YOUNG BUREAUCRATS GOING BERSERK?
Once upon a time, the
hallowed corridors of India’s civil service were dominated by idealistic young
minds, who aspired and swore to serve the nation with the best of their
dedication, ability and integrity. Even then many fell by wayside, in course of their long service, succumbing
to temptations. Yet few remained eternal beacons of integrity and excellence. This breed still survives, and I can vouch for them. I can also proudly say that amongst my contemporaries, they are my best friends.
But today, a disturbing
shadow looms large. Young and not so young civil servants appear big time grafters, manipulating the system for illicit private gains. Many seem to have joined civil service with the sole objective
of making a quick money to lead a lavish and glamorous life and wielding power without accountability. They are oblivious and unmindful of larger implications of their actions and even their role in the larger development of the nation. In most cases, their contributions to society may be in big negative than anything else.
The officers with messianic zeal to serve the people and the
nation are fast turning into endangered species. At this pace,
they shall soon turn extinct.
Recent scandals involving
fresh-faced IAS officers—barely a few years into their service—signal not
isolated moral lapses but a deep rot in the system. From Odisha’s Dhiman
Chakma, the 2021-batch officer caught red-handed accepting a Rs 10 lakh bribe
in June 2025 with Rs 47 lakh cash seized from his quarters to Pooja Singhal,
the 2000-batch “young gun” reinstated in Jharkhand despite MGNREGA embezzlement
charges, shatter the myth of youth as an antidote to corruption.
Recently one Patel from Gujrat and another young woman Prabha Bhandari from custom service were caught on corruption charges. The real list may be much longer.
ALARMING RISE OF YOUNG "CORRUPTS" IN LIEU OF YOUNG “TURKS” IN INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE
India’s civil services have
more often attracted some of the nation’s brightest young minds. Many young officers were often known for acting with idealist passion and even taking strong position on issues in face of their seniors. More often, they had to be calmed to act with dispassion and convey their position in more non-confrontational ways. But their idealist passion or energy of youth evoked hope for a better future for society.
But in recent years, civil service has turned into a bastion of corruption ensnared youth. For example, Dhiman
Chakma, once hailed as an inspiring Forest Service officer turned IAS, was
caught demanding Rs 20 lakh from a businessman for file clearance in Kalahandi.
Social media erupted with his old motivational videos juxtaposed against
custody photos. A retired DGP was quoted lamenting how early career promise
evaporates into graft.
Similarly, in Madhya
Pradesh, a 2014-batch officer’s leaked chats exposed rampant mafia payoffs,
alleging collectors poison CMs’ ears for transfers while honest ones languish.
Gujarat’s Jaibir Singh (2023 arrest for transfer bribes) and Sanjay Popli (12 kg
gold seized) underscore a pattern: Young officers, under 40, face
disproportionate assets probes amid Rs 10-50 lakh hauls.
These aren’t anomalies. CBI
and vigilance raids from 2024-2025 reveal a surge in corruption in India’s
civil service. Few notable cases reported in media include Meghraj Singh Ratnu
booked for disproportionate assets in Rajasthan to Vinod Kumar dismissed in Odisha’s housing scam.
These are few cases that came to my notice from media. The total list, including those unreported in media and undetected by agencies, may be way too longer.
CORRUPTION: A MUCH DEEPER AND WIDER MALAISE
My friends in civil service
disclose that the smarter and powerful lot among the corrupt in civil service can never get
caught. They know how to game the system. From politicians to judiciary to big
corporates, along with virtually all levels in civil service, have evolved corruption
into a complex science and a brilliant art. It is "fools" and "desperate" among
them who get exposed and caught.
I remember one of the
personally incorruptible legendary politicians telling us during NDC
lecture a decade back that a certain degree of corruption was inevitable for smooth
functioning of systems in India. Problems arise only for those who exceed a known threshold level of graft in every department. But he alerted the absolutely incorruptible,
particularly targeting me in the context of my previous diplomatic initiatives on foreign soil against mega arm kick-back accused, that entire system gets together, at least
metaphorically, to hack the absolutely honest into pieces. Similar words of wisdom and advice I had received from many esteemed elders who had retired long back. I believe the entire situation has further evolved since then.
