“Bureaucracy” in substance is a specialised “non elective” cadre of “Professionals” who are generally “Selected” on the basis of merit for the purpose of managing and handling the “clerical’ aspect of a “Political” Authority, which in India is a Minister. Formally Bureaucracy is the part of the Executive branch of the government but looking at its enormous job, which it has to perform and the major league of power which has been vested with it for the performance of its assigned job, it can also be termed as the “Fourth Branch” of Government.
In India, the maximum management of the polity has been cornered with the Bureaucrats and I.A.S constitutes the major and the most powerful chunk of Bureaucrats in India. An I.A.S officer is no doubt a person of erudite personality and is the official head of every department in India, then why is there such a pitiable scenario in our public sector which is been headed and managed by such trained and experienced officers. Today the private sector has overtaken the public sector in maximum fields of day to day life like education, medical healthcare, and transport and so on. It’s a fact that all the State owned Road Transport Corporations except a few are going into losses and are a great burden at the state exchequer, to add to this even the railways is going into losses though it is the most used mode of transport in India and we all know the critical condition of, our very own maharaja career, Air India, every year it has to be bailed out by the Union Government. The most fantasizing aspect of the “Air India” fiasco is that officially they are suffering heavy losses but then also they are buying Dream liners. The condition of Public Health centres and Institutes are nothing better than worst. Though they house in reality the best equipments, state of art infrastructures, best doctors but to a common Indian they “generally” offer the worst treatment both medically and also personally.
The schemes formulated by our Governments are no doubt the best efforts personified in actions, what hampers the success stories of these schemes is the problem and the mismanagement, rampant everywhere from the Ministry level to the Block level, in their implementation.
This mismanagement in implementation can only be corrected by reforming the Bureaucracy, because they are vested with the job of implementing these schemes and other projects of the Government. Today the first thing in question is the method of selection of these highly powerful officers, there is no link between people righting a good essay at 21 and also becoming a good Bureaucrat or Secretary. Why not the person who becomes the Secretary for health services should be an expert from the concerned field only, why place a Law Graduate or a PHD holder in history as the Director of the National Air Career, why not appoint a good CEO from the Corporate world as the Commerce Secretary of India. The need today is for specialisation of the Bureaucratic Structure. Bureaucracy and its officers need to give up their “Cosmopolitan” approach and pick up the thrust of specialisation. Secondly, the promotion of I.A.S officers should be based on their success in the jobs assigned to them rather than on their seniority, obviously seniority is an important of service but promotion to a certain rank can be guaranteed and then after it should be based on merit and suitability.
Today for India to face the globalisation and the collateral damage of open market system of 21st century it is necessary that India is equipped with a force of specialised, energetic, enthusiastic and committed force of Bureaucrats.