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, capacity and incorruptibility. Even then many fell by wayside succumbing to temptations. Yet few remained a beacon of integrity and excellence.
But today, a disturbing
shadow looms large. Young or not so young civil servants appear grafter and
manipulators of the system from the
beginning. They probably join civil service with the sole motive and objective
of making quick money, leading a lavish life and wielding lot of power with
zero accountability. In many cases, their contributions to society may be more
in the negative than anything positive.
This is not to deny
existence of few dedicated officers with messianic zeal to serve people and the
nation almost everywhere. But they are turning too far and few. At this pace,
they will soon turn into extinct in not too distant a future.
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, these cases shatter the myth of youth as an antidote to corruption.
Recently one Patel from Gujrat and another young woman from custom service has
been in news after getting caught on corruption charges.
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. There is perennial culture of many young officers being known for taking strong idealist position on issues. More often, they had to be calmed to convey their point of view in more non-confrontational ways but their passion and energy or idealism of youth was appreciated and nurtured.
But these days civil service appears
to be turning 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 assets in Rajasthan, Vinod Kumar dismissed in Odisha’s housing scam.
These are few cases that came to my notice from media. The real extent of
corruption may be too deeper.
CORRUPTION: A MUCH DEEPER AND WIDER MALAISE
My friends in civil service
disclose that the smarter and powerful lot among the corrupt 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 beautiful art. It is foolish and desperate among
them who get caught.
I remember one of the
personally incorruptible and legendary politicians telling us during NDC
lecture that a certain degree of corruption was inevitable for smooth
functioning of systems in India. Problems arise only for those who exceeds certain
threshold levels of corruption. But he alerted absolutely incorruptibles,
particularly targeting me in the context of my previous diplomatic initiatives
against meg arm kick back accused on foreign soil, that entire system gets together, and at least
metaphorically, hack those who are absolutely incorruptible or turn a “crusader”.
I had later explained that I
always respected corruption as undeclared fundamental right of every clever
Indian. I also knew that no professional or leader in India in any sector can
afford the luxury of a “vigilance officer”
like psyche or whistle blower. Else one’s entire life time shall be consumed
without learning any skill and contributing in one’s key domain. But if one turned
too flexible to accommodate such “undeclared fundamental right” of every clever
and well-connected powerful, one would be reduced to a vegetable without spine
and any capacity in any form. My only request to seniors and elders was not to
use my shoulders for their private agenda at cost of public good. And to
juniors I also conveyed that their “fundamental right” must not harm my goal of
institutional and professional excellence and they should be smart enough to
give me enough head space to ignore. But I was not in mainstream civil service
and barring a brief diplomatic tenure, there was never an opportunity or space
for confrontation over such issues. Fortunately, nearly all my seniors, except
a small cartel towards the end, and all juniors
respected my boundaries.
But following my retirement
and greater interface with society, I am coming across a deeper and real
exposure to realities of our institutions. 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 “monument of corruption” to my shock
and surprise. Later, he told that society itself had got so polluted that
systems are so contradictory that no institution can escape the blot. He
maintained that it had become impossible to distinguish the honest and not so
honest in almost every agency.
Regarding the number of
cases that reach CBI or lead to indictment may be too insignificant compared to
the total volume. Besides, bigger non-controversial ones are resolved smartly
avoiding all tell tale signs. There is a huge network of laundering of proceeds
of graft and law enforcement probably shall always remain few decades behind
the same, despite all modern technologies of surveillance and watch.
FLAWED STRUCTURE
What is intriguing or
shocking that some of these young officers caught in graft had done extremely
well in Ethic or integrity paper that has been introduced by 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 acceptable but only way to
survive in society, probably most, if not all recruits, are already
psychologically conditioned to embrace it.
Further, corruption and
entitlement is in built in 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 or work experience to lead these. Such an
arrangement was required by a coloniser to rule a large country like India with
minimal number of loyal incumbents. Hence, initially, all incumbents of Indian
civil services used to white English male and the very examination used to take
place in London. Subsequently, locals were allowed and only few wealthy ones,
almost all of whom owed their wealth to loyalty of the colonising regime, could
afford a visit to London to appear in examination.
But today, even that country
does not have such structures of civil service. None of the developed countries
allow paratroopers and generalists at the top of institutions and that too on
basis of information memorisation. 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.
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 knowledge
of a certain domain as well as wider empathy towards society. What prevents us
from creating a system, where incumbents get correspondingly higher
responsibilities on the basis of demonstrated domain and leadership capacities
and contributions.
