Daily Pioneer: New Delhi: Sunday, July 01, 2018.
Retired
bureaucrats and Ex-servicemen on Saturday deliberated on ways to safeguard the
defence forces and civil services from "succumbing" to political
rulers of the country. Speaking at an
event titled Citizens' Conclave, Air Marshal (retd) Vir Narain noted, “The
danger is from within the system, the armed forces and the civil servants are
pandering to those in power".
The theme of
the conclavezwas 'Safeguarding the Constitution: Ensuring the Independence and
Integrity of the Civil Services and Defence Forces'. Former information
commissioner Wajahat Habibullah talked at length about how civil services have
now become prey to "casteist and bigoted practices".
“A great
level of professionalism has to be brought back to the services. The civil
servants have to move away from the practice of maintaining their status quo
and start acting efficiently," he said.
Habibullah
said the country was facing the challenge of preserving the structures of
democracy that have been put in place, adding that the judiciary, civil
services and defence forces have to be kept independent of political
ideologies.
RTI activist
and former IAS officer Aruna Roy demanded accountability of government officers
and civil servants, and urged the public
to take up that role.
“The need of
the hour is for all of us, every citizen to understand the constitution,
enforce it themselves and disallow anyone to threaten it,” she said.
N C Saxena, former IAS officer and then member
of planning commission, lamented that the system had "succumbed" to
the political rulers of the country.
“Ultimately,
if our political system is flawed, we cannot assume that the civil services
will continue being fair and transparent," he added.
.JPG)
.JPG)
