Civil aspirations

In the job placement season, it may seem odd that liberalising India retains its strongest curiosity for those who make the merit list for the civil services. The bureaucracy, after all, is now so often presented as an obvious, sometimes facilely so, impediment to reform. Nevertheless, government8217;s role has been contracting for more than a decade now. And, the pay commission8217;s recommendations notwithstanding, the country8217;s best and brightest would get substantially better terms of employment from the private sector, would they not? Why then such joy over young Mukta Arya8217;s triumph this month in getting the 48th rank on merit without recourse to her entitlement to reservations? Is it just a hangover from the 20th century, a post-colonial obsession with officialdom?

Perhaps, but look a little more closely and the civil services remain India8217;s most visible 8212; and therefore, most valuable 8212; measure of social inclusiveness. In fact, it is this perception that has wrought changes in the selection criteria for the services. A sense of this measure goes back more than a century to the earliest stirrings of the freedom movement. One of the first demands of the Indian National Congress, for instance, was for more the appointment of more Indians in the Indian Civil Service. Continuous pressure thereupon led to the setting up of examination centres in India. After Independence, the criteria were amended to remove the handicaps they imposed on the less privileged. So, controversially at the time, the long essay was dispensed with, and emphasis placed on shorter, more objective answers. The interview, with its intimidating atmosphere and possibilities for social bias, was given less weightage. And affirmative action was incrementally deepened. More than in any other sector, therefore, employment in government represents Indians8217; success in having more and more diversity represented, and thereby integrated.

But the nature of the job is changing. With economic liberalisation as well as increasing powers to panchayati raj institutions, civil servants need to internalise a more contemporary understanding of the political economy. Reason, therefore, for the probationary training of civil servants to be updated.