Babudom, which includes the IAS-IPS-IFS-IRS collective, individuals from the criminal justice system, and lower-level bureaucracy, is closely tied to socialism, a sluggish pace of growth, on-going poverty, injustice, and misery.

The babudom persisted in its feudal class awareness and haughty attitudes, making it unsuited to public service; Nehru did little to reform it and make it people-oriented, service-oriented, and development-oriented.
With the Raj giving way to Nehru-licence-permit-quota Indira’s raj, the pre-independence babu culture of living like a rajah, abusing power, exploiting people, becoming wealthy at their expense, and imitating the British methods to look cultured, remained and even got worse. According to MO Mathai, “ICS members were the most haughty and possibly the most uninformed when compared to other services that they thought inferior.”

The ICS served the exploitative colonial overlords in the pre-independence era, but in the post-independence era they moved to serving the dishonest politicians, pocketing a portion of the proceeds.

According to Prafulla Marpakwar’s 15 October 2013 Times of India, Mumbai news article, “2,600 cops serve in residences of IPS officers in state, ““…The question now is whether [the government] will withdraw the
2,600-odd police personnel deployed at the residences of 280 IPS
officers across the state [of Maharashtra] … At least seven to 10
constables are deployed at the residence of an Indian Police Service
officer, a senior IPS officer said. If this number is reduced, the state will
get enough policemen to fill up at least 10 to 15 police stations… [A
conscientious] IPS officer said, ‘I am shocked that so many constables
are deployed. Occasionally I feel we are still in the British Raj…'”

According to the research, the homes of SPs and Commissioners are staffed by 5 to 9 constables, 3 orderlies, 1 cook, 2-3 telephone runners, and 2 drivers, whilst the homes of other IPS officials are manned by 2 to 5 constables, 2-3 orderlies, 2 telephone runners, and 2 drivers. The report continues: “‘Many officers have even more staffers, depending on their influence. In Pune, a high- ranking officer in the prisons department had 15-20 constables at his official residence,’ said a senior IPS officer… What was more shocking, the officer said,
was that the staff remained the same even if the officer were to be
shifted to another city, and even after an officer retired, the police
personnel continued to serve him for a period ranging from three
months to a year.”

Because of this, the IPS babus, like their IAS counterparts, must rule while the public may continue to feel unsafe and crimes against women may present an increasing threat. Which other democratic nation in the world would permit such blatant arrogance, colonial luxuries, feudal lordliness, giving oneself primacy over others, and complete disregard for the common populace! And can a nation as abjectly impoverished as India, where millions go hungry, afford this? Such egregious insult and indifference to the public can only be tolerated in a feudal, dynasty democracy like India, where those in power similarly rule in total scorn and disregard of the populace!

What has the Babudom done to change the state from a heartless exploiter to one that benefits citizens? Especially the IAS at the top, who should be held accountable. Unless it simply refers to self-service or service to their masters, it is unclear why the words “Service” are connected to IAS, IPS, IFS, and IRS. Are they a public service? Or do they receive service? The babus do in fact have very low Integrity Quotients, or IQs. Perhaps the babus have been worse offenders than the politicians. The IAS-IFSIRS-IPS combination is largely responsible for the mess and filth of Indian misgovernance. They are in many respects more powerful than politicians, who change every five years while they remain in office regardless of their performance because of their constitutional sinecure. They sit at the top of the dung heap. Under the British, ICS flourished while nationalists were imprisoned. Not all, but a resounding majority of the top babus have been enjoying themselves since independence by making money, abusing their positions of authority, not doing much to advance the nation, and then blaming the politicians for all the problems and how they are not permitted to work!

After independence, the brown-sahibs took over and continued in their footsteps. Nehru criticised the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in the middle of the 1930s, calling it “neither Indian nor civil nor a service.” He continued by saying that was “vital that ICS and related services fully vanish.”
Unfortunately, these promises vanished after independence and when he came to power, just like other promises.
As if their regular service tenure wasn’t enough to destroy the nation, many retired babus manage a government position in one setting or another and never truly retire.

It is understandable why Indian Express [IE] enlarged IAS to “Indians Always in Service” in a series of articles published in July 2012. The degree of one’s subservience to the ruling class heavily affects one’s likelihood of obtaining a “confirmed gravy train ticket,” as IE put it. In actuality, the IAS and the political class have coopted the babudom. Without the cooperation of the top babus, politicians cannot amass wealth, grant favours, or maintain their rule and that of their dynasty. Likewise, the top babus cannot continue to receive lucrative postings, a share of the wealth, or receive compensation for their wrongdoings without the benevolent intervention of the politicians. The elite babus desire and the politicians encourage their continuation even after retirement because it is a mutually beneficial combination.

Powerful, obedient, generalist babus have long since extended their tentacles to seize not only governorships but also the majority of the crucial positions requiring specialized knowledge, such as the positions of RBI governor, CAG, head of TRAI, CCI, NDMA, CERC, and so forth. This is made possible by the current system of political patronage. It is important to note, however, that almost all top positions require high-level expertise, and the generalist IAS—even if they have completed some coursework, received some training, or accrued some minimal experience just to corner those posts—are glaring misfits. Top-level expertise requires years of devoted work in that particular field, which the IAS can never acquire. Therefore, IAS has nothing useful to give in those areas and has reduced itself to becoming a mere file-pusher.

 

Source: Nehru’s 97 Major Blunders by Rajnikanth Puranik

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