Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, called the Indian Civil Service (ICS) the steel frame of their administration in India. Though the British exploited India’s wealth and impoverished the country, they ensured good governance, rated the best in Asia.

The ICS, comprising mostly British officers, was the backbone of the British administration in India. A small trickle of Indians started getting into the ICS in the 19th century. Their numbers gradually increased. In 1947, the majority of ICS officers were still British. But Indians had managed to reach the top positions in the service. They could serve with dignity and could express their views freely. This tradition continued for the first decade and more after Independence.
The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the successor service of the ICS. Indira Gandhi wanted a committed bureaucracy. This led to undermining its objective and impartial functioning. As the years passed, our criminal and corrupt politicians began wreaking havoc with the functioning of the bureaucracy. The recent case of Durga Shakti Nagpal, a young IAS officer in Uttar Pradesh, highlights to what depths our present-day politicians can descend.
Ramesh Chandra Dutt competed into the ICS around 1870. At the turn of the 20th Century he was the commissioner of Dhaka. In those days a commissioner was a very high rank, next only to the governor in a province. As commissioner of Dhaka, he was the highest civilian authority in the whole of present-day Bangladesh. Lord Curzon was then the Viceroy of India. He was an imperialist to the core and, perhaps, the most capable Viceroy who came to India. He had formulated the “famine code” (an early famine scale) and Dutt did not agree with some provisions of the code. He wrote a paper critical of it. Even at the height of imperialism, Indians in the administration could assert their views and were not deterred.
After provincial autonomy was introduced in 1937, a nephew of the first Prime Minister of Bihar, now designated chief minister, was going on a bicycle without the mandatory lamp in his bicycle during the dark. A traffic constable stopped him. This infuriated him and he slapped the constable. He was arrested and detained. The next morning he was released and the law took its course without anyone interfering in the process. Compare this with some recent incidents of flagrant misuse of authority.
A minister’s convoy with his police escort was stopped at a road crossing in Srinagar by a traffic constable to allow traffic proceeding in another direction to continue. This infuriated the minister’s escort who beat up the constable in the presence of the minister. The constable had to be hospitalised. No action was taken against anyone.
In November 2011, some workers of the Trinamul Congress were arrested by the police for breach of law and were taken to the police station. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee stormed the police station and had the workers released, reprimanding the policemen.
Jawaharlal Nehru was a true democrat. He claimed that he was first the servant of the people of India and never showed any arrogance of power. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was also a great administrator. He told bureaucrats that he wanted them to give their views and recommendations fearlessly even when they knew they would be contrary to his views, but once he took a decision, implement it loyally. In 1949, due to his failing health, Sardar Patel used to get his private secretary Vidya Shankar from the ICS to read files submitted to him and obtain his orders which were endorsed on the file. Once, home secretary H.V.R. Iyenger submitted a recommendation to Sardar Patel. Vidya Shankar made the mistake of writing his comments on the file disagreeing with the home secretary. This was contrary to the rules of business of the government. Sardar Patel agreed with his private secretary overruling the recommendation of the home secretary. When the file went back to Iyenger, he met Sardar Patel and offered to resign saying that it was not acceptable to have a private secretary comment on his note. He also explained the rationale behind his recommendation. Sardar Patel had no hesitation in altering his earlier decision. This incident underscores how administration was run at the highest level in those days.
Today, political leaders make bureaucrats their partners in corruption and those who don’t fall in line are punished. No wonder the steel frame has lost its old character. Action taken against Ms Nagpal only highlights this fact. Instead of giving her credit for boldly dealing with the sand mafia, she is being pilloried on the basis of a false allegation of communalising the situation. Three birds are sought to be killed with one stone: An innocent officer is penalised, mafia nexus allowed to thrive and a communal bogey is raised to garner minority votes. One minister boasts that he had the officer suspended in 41 minutes, another asserts that they and not bureaucrats have been elected to rule. Yet another talks of raja and praja.
In a democracy people elect their representatives to serve them and not to rule over them. The young chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, who assumed office with much goodwill across party lines, has become a pathetic figure. He is like a babe in the woods, exposed to wolves comprising dominating uncles, dabang criminal colleagues and an overbearing father, who says that like a father can beat a child, a government can discipline bureaucrats. He forgets that the people are sovereign in a democracy and can throw a government out in an election. Some of these wayward politicians want to throw out all IAS officers from Uttar Pradesh. This is not permitted under our Constitution. The Central government can dismiss a state government with endorsement by a majority in Parliament for breakdown of law and order, as is the case in Uttar Pradesh today.

The writer, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir