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The Other Caste System

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  • Abhinav Kumar

    The largesse of the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) has been announced and I suppose as a loyal civil servant, one is obliged to make polite noises. By and large the reaction among the civil services is that of smug satisfaction, although hard-worked and harassed as we are, we surely deserved a lot more. More objectively speaking, in an era of 9 per cent growth, a mostly soaring Sensex, and record revenue collections, it is hard to deny the case for improving the pay and working conditions of the civil services.

    But this silver lining comes with two important clouds. The first and more widely understood issue relates to the recommendations regarding improving the performance of the services that, going by past experience, are sure to be ignored. The second and less understood issue relates to the relative positions of the various services in the pay fixation sweepstakes. Here, it seems that the 6th CPC will henceforth be regarded as the Manusmriti of the civil services, a scriptural source of divine authority giving sanctity and rationale to the iniquities and injustices of a bureaucratic caste system that is perhaps just as damaging to the well-being of modern India as the original caste system has been.

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    Overcoming misgivings of their colleagues in the Constituent Assembly, Nehru and Patel retained the colonial bureaucracy and fashioned the All India Services. Their hopes have been belied. The IAS and IPS are in no position today to serve as guardians of the public interest, what to speak of their initial role as catalysts for nation building. Over six decades of independence, the IAS has enthusiastically embraced Kipling’s dictum about power without responsibility; the IPS has internalised Tom Stoppard’s observation about responsibility without power.

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    Next1234
    excellentBy: lokesh | 19-Mar-2009 Reply | Forward you deserve a standing ovation and a salute from all
    good article indeedBy: lapa jara | 25-Oct-2008 Reply | Forward a very well drafted and thought provoking article indeed. i definitely agree with you that the caste system prevails in a different manner in this country i.e. economic caste system. further, my friend it reinforces the fact that all govt personnel are equal but some are more equal than others. the more you are closer to the political system, the more favoured and biased you will be. the end of the world has always been due to anarchy and the kings who considered that the power comes without responsibility. day is not far.
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