The Bureaucrat as a Public Servant

One of the lasting legacies the British left behind for India are the Brown Sahibs - Dr V Kurien, The milkman of India

During my days as the NABARD’s District officer in Chittoor, the job involved working in close proximity with the District Administration, particularly since the Self-Help Groups programme was in it's zenith. I used to therefore travel with the PD DRDA on visits to different places in the district meeting people, reviewing performance, and conducting trainings

On one such visit, I requested the PD DRDA that I was feeling like having a cup of tea, as there was still some time to get to the destination. He gave some or other excuse about hygiene and other factors, but on my insistence, gave in. He stopped the car at a distance and sent the peon who always accompanies the boss on such trips to go, and get two freshly made cups of tea. This opened my eyes to the realities of a bureaucrat trapped in his self-imposed confines. The explanation the PD gave of why he cannot stop at a roadside kiosk & drink tea, is that he is on official duty, and people would be uneasy with his presence. But I think this is also one of the conduct requirements drilled into bureaucrats at the Academy in Mussorie. Maintain your status, don’t become like one of the public.

Contrast that with another reality. The Regional Rural Bank (RRB) has three owners, the Sponsor Bank, the Central Government & the State Government. We, as NABARD officers represent the Government of India. The PD DRDA generally represents the State Government. The irony is that although the RRB implements a major part of the Government schemes, and the PD DRDA should have a greater interest in its operations, he hardly ever attends the Board Meeting of the RRB. The reason is as absurd as it may seem. It's because the Chairman of the RRB chairs the RRB Board Meetings. As per the protocol, an IAS officer cannot attend a meeting unless he is in the chair, or an IAS officer senior to him is in the chair, or a politician of the ruling party, and of consequence is chairing. Ironic! There may be no rule that says this, but this is meticulously observed by the Bureaucracy.

Since some IAS officers are on the Board of NABARD, officers of NABARD get to do protocol duties when they are attending NABARD Board Meetings. At one such meeting, where a batchmate of mine, currently a CGM, was seconded to wait on a senior bureaucrat, he was in for a rude shock. One of the Government officers accompanying the office rushed out of the bureaucrat’s room shouting, ‘Is this the way you treat a Senior Government Officer?’ My colleague, like many of us, not one to be so easily moved by such antics, asked what the matter was. He was told, that the saucer did not match the cup in which the tea was served to the Sahib. This is the typical behaviour that can be seen in this breed.

On the other hand, innumerable were the occasions when at meetings we attend, the babu was served in a crockery different from the one in which the rest of us were served, most of the time disposable cups, to convey the relative status of us as inferior humans in relation to their boss.

And this whole thing about the term Public Servant to describe a bureaucrat is misleading. A senior bureaucrat once clarified to me, that the ‘Public’ in Public Servant does not refer to people at large, but to the ruler. This is how he said it has been defined by the Romans or Greeks (don’t recall which one, but it was one of these two, he said) and continues to be so.

Never believe that the bureaucrats will be the drivers of Development of India. If India has developed, it is inspite of them, not because of them.