Governance in India is increasingly becoming election-oriented; and winning elections the one-point agenda of parties. Selfishness of politicians wins over concerns of national well-being. The directive from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, out of the blue, to recruit 10 lakh persons to fill vacancies in central government departments in the next 18 months has more to it than meets the eye. He’s aiming to make this his campaign plank for the 2024 polls, the precise time the recruitment drive in “mission mode” would be completed. The good thing is, some 10 lakh families – meaning 40 lakh people — would benefit from this government step.
The point to stress is, if the government aims to fill a huge number of posts in one go, the other side of the story is that as many vacancies have remained unfilled in the central government establishments for a very long time. The load got built up over time. The central government had a staff strength of 3.32 million in 2013, before Modi took charge as PM. It was reduced to 3.18 million by 2020. This was as per data in the 2022-23 Union Budget. The budget document for 2021-22 showed one-fifth of central government posts remained vacant. It meant the government dragged its feet on recruitment. In the normal course, a functional government or a private sector enterprise will keep recruiting to match with its steadily increasing requirements. That is one hint of good governance and good leadership. The reverse has happened in the past eight years. A similar scenario might persist with several state governments too. This situation emerged because of scarcity of funds caused by two factors; one, the over-spend on the welfare front including the subsidized rice scheme that reaches up to even the well-to-do today. Add to this the kits-raj of governments like UP before the assembly polls. In the process, a lazy new generation is being created. The second reason is the hesitation to raise direct taxes and the keeping of low charges for government services, as in ordinary rail travel.
A functional government will do its job; which on the one hand will mobilize resources and on the other roll out these funds for development and defence. When it comes to the Modi terms so far, there is a deficit in both these respects. The railway sector is hugely ailing. India needed to grow much faster by virtue of its huge human resources potential of 1.35 billion. If Modi functioned with a deficit of 10 lakh staff, there is little wonder the governance sector was ailing. Better late than never.
