India has a uniquely unaccountable governance system. This is because of its Constitutional design.

There is nothing like IAS in any other country. We also have the dubious distinction of being the only major democracy in the world that provides special protections to government employees in its Constitution.

All over the world, government employees can be easily fired if they fail to deliver their functions. Government employees are managed through Acts of Parliament or Assemblies, not through the Constitution. They also get similar treatment, for the most part, as any other private sector employee.

In India, however, Part 14 of our Constitution strongly protects incompetent and corrupt employees. Government employees can never be sacked for incompetence and barely 1 out of 10 million corrupt employees are successfully dismissed. There is therefore no accountability.

We believe that all citizens of India must get the same protections under the law. The protections for all employees need to be exactly the same, whether someone works in a private company or government department.

We call upon the Government to repeal Part 14 of the Constitution. This also means that tenured civil services (such as IAS, IPS) must go. These must be replaced with market-based recruitment for all roles, with the senior roles being on contract. This will allow competent people to enter government services, and the millions of incompetent and corrupt government employees to be immediately sacked.

Without this reform, there is absolutely no possibility of accountable governance in India. Swarna Bharat Party's manifesto promises the removal of special protections for government employees.

This is not the only reform Indian governance system needs. State funding of elections is a critical part of the reforms, so that we start getting honest politicians in our parliament and assemblies. Tens of other essential reforms are detailed in our manifesto.

Swarna Bharat Party, India's only liberal party

http://swarnabharat.in/manifesto

REFERENCES AND BACKGROUND:

Replace the IAS and tenured civil services with well paid, contractual (hence accountable) public servants

Reform the Bureaucracy

Time to dismantle the IAS

Breaking Free of Nehru

Restructuring the Bureaucracy: All-India Services, Nirmal Mukarji, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 51/52 (Dec. 17-24, 1994), pp. 3193-3195



India's bureaucracy is 'worst in Asia'

FAQs

Question 1: Does abolition of constitutional protections mean that there will be a free-for-all for politicians? (Someone asked: "In india such move would lead to Yogi sacking everybody who doesn't revere the cow and Shashi Tharoor sacking everybody who reveres the cow").



Answer: No, there will still be the general protections under the Constitution. For instance, in the case of the USA, "Not every government employee has a right to due process. The right only exists when the employee has a property interest in his job". Basically there is a very general and generic protection of government employees (similar to protections any citizen would get) under the US Constitution. [See this]

Further, checks and balances can be introduced under various Acts of parliament and assemblies. However, the senior roles will be contractual and people in these roles will need to deliver results, or they will be fired.

Question 2: SBP will lose votes from govt employees

Answer: Not necessarily. Many good government employees would like the corrupt and incompetent to be removed, since their actions hurt the reputation even of the good ones. Only corrupt employees will fight to retain these protections, and they will expose themselves as enemies of the people of India.