Even in the current era, UPSC
is driven by the assumption that memorising information shall create perfect
leaders. There is nothing to evaluate integrity, ethic, aptitude, larger vision
or domain knowledge which form the core of leadership attributes. Most of the
important responsibilities are dependent more upon loyalty to a regime rather
than ability and capacity to professionally contribute. So net result is an
entitlement driven rent collecting class that has to stay loyal to political
masters for sake of better and bigger opportunities for rent collection. Yet it
is beauty of family upbringing and societal ethic that many among them prefer
to stay honest and make significant contribution, despite this system and not
because of it.
But given all round attack
on social values and community cohesion, even this class shall disappear.
Hence, its time to review these parameters.
We are already in an era
where we do not need humans to memorise information. Machines are doing it much
better. We need genuine leaders in every sector who can rise beyond narrow and
parochial consideration to be more loyal
to society than masters and patron. An intelligent and spineless crook
is much more dangerous threat to society than a little less intelligent but idealist,
courageous and domain expert individual.
A SOCIETAL DISORDER THAT HAS TURNED GENETIC?
Corruption is not a moral
and legal challenge. It has turned into a societal and systemic scourge that no
agency or court could resolve. From cradle to grave an average Indian navigates
varying degrees and forms of corruption
that is impossible to avoid if one wishes to survive.
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. As usual, I was explaining importance of integrity in society for a healthy society to a group of people. Most in the audience appeared amused but were indulgently listening.
At that time, I had very little exposure to reality within our
systems. I have never been in a public dealing job in India. In
retrospect I feel they must have must have found my naivete a novelty.
But soon this young man
serving in Delhi Police approached me and politely said that he had had a
couple of drinks and that’s why he wanted to pose few questions to. He posed
following questions: did I know if there existed any good school in Delhi where
an average Indian could get his or her child admitted without making an
underhand payment? Was there any Govt hospital in Delhi where one could get
good treatment without compromising one’s dignity if one did not go there on
any reference from higher ups? Or if one could get any decent public service or tolerable life
anywhere in the country if one did not have sufficient money or sifarish? Did I
want officers to die in poverty and suffer for something that is simply not possible? Because
any confrontation with any bigwig leads to suspension or even termination from service even through criminality and fraud?
He maintained that he always
helped people on his own on all genuine humanitarian issues especially when it did not involve any big entity.
On bigger issues, he technically tried to follow his part of law but went by what his mentors or protectors or seniors ordered. He gave me
a primer of life of a common man which I could appreciate better only after
retirement even though I only had minor support for basic routine lawful services that citizens need.
The best part that I appreciate and I have learned from both this young man and the legendary cabinet Minister referred earlier. This is something my own mentor had also told me few decades back : “the entire system gangs up against the honest and upright. And once out of the system, neither courts nor society and not even the people you have helped shall standby you”.
The corrupts in civil service were mostly smaller fries in the game. But their numbers have increased and they are now fast turning into a national menace, causing serious obstructions to governance.
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 cost,
not the financial one, 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”. Indian laws and systems have been designed in a way that anything could be lawfully established against anyone if police acts smartly. I am not sure if unsmart people have taken over now. And they have destroyed integrity of both media and courts for this goal of establishing anything and everything against anyone they choose.
I have stated in my posts that 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.
Hence, most individuals in this country appear helpless. Corruption appears fused both in our systems and psyche, making it default and integrity as exception.
Yet it is beauty of society that few insane, despite being
aware of pitfalls of staying honest, prefer to do so. They are mocked, jeered
and ridiculed and often contemptuously labelled as “crusaders” or “idealist
fools”.
CORRUPTION NOT A MORAL ISSUE
Transparency International notes India’s CPI score stagnant at 38/100, with 55% blaming bureaucrats. Probably the issue is much deeper.
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 lowe social trust to
sub-optimal growth in both private and public sector, or virtually everything
that negatively impacts life can be attributed to corruption.
Corruption kills excellence
and innovation in every human pursuit or venture. This is what explains, we are largely a society of traders and brokers. Not innovators and genuine leaders.
No one is perfect. We as a
society can least afford corruption.
In a globalised world,
corruption is the vehicle vide which external forces create support base within
any state. An ecosystem of corruption creates a situation where personal
security guards of a President are also suspected to be sold out to facilitate
abduction of even head of the Govt. If there is a high tolerance to corruption,
the network of corruption can infiltrate anything and everything. Ultimately it
shall cripple and kill a society, state and civilisation.
Stakeholders of the nation
have to think whether corruption has been fused in both our systems and psyche?
Where people do not have any option but to stay corrupt? And thus they become
morally and psychologically that they lose the capacity to stand up and speak
on anything? Is this factor that is inducing cowardice in large sections of
society?
I shall continue this post to explain why and how Indocracy offers solution to threats posed by Corruption.
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