Service of India — the ambition of Gandhiji was “to wipe every tear from every eye” — should be every civil service aspirant’s zeal. Once in service, over time, a plethora of reasons cause a deterioration of this idealism. Empathy with concerns of the public, which once provided synergy for the burning passion to join the service to make a difference to their lives, “is not now as it hath been of yore”.
The single-minded pursuit of the officer slowly, but steadily, gives way to indifference, indolence, incompetence. It graduates into narcissism with its attendant squabbles “trying” for “plum” postings as the “be-all and end-all”. Public perception of a “successful” officer negates any introspection. Borrowing Oscar Wilde’s words, “…begins by deceiving one’s self, …one always ends by deceiving others”. During my initial days in service, I kept two lists, one of officers I should emulate, and the other whose traits to eschew. Years passed by; the first list became shorter, the second longer — Gresham’s law of bad driving good out of circulation.
Where greater things are given, greater will be expected. So are the hopes pinned on civil servants, whose role ahead is critical. Its challenges — fulfilment and frustration — should be faced with equanimity.
The constitutional concepts — socialism, now a dead letter, and secularism under challenge — are no more a sheet anchor. The Right to Information and the Prevention of Corruption Acts lose their teeth, leading to a yawning gap between the mounting problems and the sharpness of the tools to solve them. Only a sigh of relief — the immutably sacred inscription adorning our national symbol: Satyameva Jayate .
Gandhiji’s famous talisman, whenever in doubt or self overtakes one, is give the benefit of the doubt to the poor. Ducking cleaning of the Augean stables or floating unwet like lotus leaf on water is no gallantry. But steer clear of controversies, for truth is the first casualty in any controversy.
When something goes wrong, everyone is on the right’s side. Better be forewarned, always, by Lord Denning’s “be ye never so high, the law is above you” rather than seeking anticipatory bail.
Saddest story
In our interlocked Constitutional system, no political executive can indulge in corruption without civil servants’ support or vice versa. Our corruption-charred files tell the saddest story of the civil servants’ dismal role — deliberately giving wrong advice or sparing the unwelcome right advice.
Lord Acton’s caution, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, is often an “irritant”. Two mantras — transparency and accountability — must ever reverberate in one’s ears.
Walk with the political executive, elected democratically, in as far as manifestos crystallise into government’s action plan for faithful implementation. Truly, be just, and appear so, to the people and their representatives in the Opposition, too. Be alert to criticism, a potential precursor to future calamity.
Mind one’s thoughts, words, actions. Were these telecast, one should have no reason for embarrassment. Hide not your considered views from the political executive. Your role is that of a sniffer dog, able to smell with due diligence the distant dangers, long before they land up, to protect the political masters who are sagacious enough not to sign their own death warrants, despite compulsions.
The tragedy, human nature being such, is we often fall in love with the trappings of the present, ignoring lessons of the past and mortgaging the future. This Hegelian dictum — we never learn from history — afflicts politicians, too. And, the political executive, whose strongest power vis-à-vis civil servants is “transfers and postings”, tends to prefer the pliable to the right officer. The comfort it enjoys with a subservient sycophant could simply not be provided by an officer of rectitude.
Do we appoint a competent, traffic-law-abiding driver or choose a pliable one? The former takes us to our destination, while the latter hastens our exit from this world, with a complimentary prefix, the late!
(The writer is a former IAS officer)
