To Indian ex-Bureaucrats – Who Wrote an Open Letter to PM

A score of retired Indian bureaucrats – IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS etc. – have written an open letter to the Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, which letter is widely circulated in the social media. This letter draws a grim picture of India in the context of Covid-29 pandemic and States and Centre’s relations. It points out to certain unfortunate facts in India and recommands certain proposals requesting the Indian PM to act on them. The letter itself makes out as if these ex-bureaucrats and their letter are full of wisdom and their recommandations are the correct way forward for India.

This letter is available in public domain and we are not concerned with its contents here. What we are concerned here is to point out that their assumption of their intellectual superiority in showing a way forward for India is hollow and some of their recommandations like removing the FCRA restrictions on NGOs etc. operating in India are short-sighted.

We are not taking sides – for Modi or against Modi. But we want to point out to these gentlemen that they need to understand a few things more to justify a credit to their ex status.

1. A country is like a ship, which is pioleted by a person, with a speed, with the help of resources available to him and towards a destination. In this simli, ship is a country, ocean is historical Time, destination is happiness of its people, speed is its comparison with other countries’ progress. This piolet may be Modi, who listens to no one and does what he likes or may be Dr Manmohan Singh, who is only directed by somebody else from behind and does nothing unless so directed. Both approaches are wrong.
2. A video by an ex-bureaucrat presently settled in Boston USA has also been uploaded on YouTube where he eulogizes this letter and says that the Indian bureaucracy has been a ‘frame of steel’ that carried the Indian State since 1947, which was being poileted mostly by ‘uneducated ministers’. Let us say this: Hitherto, the Indian bureaucracy may be a ‘frame of steel’ but the piolets of Indian ship since 1947 had no destination in view – let me say, unlike China, USA, Russia, U.K. and many more of developed world. The evidence for this premise is that India is still a third world, undeveloped, wretched, poor and ignorant country even after 73 years – let me say again, unlike China or Japan and many more like them.
3. Dear video maker friend, for any ship, including India, destination is the most important thing, followed in importance by speed of this ship or country etc. Constitution of a country is nothing more than an onboard system of administration only to help reach that destination early and safely. Constitution is not sacrosanct, it can be changed – and it should be changed if it hampers a fast and safe speed to that destination.
4. Indian ship has been only drifting and tossing for the last 73 years aimlessly – it had no destination and therefore there had been destinationless piolets for all these years (I may add, perhaps the destination for all these piolets of India was just to enjoy life with making personal wealth with the help of corruption).
5. Indian ship must have a destination, must have good speed and must sail with safety. India is not Modi but Modi is an Indian and he has been a piolet of Indian ship since 2014. He had chosen the correct destination – rise of India by making a fast progess to catch up with the developed world. There is perfect justification for this destination. Who would not like that India should rise and progess? No one!
6. But Modi has made grave mistakes, while pioleting this ship. He has not done what was urgently required to be done and, to further compound this mistake, he has done something that was not required to be done in India. What was required to be done was this: “Controlling rapid population growth by poviding incentives and disinsentives” – making a law that those – Hindus and Muslims both – who have more than 2 children will have no voting right in any election of the government; making double the rates / price of all consumable items for them; “Putting corrupt and fraudulent capitalists in jail”; “making bank money available to new and poor but gifted enterpreuners to ‘Make in India’ things”; “Becoming a popular mass leader of Indians Hindus and Muslims both, where no money of Ambani etc. is needed by him to win elections” etc. etc. There are many more such things that should have been done by him but were not done. But he has done nothing like that. On the contrary, he has gone to the capitalists side. Moreover, he has done was not needed to be done in India: “Making pro-capitalists Farm Laws”. In all likelihood, he will pay the price for his mistakes.
7. In all this, bureaucrats are nothing but an insignificant entities – only helping hands. Oherwise also, in democracy where people rule themselves through their representatives bureaucrats are nothing but a helping hands – despite their inflated ego of intellectual superiority.
8. Sorry to say, in India how IAS are selected? Cramming the current affairs information coupled with good IQ does not make a person intellectually superior. He must have an indepth knowledge of Indian history and geopolitics of world powers and a vision of future for India – which unfortunately are all absent in most of them who are selected for IAS. This is the quality of this ‘frame of steel’ of Indian bureaucracy.
9. Further to top it all, just search these facts: When an IAS, IFS, IPS etc is selected – most of them – he or she is not rich, most are average or even poor in wealth. When they retire, most of them are exceptionally rich. How come this happens? Just imagine, a poor boy suddenly becoming Managing Director of some govt corporation, where money is flowing and needs just little use of his power to lay his hands on that money. Just find out how many of these bureaucrats have disproprtionate amount of wealth when retire!!!