However, I had explained to them that I
always respected corruption as "undeclared fundamental right of every clever
Indian" as routine corruption in India was neither my priority nor did it come in professional jurisdiction. I also knew that no professional or leader in India in any sector can
afford the luxury of thinking or acting like a “vigilance officer” or whistle blower. I was warned earlier that one can choose to stay honest as long as it did not seriously interfere with the "undeclared fundamental rights" of more powerful in the system. Else one’s entire life-time shall be consumed in these, without learning any professional-technical skills and contributing something substantial.
But if one turned
too flexible to accommodate such “undeclared fundamental right” of every well-connected clever Indian, one would be reduced into a vegetable without spine and bereft of any self-esteem. A society was certain to be subjugated and subverted if a significant number of its educated leaders in different spheres were robbed of, or surrendered, their self-esteem and self-belief.
Hence, my only request to my seniors was not to
use my shoulders for their such private agenda that were at the cost of public and national good. Similarly, I advised my juniors not to exercise their “unwritten fundamental right" in a manner that eroded my goals of
institutional and professional excellence beyond a certain level. I pleaded with them to exercise their "right" in a manner where dents to the professional goals were compensated by energized performance. And the whole thing happened in a way that was outside may gauge, giving me enough head space to look the other way.
But I was not in the mainstream civil service with public dealing. Barring few tenures, there was never an opportunity or space
for any dispute over exercise of such undeclared fundamental right by any of my junior or senior colleagues. Fortunately, nearly all my seniors, except
a small cartel that targeted me towards the end over my principled position, almost all my juniors
respected the boundaries that I had politely outlined.
But following my retirement
and greater interface with society, I am coming across a deeper and real
exposure to realities in society. Almost a year or little earlier, a former
Director of CBI, who can be counted as one of the few genuinely honest Chiefs
that the agency may have had in decades, described the agency premises in a
private discussion as one of the biggest “monuments of corruption” to my shock
and surprise. Later, he told that society itself had got so polluted that
systems cannot escape the stink. He
maintained that it had become impossible to distinguish the honest and not so
honest in almost every agency and individual officers alone cannot be blamed for the same.
Regarding the number of
cases that reach CBI, or lead to indictment over graft, may be too insignificant compared to
the total volume of corruption in Govt or society. Besides, the bigger non-controversial issues are resolved smartly
avoiding any tell-tale signs. There is a huge network for laundering the proceeds
of graft. Law enforcement capacities shall probably always remain few decades behind advancements in domain of organised crime and big graft, despite all modern technologies of surveillance and investigation.
CORRUPTION IN CIVIL SERVICE: FLAWED STRUCTURES
What is intriguing that some of the young officers caught in graft had done extremely
well in Ethic or integrity paper of UPSC for
selection. One does not know whether to laugh or express shock at clerical
psyche of great minds at UPSC or the nation. Given the wider dynamics of
society, where corruption has become not merely an acceptable but the only way to
survive and thrive in society, how can such examinations counter the wider effects of society? In reality, most, but not all, recruits are already
psychologically conditioned to accept or co-exist with corruption even before they join service. Hence, Ethics paper can be gamed by smart dishonesty. Many have gamed even the highest distinctions and awards by fake performance proofs.
Corruption and
entitlement are inbuilt in the existing civil service structures. There may not be any other
country on this planet that allows para-trooping of young recruits at the top
of governance institutions in almost every department. They neither possess
solid professional knowledge nor work experience to lead these institutions or departments when they take over initially.
Such an
arrangement was required by a colonising power in the 19th Century British India, who had to rule a large country with
minimal number of incumbents. They did not trust the entire local population and lower rung local functionaries. It was the need to control a massive governance apparatus of a large country through a small number of loyal incumbents at the top that had necessitated the invention of the current model. This structure was designed to control the entire governance machinery and people through it. Optimising comprehensive output of society and state or empowerment of masses was never priority. Hence, loyalty mattered more than professional and technical competence.
Initially, all incumbents of Indian
civil services, under British India, were white English Male, and the very examination was conducted in London. Subsequently when locals were allowed, only few wealthy among them, who owed their wealth or freedom only to the loyalty towards the colonizer, were allowed to appear in the examination in London.
It is intriguing that why this relic raj has not been sufficiently improvised to address governance need of the largest democracy of the nation. Today, even Britain does not have such structures of civil service for itself. None of the developed countries
allow generalist paratroopers at the top of their specialist institutions and that too on
basis of information memorisation on issues that have no relevance to the jobs that they handle.
