At around the same juncture of history when Donald Trump has armed Elon Musk with a flamethrower to gut his bureaucracy from inside, the Modi government has notified the 8th Pay Commission.
The first is a dramatic, if chaotic, campaign to minimise government and cut costs. The second is a significant expansion of the government and wage bills, timed with the 2029 elections. Both won power more or less on the same promise. We’d prefer Modi’s words: minimum government, maximum governance.
You need no better evidence of the dramatic divergence in the two leaders’ approach to governance and its costs. Trump is the insurgent who sees the career civil servants as evil. They are assured a full career of service, irrespective of who wins or loses elections. They govern, or help the government by following the set rules and norms.
By definition, this calls for no political or ideological loyalty. In fact, that is absolutely abhorred in this system. In the Trumpian view, this is an obscenity. It’s the unchallenged reign of the unelected, and he will take no more of it. So, he’ll burn it down.
For Modi, the career civil servant represents continuity, change and loyalty. There is no real problem with our administrative structure and personnel as long as they adapt with the politics of the day. The reason we’ve seen the greatest empowerment of the ‘selected’ (by UPSC) bureaucracies in the Modi era.
The constitution of the 8th Pay Commission is just a metaphor. Under Modi, the central government has expanded at a breathtaking pace. For evidence, go for a ‘before and after’ spin in the larger New Delhi region (not just the Lutyens Zone) and see how many new ‘Bhawans’ have come up.
In Trump’s America, his newly appointed FBI chief made his fame by promising to turn the FBI headquarters in Washington into a museum and either laying off most of its personnel or scattering them across the US, especially Alabama. It will be the Indian equivalent of sending the personnel of CBI, NIA and more to Kushinagar or Sonbhadra in UP or maybe Medak in Telangana or Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. But see the contrast in India.
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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has a stunning new and massive bhawan of its own in the CGO complex by the side of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The Delhi Police has a swanky new ‘home’ in the heart of Lutyens while retaining its original one in the ITO area. The NCRB and BPR&D too got sprawling new headquarters in Mahipalpur, in 2017. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had its own build. It’s way better than its original office, in Lok Nayak Bhawan, next to Khan Market. Lok Nayak Bhawan, to be fair, is a sarkari slum, no human beings deserve to work there. I am hoping it is earmarked for demolition in the rebuilding of Lutyens Delhi.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is among those occupying one of the towers in the new red sandstone mini-city behind the INA market and abutting the Barapullah flyover. The National Green Tribunal is now a massive New Delhi bureaucracy with a bhawan of its own on Copernicus Marg and zonal centres sprouting across the country. Nobody would bother a performance audit on such privileged new bureaucracies. The state of the environment, and the impact of the NGTs, if any, you can see, feel and smell for yourself.
Similarly, at the Centre and in the states, all relatively new institutions (not necessarily founded under Modi government) have seen a breathless expansion, and ‘bhawanisation’. Count Central Information Commission (the states have their own), Lok Pal and Lokayuktas in states, the many tribunals.
Turn your attention to the government being in business. Barring the sale of Air India, almost all CPSEs (Central Public Sector Enterprises) have not only remained intact under Modi government, they have seen massive new investments with taxpayer money. This year’s Budget has earmarked Rs 5 trillion of equity infusion into CPSEs. Attacked by Rahul Gandhi often for ‘selling out’ the PSUs, Modi has himself spoken multiple times underlining “how much better” they’ve done under him. The Centre just promised to invest another Rs 11,440 crore into Vizag Steel Plant, which had been on the privatisation list for almost two decades.
Just how well have the CPSEs done? While the broader indices, NIFTY and Sensex have fallen about 13 percent from their peak, the CPSE index has crashed, hold your breath and cry for your tax money, about 30 percent.
