The Jerome syndrome

Jerome syndrome
The PM should use the Bangalore example to kickstart bureaucratic reform

Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, The Indian Express

In the mess of infrastructural projects aborted by the Dharam Singh government in Bangalore can also be found the debris of what was once an administrative success story. In recent years the city has dramatically logged on to the information highway and altered the economic geography of India and much of the world. Now the creative entrepreneurs who moved the epicentre of the software and BPO industries Karnataka-wards are having second thoughts. The Congress government and its H.D. Deve Gowda-led coalition partner have hit upon a perverse, and false, way to bridge inequalities in the region: by lowering the potential for the services sector in the state. In fact ever since the coalition took office, a reversal of Bangalore’s infrastructural programme had been on the cards. But look beyond this veneer of hare-brained drift, and clues emerge about a systematic effort to return Bangalore to its pre-boom mix of political one-upmanship and land mafia linkages, about a deliberate strategy to subordinate performing bureaucrats to pliable ones.

Like Jayakar Jerome. On Tuesday this newspaper carried details of lame excuses offered by the Karnataka chief minister for transferring the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) commissioner to an inconsequential post. On Jerome’s watch the BDA was transformed from a bankrupt organisation to a hugely profit-making one that altered the radial landscape of the city, connecting its roads to the highways — one that registered a ten-fold increase in land sales. Dharam Singh prefers to rue the fact that the officer did not come to him directly for redressal. Gowda, on the other hand, has circulated unsubstantiated charges of corruption. How ironic. Appraisal has been at the heart of proposals for civil services reform enunciated by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the P.C. Hota committee. It is perhaps just a little matter of detail that governments like Karnataka’s seem to prefer basing their appraisal on insinuation and possibly vested interests.

In his six months in office, the prime minister has repeatedly stressed on the need for civil service reform to efficiently deliver development and social goods. To be energised the bureaucracy needs unequivocal signals that the system works to a strict and rational code. It needs assurance that no officer — not one — will be victimised by the political class. The Jerome case offers a chance to begin reversing the politicisation of the bureaucracy. It would certainly dovetail with Prime Minister Singh’s reformist statements.