Inertia and insensitivity at PMO

In a sense, the Government was asking for the Supreme Court (SC)'s unprecedentedly vehement strictures against the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on the unconscionable delay of 18 months in dealing with Dr Subramanian Swamy's request for sanction to prosecute the former Minister of Telecommunications, Mr A. Raja. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, could not have been unaware of the lethargic and insensitive handling of matters by bureaucrats functioning right under his nose.

In an article, “Doubts over PMO's watch-and-ward role”, published on December 27, 2010 in The Hindu Business Line , I had referred in detail to the ‘misgivings' among the people about the lackadaisical manner of discharging its duties by the PMO and added, almost anticipating the SC's condemnation:

“All these misgivings could easily have been avoided if only the functionaries in the PMO had measured up to their role of eyes and ears of the Prime Minister and closely, constantly and carefully been monitoring the happenings like a radar and brought about his intervention before they assumed…despicable proportions. From all that I have heard, the PMO has been performing its tasks in a typically file-pushing bureaucratic fashion, and has not lived up to expectations. In the bargain, it has badly let down the Prime Minister and the nation.”

I had specifically stated that the inordinately long time that had lapsed in attending to Dr Subramanian Swamy's letters to Dr Singh, was giving rise to the impression among the people that it was “a deliberately collusive ploy” to give “ plenty of opportunity to (the culprits) to destroy evidence and rob the cases of any prospect of ending in conviction.”

ROGUE ELEMENTS

I had further observed:

“People cannot be blamed if they feel that the entire thing reeks of an anti-national conspiracy hatched by the rogue elements in the Government.

“More such mishaps as had been witnessed in the recent past will be in store for the Prime Minister, unless he takes immediate steps on the following lines: (a) Set up in the PMO a multi-disciplinary group of not more than five, drawing on experience outside the establishment, to advise him on contingency plans to head off nasty situations; (b) Bring younger blood to the PMO and make it lean, clean and mean; (c) Emulate Jawaharlal Nehru in being communicative, free with information and accommodative to the Opposition regarding it, not as an adversary, but as a partner and a stakeholder.”

I had forwarded a copy of the published column to the Principal Media Adviser to the Prime Minister as well.

The trouble with India's bureaucracy is that it is so totally benumbed that body blows, however strong, make no difference. I have no doubt that the latest from the SC will also be like water on buffalo's back and nothing will change.

No wonder, the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. in its 10th survey of bureaucracies in Asian countries has found India's to be “the worst” among 12 countries, with a rating of 9.21 out of 10 in decrepitude. Its report says that India's inefficient bureaucracy is what makes doing business in India “most frustrating and expensive”.

UNJUSTIFIED PROTECTION

It points out that Indian citizens themselves were more critical of the country's bureaucracy than outsiders, using the words ‘bureaucracy' and ‘corruption' almost interchangeably.

The report blames the collusion between bureaucrats and politicians for making it impossible to take any action against corrupt civil servants.

The result is that India's bureaucrats are rarely held accountable for wrong decisions and it is extremely difficult to challenge them when there are disagreements and punish them for malpractices.

Will it sting India's bureaucracy to any kind of repentance and introspection?

The answer is a big no if the reported reaction of an official in the Urban development Ministry is anything to go by. He dismissed the whole report saying that it “stereotyped” bureaucrats and he was not sure “how and where these claims are coming from”!

Maybe, he will sing a different tune if he is bereft of the unjustified statutory protection he now enjoys and brought under the summary hire-and-fire system, as in the US and other advanced countries. Short of some such drastic remedies, there is no hope of redemption.

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