Reform’ is like the proverbial elephant that the seven blind men attempted to describe. To some, it means opening up this sector or that sector to foreign investment, while to others, it is about making land acquisition easy to build roads, power projects or factories. Still others see reform as reductions in subsidies and large-scale privatisation. These are only the trunk, the tail or the torso, but not the elephant. The big elephant in the room is administrative reform. And there is another elephant, too, that’s not much smaller: judicial reform.
It is stating the obvious to say that two of our most important democratic institutions, the executive and the judiciary, are in a state of serious disrepair. That said, it is no one’s case that the legislature is the paragon of good governance. But it is a mirror of the quality of the electorate. Besides, if voters don’t like what they have chosen, they have the option of changing their minds in five years. It is not ideal. But that’s democracy for you.
Overtaken & Overwhelmed
Being a part of the permanent establishment, the civil service executive and the judiciary have to be measured by a different yardstick than the elected representative. If the quality of input for policymaking is suspect, if implementation of policy is jeopardised because of an ineffective civil service, and if justice is inevitably delayed, solving this problem can brook no further delay. Especially because technology is changing the world faster than ever before and we cannot afford to be stymied by a leaden-footed bureaucracy.
The government’s struggles with understanding, and regulating, new economy enterprises, such as online retailers and taxi apps, are a case in point. From coal to telecommunications, the failures of the government are on open display and it is not the politician alone who is to blame.
The apex of the bureaucracy is the Indian Administrative Service, the successor of the Imperial Civil Service with many vestiges of the British Raj. Look at the way these ‘service members’ have inveigled their way into colonial clubs and you’ll know. This is not to say that all officers are corrupt or incompetent, or both. But it is a fact that there is a serious deficit of technical expertise in the civil service. Too many generalists, too little exposure to the real world and too much pride are the undoing of the bulk of India’s bureaucracy.
That is why an expert such as Nandan Nilekani, architect of Aadhaar and co-architect of Infosys, was given such a hard time by the civil servants who perceived him as an interloper. That is also why his recommendations about drafting outside experts to help government have gone nowhere. The civil service is not all that civil, and the service it provides can, many times, be of dubious quality. It is also not as if our leaders are unaware of the seriousness of the problem. That is why so-called administrative reforms commissions have been set up by governments. They have submitted voluminous reports, but real reform remains chimerical. Nilekani remarked that what India needs are administrative reform proposals on two sheets of paper, not recommendations to fill two large libraries.
There is a clear link between reform that seeks lower fiscal deficit, for example, and administrative reform. Take the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC), a part of the ministry of information and broadcasting. Most of us may not even be aware of the existence of this animal, but this Orwellian entity exists and employs around 250 staff.
Reform Thyself
This job at the EMMC may sound like the stuff of a child’s fantasy. But it is a serious calling for many in our civil service. Their ostensible job is to keep a tab on hundreds of television channels to make sure that their content is safe for India’s children and adults. Look around carefully and you will find several EMMCs in New Delhi and state capitals. You will discover entire departments whose raison d’être is suspect, that technology is a hesitant entrant into the corridors of power and that there is vast scope for cost savings that can help chip away at the fiscal deficit.
So if we want some real reform, what can we do? Overhaul the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), and the state public service commissions, from selection to retirement without hurting their independence or neutrality. The existing system is supposed to be merit-based. But we don’t have technical experts in the numbers needed, and continuous training is a big missing piece. The civil service cannot continue to be an ivory tower and the Nilekanis, Raghuram Rajans and Arvind Subramanians can’t be rare exceptions. Like the private sector, the government must embrace technology, downsize and outsource aggressively.
As for the judiciary, the present government was quick to move when it came to the appointment of judges to higher courts. It is not an end in itself, but a good beginning. Speedy dispute resolution is a sine qua non of good governance.
If India wants to join the ranks of developed nations, we need serious, sustained reform that has a progressive civil service at its core. Otherwise, we’ll only be treated to annual Good Governance Day jamborees.
