If you have read this column more than twice, you know that I have deep contempt for Indian bureaucrats. I blame them for everything that has gone wrong with governance in India. I believe that the day our civil servants understand the importance of cutting red tape and speeding up procedures India will become a different country. To give you just one example. The thousands and thousands of crore rupees that we waste on delayed infrastructure projects could finance all the extra schools and hospitals we need. And, if infrastructure got built at modern speed, we would not have roads, railway stations and airports that make us look like a sad little failed country. Every delay costs taxpayers crores of rupees and nearly every delay can be blamed on the bureaucracy.

Having said this it might surprise you to know that my problem with the pay rise recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission for our 4.5 million central government employees is that it does not go far enough. It is ludicrous that a senior secretary in the Government of India earns less than Rs 60,000 a month today and now hopes to earn Rs 80,000. You understand how ludicrous, if you keep in mind that if said senior secretary tried to get a job in the private sector he could be bringing home a pay packet of Rs 20 lakh a month if not more. The disparity is unacceptable. We should be paying not just our senior officials more but army officers much, much more. Army officers earn so little that nobody wants to join the army any more except when other job opportunities fail. The army chief admits without hesitation that the army is short of more than 11,000 officers. So the Sixth Pay Commission is already obsolete and we might need a seventh soon.

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