The Immovable Might of Indian Bureaucracy

Those who know me, can vouch for the fact there are a very few things which can terrify me to my bones. I'm not exactly proud but I've been involved in a few disastrous road-accidents, just by being a passenger in the wrong vehicle at the wrong time. Even at that time, even when wraiths were beginning to materialize, astonishingly; my heart-beat was normal. I firmly believe this gift of life from God, which hopefully I've lived in such a way, as not to face shame or remorse in case He decides for a tête-à-tête.

However, when it comes to Indian bureaucracy, I'm terrified to my very core. My soul shudders even if I've to go to any government office. For example, it took me five years to renew my passport. Countless times I would book an appointment only to extend it on the given date again and again; and then eventually cancel it. Of course, I've tried everything which I meagrely could, to counter such uncontrollable frightening emotion. And in the end, I've discovered that the Indian bureaucrat, is an immovable, invincible force of this universe. It can't be gainsaid. No elected official nor any superior officer nor any adjudicating body nor any god of high heaven can supersede this.

Nonetheless, the invincibility factor, is inversely proportional to the square of the power and influence of the enquirer. That is, if one is a top bureaucrat, then this becomes not only negligible but also accommodating beyond the rules. But for a common man like me whose power and influence approaches to zero, it is an infinite force higher than gods in the heaven. I've never seen mythological figures in real life, but I do have seen a district magistrate and superintendent of police (that is called having overqualified visual experience). I've witnessed the sense of entitlement which, if one is not careful, can crush the bones of an ordinary human like me. 

What is this power and why this is so? First things first, what is this power; consider this axiom: If a station-house officer decides to not to register first-investigation report of a complainant like me whose power and influence approaches to zero; then there does not exist any entity or power, whatsoever, in this universe, which can make him to register it. Another axiom: If an Indian clerk in any government office has decided to wait you till the Sun becomes red-giant, then again, there is nothing one could do to ameliorate this situation. And even if one arrives on the day the Sun becomes red-giant, hypothetically, even then, one might just be dismissively told to come next month (notwithstanding the survival of Earth). 

Why this is so? Allow me to talk shop here. During the British colonialism, after 1857, there was this wide-spread brutality and barbarism by British rulers, especially against the people of the regions which were prominent in revolt of 1857. The British barbarism was inescapable and brutal beyond even the criminally insane standards. And it went on for years, like a perpetual hell. So much so, it just changed the psyche of the people of those regions. How? It culminated into some kind of distorted morbid mania; in which the only vantage point of security could be found with the perpetrators themselves. So the people started to join British system. And those who joined them, were worse and more lethal than the British. As they were once part of this oppressed mass and hence knew all of its tricks. Thus and thereby, for a secure future of their chosen few and to cement their status in the oppressing class, they exceeded their British masters in brutality. Note that, by this time this has become norm (as the Mughals were the previous outside rulers who got replaced by the British but they didn't cut the native middlemen like British who went for the whole supply chain, triggering the native exploiters to aid in revolt of 1857) nevertheless curiously, this did not create hatred for the ruling class when the perpetrator was one of their own; instead it created a desire to join him and secure their own future. Each man for his own. I find it difficult to assess that for how long, and how brutal the British were, as to disintegrate the societal bonds permanently and induce primal instincts of self-preservation above all else.

Even today, one can find the mania for the government jobs in these regions. Maybe it has been encrypted somewhere deep down in the mass psychology of these regions; since long ago the forefathers had seen how the established businesses from hundreds of years got uprooted by British in the blink of an eye while the government clerk next door was seemingly fine in the midst of carnage. Hence the entrepreneurship is abhorred and discouraged in these regions.

After transfer of power from British, Nehru, India's first prime-minister under very favourable impression of the socialism (which was the fashion in those days), decided to get close to USSR, and in the same spirit, religiously followed the British script of bureaucracy and governance. In the hindsight, it was difficult for a new ruler, to let go of an unjust, exploitative system, inherently designed to shield the rulers and its innumerable vassals. Especially when the power to rule has not been earned but, transferred. 

Thus the Indian bureaucratic system which was well versed by this time to exercise the British entitlement with all of its bells and whistles (minus the alacrity in response and accountability), began its training in Soviet ineptness. From 1947 to 1991, the system thoroughly mastered it (again, minus the basic fidelity of institutional policies on education, technology and talent congnizance). And now what we, as common Indians, get to experience the double bonanza of British entitlement with Soviet ineptness, in our day-to-day lives. This is called worst-of-both-worlds. Imagine a clerk who comes five hours late and then, in the face of a hundred meter jam-packed line of sweating expectant faces from four hours, proceeds to dig out his lunchbox while chatting with his colleagues. It takes training of generations to be naturally fluent in this much apathy. 

I should stop talking shop here. However I've read cases where people have to burn themselves in front of a police station or a secretariat, just to lodge a simple complaint. There have been severely disturbing cases of young women committing suicide frustrated by eve-teasing and wilful negligence of law-and-order bodies; as I've found in my experience, the women are usually the most optimistic and hopeful in any given situation; and the system which can crush all semblances of hope for someone who sees nothing but hope in any given situation is something which even the ghouls and demons couldn't accomplish. What terrifies me that this is not something which is a thing of the past and doesn't happen anymore. This is ongoing. And there isn't much to prevent a common man like myself becoming another one of these unfortunate examples. Once my friend remarked that even animals are more civil than this and even jungle has more decorum than this.

I must stop talking shop here. I tried once but it seems I didn't stop.

In the end, in all seriousness, I think the government should officially start the process of apotheosis for its bureaucrats. It is high time that the world should start to know and worship these mighty immovable gods of our lands.