If a measure of a political leadership's success is its ability to control the bureaucracy, the BJP-led Government can already be written off. Most recently, it went through the ignominy of being accused of "misleading" the Supreme Court and had to reinstate M.K. Bezbaruah as chief of the Enforcement Directorate because it had not adhered to the rules of the transfer game.Worse, its affidavit before the apex court was patently untrue. Only a few days ago, the Government subverted the Law Commission's recommendations on the composition of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Instead of creating a multi-disciplinary body, the final ordinance only succeeded in making the CVC an IAS sinecure. Add the "typographical errors" in the Action Taken Report on the Jain Commission's findings - and the plethora of amendments to original budget proposals. What India is left with is a ruling coalition extremely adept at being led up the garden path by the civil service.True, there has been the stench of scandal to Bezbaruah's transfer. Even so, the Government's intentions are less in doubt here than its competence. The issue Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has to confront goes far beyond the petty details of individual cases or of minister-secretary wranglings. The essential question relates to governance. No doubt, the bureaucracy lends a certain continuity and, occasionally, expertise to administration.The Indian experience, however, has been that of the bureaucracy converting itself into a self-perpetuating and self-empowering machine. The "IAS lobby" is a tiger which only a decisive political executive can tame. Willy nilly, Vajpayee has to accept that many of his ministers are seen as soft targets for a manipulative civil service. Without this perception being remedied, his regime will only lurch from one public relations disaster to another. After all, a government which can't control its babus can hardly be trusted with the rest of the country.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Sep 21, 1998--- ENDS ---
