I recently had the good fortune of being part of a VIP entourage and their visit to Varanasi for one Sunday. My aunt, a high ranking government official, was in town for a meeting and I had been invited to tag along with her a few of her colleagues, a senior IAS officer and an MP, no less, as they explored the wonderful city I've been living in for the past 3 years.
It was an eye opening experience as I got to see first hand the power wielded by such officers based simply on their association with the central government of India. Coming from a family with a history of government service, anecdotes glorifying the privileged position enjoyed by many of these officers had always been commonplace for me. But to see (and enjoy!) such treatment first hand is a different matter altogether.
Too much of anything, however, can be bad. And power is right at the top of that list. Additionally, these officers are virtually non-sackable. Their jobs remain secure for years and years on end. Chronic inefficiency and negative performance evaluations result in nothing worse than a transfer, which in most cases is bound to happen anyway. But all this is known; it is a well established fallacy that Indian government officials are not bound by the usual laws of accountability.
Keeping this in mind, I would like to share three post VIP frenzy observations of mine.
It was an eye opening experience as I got to see first hand the power wielded by such officers based simply on their association with the central government of India. Coming from a family with a history of government service, anecdotes glorifying the privileged position enjoyed by many of these officers had always been commonplace for me. But to see (and enjoy!) such treatment first hand is a different matter altogether.
Too much of anything, however, can be bad. And power is right at the top of that list. Additionally, these officers are virtually non-sackable. Their jobs remain secure for years and years on end. Chronic inefficiency and negative performance evaluations result in nothing worse than a transfer, which in most cases is bound to happen anyway. But all this is known; it is a well established fallacy that Indian government officials are not bound by the usual laws of accountability.
Keeping this in mind, I would like to share three post VIP frenzy observations of mine.
- Wastage of the tax payer's money: The finance ministry, as a part of its austerity measures to bring down non-plan spending, recently announced a ban on holding meetings in 5-star hotels and flying executive class. Although an appreciation of over spending in this arena is welcome, such measures paper over the real culprits and wouldn't even have been necessary if the actual underlying issues had been addressed. Why should some official be denied the comfort of travelling executive class, when there are others who take their wives and families along for a one day business trip? Does a 10 member delegation really need a cordon of 10 cars to travel the city - with every second person given an SUV all to himself?
- A sense of entitlement: The extensive kowtowing and fawning bestowed on these individuals creates an absurd sense of entitlement and the expectation that their wishes will be fulfilled, irrespective of how unreasonable or irrational they may be. Demanding that a shop stay open for up to a couple of hours after its scheduled closing just because they are part of an official government delegation is considered normal. Organizers are asked to squeeze in as much sight seeing as possible within a 5 hour slot, and are then complained to when the officers don't get their tea fix just one and a half hours into the trip.
- Professionalism is rude: An officer who is actually interested in working and is professional in his/her attitude is seen as an unwelcome addition. Senior officers who deny frivolous trips on the grounds that they are simply not needed are thought to be rude for not sympathizing with their subordinates' desire to visit relatives in other cities under lieu of official trips or ignorant for not thinking about these official trips as a chance to explore a new city.
With great power comes great responsibility.The fact that this quote has been popularized by Stan Lee through the Spiderman comics should not undermine its relevance to government structure. Indian government officials undoubtedly have great power; they do however need to be educated on how to use it in a responsible and effective manner.
well thought and aptly put. One point though. You have confined the issue as something solely Indian. To think of the problem as something 'indo-specific' would be missing the point. Chinese bureaucratic excesses far exceed ours. It is more like a universal problem,like a human flaw.power corrupts people.India,maybe,lies on the lower side of the index.
ReplyDeleteMy views here are based on first hand observations. So it is only natural that I'm speaking in terms of an Indian scenario. I admit that I do not know much about Chinese bureaucratic expenses. But if you include Western and South East Asian nations, then it would be an extremely long shot to say that India lies on the 'lower side' of the index.
DeleteMoreover, lack of professionalism is an issue which is 'very Indian', if not solely Indian. It is only Indian government officials who see official trips as a chance to roam around and have fun, more so than any other. That is not to say that they shouldn't tour the city while on business trips, but that should definitely not be the focus.
With great power comes great current squared times resistance or maybe great difficulty in factoring the polynomial. The 'chalta hai' attitude is the main cause of these problems in India.
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