Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “An Ideal Civil Servant” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

An Ideal Civil Servant

A Civil Servant is a person employed to deal with the affairs of Union or a State and is paid from the Consolidated Fund of the Government of India or from the Consolidated Fund of the State concerned, as the case may be. A Civil Servant is popularly known as a public servant, because he draws his salary, perks, etc., from the revenues paid by the general public. In the context of the very nature of his job, an ideal Civil Servant is the one who devotes himself, heart and soul, to the service of the public in accordance with the laws of the land and works for the furtherance of the policies laid down by the government as by law established.

The code of conduct for an ideal Civil Servant is laid down in the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, which are applicable to the large bulk of the government employees working in the civil departments of the Government of India and similar rules made for various other categories of Central or State Government employees. In a nutshell, Rule 3 lays down that “a government servant shall at all times maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty”. These few words sum up the essence of all that is expected of an ideal Civil Servant. If a Civil Servant maintains at all times absolute integrity and devotion to duty he will automatically be observing the other conduct rules such as not indulging in corrupt practices, not engaging in private trade or part-time jobs, not participating in elections or politics, not resorting to .press or electronic media etc. One of the conduct rules also requires the government servants not to enter into bigamous marriages and stay away from alcoholic drinks etc.

It will thus be seen that the conduct rules expect an ideal government servant to stay away from all such acts which are considered morally incorrect or which will interfere with the performance of his official duties efficiently. It is significant that while most of the conduct rules are in the nature of ‘don’ts’ there is one over-riding rule, which is in the nature of ‘do’ and it says only this much that a government servant shall at all times maintain an absolute integrity and devotion of duty.

It may also be pointed out that if one goes merely by the letter of the law, one can do a number of wrongs while technically remaining within the parameters of the ‘don’ts’. In other words, one can violate the spirit of the rules and yet get away with it on technical grounds. But such a person shall not pass as an ideal Civil Servant. An ideal civil servant is the one who observes the rules in letter and spirit both and not only maintains an absolute integrity and devotion to duty but also appears to be doing so.

Civil Services everywhere have three functions, viz., to implement the declared policies of the government without favour of partiality, to assist the political masters (Ministers in most cases) in the formulation of policies, and to carry on the routine administration without any change in policy, when there is a gap in the transfer of power such a change in policy, when their is a gap in the transfer of power such as a change in the Ministry following a general election, etc. Civil Servants are there to serve the people. The only role of the king and his officers according to the ancient Hindu tradition was the service to and safeguarding the interests of the people. The ideal of the Indian Civil Services (ICS) under the British too was truly to serve the people whom they ruled, its desired code of conduct being ‘duty’, ‘courage’ and the highest integrity’.

Free India inherited a lofty tradition of highly efficient executive machinery from the British. That machinery comprising I.C.S. officers and disciplined Civil Servants, all men of integrity and dedication to duty was one of the finest instruments of government in the modern world.

With the passage of time, the process of administration has fallen on bad days. It is now caught between dichotomies and dilemmas—administration vs. politics, ends vs. means, values vs. facts, government vs. non-government sector, centralisation vs. decentralisation, bureaucracy vs. representative bureaucracy and the last but the most important generalist vs. specialist. Now-a-days government departments are infested with self-seekers, flatterers and sycophants. Private Secretaries, Special and Personal Assistants and the like have become more powerful than some of the Ministers, senior most civil servants and departmental Secretaries. There is interference at almost every level of the administration by these sycophants. The result is that corruption has crept in with vengeance.

Administrative impartiality, commitment to work, and devotion to duty, respect for the rule of law and the predominance of merit have been sharply eroded by political and other extraneous factors. The only ray of hope lies in the fact that our Prime Minister is ceaselessly working to restore the moral values and sanctity of integrity and devotion to duty among our civil servants.