READINESS of the civil service to meet current challenges
- 2008
- p.1-13.
- Sep
The authority of Parliament or the State Legislature must be and is supreme, but it would be frustrating the aim of democracy to let the influence of political or social groups functioning in the legislature or outside to affect recruitment or promotion in the services. In emancipated India, it was the hope tha;t politicians who were born in revolution and civil disobedience should soon learn to become administrators. But this process has been slow. Instead, at the other end, administrators are perhaps tending to become politicians, which is bad... What is essential at the top is the capacity to judge upon relevant advice and to decide promptly and rightly in executive matters ... To decide in matters executive, quickly and correctly, is a gift of the gods. And this is it that makes a good administrator (Sri C. Rajagopalchari, "The Good Administrator", The First Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture, 1957). - Reproduced.