Bureaucracy has been hit hard by political interference, leading to corruption and other unhealthy practices affecting governance, said Mohammed Ali Rafath, managing director of AP Dairy Development Cooperative Federation, in his recently-published book Bureaucracy and Politics. He should know as he faced quick transfers for refusing to toe the line of some politicians.
The bureaucrat who has a Ph.D in political science, suggests model legislation along the lines of Westmin-ster, UK, to remove any ambiguity in the political executive-bureaucracy relationship and ensure the latter’s independence. “Greed for money, clamour for good postings, insecurity and the politician-bureaucrat nexus has come to the fore due to the absence of such legislation. IAS, IPS officers are at the mercy of political bosses for postings, promotions and transfers unlike in the UK, where an independent Board of Civil Services decides,” Mr Rafath said.
The book assumes significance in the wake of the state bureaucracy being in turmoil due to certain controversial decisions taken by the YSR government, leading to several officers and politicians going to jail, including YSR Congress MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, ex-minister Mopidevi Venkataramana, IAS officers Sri Lakshmi, B.P. Acharya and several others. “There is degradation in the value system of the All India Services. The economic growth of the country has also produced a class of middlemen who lobby with the politicians and have vested economic interests — it’s an investment-less business with the highest returns based on mere public relations skills,” he said. The rise of middlemen and ‘extra constitutional authority’ is something before which some ministers, IAS, IPS and other officials prostrate themselves.
According to the author, in the absence of legislation, civil servants in India have come under the control of ministers, thereby the concept of a committed bureaucracy is slowly and imperceptibly gaining ground, thus enhancing the chances of abuse of official machinery to the advantage of a particular ruling party — a phenomenon that might transform democracy into demagogy.