Debate Thoughts [2022]

This House believes that powerful civil service positions should be democratized.

FOR the motion:

I believe that the opposition is not really the opposition, they are just called that. In fact, they are the opposition in exile. The civil service are the opposition in residence.

It is a common refrain that the bureaucracy stalls any progress. Bureaucrats have no incentive to do any good for the country other than his conscience. The civil service system is designed such that once one gains admission to it, one has a comfortable career and will see regular promotions and a well-retired life; unless a misdemeanour has been comitted. A bureaucrat wants to avoid errors which can be dangerous for his job and hence is cautious.

Sardar Vallabhai Patel aptly referred the bureaucracy to a ‘steel frame of India’ which formed the backbone of India who ensured good governance. However, this very steel frame is also blamed for its inflexibility. For bringing and implementing new ideas. For dreaming big. For imagining different.

This is why we need outsiders to be able to enter the bureaucracy at the higher levels. These outsiders could be domain experts like the Chief Economic Advisor or a person like Mr. Nandan Nilekani who created the Aadhaar system which is proving so beneficial to Indians. Such ideas can come from people who are not afraid of failing and have an unconstrained approach to solving problems.

I therefore believe that the powerful civil service positions should be democratized.

AGAINST the motion:

The civil service, merely exists to implement legislation that is enacted by the Parliament and they are just here to help you formulate and implement your policies.

Civil servants should be impartial to political ideology they should implement whatever policy the government or a minister deems fit hence they should be great at implementation and they should understand the system well. They should be experts in being aware of the laws. Of the rules. Of the regulations.

Outsiders can mess up the system. They will mostly act individually without the entire civil service system of knowledge backing them which can create problems.

Inter-department coordination can become difficult because outsiders may not know the people in other departments. Given the typical short tenure of such positions when occupied by outsiders, other bureaucrats may not be very cooperative and forthcoming in helping.

A policy to allow outsiders take up higher positions in civil service can also be a dampener for career civil service personnel because they may not know whether they eventually will be able to occupy higher offices or not. This can impact the quality of talent which gets attracted to become civil servants harming the administrative abilities of the government in general.

Hence, I believe powerful civil service positions should not be democratized.