Serving In The Wilds

Ashok Mitra argues in the Telegraph that backward districts need the presence of senior IAS officers:

In the early 1930s, Mahatma Gandhi shifted himself to the wilderness of the then semi-village, Wardha, right at the dead centre of the country. He was always a bit of an old fox. He had a purpose in mind: to force political eminence seeking his darshan to undergo the drudgery of travelling to Wardha; they would thereby come to comprehend the dire plight of the nation’s overwhelming majority and be awash with noblesse oblige. Leaders in the post-Independence era missed the point of Gandhi’s message. Having paid some lip service to the cause of the underdog, they chose to concentrate on developing an intensely class-skewed metropolitan culture. The consequences of their decision are now gradually being revealed. Despatching hard-boiled civil servants to the countryside is no guarantee that things will change, but it could at least have one, not insignificant, spin-off. As the civil servants begin to travel to the country’s god-forsaken interior, ruling politicians might feel compelled not to be far behind.

Read the full piece here