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| Does the ACC know that Yes Minister is getting so sinister? | | | ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, MAR 18: The easiest route for bureaucrats to climb up the ladder of power and position has, indeed, been for years going through the office of the Minister whether at the Centre or in the States. The Yes Minister syndrome is not confined to that of Ministers’ offices alone but also cuts across the office of Prime Minister at the Centre and Chief Ministers in States.
Yet, Union Government’s Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has preferred to make an exemption for the babus serving in the PMO vis-à-vis its decision taken earlier this month to put a ceiling on the time-period for officials serving on the personal staff of their political bosses.
The ACC has decided that no officer would exceed a total of five years in his entire service to be under Minister as personal secretary or officer on special duty and in case of other personal staff of Minister this limit for bureaucrats is going to be 10 years. Yet the Prime Minister’s Office has been exempted from this new rule.
Even if it is accepted that only officers with very high degree of integrity and efficiency generally make up to the PMO, what has been ignored while making such an exemption is the fact that the ACC’s decision is going to find a reflection in the States too since in such matters Centre always sets a role model.
But in case of States Chief Ministers can easily exempt officers on their staff from the ceiling, citing the example of the PMO where more favoured officers could merrily last longer say in post like Principal Secretary to CM.
Moreover, the main intention behind the ACC move is to keep merit safe, separate and unscathed from patronage or lack of it. But these noble ideas may well get scuttled even if the ceiling is to be applied to the CM’s office because the political boss of the State could also promote officers on his staff to higher positions without inviting any intervention from the Centre. There are umpteen precedents for this. Thus, ACC decision has been taken without keeping in mind how this is going to be perceived in States where favoritism and out of turn postings with promotion have been more common.
The border State of Jammu and Kashmir is not without such instances. In Srinagar politicisation of bureaucracy seeping through personal loyalties of bureaucrats to elected leaders is hardly a secret. Seasoned bureaucrats often complain that their juniors on CM’s or on select Ministers’ staff call the shots.
They often succeed in forcing out their senior and often upright counterparts to insignificant postings and other kinds of punishment by using political bosses. So the need of the hour is to frame rules for bureaucracy in the States too and to oversee how they are implemented so that chances of seniority, merit and integrity getting jeopardised could be minimised.
This is more so since the confidence of the babudom stands badly shaken with all eyes now set on the early next year’s changeover for the post of Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir when the incumbent of the day SS Kapoor reaches the age of superannuation.
Concerns in regard of his successor whose name is going to be out in about in 10 months from now are already getting heightened since one of the senior most officers from the State Pervez Dewan has proceeded on a study leave and others are hardly sure of merit to be followed in the appointment of the next Chief Secretary. The reason for this being that the political leadership of the State is seen under the formidable influence of a select group of officers as of now.
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