US Vice President-elect JD Vance's comment that the executive must get rid of those bureaucrats not obeying the President's orders has found resonance in India. In an interview aired on September 19, Vance said that his boss Donald Trump learned the hard way during his first four years in office that if you have people in your government who you tell to do something and they disobey you, that's not like checks and balances.
"The check and balance is the House, the Senate, and the judiciary. The people in your own government aren't obeying you. You have got to get rid of them and replace them with people who are responsive to what the president is trying to do," Vance said while speaking with Tucker Carlson.
The US Vice President-elect further said that it's real people who suffer because of this. "There are Americans who are dead because the Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't listen to the President of the United States when he said you need to do trooper deployments out of Syria. There are veterans who are dead because the VA does not function...Again, the small number, but the small number of people who aren't doing their job. And that same story repeats itself. Rinse and repeat through the entire American government. You have got to have basic democratic accountability."
This sentiment resonated with former Indian bureaucrat LV Nilesh, who shared the interview clip on social media and commented, "Modi needs to start firing those IAS officers that don’t perform as directed. I won’t name any but I personally know many."
Snehal Gersappa, an entrepreneur and investor, echoed Nilesh's call for reform. "Absolutely, the Constitution defines clear roles, but bureaucracy lacks accountability mechanisms. While they can’t be sacked outright, there’s an urgent need for stringent checks and balances — our ‘steel frame’ is in serious need of repair," Gersappa said.
Navneet Kaushal, an entrepreneur and business owner, went further, stating that the entire IAS/IPS system needs reform. "The IAS/IPS system needs [to be] scrapped. British used it [to] subjugate and control masses," Kaushal noted.
In that interview, Vance said the Americans are fine with bureaucrats making a reasonable salary and having a good life, "but they've got to do their job right". "When you're in public service, you've got to do your job. And whether you're an elected official or an unelected bureaucrat, if you're not doing your job, you got to get out there and make way for somebody who will."
In April this year, former Niti Aayog Vice Chairperson Arvind Panagariya said the central tendency of the Indian bureaucracy has been to be an obstacle to change. He, however, added that there are some incredibly good officers in the bureaucracy without their presence, none of the reforms could have happened.
"Changing the entire (bureaucracy) system is so difficult that I have always felt that lateral entry is one way to proceed. But even that has been extremely hard," the economist said while responding to a question on reforms in bureaucracy by Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the India Today Group, at the 4th Columbia India Summit.