Bimal Jalan’s suggestion to hold ministers personally accountable for specific parameters based performance on an annual basis is an opportune idea (“Where are we, and where are we going? — III”, February 13). Nowadays, the compulsions of a coalition government have reduced considerably the power of the prime minister to appoint and allot portfolios to his Cabinet members. Ministerial positions go to favourites of party bosses, treating merit at a discount. No wonder ministries like agriculture, defence, power, civil aviation, railways and telecommunications are adorned by bosses or their loyalists. Jalan’s proposal will give some leverage to the prime minister.
However, his other suggestion to reduce corruption in the administrative system (by transfer of key executive decision making to the bureaucracy from ministers) assumes that corruption has not percolated downstream. Yet the CBI cases and Income Tax department’s raids against bureaucrats show the malaise is widespread. To my mind, integrity being a personal attribute depends on the character of a person and not the system that guides his action.
YG Chouksey, Pune