In his address on Civil Services Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightly called upon the bureaucrats to come out of their silos, work as a team with other all sections of society, and bring about positive change in the nation
The 10th Civil Services Day was celebrated with much fanfare at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The celebrations were designed in such a manner that not only does this day become customary in the lives of public service personnel but also generate interesting professional revelations about every civil service professional in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address, suggested to critically analyse this day in terms of the goals achieved in the last 10 years and resolve to move ahead with fresh determination.
In his oratory style, Modi stated that the journey of a civil servant brings in many halts, but rukawat (obstructions) and thakawat (tiredness) are the most prominent of them all. He further said that rukawat may dishearten but is not undesirable; on the other hand, thakawat is not only undesirable but dangerous.
Modi also highlighted the motto of sewa parmo dharmah (service is the greatest religion) and stressed that he wanted an energetic team to govern the country. He advised the civil servants to “reform, perform and transform”. He further said that transformation in governance will neither be visible nor will it be meaningful unless they are augmented with jan bhagidari (public participation). He called upon the civil servants to engage with the people, so that Government schemes and initiatives can be better implemented at the ground level.
He noted that the transformation in governance shall not come merely by issuing circulars, but has to be inculcated in the mindset of senior, middle and junior level officials so that the transformations reflect in the innocent smiles of a child, the faithful eyes of an old man and the vivacious exultance of a young man.
The Prime Minister’s cautionary advice on issuing circulars by various departments of the Government of India is quite relevant. Recently, the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued a circular, advising all ministries to issue necessary guidelines for permitting Government servants to travel in private airlines instead of only Air India on official tours.
However, some of the ministries have not yet decided any policy in this regard. The move of the Union Government, to delegate authority, to relax the condition of travelling by Air India to the respective ministries, is to expedite the process, keeping in mind the jurisdiction of allocation and transaction of the business, the interregnum beyond March 31, in this case may prove to be a bottleneck for Government officials.
Similarly, the news about a circular slashing extended leave of bureaucrats while they are on official tours was widely reported in the print media. Such circulars leave the public servants in conundrum. Guidelines in this regard are issued from time to time by the Department of the Personnel & Training, and any other guideline cannot be in divergence from the one issued by DoPT.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was rather amused with the way several departments functioned in a silos, that results in many departments battling each other before the Supreme Court, even though they work for similar goals. He shared with the gathering at Vigyan Bhawan that there can be no ill motives for such a scenario except perhaps the lack of systemic provisions for team work.
The primary benefit of teamwork is that it allows an organisation to achieve something that an individual working alone cannot. This advantage arises from several factors. When people coordinate their efforts, they can divide their roles and tasks to thoroughly address an issue. For example, in hospital settings, teamwork has been found to increase patient safety more than when individual efforts are made to avoid mishaps.
Modi stressed upon the need of the concept of competitive cooperative federalism in public services in India. The idea is to enable public servants to compete with each other to promote governance initiatives in the spirit of “co-operative, competitive federalism”. He said that exemplary models for being considered for the Prime Minister Award during the Civil Services Day should go up significantly. At present only around 74 cases are shortlisted which is high, but comprises of less than five per cent of around 650 districts in India.
Appreciating the great work done by officials in areas listed as priority by him, Modi also put on record his commendation for the work done by the Committees of Secretaries which had been formed at his initiative to look into key areas of governance.
He pointed out that the officers associated with these committees worked voluntarily after office hours and on holidays. He said that these teams had successfully broken silos, and presented fresh ideas and suggestions.