Cracks in the frame

INDEPENDENCE SPECIAL/ GOVERNANCE

Several things in the government have remained unchanged in the last 60 years. The extraordinary importance that the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers receive in administration is certainly one of them.

The IAS, a direct descendant of the hallowed Indian Civil Services started in 1853 to govern the natives in the British Raj, quickly appropriated the aura of a service meant for the best and the meritorious.

The Indian Foreign Service was there as a close rival, but strictly speaking it remained and even today remains only a rival. Wherever it was, the IAS ran the government and, therefore, the country. That situation has not changed, though there are incipient signs of a decline in its relevance, importance and even necessity.

The IAS owes its importance perhaps to the role the ICS officers played during the years immediately following partition that posed a huge law and order problem on both sides of the border. The few available records of that time reveal that the local administration even in sensitive border areas in Punjab was completely left in the hands of the ICS officers.

Many of them discharged their responsibilities admirably well, rising above the petty considerations of caste, creed or religion. Sardar Patel, the home minister at that time, realised that independent India too needed a "steel frame", an all-India service like the ICS that would bind the nation together with a centrally administered apparatus.

The same logic was used to create the IAS in 1948, when the first examination for these jobs was held. Once the political masters accepted this logic, the generalist IAS officer became useful for all kinds of specialist jobs as well.

Starting from the post of the governor of the Reserve Bank of India to chief executives of public sector organisations, the IAS officer became the preferred service for most jobs that brought along with them the benefits of wielding of financial and administrative power. And after or just before retirement, IAS officers were readied for jobs such as those of governors in states or for prestigious assignments in multilateral institutions.

This tendency remained unchecked even after economic reforms were introduced in the 1990s. A large number of new jobs were created with the setting up of regulatory bodies for sectors that had been opened up in the wake of economic liberalisation. Who would head these regulatory bodies?

Ordinarily, such jobs would go to experienced industry experts. But IAS officers were around to ensure that these jobs became their virtual monopoly. This even provoked the courts to step in when they realised that the IAS was trying to expropriate for itself jobs that rightfully belonged to members of the judiciary. Even for the newly created jobs of information commissioners under the Right to Information Act, the IAS fraternity has claimed most of the top jobs.

Some things, however, have changed in the last 60 years. In the 1950s, IAS jobs were the only option for a bright young graduate without any contacts in high places. If you wanted to be a covenanted officer in one of the top private sector companies those days, you had to know somebody influential.

In sharp contrast, the IAS offered an opportunity to anyone who was bright. The salary an IAS officer got at the start of his career was almost half of what entry-level covenanted officers in top private sector companies would draw. But there was no comparison when it came to wielding administrative power and the challenge of overseeing administration.

The big change over the years is that salary differences have widened. And with economic liberalisation taking away a lot of the administrative power IAS officers used to revel in, the lure of the civil service has waned.

The best and the meritorious are no longer queuing up to join the IAS, as the service is being seen as less relevant, less important and even less needed. What was created almost 60 years ago to serve a specific purpose is surely due for an overhaul. The IAS should not be an exception.