Political recruitment process is a very complex issue which has many dimensions. It is not something like the hiring done by business organizations. Politics is about Power, Serving people, Managing the Nation, and wining elections and In order to avoid the career oriented behavior of MPs and MLAs, the Parliament increased the salaries of the legislatures , granted them pension and gave them numerous perks. Today the take home salary of a Legislature is approx Rs 2,00,000/month that includes his Constituency allowance and Office allowance etc.. They are also entitled to the Daily allowance for attending the Loksabha/Assembly sessions. Besides this there are numerous other perks that a Legislature enjoys.
The IAS Officers who manage the administrative machinery of the Govt , earn more than a lac per month excluding the numerous other perks that they enjoy by virtue of holding various administrative positions. They also enjoy life long pension. The same goes for the Govt doctors, Judges and other Executives working with various state as well as Central Govt.
All this was done to ensure that those managing the Govt machinery be it a Politician or an employee should be able to work honestly and diligently and devote his energies and capabilities towards the betterment of the people.
Although, India’s per capita annual income in 2019-20 was ₹1,26,968, according to provisional estimates, however, this average, given India’s large income inequality, is not an indicator of the earnings of average Indians. Sadly, India does not publish income statistics and the consumption estimates, also have not been published since 2011-12.
So, per force we got to refer to other agencies to enquire as to how much an average Indian earns. India is placed 72nd out of 116 countries according to a global ranking of average wages prepared by Picodi.com, even amongst the 16 Asian countries surveyed it ranked 10th. The survey indicates that the average salary of an Indian employee is Rs32,800/month. As regards, UN data almost 27% are residing below poverty line, this implies that 27% population earns less than a dollar per day i.e. Rs 2400/ month.
Despite the poverty and low wages of majority Indians, the Nation has still managed to provide these Politicians and Employees managing the administrative machinery reasonably decent salaries just to ensure that they instead of taking a Career oriented approach they devote themselves to serving the people honestly.
Now the moot point is when almost 80% of the work force of a country is unable to earn more than 32000/ month , Are our Politicians and Executives managing the administrative machinery doing justice to the wages they earn ? Are they performing and delivering to the satisfaction of the people who pay for their salaries? Are they performing for the betterment of the lives of the countrymen?
The recent chaos during corona where the Govt machinery just melted away and the people suffered innumerable miseries ( some media reports estimate that almost 10-15 lac people perished in this second wave ) clearly indicate that the Politicians and the Executives managing the Administrative machinery right from the highest level to the CMOs of the Hospitals are not performing. Majority of them are indifferent, lack vision and foresight, are more concerned for power and money than the well being of the citizens and surprisingly despite the colossal damage they caused to human life and brought sufferings to millions not many officials been sacked.
It would be grossly wrong to just target the Bureaucracy as all the cogs of the wheel had failed to deliver.We can surely not be able to change the Politicians but the Politicians surely can reform the Bureaucracy, Law enforcement agencies, Health Care system and so on. Once the fundamental elements that are managing the machinery are reformed, it is quite likely that rest of the system will function better.
It is therefore mandatory that we identify who are these people who control the nervous system of entire Administrative machinery.
Is it Possible ? If Yes, then we need to enquire, what needs to be done?
TO BE CONTINUED.......