Professional code for civil servants is a welcome initiative

Kudos to the Union government for its latest attempt to enhance the image of the All India Services (IAS/IPS/Indian Forest Service). The average Bharatvasi will welcome every word of the 19-point guideline issued by the Department of Personnel for the bureaucrats belonging to the three elite Services. They are to be incorporated in the All India Services Conduct rules. They are a shot in the arm for the honest civil servant – there are still a few left in this fast vanishing tribe --  and a warning signal for the dishonest members of what Sardar Patel conceived  as  the ‘steel frame’ of Indian administration. Many observers, however, view the civil service as nothing more than a bamboo frame, pliable and swinging at the slightest hint of a breeze. 

It is not my case, or anybody else’s, that the new addition to the code will transform the current sordid image of the senior civil servant in the country. It will take ages to convince the latter that he is only a ‘servant’ and not a ‘master’. To be cynical, however, that any incremental step to impart new dynamism and objectivity to this core group is mere window-dressing is not only fatal but is unpatriotic. We need a top class bureaucracy to meet the challenges of a developing economy and a polity crippled by the nexus between the street-level politician and the lowest of the rungs in the administration.

The proposed Code has been prepared in consultation with the States. It is therefore the product of a healthy collaboration between partners in governance. It cannot be assailed as a gimmick of the new government in Delhi. Its emphasis is on ethics, professionalism (read objectivity) and public interest, three unexceptionable requisites of a transparent and result-driven government. The civil servant should weigh options available to him/her in respect of a problem and eliminate the one which promotes their own interest or that of a group with which they have aligned themselves by birth or commercial interest. One more dictum of the newly incorporated code runs thus:

“Act with fairness and impartiality and not discriminate against anyone, particularly the poor and the underprivileged sections of society.”

This is unexceptionable in a nation beset by narrow caste and regional loyalties, and is still steeped in abject rural poverty. The Indian Police alone is a standing example of how only the rich get any attention for protection and the rest are ruthlessly ignored. A surprise visit to a rural police station will explain what I am driving at. This is not the ill of the police alone. The other segments of administration are equally culpable. 

The top brass of the IAS and IPS have a lot to explain for the current mess. I am not suggesting that things were perfect when I was in government until a decade ago. It is equally true that there has been a colossal decline in the recent past. The number of scams which have tumbled out of the closet are a testimony to the enormity of lack of supervision and a partnership between the unholy and unscrupulous both in the civil services and the political executive. The new government has a Himalayan task to restore public confidence in the civil servant. The addition to the code of conduct of All India Services is a definite step in the right direction. If it does not bring about a marked improvement in governance, the rural masses in the country will not forgive us. I cannot overemphasise the role of the Union Cabinet Secretary and State Chief Secretaries in ensuring that those All India Service officers who are known for their sloth and indifference perform. The message to them should be that they would otherwise perish. Threats of penalties have not worked till now. It’s time that examples are made of the really corrupt and slack elements in the higher echelons. Drastic but merited disciplinary action against them would have the additional advantage of setting things right at the cutting edge level as well.

The writer is a former CBI Director