Opinion Time for change

Yet,it goes on and the government concocts programme after programme which it knows will not reach the poor in its entirety,if at all. Rajiv Gandhi said as much in his one and only term as Prime Minister. As a man who had worked in the real world for a living (unlike most of his family over two previous generations),he knew the reality. We shall no doubt get a Food Security Act which will waste even more foodgrain and multiply corruption. All in the name of the poor.

The problem is that the government administrative machinery is ancient and creaking. The British,from whom we inherited the civil service structure,have long ago abandoned the old model and radically reformed the public services. If it is efficiency one seeks,it is no contest between the private sector and the public sector.

I was recently in conversation with the top echelons of a large private bank in India. The HR managers explained how much care they take in selection and subsequent training of their personnel. They give them psychometric tests,select them for leadership traits and present them challenging tasks. The pool from which they recruit is wide and spans B and C tier towns and,of course,jati considerations are set aside. If that bank had recruited their personnel the way the UPSC conducts its business,it would have long ago gone bust or become a PSU.

In the old days,there used to be a criticism that we should not have adopted the Imperial civil service norms and found something more attuned to the Indian problems. My view is that what was done then was necessary to make Independent India function,survive and thrive. But now the tasks of governance have changed. The feudal mindset which IAS and other services inculcate and display are unsuited to a vibrant democracy in which citizens are conscious of their rights. The State has to genuinely serve the people and not just mouth the sentiment. It is the private sector which has the culture of meeting customer choice since the alternative is to lose market share.

India’s private sector has thrived after 1991. It has become slim and competitive. The old family businesses have sent their new generation off to US business schools and they have come back and taken charge more out of superior competence than mere inheritance. In business,dynasty works,in politics we wish and hope that it will. Elsewhere,private sector recruits for results and not for knowledge of obscure facts as the UPSC does. This radical restructuring of private business HR needs to be studied by the Government so they can reshape the civil service. There should be no guaranteed life tenure. At present,IAS officers under a cloud get shunted aside on leave with full pay while a leisurely investigation is conducted into their misdemeanour. Such a scandal would not last in the corporate world,lest the company be sued.

The government should outsource many activities or hive off certain tasks to free standing bodies. How about abolishing the Food Corporation of India and outsourcing warehousing of foodgrain to start with?