Even the armed forces are no longer insulated from the politics of the day. An air marshal, who retired in December 2007, was posted to a key IAF command after the defence ministry, obviously under political pressure, slipped into ‘go slow’ mode on files sent by the then air force chief for approval. The message from South Block was: either post the air marshal in Delhi or face non-cooperation. The officer, who incidentally was thick into controversy surrounding the ‘near revolt’ in the IAF post-fifth pay commission, got his posting in Delhi.

The surface transport and shipping minister, T.R. Baalu of the DMK, changed the chairman of the National Highways Authority of India thrice last year. He tried to run roughshod over the appointment of the shipping secretary this year. The same minister took his time implementing a cabinet directive on the appointment of the chairman of the Shipping Corporation of India in 2004.

One factor cited for the current crisis is the increasing clout of regional political parties. This often creates pressure on officers to follow regionally determined agendas, instead of seeing things from a national perspective.

It is not that only politicians are to be blamed for corrupting or enfeebling the bureaucracy today. Not so long ago a joint secretary in a Central ministry was empowered to take decisions on even critically sensitive issues like India-Pakistan relations or sharing river waters. In case of an inter-ministry dispute, the matter would be referred to the committee of secretaries, headed by the cabinet secretary, for the final word before the matter was approved by the Union cabinet. But with the advent of coalitions even the committee of secretaries cannot take a decision any more and needs guidance from political bosses. There are some 50 Groups of Ministers and more than 30 Empowered Groups of Ministers in existence to sort out mundane issues from the statutory warnings on beedi packets to the more tricky Sethusamudram issue.

... contd.