| In spite of all the liberalisation and reform of more than a decade, no Indian prime minister has had the courage to take on the bureaucracy. Even before the age of coalitions, which only made matters worse, no fundamental questions have been asked about the purpose served by many ministries. I believe there is a silent conspiracy between the bureaucrat and politician not to address such questions as it inevitably means a diminution of their power of pelf and patronage. No wonder the Central Government expenditure on their 3.3 million employees in the last decade has more than doubled to Rs 46,378 crore while the economy has been liberalised. To put it in perspective, this is five times what the Government spends on health and family welfare. There was a time in the days of socialist tenure when the Government was regarded as the saviour. Nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy was the order of the day. Now we know that anything in which the Government gets involved is the kiss of death. The industries which have grown the fastest in the last decade are those which have had minimal government interference—it and telecom. Take just one example. Steel was decontrolled in 1992 but the ministry still exists and employs a staff of 402, financed by taxpayers’ money. The stifling hand of government has been removed from sectors like cement, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, electronics and others. However, this does not reflect in the number of ministries and ministers in government. In Rajiv Gandhi’s government in 1985 the strength of the council of ministers was 40. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s council of ministers stands at an incredible 79. The real tragedy is that many of these ministries serve no useful purpose. Why do you need a Directorate of Field Publicity with 207 field units or a Song and Drama Division with 21 centres when the Government has Doordarshan? There are many more examples found by our Managing Editor Shankkar Aiyar who spearheaded this complex investigation. When INDIA TODAY started the exercise to identify ministries that have no rationale for being, and to track the wastage of funds, manpower and patronage that result, we found at least 20 out of 53 ministries that can easily be scrapped. Admittedly, in a developing economy, there are new areas that require official attention. But the old, useless ministries continue to expand while new ones are created, most overlapping each other. We have also given a blueprint where we have merged and reclassified 33 ministries and reduced them to 18, reflecting the needs of the new economy. What is required is bold political leadership which severs the vicious nexus between the bureaucracy and the politicians. The need is for drastic surgery, not first aid. Otherwise, it would be time to change our national symbol from the three-headed lion to a white elephant.
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