Structure & functioning of governance apparatus in post – Independence India

On balance however I am satisfied that there is little cause for despair. Just as the phenomenon of water boiling and becoming steam, the transition from one state of order to a state of higher order is invariably marked by an intervening period of chaos.

This, I believe, is what happened in India, - once, soon after it broke off from the shackles of the tyranny and exploitation of colonial rule, and - again, after the structural adjustment its economy went through post liberalization, privatization and globalization.

Pre-independence India saw many social evils and economic inequalities writ large especially on the rural scene. Untouchability, child marriage, the zamindari system, the despotic regime in some princely states and the absence of a voice for the common man in the affairs of the nation were only some of these.

Freedom obviously was a good thing to have happened. Its sudden onset, and the complete and violent change it brought about in its wake is where trouble lurked. The situation was not unlike a fasting person breaking his fast not with a gentle glass of lemon juice but with a seven course spread. One wonders whether, at that time, we as a country did not bite off more than could be chewed or started chomping on much more than what we could hope to swallow and digest.

Universal franchise and votes for women, sans a Suffragette movement (as in UK) or a struggle (as in USA), laws making untouchability, child marriage, zamindari and princely states things of the past – perhaps too many good things happened too soon. Even contradictory phenomena such as the growth of trade unions on the one hand and development of private industry on the other were witnessed.

Once the dust settled down an a semblance of order began to appear but it was another four decades before the second watershed, namely structural adjustment, kicked in.

As I personally see it, the Mahalabonis model of economic growth and overall development, together with the Nehruvian dream of “growth with justice,” faded away and yielded place to a new paradigm of “growth and justice”.

Thereafter we have, on the whole, acquitted ourselves reasonably well and today India’s face, at seventy, looks quite unwrinkled though the smile is somewhat tentative and uncertain.

To cut a long story short, we have to our credit a number glorious achievements and spectacular accomplishments. We have done very very well in many important spheres.

There is, however, a long way to go before we can rest on our oars. Hunger, poverty, disease, squalor and fear remain as scourges that continue to haunt millions of our people in many parts of the country. Availability and access to drinking water, nutritious food, health, education and a life with dignity, remain but as elusive and distant dreams for a large section of our population.

There is thus a mammoth nation building task ahead of us, a task full of travails and challenges.
Sagacity and wisdom are the important attributes that the leaders and administrators of the country today need to possess, if their actions are to prove equal to the hopes and aspirations of the people who put them where they are today.

The crying need of the hour is to agree upon a short, simple and clear agenda that the country’s leadership will address, if necessary to the exclusion of all else, at least for a short period. Food security, access to basic minimum needs including drinking water, housing, education, health, disaster preparedness etc. need to figure therein.

An all out war on persisting maladies such as infant mortality, the lack of physical and economic security for women, the aged and the challenged, and public health etc. are all priorities that can no longer await their turn for catching the attention of those in charge of governance.

The common citizen is entitled to be promised a time bound solution to these vexing problems.
It is precisely in this exercise that an exciting role awaits the civil servants of the the future. Thanks to the heroes of the past, including legendry figures such as S.R. Sankaran, T.N. Seshan, P.S. Appu etc. the description, by Sardar Patel, of the civil service in the country as the “steel frame” continues to be relevant.

And it is a lucrative and attractive career too. The pay is good, there is social status attached to the positions one will hold and, above all, is the high value of the factor of convertibility of good ideas into effective action and concrete results, especially at the grassroots levels.

Before I conclude I cannot help making one more reference to the extraordinary position granted to the civil servants by the Constitution of India – to enable them to hold their heads high and perform their duties without fear or favour.

There is absolutely no need for the civil servants to bend, much less crawl. They only have to ensure that their actions are not arbitrary, discriminatory or mala fide. Accountability and transparency are now accepted as the essential futures of good governance.

And it is heartening to note that many initiatives have been taken in recent times to infuse these characteristic into the functioning of all manner of institutions and at all levels. The Right to Information (RTI) Act is a notable development in this context.

Above all, as the late M.R. Pai (a civil servant of yesteryear from the – then - Andhra Pradesh cadre) put it, civil servants need always to remember that they are public servants, not government officials.

Instruments of government, not tools in the hands of politicians. It is the citizens of India whom they exist to serve. It is their satisfaction they need to strive for and that their ire they should guard against. No one else matters.

By: Dr MOHAN KANDA