Are Dismissals Of Bureaucrats Signalling Reforms In Civil Services?

The recent dismissals of IAS and IPS officers for “poor performance” in “public interest” are perhaps the first signs of preparing grounds for reforms in the civil services by the Narendra Modi-led government.

Such a conclusion can be drawn since it bears the Modi stamp – the launch of big ideas through seemingly simple actions. With this move, Rule 16 (3) of the All India Services (AIS) Rules, which demand periodical in-service review, has been enforced in a long time. While the quality in top 30 per cent of AIS is still impeccable, the lower level of batches has seen some decline. What caused this shift in a practice where only carefully filtered, above-average AIS officers were generally brought to for Central deputation from the states?

The decay started setting in when Manmohan Singh Government facilitated picking and choosing of favourites by ministers, presumably to meet their own requirements and ends – political selection at the Centre till then had been disapproved of.

Since the Appleby/Santhanam administrative reforms reports, at least 300 reform reports are available to act on, but implementation of the recommendations has been nil. The Indian civil services, with its high potential, will, perhaps take cue from the Modi government’s actions, and act.