Dr Duvvuri Subbarao appointed RBI Governor - few pointers for other IAS officers

Indian Civil Service officers are essentially the other side of a coin - reflecting the politicians. They have a solid power to influence the politicians to enforce the law of the land. During the initial years of independence, majority of Indian Civil Service officers (ICS) are known for their integrity.

During the last couple of decades mainly started during the reign of Indira Gandhi, slowly but surely - ICS officers started turning to the same side of politicians. The system which is slowly but surely getting corrupted is mainly due this unholy alliance between the ICS officers and their political masters. As a result, people of the land have slowly lost faith in these civil service officers along with politicians.

If we have legends like for example - Kiran Bedi, Manmohan Singh or C Rangarajan it is due to their integrity, faith and talent. Even for that matter, the our going RBI Governor Y V Reddy is a good example how we can see the talent emerging even in the sinking system.

Emergence of Duvvuri Subbarao is no accident. He comes with top credentials. It took many decades before some other IAS topper to beat his marks in the Indian Civil Services exam. He comes from one of the best Tech schools in India, IIT Kanpur. He is one of the first IITians to choose IAS career. He comes from a middle class Andhra family.

Despite all these, Subbarao could have been lost in the notoriously corrupted and politically fractured system in his home state, Andhra Pradesh. (Today we see some of best and honest IAS officers are shunted out to less signficant positions just because they did go by their political masters wishes. And there is ample evidence that some of those officers are leaving the service to join private sector or go abroad for talent recognision). Dr Subbarao stood tall amongst the many other who were falling in morality and compromising their position. Tough he did not make a mark as an Civil Administrator, he moved on to become on the best Economic Administrator. Various assignments since he started career bear ample testimony.

Needless to say, when some one got talent and credibility even the political masters cannot effort to ignore them. Otherwise, we could not have seen Manmohan Singh as our Prime Minister.

Let's hope the number of this dwindling class of civil servants will raise to empower India. These are the people who will be role models not only for their colleagues but also for for the Civil Service aspirants.