New Delhi: No less than 82 former civil servants on Thursday wrote to President Droupadi Murmu elevating concern over “systematic makes an attempt” being made to alter the character of civil companies by Modi-led BJP authorities.
The previous bureaucrats in an open letter appealed to her to convey their considerations to the Union authorities and warning them that the try to alter the character of the civil companies is fraught with excessive hazard and can “spell the dying of the constitutional authorities in India”.
Within the letter, they mentioned {that a} systematic try is being made to alter the character of the civil companies, significantly the IAS and the IPS, which, in our constitutional scheme, have been uniquely supposed to be a protecting ring across the Structure, unaffected by political modifications, having an all-India perspective fairly than a regional, parochial one and being safe sufficient to take care of an unbiased, nonpartisan outlook, with out concern or favour.
“It’s on this context that we search to method you on a matter which, of late, is inflicting a lot concern to us and which we’re obligation sure to carry to your discover,” it mentioned.
Service guidelines are sought to be amended to compel central deputations with out the consent of both the officers involved or their state governments, successfully undermining the authority and management of chief ministers over their officers, the letter mentioned.
“This has disturbed the federal steadiness and left civil servants torn between conflicting loyalties, thereby weakening their capability to be neutral,” it learn.
The Division of Personnel and Coaching (DoPT) had in December 2021 proposed modifications to the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Guidelines, 1954, that may take away the facility of states to override the Centre’s request for searching for the officers on central deputation, and had sought feedback from the states and Union Territories on it.
The prevailing guidelines enable mutual session over the central deputation of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers.
No last determination has been taken but within the matter.
Up to now, governments have permitted lateral recruitment at senior ranges and plenty of such officers have distinguished themselves, the letter mentioned.
Recently, nevertheless, there was opacity within the recruitment course of at mid-levels and considerations that candidates are being chosen primarily based on their ideological predilections, it mentioned.
The results of this for the way forward for an unbiased civil service requires no remark, the letter mentioned.
The previous bureaucrats mentioned measures are being taken that threaten the distinctive federal design of the IAS and the IPS, which underlies Sardar Patel’s imaginative and prescient of a everlasting civil service that will each bind the nation collectively and allow it to take care of a steadiness between the pursuits of the Union and the states.
“There are noticeable makes an attempt to stress officers to indicate unique loyalty to the Union fairly than to the guardian state cadre to which they’re allotted,” the letter mentioned.
On events, arbitrary departmental actions have been taken towards those that refuse to take action, it alleged.
Former international secretary Sujatha Singh, ex-UPSC member Parveen Talha, former IPS officer Maxwell Pereira and ex- social justice empowerment secretary Anita Agnihotri are among the many 82 signatories to the letter.
“The actions and phrases of some very senior functionaries of the central authorities will increase our concern on the way forward for the civil service and the ensuing hazard to democracy in India,” the letter mentioned.
“On this context, we wish to point out that the Nationwide Safety Advisor (NSA), whereas addressing IPS officers at their passing out operate in 2021, had emphasised that they need to deal with civil society because the ‘fourth era of warfare, that may be subverted, suborned, divided and manipulated to harm the pursuits of the nation’,” it mentioned.
Such sentiments are “antithetical to any democratic dispensation” and purpose at putting civil society able of battle with the state, the letter claimed.
“At a time when politics is leaning dangerously in direction of a centralised, authoritarian, nationwide safety state with a management seemingly amenable to abandoning, with out demur, the elemental rules on which our Structure relies, it has turn into vital for residents to make sure that establishments and methods just like the civil companies which may test this scary erosion of constitutional values within the method envisaged by the nice Sardar are protected and strengthened,” the letter mentioned.
By advantage of their allegiance to the Structure and never the federal government of the day, the all-India companies, significantly the IAS and IPS, have a vital function to play, it mentioned.
“Because the constitutional head of the republic, we enchantment to you to convey our considerations to the Union authorities and warning them that this try to alter the character of the civil companies is fraught with excessive hazard and, as Sardar Patel had warned a few years in the past, will spell the dying of constitutional authorities in India,” it added. PTI AKV CK
httpspercent3Apercent2Fpercent2Fnews.abplive.compercent2Fnewspercent2Findiapercent2Fmodi-govt-making-systematic-attempt-to-change-character-of-civil-services-say-former-bureaucrats-1604820
