New Delhi: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Duvvuri Subbarao has said that civil servants should not be used as publicists for political ends and noted that the line between them and politicians, while thin, needs to be respected by both sides.
In late 2023, the Union government’s Department of Personnel had instructed all ministries to nominate senior officers – joint secretaries, directors, deputy secretaries – as “District Rath Prabharis” under their purview to “showcase/celebrate achievements of the NDA government during the last nine years.
At the launch of his book, Subbarao said that bureaucrats and politicians are divided by a thin line, according to The New Indian Express.
“The deciding line is very thin. It is a line that both politicians and civil servants have to be conscious of and respect.”
He also said that there should be a “cooling-off” period before IAS officers and diplomats take the political plunge. “It is essential that civil servants keep their ears to the ground,” he said.
Subbarao has also been Finance Secretary and Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.
He is not the only former bureaucrat to suggest such a demarcation. In a chat with senior advocate and former politician Kapil Sibal for The Wire, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa placed the onus of neutrality on civil servants.
“The perception created by political parties that bureaucracy willy nilly is hand-in-glove – not hand in hand – I think that perception needs to break – not only by the political parties – because it needs to break by the conduct of the civil services. So it is very much up to the civil services to assert their neutrality,” he said.
“That’s a tall order. That’s not going to happen,” Sibal responded.
