One Shourie Isn't Enough

But let that be. He has now written a book that excoriates the babudom that stifles India. In chapter after chapter, he lists the absurdities, delays and prevarications of civil servants, ministers and institutions which hold up decisions for years. He clinically dissects the Planning Commission in the chapter aptly titled ‘Parking Lot’ as a body incapable of analysis or policymaking. Successive schemes for reform over decades have come to nothing since the whole purpose of the Planning Commission is as a dumping ground for people who are unwelcome as ministers or retired civil servants who refuse to go away.

He does the same with environmental regulations, with privatisation plans for ITDC hotels and other disasters. There is an account at the beginning of the book about whether civil servants can make marginal remarks on files in red and green ink. The whole process of discussing such a trivial issue is laid out as the file crawls from department to department. It is funny enough to bring tears to your eyes and after a while these tears are not of mirth but of sorrow and anger.

After some time, though, I found that I was immune to the details Shourie loads on in the book. I wanted to scream ‘Enough! I believe you. What can we do about it?’ Here, however, Shourie reveals a moderate, even responsible, side to his nature. I would have been happier if he had been more destructive. Thus, he would not abolish the Planning Commission as I have been urging for some years now but he wants to reform it. But as he lists the tasks he wants the commission to do, the list gets longer and longer. It is almost as if he thinks that given time and authority he could single-handedly change the bureaucracy.

For a very smart man, Shourie is too enamoured with detail. So enamoured that he does not use his analytical powers to ask why the bureaucracy is as bad and wasteful as it is. The answer, as it emerges between the lines, is that the whole system is designed to avoid responsibility for making the final decision. This is perhaps understandable in a system where once you have entered no one can dismiss you and salaries go up regularly. If civil servants decide something, they may fall foul of politicians. But even politicians are shy of taking responsibility for decisions, especially if the World Bank or imf is involved at the other end. Boldness does not pay for a politician either. The whole system is thus paralysed. But a large part of the political classes is addicted to what is called "State action" by the Left and the Progressives. After all, the State is a shield against the market. But what a State! Corrupt, lethargic and incapable of action.

The evidence is clear here that the wastage of money by the file-churning and time-consuming tactics of the bureaucracy is several times the ‘drain’ to foreign rulers that Dadabhai Naoroji complained about in the 19th century. The wastage here is a multiple of that, and adds up to the hefty deficit that India ‘enjoys’—about 10 per cent at Centre and state levels put together.

Manmohan Singh has vowed to reform the administration. He would do well to read this book if he does not already know how bad it is. But he will still need some drastic remedies. Arun Shourie is a gadfly but he does not sting as much as I would like him to. That said, we need more like him, but maybe not so nice.