Deglamorize the services!

The services need to be de-glamorized. After all the nation does not want its servants to join its services for glamour but to serve, yet the reality has remained otherwise since the day britishers walked out leaving us in the lurch.

The white man was immediately replaced by the brown, the Indian Civil Service by the Indian Administrative Service with the difference being that the brown guy surpassed the white by miles in his perception of and also handling of those he perceived he was the ruler of. What he failed to emulate was the sense of fairness and justice that the white skin possessed despite being the virtual rulers of the land. The rulers can indeed be pardoned for excesses, after all they were never one of us, but not the brown sahibs, who were till they cleared the exams, one of the impoverished humanity that this nation is composed of.

Cutting across services, one witnesses an almost total absence of the will or the desire to serve. It is indeed the penchant for self gratification, throwing their weight around and being regarded a few notches above the masses, albeit in a different league that fuel the desire to enter the elite group of those in the services. It is sad that merely clearing one examination confers the license to rule and exploit the nation for petty personal gains to all those who till they were on the other side of the fence, had like a commoner sufficient grouses against the establishment.

Very rarely does one come across a youngster who has made it and still has the fire and passion to really serve the nation and its masses. Most of the youngsters aspire for the services allured by the glamour associated, in the form of bungalows, white ambassador, retinue of servants, foreign jaunts, the servile attitude of those around and of-course immense opportunities of putting the hand in the till. It is indeed sad and the misfortune of the nation that these are what attract the youngsters into the inner folds of the government almost as flies are attracted to sweets. While all services offer sweet attractions, the premier service of the nation, the IAS stands out in its ability to offer its entrants what other services fail to offer, unbridled power and a stranglehold over the nation.

Service of the self needs to be replaced by service of the nation and its masses. That the tendency of self gratification that the bureaucrats display in plenty has absolutely no place in a poor developing nation like ours is a reality that needs to be appreciated and put in place for the nation to prosper.

The services need to be deglamorized and presented as what they really should be – in service of humanity.