It is baffling that why an
independent India has not created a professional civil service where
recruitments are based on a combination of aptitude, commitment and technical knowledge
of a certain domain as well as wider empathy towards society. Intriguingly, there is absolutely no mandatory social or community service programme in entire education system that can foster stronger empathy, integrity or commitment to society or the nation among the youth. Unlike Japan or Singapore or Scandinavian countries, there is absolutely no special programme to imbibe ethics and integrity among school children, which is so crucial for a large and diverse country like India.
How long can we escape our responsibility by blaming the British and the Mughals for our current woes? What prevents us
from creating a better system of governance and education? Where we create an ethical citizenry from whom we select ethical functionaries of state. Or we build an entire societal ecosystem where integrity to flourish and thrive.
Further, it is intriguing that incumbents do not get higher
responsibilities on the basis of demonstrated domain expertise and leadership capacities
and contributions. Rather than simple seniority and loyalty, or obedience, to the political masters determines. Of course, experience does prepare incumbents for certain higher leadership level roles. But it may not be sufficient for optimal output of individuals and institutions. Hence, more often senior civil servants turn complicit in agenda for power grab and power retention through any means or at any cost rather than public or national good.
Situation has been further vitiated in Indian bureaucracy by identity-based reservations and promotions. Here any serious discussion on performance or accountability has potential to turn into acrimonious squabble over issues other than professionalism and excellence.
INDIVIDUAL BRILLIANCES AMIDST SYSTEMIC FLAWS
Even in the current era, UPSC
is driven by the assumption that memorisers of information shall make perfect
leaders in civil service. There is nothing to evaluate integrity, ethic, aptitude, larger vision
or domain knowledge or even leadership attributes in selection or allocation of professional roles. Important responsibilities are dependent more upon loyalty to a regime rather
than ability and capacity to professionally contribute. So net result is emergence of an
entitlement driven rent collecting class that stays loyal to the master at the top. This gets qualitatively better and bigger opportunities for rent collection.
Yet it
is beauty of family upbringing and societal ethic or individual influence of mentors that shaped many civil servants to stay honest and make significant contributions, despite systemic discouragements to excellence and integrity. One wonders if there is an attempt to re-shape or break these indigenous societal values and ethic also by larger opaque forces. This is especially given all round attack
on social values and community cohesion of India through multiple channels and means.
There is a strong case for restructuring the recruitment process of the UPSC as well as our entire education system. We are already in an era
where machines do better memorisation than humans. AI can do better analysis and that too with greater consistency.
Yet human mind can carry out far more innovation from the prism of enhancing the quality of social cohesion as well as quality of competition to foster higher quality of excellence in every human endeavour.
Society needs genuine leaders in every sector who can rise beyond narrow and
parochial considerations to contribute towards optimisation of comprehensive strengths of a society, state and civilisation. Ultimately, we need a mechanism where individuals and societies can mutually empower each other. This is one of the cardinal principles of Indocracy that I have outlined.
Simultaneously, an intelligent and unethical, or psychologically deranged incumbent, is far more serious threat to society than a little less intelligent one. But ideally, an idealist,
courageous domain expert with higher quality of character and integrity shall always make leader in administration and governance.
CORRUPTION: A SOCIETAL DISORDER THAT HAS TURNED GENETIC?
Corruption is not merely a moral or legal issue. It appears have got fused in the neural circuitry of most successful Indians. From cradle to grave an average Indian navigates
varying degrees and forms of corruption
that has become indispensable for sheer survival and prosperity of most Indians. Consequently, it has turned into a genetic, societal and systemic scourge that no agency or court can resolve.
I remember a young police
officer, who had attended one of my lectures, ran into me at a social gathering
at a common friend’s place few years back. Somehow discussions turned in a direction, when I started explaining importance
of individual integrity for social trust to a group of doctors. Most of them were amused but were indulgently
listening to me.
At that time, I had very little realistic exposure to reality within our domestic governance systems. I have never worked in a public dealing job in India. In
retrospect, I feel they must have found my idealistic naivete a novelty.
But soon this young officer serving in Delhi Police approached me and politely said that he had had a
couple of drinks but was not intoxicated. But that had helped him gain confidence to pose few questions to me with candour. He posed these quite sincerely. These included:
a) whether I knew if there existed any good school in Delhi where
an average Indian could get his or her child admitted without making an
underhand payment? Or
b) was there any Govt hospital in Delhi where one could get
good treatment with certainty without compromising one’s dignity if one did not go there on
any reference from higher ups? Or
c) if one could get any decent public service or tolerable life
anywhere in the country if one did not have sufficient money or power and connections?
