This "Yes Minister" class !

The Indian civil servants seem to have evolved a cadre-within-cadre mentality and sub cadre empathy. From state cadre fellow feeling, IAS and IPS officers have turned their affection to their respective political masters. This is against their oath or affirmation to the country's Constitution, argues Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao

Arvind Kejriwal Two recent d e v e l o p m e n t s involving the bureaucracy were either largely ignored or not enough attention was paid by the media and observers. The first incident which has raised a debate is the CBI raid on the principle secretary to the Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal. The official was accused of favouring a syndicate in contracts and files relating to those deals were seized. Kejriwal, who came to prominence through an anti graft movement of Anna Hazare, denied every allegation about the officer and supported group had warned Kejriwal of the corrupt background of that officer.

In West Bengal we can see Left front cadre officers being replaced by newly formed TMC cadre officers. Whenever there was a change in ruling party, the 'sub cadre' officers are thrown to insignificant departments where they are not stressed with the administrative work and use their spare time to leak the official information to their past political masters ignoring their administrative oath.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel The second incident is the demand for the appointment of a senior IAS officer of their caste as Chief Secretary in Karnataka by a dominant community group of that state. Whether this demand came from the leaders of that caste group on their own or the concerned officer who is not sure of his own appointment to the said post had instigated the caste groups through his contacts is not clear. But either way these officers were doing disservice to their national cadre posts and running down the standards of bureaucracy.
The bureaucracy is said to be the backbone of the permanent administration. So the Indian Civil Services (ICS) created by the British was not abandoned by independent India but merely Indian Administrative Services (IAS) and further strengthened it by creating many other central services. The central services were seen as the agents of national integration by the first Home Minister of India Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who evolved a formula of allotting bright young officers to the states where some are placed in their home state while others are allotted to other states. The central service officers are given free hand and protection of service so that they can act fearlessly in guiding the political masters. But alas they turned out to be "yes Ministers" as caricatured in the BBC TV shows.
The Indian civil servants seem to have gone worse than those in the BBC series. They have evolved a cadre-in-cadre mentality and sub cadre affinity. The IAS and IPS officers are called cadre officers basing on the state cadre to which they were allotted after provisionally selected by the UPSC. Thus young bright minds selected after a rigorous tests and interview are trained in all aspects of administration and the lessons on neutrality of decision making are sent to different states.

Thus there are Karnataka cadre, UP cadre, Tamil Nadu cadre, union territories cadre officers etc. and these officer work in the states for which they are allotted and then come to centre to work in Delhi but still carry the original state cadre tag. That much is acceptable under the constitution.

But now we see a new phenomenon called a sub cadre in these "Yes Minister" officers. The officers who are mandated to maintain neutrality and exhibit fair play in guiding the ministers are slowly turning into a loyalists of the political party which in power either in the state or in the centre throwing to winds their constitutional obligation.

Now we can see a 'cadre in cadre' arrangement where some of the officers willingly become DMK cadre officers or AIADMK cadre officers in Tamil Nadu or a Congress cadre officers or BJP cadre officers in Karnataka, Rajasthan or MP or even BSP cadre or SP cadre in Uttar Pradesh. Their loyalty has changed from constitution to the party in power.

In West Bengal we can see Left

It is time the Central services officers restored their own dignity to help the nation through their honest actions and inspire aspiring students to join the bureaucracy and serve the nation in.

front cadre officers being replaced by newly formed TMC cadre officers. Whenever there was a change in ruling party the 'sub cadre' officers are thrown to insignificant departments where they are not stressed with the administrative work and use their spare time to leak the official information to their past political masters ignoring their administrative oath. They just wait for their come back of the political party, the sub cadre that they have chosen, and work to the advantage of the their selected 'sub cadre' party interests as their postings in crucial and money spinning posts are tied with the fortunes of that party.

This cadre in cadre mentality of the officers is the reason for the deterioration in the quality of administration. They easily bartered their integrity,

independence for plum posts in favourable locations through this sub cadre servility. At the centre now we see a UPA sub cadre IAS and IPS officers being replaced by an emerging NDA sub cadre officers. All the transfers, promotions, postings are governed under this sub cadre considerations only. This is not happening in isolation but it is the norm in every state. The colleagues in the administration, the local media and intellectuals all know to which sub cadre a particular official belongs to.

Then there are central officers like Indian Revenue Service (IRS) for whom there are no state cadres. Since they work directly under the finance ministry of the centre they had their own sub cadre mentality as exposed by English daily in recent Vasan Health Care Scandal. Here the IRS officers choose their loyalty to the finance minister under whom they enjoyed the clout. Thus we saw a former finance minister sub cadre IRS officers protecting the financial irregularities of their cadre master and ITS officers protecting the illegal actions of their former Telecommunication minister.

For these sub cadre officers change in the administration through ballot is inconsequential as they feel their loyalty is not for rules and regulations but to the past mentor with whom they might have shared the unaccounted money bounty. So no wonder the billions of rupees of black money is safely going away from Indian shores and coming in through illegal means during the election time.

It is time the Central services officers restored their own dignity to help the nation through their honest actions and inspire aspiring students to join the bureaucracy and serve the nation in.