholly ineffective. Red tape tops the list of reasons for this comatose state, and is widely cited. The second reason for this is what only I seem to talk about, and that is a most extraordinary and appalling incompetence. The third is talked about by only those in the know, namely, the influence of business lobbies.

Red Tape

Take red tape first. Recently, India’s most pampered University issued a circular about, believe it or not, leave travel compensation. It is reproduced in full in the accompanying graphic. You need to be a puzzle-solver to figure it out, and then you have to depend on the whims of the dealing clerk to get your money.

Or consider, randomly, the new requirement by some State governments, that co-operative societies must have a Website — and that it must have as many as 64 items of information in its ‘About Us’ section. Sixty-four? Even the RBI site, which is one of the most transparent, doesn’t have so many. But there is no requirement on updating the information. Naturally, because this requirement has been demanded by a department that has neither computer-savvy staff nor even computers.

Competence

Which brings us to competence. Thanks to the way the Government first selects and then promotes its employees, by and large, the wrong people get in and then even more wrong people, both in terms of competence and integrity, climb the ladder.

This has been happening for well over 30 years. The results are there for all to see. Below the Class I level, and sometimes even at that level, it is a killing field of competence.

Things have reached such a pass that no one at the lower levels of government — and I mean absolutely no one — any longer knows what to do except in the most routine matters, such as sanctioning leave. This results in one of two things: either complete inaction because no one has the foggiest idea as to how to set about, or corruption because discretion becomes the only way out. Hence, the saying, ‘you show me the man, I will show you the rule’.

Incompetence and corruption have combined to produce the third element, lobby power of big business. Go to any ministry today, even something as noble as the ministry of women and child welfare, and you will see how the lobbies have moved in.

Lobby power

It is they, who along with the think tanks assist the senior bureaucracy in justifying decisions that the Minister wants taken. In far too many instances the staff-work is now done by the lobbies.

Another negative externality of this gross incompetence is the usurpation of power by single bureaucrats in practically every ministry. Go to any one of them and you will find that all real power has become concentrated in the hands of just one IAS officer. If he wants it, it gets done; if he doesn’t want it, and some other officer insists that it be done, the other fellow gets transferred, no matter how right he is.

Another negative externality of this gross incompetence is the usurpation of power by an individual bureaucrat. In practically every ministry you will find that all real power is concentrated in the hands of just one IAS officer. If he wants something done, it gets done; if he doesn’t, and some other officer insists that it be done, the other fellow gets transferred, no matter how justified his stance is.

This concentration of power in one pair of hands has become necessary because it is impossible in the Government not only to do the right thing but also the wrong thing. So you need is what the Americans call, a point man.

If you are lucky, such an officer is honest. But, as is usually the case, he is not. Indeed, honesty in such jobs is a handicap because the system is such that only dishonesty allows the red tape to be overcome. It is called the ability to ‘work the system’. So what we have is massive power drawn from the fact that the minister has ‘confidence’ in the officer, and corruption as well because the opportunities are legion.

So what do the Prime Minister and the Congress President intend to do about this dreadful state of affairs? The Prime Minister had promised administrative reform in 2004 but didn’t deliver. The Congress President doesn’t care about it too much because if she did, we would have seen some action.

Indeed, I have a suggestion for her. Let her say, just once, ever so quietly, that we need to revisit Article 311 of the Constitution because it prevents government employees from being held accountable. See how the mice run then.

Our new Messiah, Rahul Gandhi, is not likely to read this article. But maybe if I mention something his father said, perhaps someone will send him a cutting. In 1986, Time Magazine asked Rajiv Gandhi what he thought was the difference between being a pilot and a Prime Minister. Rajiv ruefully replied that when while flying you pressed a button something happened, but in Government you never knew what happened to your orders.

He was wrong, of course. We citizens know what happens. Someone takes a bribe. Does the job get done? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on your karma.

( blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

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