National

`Civil servants must be politically neutral'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 3. Evidently in awe of his predecessors who set "such fine traditions of fairness'', the Chairman-in-waiting of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), P.C. Hota, has decided against setting for himself any heights to scale while heading an organisation that recruits among others the policy-makers of the country.

"It will be presumptuous on my part to say I will set new standards. Such high traditions of fairness have been set in the Commission that I will be happy just to uphold them,'' Mr. Hota told The Hindu here today; a couple of days after the Government made public the decision to make him the 18th Chairman of UPSC.

Slated to take charge on June 26, Mr. Hota — who is now a member of the Commission — takes great pride in the fairness of the recruitment process. "We may be wrong in our judgment, but never unfair,'' he said; particularly in reference to the disciplinary cases which are referred to UPSC.

Though his tenure as Chairman will in all likelihood see UPSC introduce some changes in the Civil Services Examinations — arguably the `mother of all examinations' — Mr. Hota gave no indication as to what had been recommended by the Civil Services Review Committee, headed by the former Union Minister, Y. K. Alagh. Neither did he reveal the Commission's mind on the recommendations. All he would say was that the Commission had firmed up its opinion on the recommendations, and a final decision was awaited from the Government.

About the recent demands from different specialised areas of work for a separate service, Mr. Hota was of the view that entertaining one demand could well open a Pandora's box. "What the country needs is good administrators who can keep the system running; come what may.''

Although he preferred to steer clear from issues thrown up by the handling of the Gujarat violence, Mr. Hota said: "All civil servants must be politically neutral, and must uphold the Constitution and the law. We need a stable, strong and secure service to protect the public.''

Conceding that the civil services had lost the charm they once held, the UPSC member rued that it was a chicken-and-egg situation.

While admitting that the level of performance of officers varied according to the style of functioning of the political executive, this former civil servant admitted that the bureaucracy, too, had distanced itself from the field; thereby forfeiting the respectability it once enjoyed.

Mr. Hota echoed Jawaharlal Nehru who said, "administration is meant to achieve something and not exist in some kind of Ivory Tower''.

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