That amounts to a neat loss of about Rs 13 lakh crore (Rs 13 trillion) or about $148 billion (nearly double of India’s defence budget). Think about what India could do with that kind of money. Build a full north-south bullet train? Multiply several times the amounts paid in PM Kisan Samman? Or maybe buy two squadrons of those F-35s and also have Mr Trump smile. And you will still have about $120 billion left. You can read these details and more in this story by TCA Sharad Raghavan. Please do note that while the Congress has traditionally been statist, it’s the BJP leaders whose favourite line over the decades has been: jis desh ka raja vyapari, us ki praja bhikhari (in a nation whose king is a businessman, the subjects become beggars).
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In India under Modi, the problem is never that there is too much government or that there can be too much government. It isn’t about the costs either. That the civil services are unelected is actually seen as a good thing. Ideological purity would be great, but where it isn’t available, there are always tools to make the civil servants fall in line, for reward or punishments. The best postings, empowerment, and if you are really valued, a life of almost no retirement.
After fitting specialists into key positions, for example RBI and SEBI, we are back to the trusted IAS. The direct recruitment at joint secretary level is an idea that disappeared so fast that we never saw its time come. There is some brave process going on under economist Sanjeev Sanyal (as this story by Moushumi Das Gupta shows) to at least abolish a whole bunch of new bodies set up as sarkari employment programmes. It’s a good initiative. Just note that in our system, nobody loses their jobs. They just get ‘reallocated’ elsewhere. And you know what they’ve said forever in Punjabi: Jehde lahore bhaide, oh Peshawar vi bhaide (one who’s useless in Lahore, in also a disaster in Peshawar). The joke is on the exchequer.
In the Modi Cabinet, too, the key positions now, from External Affairs to Petroleum, Railways, IT, I&B and more are with former civil servants. The Modi system’s comfort lies exactly where the Trumpian hate begins. We aren’t saying what’s better or worse, because who knows where Trump’s slash-and-burn will leave America. We are only making the point that the Trump and Modi approaches to building governance structures stand in exact contrast to each other.
For Modi/BJP supporters, Deep State is some amorphous entity including global foundations, Left-activist corporates and investors and also intelligence proliferations working in cahoots with them. The Trumpian conception of the Deep State, by contrast, is the house where unelected civil servants live, whose careers transcend multiple presidencies and who won’t bend to political will. He must burn it down. Ideally, he’d do this with his judges too.
Trump and Modi are two very different leaders, armed with contrasting political method and style. It’s fascinating how this reflects in their view of governance, and more importantly, to the entity called government. One is wrecking, while the other continues expanding it.
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What is relevant to note is that, ever since our Republic was formed, Govt. AT ALL LEVELS has sought to be an employer, and a major one at that. In other words, the Modi Govt. has nothing particular to do with the contrast between what the Trump Administration is doing and what is happening in India. Precisely because we have such a large bureaucracy, we have poor governance. This is unlikely to change no matter which party is in power because no Govt. can survive WITHOUT FEEDING THE BEAST.
I completed my schooling from Convent school with PCM-C & later completed my Engineering. Have 4 years experience now & dont get any increments as such. In-hand payment is just Rs.35,000 in Tier-1 city (after lot of deductions including NPS).
8th Pay Commission has been criticised here by the writer for his Capitalist Funders I guess. If Basic-Pay changes proposed are implemented next year, it will set a template for Private Corporate companies as well. It is totally wrong to criticize it when after 10 years, increments are much needed. Private companies have no check & balances, & there are times when I work for 10-12 hours as well, & our SALARIES are stagnant. Our companies & top corporates are earning so much but we hardly get any benefit out of it.
Will request Shekhar to stop being a mouth-piece of your Capitalists Funders. Have followed ThePrint, Cut The Clutter, etc. since its inception I guess, & we do also contribute our time & resources. Give youth like us also some preferences as our future looks very tough. Atleast give one shot to an editorial to this issue how top companies like Infosys have not increases their salaries since a decade. Youth & Indians in general dont mind working for 12 or even 14 hours a day or cumulative 100 hours a week, but atleast come up with decent salaries and pay for us which matches the sector & companies’ growth!
