The Steel Frame: A History of the IAS by Deepak Gupta

Author:Deepak Gupta [Gupta, Deepak]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-18T18:30:00+00:00

Thus, the systems and the environment will influence performance. Laterals would also surely become enveloped and will tend to behave in a similar manner.

It is well recognized that the process of policy-making has become very complex today. Policy is not made only by the JS or the secretary or the minister. There are lots of sources and stakeholders who contribute. Inputs are taken from various specialists, because they also differ from each other, sometimes vehemently. A multi-sectoral approach to framing of policy has become necessary. Therefore, the old argument of having a specialist in place instead of the generalist for this purpose loses much of its validity. It also means that there should be a pool of specialists available having special expertise in an area or areas to assist in the formulation of policy. Government should facilitate the ministries to obtain such expertise for the period/s that it may be required. When this becomes available it is questionable whether one professional from outside coming at the level of JS in a ministry, presumably a specialist in some domain, and possibly itself a narrow one within it, would by himself/herself produce new ideas, or be able to push them through. Actually, in such a situation, the co-ordinating and processing role becomes even more important.

Before we seek replacements to the senior IAS posts by specialists we must pause to ponder how the different specialist departments have performed. There is little analysis and literature on this. The most obvious example would be that of the Railways which has always been criticized. But it is fully manned by specialists. The other major example relates to the functioning of public sector banks which are undergoing a severe crisis at the time of writing with proliferation of NPAs and scams stressing the entire financial sector, though even here some critics have blamed IAS bureaucrats. Both have suffered because of extreme politicization. To argue, therefore, that specialists will necessarily function more effectively is not proven by practice.

More than any other service, the work of an IAS officer brings him/her into contact with the common people providing both grass-roots experience and a learning to be down to earth. On an average an officer spends about a decade in the field. In fact, it is the only real connection that senior policy-makers have with the people and ground realities. Lateral entrants, irrespective of the source, will have no such experience at all, whether of the field or even at the level of the state. Moreover, the interchange between centre and states gives a unique perspective and an overall view, the importance of which had been explained by Sardar Patel. Movement to different departments gives different kinds of experiences and a cross-sectoral and holistic picture which goes beyond departmentalism while serving at different levels provides insights into both policy-making and implementation. During this entire process, an officer faces a wide variety of complex social and political challenges going through a great diversity of experience and testing and honing of leadership skills in considerably varying situations.

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