'Privatisation of the I.A.S.'

 

Privatisation of the IAS

A Government is run by Bureaucracy, that is a body of professional officials having permanent tenure, governed by the principle of hierarchy and neutrality.  They are the backbone, called ‘a steel frame’, of Public Administration. They constitute the permanent executive vis-à-vis the political executive that is temporary and provide continuity to the administration. In the Government of India, the Bureaucracy refers to the Civil Services, made up of All India Personnel and Central Civil Services. They are recruited on merit through an open all India competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), a constitutional body.

 

The Bureaucracy runs the administration by observing a standard operating procedure, as laid down by the impersonal rules and procedures, so that the public services are provided to people without discrimination on any ground in a fair and just manner.  Unfortunately, these days, the senior bureaucrats involved in policy decision making have mastered the art of appeasing political masters, due to corrupt and politically intimidating environment, to curry favors. They mortgage their integrity and bring discredit to the administrative apparatus.  Look at how the top officials in the CBI, ED, IT etc. crawl and carry the political agenda of the ruling dispensation against its political rivals. It is a very disgraceful scenario.

 

The NITI Aayog, in its three-year Action Agenda, and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries on Governance in its report submitted in February 2017, recommended the induction of personnel at middle and senior management levels in the central government. These are called ‘lateral entrants’ would be part of the Central Secretariat which in the normal course has only career bureaucrats from the All-India Services and Central Civil Services. 

Since 2019, some 63 appointments have been made through the lateral entry.  On 17 August 2024, the UPSC issued an advertisement inviting applications for appointment of 45 joint secretaries, directors and deputy secretaries in various ministries of the Government of India. A Joint Secretary, appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has the third highest rank, after Secretary and Additional Secretary in a Department, and functions as the administrative head of a Wing in the Department. He is involved in policy decision making process.  Directors are a rank below that of Joint Secretary, and Deputy Secretary a rank below that of Director. These posts are usually filled by officers of the IAS, the IPS and Group ‘A” Central Civil Services. 

 

Prior to 2014, experts used to be appointed as advisors and consultants as is the case even now. They were not part of the Bureaucracy, nor were they appointed through the UPSC. Former Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, who headed the Second Administrative Reforms Commission in 2005, says that the lateral entry suggested by the Commission was not meant to bypass the usual government recruitment process or for any political reason.  This is the first time that such appointments are made by the UPSC on a large-scale in the name of lateral entry to avail what the government says the services of experts.

It is an extra constitutional exercise. It goes against the existing recruitment policy, altering the very structure and composition of the Bureaucracy. There are nearly 50 ‘A’ Grade Central Civil Services, in addition to the All-India Services like the IAS and the IPS, providing specialized services in Government of India. Then why have the lateral entry policy? This will limit the promotional opportunities for career civil servants to occupying the senior administrivia positions of joint secretaries, directors and Deputy Secretaries, after 20-25 years of service, with outsiders appointed on contract becoming their administrative heads, though may be for a period of 3-5 years. This will demotivate and dissuade lakhs of promising young people who aspire to crack the prestigious Civil Services Examination.   

 

The Congress President, Mallikarjun Kharge, calls the lateral entry policy “an attack on the Constitution“ and charges that the government “had eliminated 5.1 lakh posts in the past 10 years by selling the shares of the government in public sector undertakings, instead of filling vacancies… casual and contractual recruitment had increased by 91% and posts for Scheduled communities and Other Backward Classes decreased by 1.3 lakhs by 1922-23” (The Hindu 20/8/24). He alleges that “the SC, ST, OBC, EWS posts will now be given to people of the RSS.” The concern that the administrative positions in the Central government could be filled by the people owing allegiance to the RSS cannot be ignored in view of the ban on civil servants to participate in the activities of the RSS without inviting any disciplinary action under the Conduct Rules lifted by the directive of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, issued on 9 July 2024. This will lead to saffronisation of Civil Services.

 

The lateral entry could result in a conflict of interest. The private interest of the outsiders could come in conflict with the public interest, influencing decision making. Take the case of the SEBI Chief Madhabi Buch. She was the first private person to Head the SEBI. Her role as the regulator of Capital Market was seriously compromised, going by the revelations of Hindenburg Report - a prime example of what a representative of corporates could do by occupying a key government position.  

 

There are lakhs of jobs lying vacant in various departments of Government of India. If these posts are filled the issue of manpower shortage could be addressed, besides making the Bureaucracy more efficient in discharging its duties towards the citizenry. The Opposition accuses that one of the reasons for not filling these posts is that the government doesn’t want to appoint persons of SC, ST and OBC background into the government service, as mandated by the reservation policy.

The lateral entry is a “Privatisation of the IAS (Indian Administrative Service),” says Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. He says “Reservation of SC, ST and OBC classes is being openly snatched away by recruiting through lateral entry on important posts in various Ministries of the Central Government…  the underprivileged are not represented in all the country’s top posts, including the top bureaucracy. Instead of improving it, they are being pushed further away from the top posts through lateral entry. This is a robbery of the rights of talented youth preparing for UPSC and an attack on the concept of social justice” (The Hindu 19/8/24). 

The INDIA bloc attacked the UPSC Notification for lateral entry. Some NDA allies of the government also criticized the lateral entry policy. This had forced the Union Minister Jitendra Singh, to write to the Chairperson, UPSC, Preeti Sudan, on 20 August 2024, asking her to withdraw the Notification, citing "the constitutional mandate towards social justice" for "rightful representation" of maginialised communities in the government services.

However, as per a report in The India Express 22 August, when the policy of lateral entry was decided in 2018, the issue of reservation was sidestepped on the ground that "each post to be filled up under this scheme is a single post where reservation does not apply." And "the DoPT argued that under the lateral entry scheme, each post needs special qualification and experience to suit the requirement of each department where the post is to be filled up."  That is how as many as 63 posts were filled till date under the lateral entry scheme. Now this U-turn of the government explains the compulsions of coalition government and the strong and effective Opposition, and not due to any genuine concern for the under privileged. 

 

The policy of lateral entry is not withdrawn.  It is a double whammy – first politicisation of institutions and then privatisation. The Bureaucracy, like other institutions having been politicised, is now being privatized with the entry of outside private individuals with their own biases and prejudices.  The lateral entry is an attempt to undermine the autonomy of the UPSC as the principal recruiting body of the Union Government and ipso facto reduce the role of Bureaucracy in Public Administration.  And the poor and marginalised sections of people will find the essential public services unreachable. The indiscriminate privatisation has already made education and health unaffordable and inaccessible to a large section of people.

We need later thinking, and not lateral entry, says a former Cabinet Secretary K.M.Chandrasekhar:"The government perceives lateral entry as a panacea for all administrative ills...Strangely, the government still cannot understand that public administration is far removed from corporate governance...Maximum profit and increasing stock values are the objectives that corporate managers pursue... The assumption that the governmental system can be set right by importing corporate employees or appointing consultants experienced in corporate governance is wholly misplaced"(IE 21/8/24). And checking corruption and providing effective mechanism of supervision and control could make the bureaucracy more efficient and responsive and accountable.