Democracy In India

702 Words3 Pages
India is a democracy. This fact is taught in school and persistently reinforced by political oratory which is a source of pride and satisfaction to most of us. Although there is a conundrum about that a democracy demands, most people would probably accept the fact that the foundation of a democratic political system is control of the government by the governed1. Of course it is impossible in modern setup but at minimum we expect the popular election of our representatives. Indians are particularly fond of making use of elections to keep a check on accountability of political executives. While the turnout per representative chosen is quite smaller as compared to other democracies. Our society is becoming increasingly bureaucratized where a growing…show more content…
Civil services form the permanent bureaucracy of the government of India. This concept of civil services has been prevalent in India since ancient times. In Mauryan administration, adhyakshas and rajukas were employed in the name of civil servants. In those days as well the civil servants were recruited on the basis of merit. While searching to create a framework to hold the Indian territories, this concept of civil services came into prominence and the much coveted 'Indian Civil Services' was created. The parliamentary democratic setup of India has entrusted the representatives elected by the people to run the administration. But the manifold problems of modern administration cannot be expected to be dealt personally by the handful of ministers. Thus the policies are laid down by ministers and the responsibility to carry out this policy rests with civil servants. Civil Servants implement the executive decisions. The members of civil service serve at the pleasure of the President of India and are protected from politically motivated or vindictive action by Article 311 of the Indian…show more content…
The salary of civil servants is drawn from the Civil List. Civil Servants of higher seniority may be called to account by Parliament. There are total 6.4 million government employees and less than 50,000 bureaucrats to administer them as of year 2010. India follows a rank based civil service system and has refrained from following the tenets of the position based civil services. The current system of civil services of India has mainly followed the pattern of the Indian Civil Service from the colonial era. It was formed in 1947 after the partition of India. Sardar Patel's vision was that the Civil Service should strengthen cohesion and foster national unity. The principles that guide Indian Civil Services have been the values of integrity, non-partisanship, merit and impartiality. There is a provision in the constitution to set up more All India Services branches by giving the power to the Rajya Sabha to resolve by a majority of two-thirds. The three All India Services - Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) - have been set up under this constitutional provision. The Civil Servants are responsible to run the administration of India. A number of Central Government Agencies manage the country in accordance with the policy directions provided by the representatives elected by
Open Document