Is there a place for a counter-bureaucracy, or a separate and competing bureaucracy to counterbalance the force of the executive’s bureaucracy, asked author MH Mody in 1980.
The view that bureaucracies are bloated with far too many employees preying on taxpayers money is a widely held myth. Research shows how significantly understaffed the Indian state is.
We select individuals capable of becoming Formula One drivers. Then we give them rickety Maruti 800s on potholed roads and expect championship lap times.
If we get this right, the citizen of 2047 will experience government as ambient and humane. Benefits arrive when needed without forms; grievances resolve in hours.
Indian politicians expect civil servants to suck up to them. Ireland envoy Akhilesh Mishra's hit-job on Congress and his admiration of PM Modi will undoubtedly be noted by his political masters.
Two solutions come to mind: Govt must fix the tenure and duration for officers and make empanelment for top positions non-discretionary, matrix-based, and transparent.
There’s a reason senior government officials rely more on consultants than their own subordinates. They walk the extra mile that mid or junior-level officials won’t.
Beyond the immediate protection of Israel and its borders, which the USA could reasonably commit itself to, it did not need to get into every war in the Muslim world.
When conflict with Iran ends, says the report, area’s key players are likely to reexamine longstanding assumptions & alliances as they determine how best to advance their interests.
Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.
COMMENTS