Looking Up the Ladder... and Jumping Off

Abhinav Kumar is a young officer of the Indian Police Service who also contributes regularly to the op-ed pages of The Indian Express. Good for him.

His latest piece is noteworthy as it is an example of 'looking up the ladder' and seeing the reality of the horrors on top. Consider this para:

"Today the IAS seems to exist only to deliver the patronage of the Indian state in an organised and legitimate manner to whichever coalition of vested interests comes to power through elections and ensure its own cut in cash and kind, whereas the IPS exists to ensure that the law is used as an instrument of power and the darkest deeds of the powerful are ignored or if they come to light are given a quiet burial."

What should the young man do? Well, first he should read Friedrich Heyek's The Road to Serfdom, paying special attention to the chapter "Why the Worst Get on Top" - in a socialist system based on coercion, corruption and patronage. If this convinces him that socialism is evil, he should quit - to save his soul.

Two or three generations of Indians have sent their best and brightest to the Indian civil services. If the State is to be at the 'commanding heights', obviously it will need the best and the brightest, it was thought - especially by the parents of these idealistic youngsters. They were all sacrificed at the altar of the State - a metaphysical concept that really has nothing to do with 'civil government' - which is what a 'civil service' is paid to provide.

My Antidote 2 : For Liberal Governance, contains an article entitled "Babudom is Not for India's Bright Youth". Idealistic young people yearning for a role in public affairs should read it.

There is also Ludwig von Mises' Bureaucracy, republished in India by Liberty Institute. The crux of Mises' argument is this: Society benefits if almost everything is left for 'management by profit'. Very little can actually be accomplished by 'bureaucratic management' - like the police or the tax bureaus. Societies which keep this distinction in mind succeed, while those who extend bureaucratic management to vast reaches of economic activity lose heavily.

Mises also makes the telling point that youth is sacrificed to the aged in bureaucracies. The young join at the bottom and have little else to do but follow their seniors' orders throughout their careers. Bureaucray means 'the rule of the aged'.

I hope more and more of the idealistic young people who join the civil services imbibe these ideas, look up the ladder - and jump off.

There is much that they can do for the Indian people and the country outside of this socialist State. There is enterprise - which gives pride and glory to those who succeed in satisfying customers in a competitive market. And there is the 'third sector' of voluntary activities.

Bureaucracy is not 'public service'. It is always 'at the service of the minister' - not the people, nor the law. In India, it is just another ugly vested interest.