The Hindu Business Line : Civil services

This refers to "Battered punch-bag" (Business Line, December 22). The relationship between the civil servants and the ministers in developing countries such as India is not so well-defined as in the case of the developed countries.

Strictly speaking, the ministers are policy-makers and the civil servants are policy-implementers. But this is not so in the developing countries, where civil servants take major policy decisions, get the approval of the ministers concerned, and implement them.

As long as the ministers are unable to study the problems on their own and take decisions, they cannot control civil servants effectively. They can only blame the civil servants for the failures, if any.

C. Ramesh

Keeramangalam (TN)

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"Battered punch-bag" provides a lucid account of the ills that plague our civil services. In this context, a passage from the book Journeys Through Babudom and Netaland by T. S. R. Subramaniam, himself an illustrious civil servant, is of interest. He quotes the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister (in an earlier tenure), Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, addressing a conclave of IAS officers.

"You all have such excellent minds and education; some of you are scholars; some of you have Nobel Prize minds; you will succeed in any walk of life, wherever you turn your attention to; you have good jobs; you can educate your children well; and you are all respected by society." And then, the clincher, raising his voice: "Why do you come and touch my feet? Why do you come to me for personal favours? When you do, I will do as you desire, and then extract my price from you." Need anything more be said?

G. Radhakrishnan

Thiruvananthapuram

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