As the nation launched itself on the new-found onerous task of ruling on democratic lines, the top brass in the fledging government at the Centre sought advice of a British expert in administration by name Appleby. Call it irony or whatever, the expert advice had to be sought from the British colonialists who, having ruled the land for 150 years, were forced close shop. Moderates may not consider the event to be treated as a joke played by the then honchos in the government on the people of India, lakhs of them taking part in the freedom movement, a large section of that mass sacrificing everything in their life. After a few terms of ruling the nation by the dominating political party, India was touted as the best administered country in the world, with the rider “only on paper.” As years have passed, one is not obliged to accept even that qualified remark about administration in the country.

The nation, as one looks back, seems to have coasted along smoothly in the initial stages following freedom, mainly because the men (and women) at the top in the government as well as the opposition wore the badge of aura and eminence in various fields, including Statesmanship and also academics. As their influence witnessed a steady decline, we have reached where we have reached in present times.

The senior citizens of the land, particularly the fast-disappearing sections in their late eighties, can be heard bemoaning in the rapid fall in what many public speakers are fascinated to call values of life, as they followed in their life-time — in short, moral degradation of those who hold high posts in the government, specially the elected representatives of people to democratic bodies in the range of Panchayat to Parliament. The Constitution of the nation provides for any citizen to get to that top irrespective of the required credentials, and that has proved the bane as events over years bear testimony.

In the absence of well-defined credentials for those who are part of the government machinery, the nation, as reported in the media, hosts a large number of MPs and members of legislatures facing criminal cases. The only factor in their favour is the cardinal principle namely, no one is guilty until proved. There are, as yet, no signs of matters changing for the better.