New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday that while political parties play an important role in a democracy, it is the job of a civil servant to question if a party in power is using taxpayers’ money to benefit itself or the country and whether it is using government money for the country’s development or for the expansion of the party.
Speaking at the 16th Civil Services Day programme at Vigyan Bhawan, Modi said the country’s wealth would be looted, taxpayers’ money wasted and the dreams of young Indians shattered if the bureaucracy were to falter now.
Without identifying any political party by name, the PM said that a civil servant should ask himself a few questions before making every decision.
“…whether the political party in power is looting government wealth to build its vote bank or using it to make citizens’ life easy, whether it is using government money to advertise the party’s work or using it honestly to create awareness among the people, whether a political party is changing policies to make new avenues for making black money by their political bosses….a civil servant should think about these questions.”
Modi said the time has come for the country’s civil servants to meet the expectations of Sardar Patel, who he said referred to the bureaucracy as the steel frame of India.
Taking an indirect dig at opposition parties, the PM said that “it has been our experience” that even if schemes are good, even if their roadmap on paper looks great, one would not get the expected results unless last-mile delivery is made efficient.
Modi further claimed that everyone knows how the previous system gave the country four crore fake gas connections, four crore fake ration cards, 30 lakh youngsters who got fake scholarships and one crore imaginary women and children who were getting support from the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD).
“… under the garb of lakhs and crore of such fake names, an ecosystem of corruption thrived,” Modi said, adding that the efforts of the country and its civil servants have now led to a change in the system. Approximately Rs 3 lakh crore has been saved from going into the wrong hands,” he said.
At a time when India is celebrating its 75th year of Independence, the PM also called upon the bureaucracy to take bigger strides to achieve the ambitious target that has been set for it for the next 25 years.
“When time is limited, it becomes very important to decide what will be our direction and how we will achieve it. Today, the challenge is not how efficient you are, the challenge is to decide how to remove the deficiencies that there are in the system,” Modi said.
The PM also said that in the nine years that his government had been in power, initiatives have been taken to ensure civil servants realise their full potential. He also spoke about how his government took many steps to rid the bureaucracy of hierarchy and protocol.
“From secretaries to assistant secretaries, I regularly meet them. I meet trainee officers also. We have also encouraged central ministries to hold chintan shivirs (brainstorming sessions) to engage and encourage participation of everybody in every department,” he said.
Modi added that these efforts have led to visible changes in bureaucracy.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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