When a certain section of people build walls around their society and restrict access to the general public, it develops into a ‘gated community’. The Indian bureaucrats have been one such restricted society that they have lost touch with the ordinary people. The legacy of this elite group goes back to 1774 when Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of India, created special institutions to train the civil servants for his administration in India. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India, recreated the same civil service by just changing the name to Indian Administrative Service. The independent India inherited the ‘steel frame’ of the British Empire without changing its mission from rulers to administrators. Even today after 62 years of independence, these little rulers of India are oblivious of the needs of the governed. The District Magistrates are these little ‘Rajas’ of India.
Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda, better known as Dr Sam Pitroda cracked open this gated community in 1984 when he was invited by Rajiv Gandhi to join the Indian government and revolutionize the telecommunications sector. He established the Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) and the rest is history. India, where it took 10-15 years to get a telephone connection, is today the second largest mobile-phone user in the world. Nandan Nilekani is another high-powered outsider just drafted by Dr Manmohan Singh to radically change the social security system in India. It took India 25 years to enlist another entrepreneur to invade the still powerful gated community of Indian bureaucrats. Just like Sam Pitroda in 1980s, Nandan Nilekani would face tremendous pressure from the ‘little rajas’ of India to leave them alone. My wife and I have some shocking experiences with these IAS, IPS and IFS officers who shamed India at the Syracuse University, New York.
Filed under: Indian Politics Tagged: | 'Rajas' of India, British Empire, Bureaucrats, C-DOT, Center for Development of Telematics, Deputy Prime Minister of India, District Magistrates, Dr. Manmohan Singh, first Home Minister, gated communities, Governor-General of India, Indian Administrative Service, Indian bureaucrats, Indian Government, little 'Rajas', Nandan Nilekani, New York, Rajiv Gandhi, Sam Pitroda, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda, steel frame, Syracuse University, Warren Hastings
If, Nandan Nilekani is another high-powered “outsider ” , who exactly would you call insider?
People like Montek Singh Alluwalia are the illegitimate usurpur to the post of Dy Chairman planning commission etc He is the sharks with hidden agenda who has eye over the funds allocations to the various projects in all the departments of the GO and has discreet connections with PPP model contractors .