Modi is utterly incompetent as far as governance is concerned. But he is very good in winning elections, and Pappu helps him a lot in that too. All his policies are aligned for winning elections, with only a few exceptions like Agniveer.
I can see people like to throw around the term socialist without actually understanding the term.
Modi is not a socialist. He is a conservative populist who is simply carrying out the protectionist economic policy India has always had.
The size of government, the quality of governance, the proportion of tax revenues the governments at Centre and states spend to maintain themselves, salaries and pensions. Interest, if one adds the accumulation of past sins. After a decade in office, it is possible to make an objective evaluation. 2. For ordinary citizens, education and healthcare are key. Both subjected to a stress test during the pandemic. Asian economic success stories got education and healthcare firmly under control before seeing high growth. An essential building block. 3. Bureaucracy in India is no longer a stumbling block. Any more than institutions, which President Trump thinks so poorly of. Everything is in position, perfectly lined up. So we must ask why so many Indians no longer wish to stay at home and participate in the glorious journey to the First World. ETA 2047.
Sorrry to say Shekhar, but I don’t agree with anything that you just said on the 8th pay commisssion and govt jobs. Seems like you are like a puppet of chrony capitalists of our Country, where our Indian capitalists want our youth to work 70-90 hour per week. And wages are stagnant from 2013 – 2014 (Infosys is paying same to the fresher as it was in 2012 -13). Whatever, only 2.2% – 3% of total population is having government jobs is far less than any developing or developed countries.
One more thing , why are you not telling the contraction in Argentinian economy which was contracted by 1.6 percent in 2023, due to persistent macroeconomic imbalances , Argentina began a process of stabilizing its macroeconomy in 2024. Real GDP is estimated to contract by 3.5 percent in 2024,
Source : https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/argentina/overview
And wait for America , I mean don’t give examples of America where people are getting sacked for investigating the Musk and Tesla. Don’t push your Agenda of Chrony capitalists where they want to make more and more, and keep us on edge . The govt is needed because it always sets the market trend of minimum wages . The 8th pay commission is not only beneficial for the govt employees but also for the corporate ones. As they’ll also asks for hikes which will be beneficial for the economy. And why are you not telling the people about the tax cuts given by govt to big tech giants but still no increase in jobs ?????
Please do some research rather than putting BS ideas .
I did my engineering from reputed Institute and they are paying me 40,000 per month along with the 2.5 years bond and that too in tier 1 city. Isse accha to me police ki taiyyari krr leta . Even the constable earns more than me (and that is fair, not jealous for him/her) . But what about me who did good in school with PCM + computer science, JEE mains, 4 years college course , cracked placement . And at the end this is what I get along with huge workload + minimum wage + constant stress of being replaced or thrown out due to recession. That’s it , just start looking from our prespective of tier-3 lower class Gen-Zs , like me.
Behave like journalist rather than spokesperson of your investors like Sudha Murthy.
This is in response to your previous national interest where my comment was removed regularly
As long as BJP attaches itself to its roots, it will remain a socialist party at heart. Whether for good or bad, 10 more years will reveal. Now it looks to be going the wrong way. Most Indian business are held back by bureaucracy that is corrupt to its core but is highly efficient in licking boots of politicians.
Carrier civil servents are evil….no one should be a civil servant for life….. India should adopt a policy of getting rid of civil servant after 10 yrs
The government must urgently disperse the ministries across the country to tier 2 /3 cities and rent out those enormous prime locale properties on the Lutyens to earn some much needed revenues. With e-governance there should be no need for physical proximities between the ministries for smooth governmental functioning. This will force the Lords of destinies of Indian people (Bharata Bhagya Vidhatas) to interact with aam bharatiyas and be more attuned to their real time grievances and develop some actionable solutions.
Socialist Modi tasks like a conservative, but does all socialist things.