The bureaucracy is on tenterhooks these days, abuzz with how uncertain the lives and careers of bureaucrats have become under this government. There is almost no formulaic solution at sight to either appease them or make them feel secure enough in their assignments.
GoI's latest move to shortlist a bench strength of secretary-equivalent officers, alongside the empanelment of new secretaries, has further unsettled the assured pitch that usually comes with such appointments.
Masked behind all this unpredictability is one of the big shifts that has taken place under this government, of which little has been revealed or said. But in a quiet and definitive way, it has changed the rules of bureaucratic play.
At the core of this shift is the 360-degree review or appraisal system to select, promote and even indirectly admonish officials. This essentially reduces the reliance on annual confidential reports as the key basis for shortlisting and empanelment.This, in turn, has a significant bearing on the final selection of a bureaucrat to a top job.
As a result, over the past three years, this new system has slowly unhinged certain basic assumptions in a bureaucrat's zone of maneuverability. Like lobbying the minister concerned for a job in his department, or even other senior bureaucrats in key positions.
This is not to say that any of these methods have turned obsolete. But their effectiveness, or 'rate of return', has sharply dropped. While some of it has to do with the erosion of coalition era multiple power centres, the simple fact is that new rules have replaced old rules.
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