It has always been a question of incentives - but, in general, people in India do not want to hear this answer.
They somehow think that public "service" (whether politicians or bureaucrats) should be populated by holy men and women, who are completely divorced from the needs and requirements of other human beings. That they should not be tempted even when faced with great temptations, they should work for peanuts (and not give into their temptations), they should never dream of better prospects for their families and they should "serve" the realm selflessly. Meanwhile, the rest of us will continue with our pursuit of pelf, lucre and position.
The Prime Minister of India is the elected head of a Trillion dollar economy - how much do we pay him? How about the Chief Secretary (or whatever he is called) - who is the head of the Bureaucracy for this Trillion dollar economy? We spend 20%+ of our annual budget on Defence forces, the primary duty of a nation state, for which we agree to pay taxes - we expect the Defence Minister to make informed choices about what we should be buying for our armed forces, based on expert advice from the bureaucracy and the armed forces. How much do we pay our Defence Minister and for the three Chiefs of Staff? How much do we pay for their continuing training? Have we insisted on creating a training facility for all our top officers so that they can actually judge technology on merit? How much do we pay our NSA, for the rich practical experience that he brings to the table?
Demand the world of our public service officers, but we will not pay for it. Ah no, we are a poor country, you see. The fact that we are poor because of these kind of policies seem to escape the thinking of most of my fellow citizens.
The flip side of this argument is accountability - politicans are, at least, held accountable once in five years. How about the bureaucrats? Are we ready to abolish tenure? Maybe the IAS grants tenure for up to a certain level - but, for serious positions, anything with a "secretary" in it, there is no tenure. And, the politicians get to advertise for each post - and select who they want based on merit, skills, experience. That way, we can really hold them responsible for their quality of governance. Of course, to attract top talent, we will need to pay top dollar. But, at the same time, they don't deliver - they are fired.
So many complaints about the Judicial system and judges - while reform has to start with our laws (maybe, do away with 90% of them), the single most effective way to curb corrupt judges and lawyers is to institute a system of trial by jury. Are we ready? All civilised nations in the world give their citizens the right to a trial by a jury of their peers - in civil and criminal cases. And, we have to do away with torture in the police system, and we have to introduce the equivalent of the Fifth Amendment right - then we will have a free nation, not the slave nation and banana republic that we have been unfortunate to have been born into (all of us have horrible karma to pay for, I guess!) - better than Somalia or Saudi Arabia or Nigeria or Indonesia or China, but that is scant comfort for our poor and unprivileged citizens.
Want to reform the police system, without trying to get the politicians to relax their current grip on the forces (a herculean task)? Mandate that all SP positions and above shall be elected positions - of course, only police officers with appropriate experience may stand for these elections (include that in the rules) - but what fun if the people can actually decide who their SP will be? Who will your forces torture now, eh? How many FIRs can your sub-ordinate officers refuse to file file in your district?
Of course, same thing applies as above - we need to pay them well, so that they can afford a decent life - you will cry if you see the police housing, or worse, the slums where junior police officers in Mumbai reside - we pay them Rs10,000 a month, put them on duty for more than 100 hours a week and then complain about how the police is not doing their jobs??? Oh, not to forget, that more than 25% of the force is used for "security duty" of politicians, where they are treated as their personal slaves. And, conditions in rural postings??? Is it any wonder that our police forces are some of the most brutal in the democratic world.
Well, the solutions are all there, and we have the money to pay for them, too (think how much money we lose in corruption) - but, do we have the will to implement them?
On 26 May 2015 at 19:24, Ashok B Sharma <ashokbsharma@gmail.com> wrote:
IAC has definitely good intentions - to fight against corruption. Corruption is a cancer in the system. Can we not think of addressing the systemic problem? Can we not think of redesigning the system in such a way so that the scope for corruption is minimised, if not totally eliminated? I think we should aim in this direction instead of making a hue and cry over Anti-Corruption Cell or publicising the drive against corruptionASHOK B SHARMAColumnist & AnalystOn Mon, May 25, 2015 at 2:31 PM, Diwan Singh <diwans2007@gmail.com> wrote:Till now the country has been ruled by the bureaucrats, our servants, who have a duty to serve us, not rule. In Delhi, for the first time in any state of India, a party has come to power that does not want to continue servants as rulers of this country. There can not be a greater delight to see how the defacto rulers i.e bureaucrats were shown their true place in the establishment. Locking the bureaucrats room was the first step in this direction. We wish and hope the bureaucracy is taught continually like this that they are servants of public. The rulers have a right to close their offices, and suspend and terminate them.I have heard BJP guys saying often, " do not take pangas with bureaucracy." I particularly tasted this approach of BJP when we exposed and sought action in a corruption case involving EDMC Commissioner, two years back. A party with such principles can never fight corruption.Where servants are masters, do not expect much good.On Sun, May 24, 2015 at 11:21 AM, ravindra malhotra <indiaresists@lists.riseup.net> wrote:Every establishment has its inbuilt resistance to change, it increases with size of such establishment. Political Parties, bureaucrats and Government have been working in a way - how so ever corrupt or honest its functionaries have been - they can not digest an upstart asking them to work another way. It is in fact the fight back of ESTABLISHMENTS - established political parties as well asbureaucrats against the peoples mandate given to AAP, which wanted to change the way the Govt's have been working. It was natural and evident and was fore seen by Kejriwal himself also, when he spoke after the win. What is surprising is that media also does not seem to be happy with the change - they have also been part of the ESTABLISHMENT for too long.R.N.Malhotra
Former Chairman Railway Board
From: Victor Cooper <indiaresists@lists.riseup.net>
To: indiaresists@lists.riseup.net
Cc: Rti4ngo <rti4ngo@yahoogroups.com>; Rahul Gandhi <office@rahulgandhi.in>; rti4empowerment@yahoogroups.com; AamAadmi Party <contact@aamaadmiparty.org>; Barkha Dutt <barkha@ndtv.com>; Prabhu Chawla <prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com>; Janshakti <Janshakti@yahoogroups.com>; AAPGoa <AAPGoa@gmail.com>; BJP circle <support@localcirclesmail.com>; TOI <bachi.karkaria@timesgroup.com>; Rajdeep Sardesai <rajdeep.sardesai@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2015 8:18 AM
Subject: RE: [IAC#RG] CHIEF MINISTER LOCKING OUT HIS OFFICER IS ECCENTRICITY
In my assessment, it is the BJP that is childish .... a spoilt brat. It has unnecessarily given an opening to the defunct Congress by its arrogance in parliment. It has tied up with PDF in JK. Its FM continues to raise taxes and cause inflation on the one hand, and wants RBI to cut rates on the other ! It unnecessarily delayed Delhi elections, which cost it a lot. It transferred honest Vigilance Officer of AIIMS, and refused to allot him to Delhi govt. Now it is childishly playing games in Delhi via Jung. Does it not remind one of Congress and Indira Gandhi / MM Singh ? It is time BJP realised that it should work as co-operator, not adversary, in the interest of the nation.
--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 5/21/15, vinod varshney <vinodvarshney@hotmail.com> wrote:
Subject: RE: [IAC#RG] CHIEF MINISTER LOCKING OUT HIS OFFICER IS ECCENTRICITY
To: "indiaresists@lists.riseup.net" <indiaresists@lists.riseup.net>
Date: Thursday, May 21, 2015, 1:47 AM
Nobody is shocked at the wickedness
of the Centre which is egging the LG to create
hurdles in the functioning of the elected government. All
the top lawyers have
given their opinion on how LG is at fault. People remain
insensitive on real issues
as media is able to brainwash them and they find locking the
room a big issue.
Please know this is a fight between the vested interests and
the honest and
transparent politics.. People should support the latter.
Twitter: vinodvarshney2
Date: Wed, 20 May
2015 20:09:29 +0530
From: ashokbsharma@gmail.com
To: indiaresists@lists.riseup.net
Subject: Re: [IAC#RG] CHIEF MINISTER LOCKING OUT HIS OFFICER
IS ECCENTRICITY
Kejriwal is known for his ECCENTRICITY. He should
behave with responsibility and keep up the image of the post
he occupies. He should learn to respect the law of the
land.
Yes, if he feels the
existing laws are bad or otherwise and he should step down
and mobilise public opinion. Mahatma Gandhi protested
against repressive British laws through peaceful
satyagraha
ASHOK B
SHARMAIndependent Columnist
& Analyst
On Tue, May 19,
2015 at 1:38 PM, R. Dua <r.dua1234@gmail.com>
wrote:
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This kind of behaviour pattern by someone in
cm's chair can further push the ppl to take law in their
hands and using bricks n mortar.
It is most unbecoming and uncalled for in civilian
society.
On 19 May 2015
13:29, "Venkatraman Ns" <nsvenkatchennai@gmail.com>
wrote:
To
India
Against Corruption
CHIEF MINISTER LOCKING OUT HIS OFFICER
IS ECCENTRICITY
It is shocking
that a senior officer of Delhi government was
locked out of his room in secretariat. Nobody would believe
if Mr. Kejriwal,
the Chief Minister would claim later on that he was not
aware of this. This is
a sort of behaviour that even a school boy would be ashamed
of. Obviously, the
governance in Delhi is now going for a toss.
If Mr. Kejriwal
would want to settle a
political score with the Lt. Governor of Delhi or the ruling
party in Central
government , he can proceed with the methods that he
is known for, but why
humiliate a senior officer of his own government, who is not
involved in his
power games? Obviously, Mr. Kejriwal lacks the knowledge of
fundamental principles of fair governance
and the wisdom that is expected to be
associated with a Chief Minister.
In the past, his
quixotic behaviour like cutting the power connection
and later
on sitting in dharna as Chief Minister and signing files
sitting on the road
gave him lot of media attention. Perhaps, he believes that
only such behaviour
will be liked by the people of Delhi and
as usual media will give him lot of space and therefore, he
continues to
exhibit such eccentricities. Are Delhi citizens as naïve as
he thinks ?
N.S.Venkataramantwitter :
@nsvchennai
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