Praveen Kumar On Upsc

PRAVEEN KUMAR ON UPSC PRAVEEN KUMAR G B , H AY ES H AL L , H AY ES RO AD , B ANG AL O RE-5 6 0 0 2 5 . ( Ka r n a t a k a , I ND I A) p r y v e e n @ y a h o o .c o m p r y v e e n @ g m a il. c o m Ph o n e : 0 8 0 -4 1 1 2 5 3 0 9 Mo b i l e s : 9 9 0 1 9 7 9 5 6 7 / 9 9 4 5 3 3 6 8 4 9

PRAVEEN KUMAR

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PRAVEEN KUMAR ON UPSC

PRAVEEN KUMAR

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PUBLISHED WORKS OF PRAVEENKUMAR

English writings POLICING FOR THE NEW AGE POLICING THE POLICE

English poems UNKNOWN HORIZONS PORTRAITS OF PASSION

Kannada poems DIVYA BELAKU BHAVANA PRIYA CHAITRA TAPASVINI

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COMMENTS BHAVANA (Poems In Kannada) The work is a bunch of lilting poems in easy, intimate and cosy kannada. They are the reveries of a trained and critical mind of a mature poet with an observing and penetrating eye and sharp sensitivity to the world around.......the canvas for his 62 short pieces of poetry is the whole gamut of human life, its charms and beauty..... And is highly enjoyable..... There is also a bouquet of the ecstatic world of lovers and romance. THE HINDU

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DR. SHIVARAMA KARANTHA in introduction to the book

UNKNOWN HORIZONS (Poems In English) There is an element of delight and surprise throughout. The poet is aware of the wonderful world of nature and of man. So he is able to employ telling images to portray his inner feelings of beauty and love. DR. M. GOPALAKRISHNA ADIGA

POLICING FOR THE NEW AGE (Essays on Police) Mr. Praveen kumar in this treatise has exhaustively dealt with various aspects of policing with reference to the new challenges.....his approach to the various topics is refreshingly sound. He has dealt with each subject in a thorough -and thoughtful manner. CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE S. MOHAN (SUPREME COURT JUDGE) in introduction to the book

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The language is flowery.....there is a need to appreciate his ruthless exposure of the criminalisation of politics and the politicisation of the police... His treatises on dowry deaths and their investigation and on police dogs are characteristically thorough and sound meriting universal attention.....there is no doubt that the author who has already acquired a reputation as a poet is a highly sensitive and cultured person. THE HINDU

POLICING THE POLICE (Essays On Police) A Police officer and a prolific writer, Praveen Kumar, has published another anthology ……….in the form of this book.……… "Policing the police" acquires more relevance today in the context of the criminalisation of not just politics, but of the services as well……….Coming as a sequel to his earlier book Policing for the New Age, the author chooses to describe policemen as "social doctors" and policing as a "surgical operation to systematically remove cancerous growths from the body of society”. THE HINDU

Praveen Kumar is not only an upright police officer but also a poet and a prolific writer.……..Policing the Police—an analytical Study of the philosophy and field dynamics of the policing in practice highlight various problem areas including defective selection and recruitment,unsound training and unhealthy job culture and identifies likely solutions for its redemption. DECCAN HERALD

Praveen Kumar gives an insight into the Indian police set-up and analyses the problems of the department, with interesting illustrations from the field. Mr Kumar's book is a departure from the routine, where he not only analyses the problems, but also suggests solutions.

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THE ASIAN AGE The author expresses concern over sycophants climbing the ladder and reaching the top to hold the reins and guide the destiny of the police. The result — a spiritless culture created by incompetent leaders…….Policing the police involves self-policing. Through the book, the author has made an honest effort to throw some light on the state of affairs of Indian police. THE TIMES OF INDIA

A police officer unravels his profession. INDIA TODAY

Policing with a cause. Policing The Police by Praveen Kumar.…….delves deeply on this core aspect of policing and lays bare the Indian Police setup, sheath by sheath………He interprets police and policing through the prism of a poet’s sensibilities. THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

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TIME TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF CIVIL SERVICE Published in THE HINDU daily dated March 2, 1999 (Authored by PRAVEEN KUMAR, mail: pryveen@ yahoo.com)

India wanted its All India Services of the post-independent era to break away from the British legacy and as a first step altered the names of the services. It is an irony that the process led to and marked a dilution of quality.

The present

Indian

Administrative Services is not even a poor shadow of the old Indian Civil Service; nor does the Indian Foreign Service bears a resemblance to the Indian Political Service; and the present Indian police service lacks the vigour of the good old Indian Police.

The old All India Services was built on the tripod of faultless selection and recruitment, perfect training and exposures to the highest standards of professionalism and character to sustain it throughout. But, new India just failed to give these factors the importance they deserved.

Reasons for this deterioration are many. The first is inherent lack of passion for quality and excellence. The agency incharge of selections, the Union Public Service Commission, is manned by people unequal for the task either in their professionalism, efficiency, passion for brilliance or basic character, How can the process be reversed?

Merciless pruning of the extant services to create a compact and highly responsible core of administrative potentialities to handle a few sensitive key positions in

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the colossus of the administration is needed now. Nothing short or brilliance and highest potentiality to handle the affairs of the country should find a place in the wing that is responsible for constituting the nerve-centre. The administration must be kept beyond the purview of extraneous constraints such as reservation of any kind and even age restrictions by way of multiple point entries for different age groups. The guiding principle here is drawing the best talents from whatever sources without restraints of any kind

for the

best results.

The services should not be treated as an employment

opportunity to the elite, but as the foundation and pillars of the government.

HUMAN RESOURCE The basic source of manpower for these services has to be boys and girls below the age of 16 years who have completed secondary education. The selection must be made part of the final secondary examination. The UPSC must be made responsible for grooming those recruited. The commission must handle their further academic studies at the government’s expense for the next seven years to meet the demand of the services.

Identifying the best talents of the country at higher age groups has to be the goal of the Establishment Cell created within the UPSC on the lines of the Establishment Officer of the Home Department of the British Raj. The cell must get busy scouting for best talents from whatever source for direct absorption to the All India Services at the appropriate levels after initial training.

Outstanding professionals, technocrats and

creative minds of proven calibre can be the candidates.

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Every recruit has to be put in independent charge of a subordinate job for two years under the supervision of a competent senior officer. His performance in this sphere must from a vital ingredient in the annual assessment. The trainee must be judged at every stage at different levels to decide his or her suitability for various jobs.

Five years of regular service after the field training must pave the way for the first promotion. This must function as a natural filtering process as those fit should be promoted in the mainstream while others get elevated to higher ranks in the related subordinate departments to man posts covered under the Central Services.

Mr.B.K.Nehru, in his memoirs “ Nice Guys Finish Second” refers to an incident in 1950s wherein the then Finance Minister T.T.Krishnamachari, asked the chairman of the Central Board of Revenue to show him a particular income-tax file. The latter refused point blank on the ground that the law did not allow it. While he agreed that T.T.K. was his superior, he contended that he himself could see the file as the chief of the Income-Tax Department while TTK could not as he was not directly involved with the department. India needs such spirit.

While the Ministers must lay down objectives and policies, their secretaries must formulate programmes including drafting appropriate laws and rules to channel the government objectives and policies. The onus of implementation of the programmes must be left to the departments concerned.

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India, in the pre-independent years needed brilliant people to handle its administration. British India, with all its brilliant ideas and administrative wisdom, created the All India Services. It recruited brilliant people for the services, imparted the best possible training to them, exposed them to the highest standards of the profession and presented them the best of trust, powers and opportunities to carry out their responsibilities. The Government took care of all their personal needs, provided them with many opportunities for growth and bestowed on them a halo of invincibility.

The training programmes for the services should be relevant to the time and highly advanced in content. Subjects taught have to be updated every year by experts and made challenging even to the brightest among the members of the services unlike present training programmes which are intellectually impoverished, irrelevant to the time and do not help tune attitudes to higher levels. Another need is making the promotional tests mandatory and of a high standard. Overhauling the present mediocre Union Police Service Commission to create an efficient and responsible set-up capable of handling the enormous responsibilities under Article 320 that compels attention to arrest the degeneration set in, in the set-up that led to blunders in identifying talents and managing the services.

CREDIBILITY OF THE UPSC A recent case is from Karnataka where three promising officers from the state cadre were denied selection by the UPSC to an All India Service for no obvious reason for ten years from 1990 while their juniors scored the elevation. The acute frustration

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and demoralisation caused led to the break-up of family life of one of the promising trio and subsequent divorce, repeated violent behaviour by him in public leading to public humiliation and ultimately involvement in a murder case ending in his arrest and conviction.

The answer to unprofessional transgressions by the UPSC lies in transforming it to a highly professional outfit managed by people of unimpeachable character, efficiency responsibility. The objective can be achieved by suitable amendment to Articles 316 and 317 to ensure that only right and sensible people become members and chairman of the organisation and remain in the saddle only till they retain their moral and professional calibre.

This can be made possible by the constitution of a committee comprising the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Chief Commissioner of Central Vigilance Commission and Speaker of Parliament as members and the Vice-President of India as the Chairman to clear the names for appointments as members and chairmen of the UPSC for a fixed tenure and initiate actions for their removal by an appropriate procedure in fit cases. Changes to this effect in Articles 316 and 317 plug the loopholes in the existing provisions that provide too much scope for political interferences in the selection of members and chairman of the UPSC.

All –India Services as the nerve-centre of the administration has to be made responsible to an apex body called All India Services apex board. The board should

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oversee, supervise, study, control and manage every affair pertaining to the Services at its own collective wisdom and discretion with powers of

rewards, punishment and

placements invested with it. Sensitive posts in the governments and public undertakings have to be identified

in advance for the All India Services and once it is done,

placements have to be left to the wisdom and discretion of the apex board.

The

governments concerned and public undertakings as employers must keep the apex body constantly and periodically informed about the performances of each official placed under it and request changes wherever necessary with reasons therefore. The final decision on such requests has to be left to the judgement of the apex board based on its constant research, study, enquiry and assessment.

The best bet for professional resolve and high commitment in such an apex body is having senior most officers of the All-India Service in fine fettle as members of the apex board under the seniormost member as the chairman, appointed strictly on seniority. It is these members with tow-thirds majority who must be empowered to bar a competent senior officer from becoming a member or remove an existing member of chairman from the board by recording sufficient reasons for the act.

Under the new scheme one should be committed to service for life unless one offers to retire on health or personal grounds or forced out by the apex board for valid reasons.

Except in cases of retirement on request before the age of 60 years

for

nonmedical reasons or removal by the apex board as a punishment, every officer should be entitled to all the benefits as in service for life even after retirement. However, once

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confirmed in the service, one should be prohibited from taking up any private or other government jobs while in service or after retirement or even after resignation from the service. These safeguards should be relaxed only by the apex board.

The country should take cognisance of all the legitimate needs of these officers and provide them with the best possible living standards. Instead of salaries, these exceptionally brilliant officers must be allowed to decide and draw emoluments against performances every month on their own assessment which include liberal perks such as free education for children in any kind of educational institution, free

educational

supports, free medial aid of whatever kind, free club membership

and other

entertainments, free foreigh tours, free housing and transportation of whatever kind, help to earn permanent assets, free supplies of daily needs and other movable properties. Each officer must submit to the apex board a periodical report of his performances. The board must study each report to judge the officer. It may warn or take whatever action found necessary.

The Government is doing nothing to arrest the decline of the All India Services on all fronts. India is preoccupied with myriad issues of economic and social developments and perhaps the rapid deterioration of its All India Services does not seem important. But, the Government should realise that a strong civil service is mandatory for the survival of India and act fast.

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THE CRUMBLING STEELFRAME OF INDIA Published as cover story of the 1998 November issue of ALIVE monthly magazine (Authored by PRAVEEN KUMAR, mail: pryveen@ yahoo.com)

The malleability of the Civil Services has been a cause for concern. Once considered the backbone of administration, the steel frame today is a pale shadow of its former self, needing urgent reorganisation. - EDITOR

The All India Service were once called the Steel Frame that held India, a country which consisted of diverse political systems, comprising British Indian and many other big and small princely States, together. If India is one today- though in truncated formthe efficiency of its vintage. All India Services is as much responsible for this as the might of the British Empire.

The credit for India having made impressive progress, both in the domestic and international fields and having survived the uncertain, initial years of democracy, under leaders who had no experience of ruling a country of India’s size and diversity, also goes to the original All India Services- to its traditions and efficiency, that continued to survive for some years even after Independence.

The sterling performances of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel in the unification of India and the brilliant achievements of Jawaharalal Nehru in the international field are as

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much the success stories of their civil servant secretaries and advisers as of the leaders themselves.

The fall in standards of the All India Services, in the values of their officers and in their efficiency and performance, is symbolic of the fall India itself has experienced.

The All India Services experienced a setback after Independence.

This

deterioration was in depth of ideas, quality of performance and honesty of convictions of their officers. With this deterioration, to All India Service are no longer in a class of their own. Its members can no longer claim a distinguished standing in society as the All India Services have been reduced to merely good careers.

The Civil Services had inherited, as a result of their exclusive place in the higher levels of administration, high pay packets and good perquisites, attractive service conditions and an awe-inspiring tradition. But since this was not accompanied by superior performance, the consequence is that the reins of democratic India are now in the hands of people

who are in no way superior in terms of intellectual worth,

administrative skill or human qualities. This is a tragedy for a democracy struggling to progress.

The British created to All India Services to handle the administration of the country. They recruited talented people, imparted the best possible training to them

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and invested them with the trust, powers and opportunities to carry out their responsibilities.

They took

care of all their

personal needs, provided them with many

opportunities for growth and surrounded them with a halo of exclusivity by endowing them with high social status and providing them with generous creature comforts.

Independent India needed brilliant people to handle its complex administrative problems and to implement its developmental schemes. It is tragic that India after independence not only failed to realise the importance of maintaining its Steel Frame and improving upon it, but positively contributed to its collapse in a very short span of time.

Indian leaders wanted the All India Service of independent India to break away from the British model they had originally been based on and they gave expression to this desire by altering the name of the Services. It is ironical that the change in name also initiated a steep fall in the quality of the Civil Services.

At present, the Indian Administrative Services is not even a pale shadow of the old Indian Civil Services. The Indian Foreign Service stands nowhere near the brilliant Indian Political Service and the present Indian Police Service lacks the backbone and professionalism of the good old Indian Police.

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A major cause for the disappearance of excellence from the All India Services of independent India was the secret tendency of the new leaders to look at the All India Services as their rivals in running the country, rather than as the backbone of the State. A subtle fear of the All India Services inherited from British India days accompanied by a sense of awe that the services inspired because of the halo worn by its predecessor, stirred the new leaders who made every effort to cut the Civil Services to size and show them their proper place.

SORRY STATE OF AFFAIRS

This occurred together with a fall in the standards of management of the Civil Services because of the failure to recognise the importance of the Civil Services in administering the nation. This fall succeeded in bringing the All India Services of the post Independence era to its present state.

This brought the Services closer to the people of India in a way, while stripping it of all its brilliance, excellence and efficiency to give India a mediocre All India Services to handle its administration. And the result of this is the present state of the country.

The poor state of the Civil Services attracted people of poor calibre. This led to all kinds of evils including corruption, opportunism and lack of moral strength to stand by one’s values and convictions.

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This situation led to loss of face and subordinated the All India Services to the ambitions of the political leadership. Its has been a long journey from the bold and aweinspiring All India Services that existed at the dawn of Independence to the present meek and servile All India Services without any backbone to stand erect and hold its head high.

The reasons for the fall and the mechanism that brought about the change, are not far to seek. Everything that made the All India Services of the British days a powerful adminicle for the administration was just swept away while its new avatar in independent India was brought into existence.

The glory of the old All India Services was built on the 3 basic strengths of faultless recruitment, perfect training and the maintenance of the highest standards of professionalism and character t sustain it throughout. These strengths held the Steel Frame of India together for nearly a century. But independent India just failed to give these factors the importance they deserved while constituting its version of the All Indian Services.

The primacy British India gave to the process of selection of people of high calibre to the All India Services is perhaps the single major factor that made the Civil Services among the best in the world. Promising people with maturity and intellectual superiority were selected young through a vigorous and efficient filtering process of a

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carefully devised elaborate public civil examination process under the guidance, supervision and control of highly qualified professionals in the field.

Rarely was anything other than exceptional merit considered in the process of selection and human weakness like nepotism, corruption and parochial considerations rarely interfered in the process, as Britain was not prepared to compromise and accept anyone less than the best in the higher levels of administration. These people were, after all, to sit on equal terms with them and help in administering the country! These high standards in the process of selection and recruitment, made the All India Services of British days, a really superior cadre.

REASONS FOR DETERIORATION

The grand structure of British rule was to be mercilessly demolished later by independent India. Unimaginative and messy selection and recruitment procedures, which were poorly conceived and unskilfully executed became the order of the day. Corruption, nepotism, narrow considerations

and

caste and economic reservations

corroded the foundations of the newly-constituted All India Services as time passed.

The reasons for this deterioration in the Civil Services are many. The first is the general lack of passion for quality and excellence in the Indian psyche. The agency in charge of the process of such selections, namely, the Union Public Service Commission, unlike in the British period, is unfortunately increasingly being manned by people

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unequal to the task either in terms of their professionalism, efficiency and passion for brilliance or in their basic character itself.

As the selection of members of the UPSC became politicised, mediocre people came to fill the slots and in the process, selections to the All India Services suffered. Since members owed their memberships or chairmanship to their political leaders, they could not avoid the obligatory quid pro quo. This continues to be the state of affairs today.

The Indian Civil Service, which once produced giants like K.P.S. Menon, now produces in its new avatar of the IAS and Allied Services only pigmies without voice or strength of conviction. In this matter, they are like those in the crippled institution of the union Public Service Commission who select them. The Steel Frame of the IAS has nor become a gilded plastic frame with its steel conscience crumbling into a plastic conscience in the present uncertain political atmosphere. A Steel Frame Civil Service would never have permitted such a degeneration.

The degeneration is manifeast at all ranks in all services, whether it is the administrative service, the foreign service, the police service, the forest service, the central services or the specialised services, whether at the sub-divisional or provincial level or at the highest levels of Central Government. The degeneration is uniform everywhere.

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Whether it be in creative genius, intellectual heights, strength of character, moral values, width of human interests or noble qualities, the Civil Service of the postIndependence era are third rate. It does not have its own voice or any originality. Its members either as Chief Secretaries of State Governments or as Secretaries of various ministries of departments, are at best paper-pushers and mindless approvers of reports incompetently prepared by subordinates down the line.

Imagine people of such calibre presiding over the entire Civil Services. Thus develops a vicious circle that promotes the degeneration of the Civil Services.

Sturdy and sterling All Indian Services are indispensable for the survival of democratic and united India. Whether it is a cadre of generalists as the Indian Administrative Service is, or cadres of specialists in the fields of judiciary, health care, engineering, economics, foreign service, police etc the existence of All Indian Services functions as the basis of governance of India and adds to the emotional bonds binding the country together.

Also, as a pool of the cream of the people, it is supposed to bring distinguished and brilliant people to the job of administration of the country and thereby ensure good government to the country.

THE REMEDY

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Any dilution of the high standards of these services is certain to throw the country to the wolves. British India knew this and perhaps, independent India also knows it. But it does nothing to arrest the dangerous fall in the standards of its All India Services.

