The Fetters to Indian Public Administration

‘रोटी-कपडा-मकान’- these are the three ‘basic’ needs that the mango people expect from any form of Government. It is the duty of the Government to fulfill these necessities of the people, for which it needs to devise and put in place, a ‘system’, as is popularly known. This ‘system’ is nothing but the ‘public administration’.  The Government or rather, the nation prospers, only when this ‘system’ is functioning rightly and is able to deliver its duties in an earnest way. These are just the basic needs; for a nation to progress in the world of LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization), its administrative system needs to be competent enough to tackle any problem or threat from within the nation or outside. The term, ‘good governance’ can be justified truly in a nation, where the public administration is skillful and strong enough to dispose the problems.

In the largest democratic nation, and where its bulkiest constitution is the sacrosanct to its ruling, public administration grapples with various threats which have been time and again, hindering the nation’s progress and in the future, may become a blot on its democratic system, if not controlled and eliminated.

The first and the most significant issue to be addressed is the ‘corruption’. One way to tackle this menace and to bring probity in public life is to create a transparent process of governance by implementing various recommendations suggested by administrative reform and law commission reports in the right earnest. This can only be possible by a strong political will. The other way to control, if not eradicate, this camouflage is to develop the conscience of the people in not encouraging corruption. The job of an administrator is to develop this conscience through various methods like arranging awareness campaigns with the help of the audio-visual media, and spreading the word through various technical gadgets, for instance, a small SMS via mobile can do wonder these days!

There is a popular perception that, “In the era of post-independence, how can India progress when one-third of India is fighting against India?”  There are many internal threats, of which, ‘maoism/naxalism’ holds the lion’s share, in fact, perceived to be the “greatest internal security threat”. The administrator’s path is blocked by these maoists in catering to the needs of the needy. The steps to combat this are: one, to eliminate the maoists, but it has yielded no results and to add to the woes, the innocent killings in the name of counter-insurgency are on the rise; two, to bring down the vast gap between the rich and the poor, protect the interests of the tribals, win their confidence and take back their leadership from the claws of extremists, by doing so which, the maoism shall be on the wane.

Of late, the noteworthy and emerging challenge to the administrators has been the ‘implementation of a public policy’ due to the ‘pressure politics’ played by the politicians on them. In the wake of the recent Coalgate scam, the 2G scam, the NRHM scam (U.P.), etc… the accountability of bureaucrats has come under severe scanner. Article 309 is being misused by the executive, and in order to get the ‘blessing’ hand of the politicians on them (with regard to their appointments, promotions and transfers), the officers are indulging in collusive practices with them and pushing the objectives of a policy to the back-door. This can be checked by creating autonomous personnel boards as proposed by the NCRWC (National Commission to Review the Working of Constitution) to look after all the service terms of the civil servants. The idea is not to take politics out of the bureaucracy but to put a check and balance on the unhealthy and destabilizing influences in the administration.

Apart from these above major threats, the public administration is put to nose by the activism of media and civil society. And the judicial re-activism, is only adding to its wounds, which can be checked only by maintaining transparency and accountability in the governance.

Whatever might be the ordeals of these threats, India still stands tall in being the largest democratic state in the world. What it needs is a toning mechanism in addressing these problems and to pose a bigger threat to the super powers in the world. The hegemony of the Indian constitution needs to be always protected, for which, the channel is a proper and free-flow public administrative system to ensure welfare to its people.