The top guy matters!

It is indeed true that any organization is only as good as its top guy. If the top guy is good, the organization prospers, if not it goes down or sinks depending upon how nincompoop the top guy really is. Yet it is the misfortune of the nation that in sarkari organizations cutting across sectors and services, the criterion for selection of the top guys is generally based on subjective parameters other than deliverance and human values.  

The examples of rampant manipulations invariably set by the railways in selection of its top guys invariably leave a bad taste in the mouth. Murky dealings, few cases of which have tumbled out of the cupboard by chance not by design, rampant manipulations by the outgoing top guy to choose an unworthy successor, the search for a pliable spine and the web of complex rules of selection, all together have brought the organization to such a pass that make me certain that by the time the haze clears, we would once again have a master manipulator occupying the corner room.

Yet in official forums the debate continues, endless debates by people who are not delivering where they are planted yet consider themselves fit to pass value judgement on all matters under the sun. The “Know all’s” outnumber the “do all’s” by a wide margin and therein lies the tragedy of organizations like the railways. The top guys in railways do not lead and are invariably with rare exceptions of-course, never a part of the team. The job of the top guy(s) remains confined to finding faults with their team for activities being undertaken by them on their own or under the direction of the top guy.

Never before in the history of the railways has one witnessed an outpouring of hate and venom cutting across departmental and zonal boundaries as in the case of the current outgoing chief executive. The previous guy also achieved the distinction of the worst ever only to be overtaken by the current guy who would go down as the first top guy in whose regime the railways achieved the twin distinction of going bankrupt and and also losing its image. The unfortunate part however remains that the future appears to be as hazy as earlier with meager hopes of a humane leadership emerging at the apex level.

Yet with hope we live on.

Amen! 

Dividing the nation!

With the proposed division of Ulta Pradesh, four new states are in the offing in the country. One state divided into four apparently to facilitate growth, but actually for political gains. Whether such divisions help the economy or not is debatable but one thing is certain that they help the politicians and bureaucrats alike by giving them new opportunities to loot the nation. More Chief Ministers and Ministers, Chief Secretaries and Secretaries and a full complement of hangers on is definitely what this division shall result in.

Sometime back the (not so)great Indian Railways also went through a similar exercise thereby increasing the number of zonal railways from 9 to 16. The gains or the losses are there for everyone to see. While the railway bureaucracy has definitely gained by virtue of more posts resulting in improved promotional avenues, the railways as a whole have lost out terribly. As it is, the headquarters offices handling only negative functions were always redundant bodies, the need to further proliferate them had absolutely no rationale whatsoever. So now we have a number of zonal railways that have only three divisions to supervise, one general manager in the rank of a special secretary and a fleet of additional and joint secretary level officers, to supervise three functionaries. How superfluous and how ridiculous.

The irony of the situation is that the public, the naive public generally fails to see through such games of the politicians and initially regards such measures as being beneficial for the masses. It is only with the passage of time that the damage caused by such exercises is experienced and by then it is always too late to redeem the situation.

Anyway what can a common man do against the machinations of powerful politicians and a faceless bureaucracy?

It is a hopeless scenario of the fence eating the crop!

Does size (of states) matter?

I definitely do not think so. How can small states help when we already have small states that have been unable to help themselves. After all efficiency is definitely not dependant on size. It depends on the efficacy of governance or administration. Why the hell we do not realize that the fundamental problem with the sarkari machinery in the country is the almost defunct decision making processes and a complex contractual mechanism. Unless these twin issues are resolved, let us not expect deliverance, whether small states or big states.

Look at what happenned with railways. Going from 9 to 16 zones has not helped either. On the contrary dissatisfaction levels in the staff have shot up exponentially. After all deliverance cannot be expected from a disgruntled HR.

But definitely there is a positive side. More slots for babu's to fill leading to better promotional avenues and also more posts of ministers and chief ministers. There are gains, but definitely not for the masses.