UPSC needs to democratise, UPSC members mustn't extol government policies, seek coaching centre jobs

UPSC must democratize itself and its members must stop extolling government policies or seek post-retirement jobs with coaching centres; former Ambassador and Secretary to Government, Vivek Katju, to Karan Thapar for The Wire.
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In what will be viewed as a strong and hard-hitting critique of the Union Public Service Commission, one of India’s illustrious former Ambassadors and a former Senior Secretary to the Government has said the UPSC must internally democratize its functioning, giving a greater role and participation to its membership and not just its Chairperson.

Perhaps more importantly, Vivek Katju, a former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Myanmar and Thailand and a former Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, has said public trust in the UPSC would be undermined if sitting members “begin to extol the virtues of government policies”. Although he did not name any individual, Mr. Katju said its well-known that at least one member of the UPSC has been doing just this on social media. Mr. Katju said if this continues and proliferates public trust in the UPSC would be seriously undermined. As he put it: “In a democracy, institutions can never take public trust for granted”.

In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Mr. Katju also said that trust in the UPSC is badly damaged when “after retirement some UPSC members develop links with commercial coaching centres”. Again, although he did not name any individual Mr. Katju said he is aware of one or possibly two former members of the UPSC who have after retirement developed links with commercial coaching centres. Mr. Katju agreed that this is a bit like judges joining law firms after retirement or army chiefs becoming directors of weapon manufacturing companies.

In the interview to The Wire, Mr. Katju begins by discussing two specific concerns about the Puja Khedkar case. First, how she was able to game the system by changing her name, her father’s and mother’s name, her photograph/signature, her email id, mobile number and address and thus fraudulently avail of more attempts to sit the UPSC exam than the permissible limit.

Mr. Katju’s conclusion is that the UPSC must devise a system to prevent this ever happening again but as yet does not have one. This means we do not know for sure how many others have similarly gamed the system. It’s only when they are caught that we find out.

The second big issue Mr. Katju raised regarding the Puja Khedkar case is the question why did the government, which reportedly ordered Khedkar on six different occasions to go to AIIMS for a medical examination to verify her claimed disabilities, accept a certificate from another source. In this connection, he strongly argued that the Additional Secretary’s inquiry report must be made public. As he put it: “The government has to come clean on this issue”.

If the government does not there will be suspicion both that its “shielding” an individual and also that there are systematic flaws in the system which it is hiding.


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