Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's remarks to IAS probationers

"I am very happy to have this opportunity to meet you. Great responsibility vests on the shoulders of our Civil Services, particularly, the Indian Administrative Service. Ours is a large country characterised by great diversity, great complexity and the unity and integrity of India has to be the primary concern of all those involved in processes of governance. This does not mean that we should lose sight of the peculiar circumstances in which your respective States may be placed. I think ours is a unique administrative set up, it's a federal set up and Services like the Indian Administrative Service perform, that twin combination of concern with local circumstances and at the same time, wider concern that these local problems are resolved in a manner which strengthens the bonds of unity and strengthens the nation's integrity. Of all the Services in our country, the Indian Administrative Service has performed its role with greatest efficiency, integrity and commitment to national values.

I said that ours is a country of great diversity and great complexity. We have in our country religions - all the great religions represented in our society. We have also large number of groups of people who are under privileged and who have been discriminated against for centuries and when the Constitution of India was being drawn up, the founding fathers of our Republic took it upon themselves to make up for those centuries of inequity by giving them a privileged position when it comes to admission to Civil Services are concerned, when it comes to giving them a share in processes of governance through participation in the State Legislatures and Parliament. It is, therefore, very essential that our civil servants should be aware of the extreme complexity of managing an entire country of India's diversity. I would, therefore, urge all of you that though you must specialize in acquiring a deep understanding of the problem faced by your respective States, you must also dwell deep into the whole process of nation-building in a country of India's size, India's diversity and India's complexity.

I would also say that we are living in a world where human knowledge is growing at an unprecedented pace. Therefore, your stint at the academy cannot and should not involve an end of the thirst for acquisition of knowledge. I think our training modules now take into account that life has to be one long continuous process of learning and re-learning and therefore it is very important that this inquisitiveness, capacity to understand processes of change because as someone said the only constant thing in this complex world that we live, is change itself and change sometimes, produces very disturbing consequences. It benefits certain groups of people, it hurts certain groups of people and therefore, I think the whole process of nation-building involve efficient and equitable management of processes of change and you see the turbulence all around our country.

Our country has been growing at a handsome rate in the last 15 years ever since the reform programme was launched. Our growth rate has averaged above 6-6.5 per cent. In recent years, we have improved upon that performance. Our growth rate is now around 7.5-8 per cent and we can increase this growth rate and we need that growth because it is only in a rapidly expanding economy that we can find meaningful solutions to the problems of acute poverty, deprivation which still characterizes many parts of our country. And if growth is not there, the whole process of redistribution of incoming wealth becomes a zero-sum-game and when social processes become zero-sum-games, they give rise to great degree of anger, frustration and therefore we need this vibrant growth to provide the wherewithal in which redistributing processes can become a positive-sum-game and not a zero-sum-game. And therefore understanding of the process of growth, particularly paying attention to the need of rural development, paying particular attention to the delivery of basic social services such as health, education or the management to the municipal and panchayati raj institutions, all these are integral to our understanding of the processes of growth, processes of change and I sincerely hope that you will take permanent interest in all these processes of nation building.

When I look at the civil servants in the British time, there is one thing which strikes me - many of them although they came to our country from far away distant land, many of them spent lot of time in understanding the sociology and economics of how India's rural dynamic works. I think of late, probably because people don't stay in jobs long enough, therefore I think that depth of knowledge that our civil servants need to understand processes of change particularly in the rural sector, the problems of disadvantaged community, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes; they do not receive the attention that they deserve, that's why you have tensions in rural India -the naxalite problems, these are problems which have several dimensions. A law and order dimension is important, and no State can really neglect the enforcement of law and order and also enforcement of the rule of law in our country. But you must also recognize that there are I think underlying tensions arising out of the fact that not all sections of our society get an equitable share or the benefits of growth, benefits of development and therefore, I think you have to pay particular attention to being the custodians of the well being of the weaker sections. I would say the same thing about concern and commitment to communal harmony.

