Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Spineless service

Sir, — The articles by P.K. Doraiswamy (Jan. 7) and V.K. Srinivasan (Jan. 21) on the current state of relationship between the All-India Services and the Chief Ministers, i.e., between the political executive and the permanent civil services, confirm the impression that the IAS and the IPS have not only lost their credibility but outlived their relevance in State administration. Unfortunately, the symptoms of the same malaise are increasingly visible in the Central Government as well. Here too, the Secretary has become largely the executioner of the whims and fancies of his Minister or a communicator of his oral decisions and desires down the line. The business of government itself has become too technical for the generalist and facing pressures from both sides, the Secretary has become a supine and docile courtier to carry out his master's orders or to find a rationale for his brain waves. The time has come to review the very concept of a permanent executive. The system has no room for well-heeled but spineless civil services.

Syed Shahabuddin,
New Delhi

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