News reports pertaining to a probationary officer of the Indian Administrative Service fraudulently benefiting from allegedly false certificates to qualify in the civil service examination and for brazen behaviour and gross misuse of power and position conceals more than they reveal. Such instances of delinquency are neither the first of their kind nor will they be the last reflecting the churning in the nature and norms of the new generation of civil servants. While a majority of civil servants in the country are held in high esteem for their honesty, integrity, principles, uprightness and capability, there are quite a few who have sullied the image of the steel frame through their veneer of arrogance, high-handedness, misuse and abuse of power and humongous corruption.

The efficiency of the hallowed civil service is witnessing a perceptible decline, and so also their moral scruples. In recent times, the civil service has undergone a sociological and cultural transformation both in terms of catchment and orientation. Unlike the recruitment and training of officers in the defence services, corporate sector and other professional services, civil service aspirants slog on an average for two years in preparing for the examination which is largely bookish. A mushrooming number of coaching centres spread across the country cater to such aspirants who spend huge amounts of money and valuable time to prepare for a highly competitive examination. The coaching centres tutor them with readymade notes, and claim to mentor them for the personality test. The coaching centres put out advertisements in leading newspapers invariably claiming high percentile of success with photographs of successful candidates. For the personality test, they at times hire retired civil servants paying them attractive compensation. Retired civil servants who join such places either fail to secure a post-retirement assignment or to meet the demands of the corporate sector, or do not have the craving for other pursuits such as teaching or writing.

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Only a miniscule percentage of candidates who enrol at such coaching centres qualify, while the centres earn astronomical amounts of money. A positive aspect of the current civil service syndrome is that now an increasing number of candidates qualifying in the civil services are from Tier-2 towns and even small towns and villages unlike earlier times when students from premier colleges of Delhi University or JNU would qualify. A related trend is that a majority of such candidates are from engineering or medical backgrounds, some of whom opt for humanities subjects like political science or public administration. Because of their methodical approach and precision in study, they qualify in the exams with relative ease. Many successful candidates are from humble and modest backgrounds and success enhances their social and economic standing. One more discernable trend is the penchant for social media where successful candidates flaunt their newly acquired status, power and position with a sense of pride falling just short of arrogance. Bereft of other creative pursuits and recognition, these successful civil servants regress into delinquency and misdemeanour.

How does one explain this sad state of affairs? One reason is that a large percentage of the youngsters who aspire to join the civil service are not motivated by the spirit of public service and idealism, but by the desire for self-aggrandizement. These aspiring civil servants know more than anybody else that when they join the club they become what C. Wright Mills called the “ruling classes” and “look for the loaves of office, rather than to make a difference in the system to wipe out what Gandhi called ‘every tear from every Indian’.” No wonder once their training is over, they jostle for a cosy posting which offers them comfort and then become ‘brown sahibs’ inaccessible to the general public, insensitive to their trials and tribulations and oblivious to the very potholes over which their motorcade passes every day. There are, however, some highly dedicated and motivated civil servants who have made the mark and made the difference. Such inspiring examples are, however, few and far between.

It is not only their lack of motivation, zeal and social commitment which explains their lacklustre performance, but also the method of their selection, which as a process of elimination is faulty and defective. It is necessary to look into alternative methods of recruitment as adopted and followed in the defence forces or in the private sector. Yet another point is that although those selected for the civil services are bright and intelligent products of our best universities, after they qualify their intellectual growth almost stops and they degenerate into mediocrity. At a time when India is emerging as a knowledge society, knowledge will be the path to growth, development and productivity. There should thus be constant upgradation of knowledge and skills.

At the end of the day, a civil servant should always bear in mind Gandhi’s talisman, “recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man (woman) whom you may have seen and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him (her). Will he (she) gain anything by it? Will it restore to him (her) a control over his (her) own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj (freedom) for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?”

(The writer, a former parliamentary officer, was a senior fellow of Indian Council of Social Science Research affiliated to Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal.)