Ours is a country where all the great religions of the world are represented. And this diversity is our strength. But it also gives rise to problems and therefore enforcement of communal harmony, paying utmost regard to ensure that the various communities live together in peace and harmony, that various frustrated elements who would like to disturb the ethos of communal harmony, they are not given any scope for having a field day. Therefore these are some of the areas where I feel it is very essential that our civil servants should stand committed to the ideas and the ideals enshrined in the Constitution of India. The more I look at the functioning of our country, the more I marvel at the wisdom of the founding fathers of our Republic. They had the vision to recognize that India can prosper only as a secular society, as a country where there will be no discrimination against any citizen on the basis of caste, religion and creed. They also recognize that India can realize its destiny only in the framework of an open society, a functioning democracy and we have I think in the last 60 years of our Independence, with all the turbulence that is around us, I think we can take pride in the fact that our democratic fabric has, I think, flourished.

There are weaknesses but the underlying basic structures of our polity have stood the test of time and civil servants have a role to strengthen the basic roots of our polity in many ways. I mentioned paying attention to the needs of the weaker sections, paying particular attention to the needs of our farmers. There is great discontent in our country that agriculture somehow is becoming a losing proposition. There are several problems of land distribution, problems of water management, problems of efficient use of available land and water resources. All these areas require in depth analysis and that can happen only if you maintain regular contact with the grassroot realities. The urbanization of our country has proceeded some distance. But even then India is still by and large an agricultural economy and if there is discontent in our rural areas, that I think will weaken the foundations of our polity. So my request to you is that pay adequate attention to the needs of our rural economy, pay adequate attention to the delivery of basic social services such as health and education and another thing that I would say is that with change, there is growing uncertainty. And this uncertainty affects us in many ways. Sometimes, there is a drought, sometimes there are floods, sometimes there are earthquakes. So the whole area of disaster management acquires a new meaning, a new content.

Our country faces many disasters. I think the bird flu for example you must have heard of. Now these calamities need to be tackled with efficiency, with effectiveness. We had last year the great calamity of the Tsunami and our system gave a very good account of itself. But that only means that I think looking at the various sources of uncertainty, turbulence, how some things go wrong and if they go wrong, what needs to be done. In the old days, we had a famine codes and drought codes but I think now there are many more sources of uncertainty, many more sources of disorder and turbulence and therefore I think one should pay adequate attention to understanding the processes of this turbulence and how our administrative system has the primary responsibility to come to the help of our people in these times of difficulties, stress and strain. I do hope that the training that you have acquired at the academy equips you to discharge your responsibility with efficiency, with commitment to our national goals. The administration's role has changed over a period of time and it will change. We cannot legislate change. I think many times changes overtake us. But there is one thing which I would say is that the great need for maximum possible integrity in the functioning of public administration.

We cannot earn the respect of our people if we ourselves are not exemplary models of probity and integrity. There are occasions when some people do stray away from the path of probity and integrity and I can only say that if such occasions arise, and our civil servants do not stand up to the temptation, then we are not being worthy of the trust that the founding fathers of our Republic placed in the Indian Administrative Service as being the steel framework of our country. We have really to live up to the expectations and the yearnings of the founding fathers of our Republic because they viewed Civil Service as the only viable establishment in our country.

We are a democracy. Politicians come, politicians go. Governments come, governments go and therefore very often the situation is such that there are very few people who can think long-term about the future of the country, how various problems can be resolved. Governments, by their very nature, in a democracy, take a short-term view of things. They don't take a long-term view of things. And yet, many of our problems require long-term thinking and who else will do that long-term thinking except the Civil Service. The Civil Service has been endowed by our Constitution with that degree of permanence where I think it is obliged and it must live up to the challenges of taking a long-term view of our problem, how we ought to look at these problems, how working together we can resolve these problems. With these words, I express my happiness of having this opportunity to meet you and I wish you all God's Grace. May God bless all of you."