Indian civil service paradox - case for good governance

Some of the best and brightest of India’s students join civil services but still they provide the worst form of public service imaginable. Is it the fault of these bright students ? ; or fault lays some where else. There is a theory called broken window theory, it states that if in a neighbourhood, one window is broken and it is not replaced then other window will also be broken till all the windows in neighbourhood has been broken, because psychologically humans think, “no one cares”, so why should I care. This thinking is at the root of poor governance of India. Even if a bright civil service officer wants to bring change, he would be stifled over a period of time and then he also stops bothering and then adopt the “Chalta hai attitude”.

Who can change this attitude?, and thus the destiny of India. India needs a competent and strong prime minister, because overall changes in all department of government can be brought only by one centralised authority; because, piece meal approach of rectifying one department will not solve the problem. Good governance is like a human body where all organs must work optimally, i.e you cannot survive if any of the organs like kidney, lever, heart, lungs, eyes etc fail. Same with governance, good governance can be achieved only if police, judiciary, legislature and media contribute and function properly any one it fails; we will have chaos on our streets.


What small steps government can take, to achieve goal of good governance ( The good part is good governance does not require money it needs only sound management)

1. Why cant government have all India level emergency response centre on lines of 911 in America or 000 in Australia. Benefits are enomorous from such system, it will centralise the data base of criminals. It will bring accountability from police force and will also reduce the chances of corruption while filing for FIR.

2. Why cant Police be divided into two parts, one handles exclusively investigation of crime and other arm of police handles routine police beat like traffic management, security etc.

3. Why does cabinet secretary or foreign secretary or other big government post be always managed by IAS or IFS officers, why can we not have private citizens of eminence be appointed at these positions, because they will bring private sector experience with them, which will enhance overall govt functioning.

These are only few small, non controversial decisions, which government should take. But overall general public need to be more aware and start asking questions because, “if you did not seek”, How will you find good governance.