The Resistant Bureaucracy

When Government of India contemplated to have a Digital Identity Card for its
residents, they sought an I-T man outside the power corridors to head this ambitious
project. Nandan Nilekani’s inquisitive attitude ensured that Aadhar turns into a
disruptive force for governance and a paradigm shift in the working of the socio-
political structures within the asymmetric federal structure of India. Eventually,
Aadhar became an example of using modern technology to leapfrog for future
development and transformation of the country, acknowledged worldwide and even
being emulated by several nations. Similarly, Economic Reforms of 1991,
Resolution of Taper-Tantrum in 2013 were significantly led by the technocrats like
Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Raghuram Rajan. There is one similarity among all
of them, that is they were chosen from outside the bureaucracy with enough in-depth
domain expertise to channelize the efforts of the topsy-turvy government and grant
sense of stability in their regimes.
Governments around the globe have recognized the fact that certain aspects of the
government need specialists who have the credentials to reach to the core of the issue
in order to resolve it. Infact, this inclusion of the competitive specialists is mundane
in the developed world. However, bureaucracy in Indian federal system has no
dearth of generalists who work in a range of areas from heads of social departments
to technical departments within a small window of time. Definitely, they are talented
and have all the credentials to lead considering the multi-dimensionality they
achieve while heading different sectors. But inherently, they are weak to handle
certain sectors where in-depth domain knowledge is required. We can’t expect best
results from an individual heading Defense Acquisition Deals when he straightway
came from heading a non-technical Department. The bureaucrats within the
government tend to see the government from within, this restricts their vision to look
beyond for solutions. Thus, attaining a tunnel-vision to endeavour their objectives.
Moreover, the young administrators are susceptible to buckle under the political
frictions reducing their potential in political administration and judgement
capabilities.
This is where Lateral Entries in Civil Services play a prominent role. They not only
provide you the knowledge of the domain but also enhance the efficacy of the overall
working of the administration. The eminent economists as the small team in
Manmohan Singh’s tenure as Finance Minister paved way to dismantle the walls
of the closed Indian Economy and create a paradigm shift in the Indian economic
system eventually enabling it to be the fastest growing economies. Thus, lateral
entries buffer the talent, nurture the potential and enhance managerial efficiency.
They push the bureaucracy out of their comfort zone and challenge them. They
simply iron out the deficiencies in the administration through their vast subject
knowledge and experience, providing out of box ideas. Thus, enabling an innovative
environment to flourish in otherwise the monotonous snail-paced resistant
bureaucracy.
However, time and again this overwhelming idea of Lateral Entries is shot down by
the powerful bureaucratic corridors within the government. They have been
adamantly turning a blind-eye to this reformative measure. Paradoxically, their
motto of rendering service to the society is shot in the arms when they resist any
inclusion of a specialist. Recently, the appointment of Hilal Bhat as Mission Director
ICPS was a welcome move in this respect but unfortunately felt prey to the
bureaucratic resistance and power politics. His elevation as MD of the Integrated
Child Protection Scheme was syncretic to the revival of the scheme which was
otherwise lying dormant under ICDS since 2013. On ground, there are compelling
reasons which mandated for a specialist to work for the protection of children and
welfare. One, we have the highest percentage 40-45 % mental depressions in the
country (MSF Report); 93% of our children suffer from conflict-related trauma.
Two, considering the provisions of Justice Juvenile Act, 2015 under ICPS the
children are given impunity from being jailed, the Scheme would serve greater
purpose for the Protection of our Children. Aptly, the need for a specialist became
important to take it away from the bureaucracy and make it accessible to the
commoners in the valley.
Consequently, Hilal Bhat has already a distinction of working as a Child-Protection
Consultant in the prestigious UNICEF and in Save the Children. Besides, he was
instrumental in revival of this scheme and ensured that the government and the civil
society together come in to implement the JJ Act in the State. He would have infused
the required energy in the administration to work for the welfare of the children,
nurtured the talent at the District Level creating a pool of young, dynamic individuals
catering to the needs of the children. But unfortunately, the history repeated and
within seventeen days of his appointment he was literally ousted due to the resistance
of the failed, power hungry bureaucracy. The idea was not to demean any of the
KAS/IAS Officers but to push them out of the comfort zone and challenge them. It
was to infuse enthusiasm within the system, reach out to the children outside the
garb of bureaucracy to better their lives for the greater good of the state.
Unfortunately, we would see the age-old slow-paced administration at work which
forwards the lightest of the files with the slowest of the speed, mired with lack of
transparency and accountability dealing with this Scheme. Losing him isn’t his loss,
it’s our collective loss and a ill-fated bureaucratic win.
Had there been resistance in the bureaucracy when Nandan Nilekani was appointed
as the Chairman of UIDAI, we would not have seen a technological miracle at our
behest, ready to dismantle the traditional governance systems.We need innovation
and better managerial efficiency in the administration today, where administrators
reach out to the people with enthusiasm and vigour. Lateral Entries are not a panacea
to the resolution of issues in bureaucracy but they do present an effective tool to
make it more reachable, more specialized and better equipped to handle areas of
specialization. Hence, politics and bureaucratic resistance should falter away.

Assif Yousuf.