There were many other questions s well. These were genuine and yet profound. He had said life was only one and only for few years. Why should people be expected to die and lead a deprived and wretched existence in name of integrity which was simply not sustainable within our society and systems.
He finally asked me did I
want younger officers to die in poverty and suffer in humiliation over hypocrisy of society? How long could one survive in civil service by disposing off modest inheritances to lead a reasonable comfortable life befitting one's social position? A time would come when nothing shall be left to even dispose off and life shall turn miserable and frustrating.
He further added that any confrontation with any bigwig over integrity could leads to not merely suspension but even termination from service through blatant criminality and fraud. He also cited examples how he had helped some people on recommendations of elected representatives or even reputed civil society leaders to discover to his horror that those very intermediaries had exacted big financial favours from the beneficiaries in his very name without his knowledge.
He gave me
a primer on institutionalised corruption in all major police and civilian districts of the country as well as much more mega commercial corruption. Many deviations from rules or violation of laws were sources of income where proceeds got smoothly distributed. No one could dare touch these or protest it without a severe personal consequence. I definitely had serious knowledge about big globalised corruption and money laundering but not this aspect.
He further assured me that in all cases of genuine humanitarian issues involving ordinary people, most decent officers do help the victim unconditionally and follow rules/laws to a high extent possible. This is a reality in all better police districts. In the remaining matters, the diktat of higher ups decides the course of events. On issues that are under severe public watch, most officers are careful to act with integrity and laws. Till date I admire worldly wisdom and forthright approach of this officer who was over a decade younger than me. Till date I have no valid answer to questions that he had posed. And yet I believe that we need to find a genuine, sustainable and humane solution rather than discrediting and punishing people. Ultimate objective is not to punish people but to better quality of governance and introduce fairness in the system.
But shortly after that I was shocked to learn from daughter of a deceased ex Defence secretary that she had to pay a little bribe to get the death certificate of the old man who was from the hallowed IAS community. Amount was small but the anguish was big. In his life-time, the departed gentleman had the reputation of absolute incorruptibility and fearlessness. This was the brazen face of all pervasive mass corruption in the government.
Following my own retirement as well as such interactions, I have learned that the entire system gangs up against the genuinely honest and upright. And
once they are out of the system, neither courts nor society and not even the people whom they have helped standby the so-called perceived crusaders. In few rare cases, honest incumbents in judiciary, who do exist, may do justice without any consideration. Otherwise, the honest civil servants of India are condemned to meet a wretched and ignominious end. They suffer in a largely soulless society but in long run the society too suffers.
Sadly, we are living in an era, where honesty has been converted into almost suicidal path to life.
But a deeper analysis suggests that most of our governance and bureaucratic systems have been designed to stay sub-optimal in output. Most of its incumbents have been bribed or silenced with threats to keep the system the way it exists. Hence, Govt functionaries are encouraged to extract a certain threshold level of graft. The volume depends upon their enterprise and equations in each context. This in turn silences them forever from resisting bigger wrongdoings against society. It is few over greedy who can't resist the temptation get caught. Yet within them, there is a microscopic minority that is mentally so strong that despite being aware of all realities, choose to stay personally incorruptible.
But those who are well connected even among the tainted officers, can easily override all setbacks and negative press like Singhals of Jharkhand.
LARGER ECOSYSTEM
Transparency International notes India’s CPI score stagnant at 38/100, with 55% blaming bureaucrats. Probably the issue is much deeper.
Until recently, the corrupts in the higher civil service were too far and few. But their numbers have increased. They are now fast turning into a national menace, causing serious obstructions to governance, industry and enterprise. It is wider changes in society and economy that has driven the multiplication in scale and volume of corruption. Containment of this menace to a manageable level to protect our economic growth, social stability and internal security, shall require comprehensive reforms in multiple institutions. There has not been much of a serious thinking in this direction.
One of the senior most
retired cops had told me last year in presence of a lawyer friend: “integrity
in Indian civil service is a highly expensive luxury that is affordable only
for the crusaders willing to lay down their lives.”
It is important that the entire cost - not the financial alone- of integrity is
brought down to make it affordable for all. This is both within and outside civil service. Law and courts are insufficient for this.
I remember many police
officers boasting that “right and wrong are irrelevant”. They used to assert that "Indian laws and
systems have been designed in a way that anything could be lawfully established
against anyone if an IO of police acts smartly."
I am not sure if unsmart people have taken over now who need to destroyed integrity of both media and courts for this goal of establishing anything against anyone they choose.
