In defence of the PM

The negative stereotype of public bureaucracy runs deep. In comparison with the private sector, it comes across, in popular judgment...

The negative stereotype of public bureaucracy runs deep. In comparison with the private sector, it comes across, in popular judgment, as bloated, wasteful, corrupt, incapable of innovation and painfully inefficient. No wonder, when the PM in a recent address to the CII, urged the corporate bigwigs to help narrow the widening gap between the haves and have-nots, all hell broke loose. As head of government and of public bureaucracy, he found himself the butt of a sudden media assault and was advised to first clean up the mess in his own backyard before sermonising to the corporate sector.

The purpose here is not to defend the bureaucracy. I8217;d only say it would be unfair to generalise bureaucratic shortcomings as the only obstacles to economic development. The private sector, too, has failed to do its bit. The list of its frauds and failures is endless: from tax evasion and kickbacks to exploitation of child workers and denial of permanent jobs to low-paid workers despite huge profits. Besides, who does not know that even the best-run private companies fail sometimes, despite their highly paid CEOs?

The truth about India8217;s bureaucracy is that while a lot of things keep going wrong, there is much that goes right too. There are, besides, countless instances of outstanding work, both by individuals and institutions. Otherwise, how come the Railways has recently become the darling of elite business schools? How is it that the recent Board exam results reported good performances by government school students? Pro-market economists may please note that contrary to the oft-touted myth that selfish motives like better salary or private profit were the only feasible means to stimulate greater human effort, there are a large number of government employees who respond to higher values like the greater common good. Remember world-class institutions like IITs and IIMs have been set up by the government, not to speak of several public-sector undertakings which have gone on to win contracts abroad.

Several misconceptions appear to exist about the 8216;public8217; nature of public bureaucracies. For example, the bureaucracy is not a unified 8216;economic machine8217; but a sort of disjointed 8216;political machine8217;, reflecting the great variety of ties between citizens and government. In other words, they are not created to perform according to the efficiency criterion alone but also to involve citizens. They are also greatly constrained by rules, due processes of law and constitutional imperatives.

As for innovativeness, take the case of gender budgeting. By now it has been adopted by a host of ministries/departments. Has the private sector shown any initiative in this area? The need of the hour is not to spend energy grousing about what the PM said, but to utilise his ideas for a reflective pause on how to introduce inclusive development in the wild race for economic growth.

the writer was on the faculty of the Indian Institute of Public

Administration, New Delhi