The first Governor of Jharkhand Prabhat Kumar is not enthused about a number of IAS and IPS officers, both serving and retired, queuing up to join electoral politics in the State.
"You should not attach much importance to bureaucracy being attracted to politics. The reason is that the function of bureaucracy is totally different from the political leadership. In our democracy the function of bureaucracy is two-fold -- first, to implement the policy and second, to help the political executive make policies. On the other hand, the function of political leadership is to translate people's aspirations into reality," he pointed out.
Kumar, also a former Union Cabinet Secretary, was here a few days back to attend a youth convention. "So, the entry of bureaucrats will not have any cleansing effect on politics. Rather it will be the other way round because cleansing has to come from inside. Ironically, no political party is democratic. No political party goes for audit," Kumar told The Pioneer in an exclusive interview.
The former top bureaucrat, however, said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has a slight ray of hope to offer. "The mad AAP has no future of its own, but it has made other political parties think about democracy. I am sure the parties will think twice before fielding candidates with criminal background this time. First, because of AAP impact and second, due to the Supreme Court interpretation of People's Representation Act under which an MlA/MP could be immediately disqualified once convicted for more than two years," Kumar, who is now on the board of IC Centre for Governance, an NGO, said.
"So far the cleansing polity of corruption is concerned, it is a long overhaul. It could be checked by people's movement only," the former Governor said.
Notably, several bureaucrats and police officers, including Mukhtiyar Singh, Bimal Kirti Singh, VD Ram, Manoj Mishra, Arun Oraon, Amitabh Chaudhary, Vinod Kispotta, Neyaz Ahmad and Benjamin lakra have either joined or planning to join the political bandwagon.
Elaborating further, Kumar said in initial years after Independence, there was a mutual understanding between the political leadership and bureaucracy. "There was internal consistency of governance. As democracy deepened there was some looseness in internal consistency which resulted into political aspirations of bureaucrats. There cropped up ambiguity of roles. In 70s politicians started administering things," he pointed out.
"One example of internal consistency in governance was the successful Green Revolution, which could be successful to team work of the then Agriculture Minister C Subramaniam, then Food secretary B Shivaraman and Scientist MS Swaminathan. They worked towards a common purpose. This percolated down to the grassroots level. I as a district magistrate of Farukhabad (UP) could see how MPs and MlAs worked together and could ensure that the whole village adopted new agriculture practices within three years to overcome the food shortage," he recalled.
On the state of affairs in Jharkhand, Kumar said that there is an urgent need to introspect as how we can get mature political leadership. "When I was here I had great hope from the bureaucracy, but they have also been disappointing. There is corruption among both politicians and bureaucrats. I had written the first budget speech myself and still remember the sound health of the State's economy. There was enthusiasm among all to take the State forward. But today the situation is very bad," Kumar said. "But, we have still hope if the State gets an able and honest leader with full majority," he signed off.