"In August 2012, when I took charge as secretary, department of economic affairs, the Indian economy was under stress," wrote former Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram. So, he was not responsible for the mess. Apart from "galloping crude oil prices, huge fiscal deficit, 2G/coal and other alleged scams" there was the "retrospective tax on deals involving the transfer of Indian assets through an offshore transaction by a foreign entity". So, who was responsible for this foul act? "I suspect the move of RS Gujral, who was then revenue secretary and spearheaded this amendment, to the department of expenditure, was a show of displeasure." So, in a fit of anger a bureaucrat harmed the nation. In July, the government "confirmed that a French court has ordered the freezing of certain Indian assets in Paris on a petition by Britain's Cairn Energy, which is seeking to recover $1.72 billion from New Delhi after winning an arbitration against retro tax," Economic Times (ET). This was similar to a Canadian gold mining company Crystallex International Corp taking over assets of Venezuela's state oil company in the US in retaliation for seizing of its assets inside Venezuela, Reuters. Since the harmful act was passed during the United Progressive Alliance government, which was in power from 2004-2014, the new BJP government in 2014 could have revoked it straight away. It didn't, "because several senior bureaucrats from the PM's Office opposed the finance ministry's proposal vehemently". The act has been revoked after 17 companies filed claims in foreign courts against India causing enormous damage to our reputation, BBC. We don't know how much of our tax money has been wasted on lawyers because of the obstinacy of bureaucrats. Now they are after our armed forces by suggesting promotion based on merit which will be decided by bureaucrats in the Ministry of Defence. This would mean "(a) the selectee would consider himself beholden to the politico-bureaucratic establishment, undermining his own credibility within the service; and (b) high-level military decisions may be skewed to please politicians," wrote former Chief of Indian Navy Arun Prakash. Prof JP Singh is from the Dedhgharat village, Tehsil Kandaghat in Himachal Pradesh, India and now lives in the US. Since he is now a foreign citizen he has an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card which allows him to travel to India without visa, mea.gov.in. "My OCI application was returned once because they could not find a record of it on their computers. It magically reappeared when I chose to pay by credit card rather than money order," he wrote. Both options are mentioned on the website. However, when it comes to the reform of the civil service, retired civil servants KM Chandrashekhar & K Jayakumar are vehemently opposed to a tribunal chaired by former CEO of Infosys SD Shibulal (wikipedia). They "strongly believe that public administration and corporate management are like chalk and cheese". Managers in the private sector just concentrate on making money, they wrote, but "Civil servants are essentially political administrators, and by training, exposure and experience, every civil servant instinctively understands the grassroots reality, the procedural ecosystem and political sensitivities of every decision." Therein lies the problem. Civil servants serve politicians and they are the ones who create "the procedural ecosystem" which is the bane of our lives. "The performance of state-run institutions throughout the country is, by and large, blighted by the overwhelming instinct to build patronage networks," wrote Prof Amartya Lahiri. Take healthcare. Education is poor. "As late as 2020, there were five hospital beds per 10,000 Indians, placing us at a rollicking 155 out of 167 countries for whom the measure was available." "It is time for the Indian voter to demand the Indian state and its babus retreat from their economic lives." Politicians are bought and sold, which is described as "aya ram, gaya ram". Civil servants are permanent until they retire. They devise all that is wrong. If they destroy our armed forces there will be no India. No civil service.
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