Margaret Thatcher, ICS

Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” who kicked socialism out of Britain – so much so that the Labour Party now calls itself New Labour – had another ambition when she was young: to join the Indian Civil Service.

As she says, the ICS was the “best in the world” then, setting standards of honesty, integrity and law.

How was this achieved? And how come the IAS is now the worst in the world?

The answer lies in the governing ideology.

The ICS (and before them, the HEICS – the Honourable East India Company Service) were rooted in Classical Liberalism. John Locke was their “prophet”, and every decision they took was based on their deep understanding of liberal principles.

A good book on this is Philip Mason’s The Men Who Ruled India. (There were no women in the ICS). It is a fabulous read, and it tells the story of how a handful of civil servants transformed this country and delivered a far better life to her long-suffering populace.

All this was destroyed by socialism – an ideology still upheld by the IAS.

Some years ago, on a visit to the IAS Academy in Mussoorie, where I delivered a lecture on population and urbanization, I was astounded to find that their resident professor of Economics was a follower of Piero Sraffa, and the bookshelves in his office were stashed with communist literature.

We need a Thatcher in politics to straighten out the IAS mind.

And kick socialism out of India.