CAN INDIA RUN BY CS?

BIKASH CHOUDHURY



Can Country of Indian diversity be administered by an erudite Cabinet Secretary? Or, by Proxy? If a poll was taken among experts in the domain the response would be in the negative and it is most likely, they would favor popular mass Leader than a Harvard educated & seasoned bureaucrat. Even, People would prefer a leader of Mr. DeveGawada's ability who too often used to take a nap amid busy meetings and conferences. However, Political Historians do credit former premier for his success in neighborhood Foreign Policy; conceived and executed largely by his foreign minister Mr. I.K.Gujural.Here, Mr. Deve gawada displayed great sagacity in allowing Mr. Gujural to court all the limelight while serving a very important National purpose. In these circumstances a bureaucratic head of State would have been unnerved at the events and could have scuttled the plan owing to complete lack of vision, than anything else; as the incumbent premier letting important valuable National Institution go to dogs like Air India, Indian Raiways, BSNL and many others, those, could have in fact added to the National exchequer and growth.
Interestingly, famous author & philosopher Max Weber writes “Bureaucrat as someone who exercise judgment and skills as duty placed at the service of a higher authority and responsible for impartial execution of a assigned tasks and must sacrifice his personal judgment if it runs counter to his official duties”*. Many informed individuals across political persuasion strongly believe the afro mentioned definition aptly describe the functions and style of administration of incumbent Premier. Jokes apart, Weber has also said" Bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge"** that strangely corroborates with the famous or infamous quotable quote "Intellectual Arrogance" targeted at union home minister by a senior leader of Congress Party who is otherwise very busy with revival of Congress in UP.
Political Scientist, however, strongly believes bureaucracy as the most efficient form of organization, and even indispensable for the modern State. They also take care to add that the bureaucracy could become a threat to individual freedom as over rationalization of human lives trap individuals in "iron cage" just like "Polar night of Icy Darkness”. It is important and necessary to counteract the bureaucracy and the System needs entrepreneurs, politicians and let's add civil society activist of Anna Hazare's eminence.
In our assessment the biggest failing of bureaucratic Country head lies in very poor Leadership with capital ‘L’; that is desirable & essential to administer Indian hetrogenity, demography and also complexity in Governance. In comparison to popular mass Leaders the bureaucrats hail from a very structured background and therefore fail to cope with unstructured domain of Political Leadership & Management. However, bureaucratic leaders have one advantage; they could withstand any upheavals as they are exceptionally good at paper work; which helps them to draw impeccable cover-up that popular mass Leaders need to learn, of course at the expense of Nation, its growth and the well being of its people. Conventionally "Leadership" as commonly understood is to organize people to achieve common goal. The goal was to achieve consistent growth of GDP at 10 % with moderate inflation, sustainable investment in Physical & Social Infrastructure and reforms in those sectors that would attract FDI & drive additional growth with fresh job creation and development of new competencies; which had potential to shape the country as a Global Power as USA President, Barak Obama prominently mentioned in his speech to the joint session of Indian Parliament. It seems as though, the country has to start afresh.
Leadership is all about communication; which help them to win hearts and minds of people working for them that seamlessly drive human endeavor towards chosen goal. Bureaucratic Leadership choose to visit as many foreign countries as possible in their tenure at the expense of visiting Indian States to connect with young people living in the university/college campuses to know their aspiration and vision of their own country. A popular mass Leader would have chosen to inspire the young people to think about country, its challenges, and opportunities; as the new ideas and out of box solution is going to come from the minds of these youngsters. In contrast, the bureaucratic Leadership prefers nuanced & calibrated written communication to initiate action; which falls in the way side in its efficacy, keeping in view the very long span of control & chain of command in Govt. and further method is devoid of human emotion, passion and personal involvement that buries the bureaucratic initiatives at a huge cost to public exchequer.
It is, now evident and clear as crystal; the Cabinet Secretary Model of Bureaucratic Leadership may not be able to take the country forward and would miserably fail to negotiate the challenges of our time and would also remain incapable to Ancash the opportunities. The Country must elect a popular mass Leader, preferably from the younger generation to take the Country to its right full place in the committee of Nations. And, Proxies should ideally be left to the class rooms alone?
*,**: Reference from Wikipidia