India is preoccupied with myriad issues relating to economic and social development and perhaps the rapid deterioration of its All India Services does not appear to be important in comparison with these burning issues. But such a feeling is wrong. All India Services are a precondition for the survival of India. India must realise this fact and act fast.

This brings us to the quintessential question as to how the Civil Services can be brought back to their original standards and glory. How can we get back the original ideas, quality and performances and honesty of convictions that existed earlier?

The first and foremost task in this regard is pruning the Civil Services to a small brains trust of brilliance and commitment which will steer the country in the right direction by giving

competent advice on statecraft and actually

running

the

administration to political leaders.

A TINY SELECT GROUP:

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Merciless pruning of the extant services to create this tiny, efficient and highly responsible core is a priority task. Only brilliance and the highest potential should be the criteria for membership in this nerve-centre.

This brains trust must be kept beyond the purview of extraneous constraints like reservation of any kind and even age restrictions. The guiding principle here is bringing together the best talents without restraints of any kind, for ensuring best results. The services should not be treated as an employment opportunity for the elite, but as the foundation of the Government.

INTELLECTUAL CALIBRE: The training programmes for the services have to be made relevant today. Matter taught has to be updated every year by experts and made changing evento the brightest among the new recruits, unlike present training programmes which are intellectually impoverished, irrelevant to the times and which in no way help ensuring the right attitudes at the higher levels.

Another need is to make the passing of a promotional test, of a very standard, held by the UPSC or a similar Central agency, mandatory for promotion at every level. Only such tough measures will keep the Civil Services fit and productive as is required for the sound health of the administration of the country.

TONING UP THE UPSC:

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Overhauling the present mediocre Union Public Service Commission

to create an

efficient and responsible set-up capable of handling the enormous responsibilities under Article 320 of the Indian Constitution, is essential in order to arrest the degeneration that has set in, in the set-up. This has led to blunders in identifying talent and in managing the Civil Services.

CREDIBILITY OF THE UPSC: In a recent case, 3 promising officers from the State cadre of a southern State of India, were denied selection by the UPSC to an All India Service for no obvious reason for 10 years from 1990, while their juniors were elevated.

The acute frustration and

demoralisation caused by this led to the break-up of the family of one of the promising trio.

Violent behaviour by him repeatedly in public led to very embarrassing public humiliations, and ultimately involvement in a murder case led to his conviction. This is how a reckless and irresponsible UPSC ruined a promising life for no reason at all.

However, another of the trio was an officer of enormous inner strength as well as a poet and an intellectual of the highest calibre. He weathered the frustration of the 9 years to rise to a very high level in individual achievement and public esteem to the shame of the irresponsible UPSC.

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The incident created much resentment in the State against the recklessness of the UPSC and considerably lowered its credibility. Such transgressions are common these days with the present state of affairs in

the

UPSC and the overhauling of the

organisation should be aimed at preventing such irresponsible actions that can have such tragic consequences.

REORGANISATION OF THE UPSC: The way to prevent such unprofessionalism on the part of the UPSC lies in transforming it to a highly efficient outfit managed by people of unimpeachable character and efficiency. This objective can be achieved by suitable amendment to Articles 316 and 317 of the Indian Constitution to ensure that only suitable people

become Members

and Chairman of the organisation and remain in the saddle only as long as they retain their moral and professional calibre.

This can be made possible by constituting a committee comprising the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Chief Commissioner of the

Central Vigilance

Commission and the Speaker of Parliament as members. The Vice-President of India should be the Chairman and clear the names for appointment as Members and as the Chairman of the UPSC for a fixed tenure. These people should also be empowered to initiate actions for their removal by an appropriate procedure in fit cases.

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Appropriate changes to this effect in Articles 316 and 317 of the Indian Constitution are likely to plug the existing loopholes that allow too much political interferences in the process of the selection of Members and Chairman of the UPSC and thereby in its fair functioning.

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