A political system I dreamt of…

Past few days with the entire political drama unfolding caught everyone’s interest. Almost like Bollywood drama being played in front of our eyes. Private jets ferrying the Ministers from one state to another.. the complaints on both sides etc etc… The whole day I heard giving views on some saying its good, some saying its bad and some just listening to the whole discussion but saying it doesn’t matter.. they will all be friends in the end.

Something didn’t sit well at the back of my thoughts, my gut felt uneasy. We have people not getting enough to eat, footpath that don’t have space to walk, while ministers travel in private jets. They get special privilege on roads and everywhere else. Ministers – Public servants, people’s representatives, choice of the masses. But today’s ministers remind me of the jagirdars / Zamindars of yesterday. If you see an old Bollywood movie – you will see how jagirdars were loaded with power. People would not dare mess with them, and everyone was scared to oppose them. And if you did, you could be put behind bars. Which made me think, is this how our forefathers envisioned democracy. What if there was a better way.. so I went on dreaming for an alternate system of Public governance. Here goes nothing…

New Political system – Innocent dream version.

1.??????The word minister will be abolished. They will from now be referred to as Public Service officers (PSO)

2.??????There will be no state or center. Just PSOs (will discuss the selection of PSOs separately)

3.??????They chief minister and cabinet ministers will be called – Senior PSO and Department PSO

4.??????Public service officers will get no housing, no cars, no security – BUT they will be paid the best salary as per the average salary of senior management in Corporates.

a.??????The rationale for this is – once a member gets elected – he moves away from hardships of public life. Doesn’t understand how high rents are, driving a car can be expensive, also no footpaths to walk on, public transport system is difficult etc. But once you are still in system with no expectation of special treat or not getting VVIP treatment then your head will automatically work on solving the problems for the long term

b.?????Imagine being a PSO and having to search for rental housing. The challenges they could face, which will allow them to include them in framing public policy. From standing in queue for agreement registration, paying the agents money to help because nobody knows what the procedure is.. etc etc

c.??????Having to buy a car to self drive or keep a driver – will allow to understand the pinch of paying for petrol, quality of the road, salary of driver, traffic on roads, walking on footpath etc. – And as a PSO you will be aligned in your thoughts and ur incharge of framing a policy.

d.?????Same for food – unless you buy your own food from the bazaar how will you think on the conditions and hardships of bhajiwalas and quality of food you get. Hello digitization of mandis!

e.?????Security – Security is given to people with “Power”, in this system – the service officers are not above the public in rank hence without power to influence anything by themselves alone. They all frame policies together as part of their job which gets discussed with the higher rank PSOs based on experience, hence no need to safeguard anyone.

f.???????They all pay their own bills – mobile, electricity, internet, water. Just like anyone else. Not to say the ones today don’t, but no perks are being offered in this new system is what I meant to say. I am only discussing how it should look in the new system.

Now coming to selection of PSOs:

1.??????No education qualification required, no age bar, no sex preference

2.??????Selection process will select people to do the lowest level of work. Salary will be in-line with industry for entry level opportunities – like interns

3.??????Govt department will be divided into – Vision, planning and execution

4.??????This will be a 5 year rotation program across all departments of the govt. They will have lectures, training programs, execution workshops. They will learn on each for a year. Finally at end of first 3 years – they would have gained knowledge on vision setting of the area they live in, then the state and the country as a whole. Learn on how to plan to execute it, the challenges one can face, and finally executing it themselves. They will start first year in execution, second year in planning and finally in Vision setting.

5.??????Along with learning these 3 components – they will also be trained on developing their emotional quotient, basic math, accounting and 3 other subjects of their interests (electives)

6.??????In the 4th year, they will be transferred to a completely different location to be a part of those teams and will be judged on their integration skills, cross functional skills

7.??????And in 5th year, they will have free time for 9 months. This year they will do anything they want to do for 9 months. But in last 3 months they will be tested / questioned on everything – from physical fitness, EQ, to vision, planning and execution. Idea is to see how much they can retain after disconnecting. There will also be a choice to return to public life with a Govt degree in public management etc, while the ones that stay on – go to stage 2.

Stage 2 is set for another 5 years

1.??????In this phase – you work as a relationship officer – RO-PSO. You will be part of various PSO teams that works with IAS and IPS officers. You will spend time in working with Schools, colleges, corporates, fruits and vegetable associations, farmers association, FICCI associations etc etc

2.??????You will also be the coordinating officers on helping to get approvals from govt agencies. You will be one of the 3 RO-PSOs appointed on each. this role will keep getting evolved as our processes and systems improve.

3.??????There will be an app with each of the officers of these public agencies who will at every quarter give ratings to you based on how you behaved, represented these associations, communicated and executed. At the end of 5 years there will be a ranking list and this will be displayed to all public to see along with your previous 5yr rank / track record

4.??????At the end of 5 years you will write a paper on Gaps you see in the system and ways to fill and implement them. A repository of all these papers will be saved in one common digital folder of that zilla / district.

Now you have spent 10 years in the system. You have studied and executed and also ranked basis your work. There will be a public file on all such candidates for any Indian citizen to see and the research papers they have written on public policy.

Stage 3:

1.??????You will be placed in bands of ranking – I, II & III

2.??????Based on bands of ranking – people from all 3 bands will be allocated districts to work on and defined work to be executed

3.??????Your work will be reviewed 360 degree, by your colleagues and also by the people of that district. Each district person will vote on EACH project – that was visioned, planned and executed by you.

4.??????These combined vote of colleagues and public vote will create a score that will be recorded for lifetime.

5.??????People with higher scores will get opportunity to go up the ranks and the one with the most rank will be the Prime Minister. Every 5 yrs, this person will choose cabinet – PSOs purely based on merit of the points accumulated of these fellow officers and their background of papers written

6.??????If the Chief PSOs work is received well, at max he can remain chief one more term and has to compulsorily give way to the next best officer.

7.??????The salary for the Chief PSOs and Cabinet PSOs will be different from others, and will be significantly higher. They will get one car per family member, security and house to stay. They will have secretaries and all other perks that help free their time. This council of PSOs cannot be more than 50 at any time.

8.??????All Cabinet PSO meetings except for Defence will be open to public. They will be reviewed half yearly and feedback from Chief PSOs will be publicly available only to Indian citizens by birth but never to people to migrated and received citizenship until the next generation

9.??????Chief PSOs cannot take office if they are above 65 Year of age even if they have high points. They will get only 1 term of post of Mentor PSO.

10.??All officers will need to be within the fit BMI limit and have to pass a fitness test once a year

All professionals wanting to be part of the Govt too can join the public services, but have to compulsorily join a fast track version of Phase 1 which will take 2.5 yrs instead of 5 years. All officers at Phase 2 & 3 levels will be paid best in class salary except the initial phase where the salary will be at median level.

Salary for all Govt employees (not PSOs), will be best in class. The defence forces too will work on similar model for having senior officers compulsorily retire at 65 and not remain in decision making position for more than 5 years. Police officers too will have the same selection criteria.

Any govt employee caught taking bribe will be given death sentence. Besides heinous crimes, only bribe will attract capital punishment.

There. Done.

PS: I am not an expert on this topic. I don’t claim to be either. This is my dream. Yours could be different! It’s okay to have difference of opinion.