COVER STORY
psychology prabhat kumar
Heroes or villains?
The
civil servant is afraid of annoying his political masters; afraid to do
something that does not have a precedence and is always fearful of
being victimised.
The
civil service in India has lost much of its credibility because of its
own undoing. Despite possessing unmatched intellectual calibre, its
members have relegated themselves to playing the role of passive
advisors and order takers. They have not assumed the ownership of
policies aimed at improving the welfare of the people. Instead of
talking about innovative strategies for poverty alleviation and social
justice, they have ceded the initiative of voicing the aspirations of
the masses to other actors. In fact, politicians, civil society and the
media have rendered the civil service into being a caricature of
stupidity. Now its incompatibility with governance is a syndrome that is
being passed down from senior members to new entrants.
It
is said that every dog has his day; except the Indian civil servant.
For the last 60 years after Sardar Patel, rarely has a civil servant
been credited with anything. While he is regarded as a character in the
drama of governance, one is not too sure about the role he plays. Is it
that of a villain or of a comedian? Or is he merely a sidekick of the
villain?
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