GOV take
GOVT SYSTEM
BUILT ON
SUSPICION AND
NOT TRUST
There is no
protection
against legitimate
mistakes (real or
perceived). Ideally,
unless a bad
decision was taken
with bad motive
or was done
blatantly ignoring
rules, officials
should be given
protection and
encouragement to
take decisions.
Ranjan Singh
An ex-IPS officer turned science educator
When I joined the IPS,
like almost everybody
else, I had this idea that
if you are sincere and try hard, you
can get a lot done.
Surprisingly, while it is not that
hard to get a battalion of men to
clamp down on a law and order
problem in minutes, making the
government machinery move is
another matter.
The first thing to hit you on
joining government is ‘files’. For
everything in government, there is a
file. In case you are wondering what
this creature called ‘file’ looks like,
see the image below.
This creature (file) has a problem:
It has massive inertia, which would
have even befuddled Sir Issac
Newton. It just does not move.
There is an army of human beings
called ‘clerks’ whose life’s mission
is to move them, but evidently they
live in slow motion. What is the
rush? Between tea and lunch breaks,
they give it a gentle nudge. And it
still does not move.
Why?
One answer is that Indians are
lazy. Or human beings are lazy. Or
that the animal kingdom is lazy.
Well, think again. The same
Indian (human being) working
in TCS or Wipro works faster. In
McKinsey, he is even faster. But you
could argue that the types of people
who go to government are lazy, who
are seeking job security and nothing
else.
I would concede that partly,
but even in government there are
people, especially in higher ranks
who want to change that. Are they
able to make an impact? Why not?
There are deep reasons why
government is inefficient and slow.
Here are a few of them:
There are too many layers in
the government. As an example,
the office of Trivandrum Police
Commissioner had 100 clerks
and civilian staff to help run the
22 February 2020 | www.smartgovernance.in