I have stated in my posts that many of our courts routinely, willfully and knowingly slaughter justice on grounds other than ignorance or
incompetence. Even the former Chief Justice of India has conceded the same sentiment in a different language. Yet crusaders do exist even in judiciary and they are the only silver lining in an otherwise decaying system.
But ordinary citizens in this
country appear helpless. Corruption appears fused in our systems, psyche, governance procedures and norms. These make corruption a norm and integrity an exception.
Yet it is beauty of society that few insane, despite being
aware of all the pitfalls of staying honest, prefer to do so almost everywhere but more so in civil service and few even in judiciary. They are mocked, jeered
and ridiculed and often contemptuously labelled as “crusaders” or “idealist
fools” and yet they persist, persevere and offer hope to society.
CORRUPTION: A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY
Corruption is not merely a
moral issue. It eats up life blood of a society. From poor infrastructure to
poor health of citizens to bad hospitals to municipal dirt to poor schools to
weak and dysfunctional criminal justice system to low social trust to
sub-optimal growth in both private and public sector, or virtually everything negative in society can be attributed to corruption. It erodes quality of life of an individual and quality of social trust and physical infrastructure and natural environment. In nutshell it weakens the entire society and the nation.
Corruption kills excellence
and innovation in every human endeavour. This is what explains, we are considered largely a society of traders and brokers and not innovators and genuine leaders.
Corruption is an invisible war against the nation that is slowly eating up our relative strength in a globalised and increasingly unsafe world. And yet we may not feel so as a society. Because a large percentage of our elite have been corrupted and are compelled to keep quite on this issue.
This is no fault of ordinary people. It is entirely the fault of innovators, thinkers and big stakeholders of society. If a certain small percentage of people are corrupt in a society, probably they are wrong. But when 90-95% or more percentage of elite are perceived to be corrupt, probably the entire systems are flawed.
No one is perfect in this world. But we as a
society can least afford the scourge of corruption given our security threats and governance constraints. We are located in the most difficult regions of the world with most formidable governance challenges. On less than 4% of land mass, 25% of human race lives in South Asia. We do not have much of natural resources like Africa, Central and West Asia or Latin America or Russia and United State. We lack economic, technological, military and governance prowess of China or developmental levels of Europe.
Additionally, the cancer of xenophobic Islamic radicalism is being relentlessly peddled through a monster named Pakistan. This has already crippled our optimal rise as a nation. Similarly, smarter geopolitical strategies of China have ensured that we can never compete with them or pose any challenge to their political, military and even economic domination of the region.
In a globalised world,
corruption is the vehicle vide which external forces create support base within
any state to cripple their all round prowess. This can be extended to shape even psyche of large majority of population to normalise inefficiency and under development. Corruption provides the primary support base for organised crime, which in turn retards integrity of governance systems.
We have seen, how an ecosystem of corruption created a situation in a state where personal
security guards of a Head of Govt are suspected of facilitating abduction of the entity that they were guarding. If there is a high tolerance to corruption,
the networks of corruption shall flourish and expand to eventually subvert and penetrate even the most scared arms of the state and society. This can cripple and crush capacities of any state to even protect itself.
The response to corruption cannot be imprisonment and jail for each and every accused. No civilised state with developmental aspirations can afford to be converted into police state or the entire country cannot be converted into a prison where our entire elite are incarcerated. Some mega corrupts though need to be sent to jail only to make an example out of them. This rarely happens or shall never be possible in a substantially corrupt state and society. Our approach should focus more on guarding our citizenry from falling prey to corruption. Primary responsibility of a civilized state is to protect citizens and not create grounds to coerce them.
Hence, it is more important that we radically restructure our institutions to optimise and encourage genuine wealth creation through enterprise and industry and minimise parasitism in every sector. We cannot afford a situation where half of our productive population is converted into the accused in corruption and crime and other half is turned into police. This will destroy our entire productive energies as a nation.
We need to create a right culture of integrity and social trust. This is possible only by creating right role models to begin with. Ultimately, we have to reduce the very space and causatives for both need and greed driven corruption. This calls for very high quality of innovations and leadership in Governance. Unfortunately, there seems no hope on horizon.
I shall write another post to explain why and how a wider ecosystem of corruption in politics, corporate sector and society impact corruption in civil service and how my concept of Indocracy - a fusion of eternal ancient values of India and contemporary Western scientific practices- offers solutions in this direction.
PS: Kindly ignore typos.
