In response to my column on ‘IAS scoring over MBBS’ I was intrigued to read a column from a UAE based Kashmiri non-resident, viewing the subject from a different perspective. Apparently his views might be in variance with some of my inputs on the subject, however the gentleman has taken the debate to a healthier state and it did make an interesting reading. The beauty of the debate lies in putting in varying viewpoints ending ultimately in evolving a consensus. Failure to evolve a consensus makes the debate an exercise in futility. Hence, I have captioned the column ‘exploring a combine’!
I am not naïve to the extent of believing that the society needs only doctors and engineers. My contender had wrongly interpreted it. Of course entrepreneurs, financial experts, agriculturists, horticulturists are essential ingredients of any society,   however more often than not, it has been seen that bureaucrats control and feel free to overrule the technical services with impunity. And it is the bureaucrat, who has the ear of the political executive. This shrinkage of the space for the technocrat to operate in his field, given his subservience to the bureaucrat results in what is often termed the ‘brain drain’. Hiring of the huge technical pool in India by USA, UK and Middle Eastern states might have solved to an extent India’s chronic un-employment, however it has also meant an immense loss in productive manpower. I have seen scores of sub continentals, Indians mostly hired for research work. What they deliver gets pooled and sustains western lead in science. 
My UAE based contender is worried about lack of entrepreneurship amongst Kashmiris, obsessed as they remain with a narrow spectrum of technical fields-medicine and engineering, rightly so. He quotes Keralitis excelling in Dubai. That however has a historical linkage. Malabar Coast had the earliest settlers from Arabia. Overall coastal subcontinental areas had a closer linkage with the gulf. In Oman mostly and to an extent in UAE, many Balochis are nationals [Muwatin in Arabic] but Keralitis have exploited the historical linkage to hilt. Kashmir’s trade linkage of yore was silk route. An author relates, anyone on this route would think twice before crossing swords with a Kashmiri. We may take that to mean that Kashmiri was not lacking in entrepreneurship. And my friend should rest assured that the resurgent Kashmiri is inching his way forward in USA, UK and even in UAE.
We all know the success story of Kathwaris in USA. Farooq was a cricket mate in S.P.College. A Kashmiri family in Leeds runs a major real estate chain in UK. At the head of this chain is an engineer, who felt stifled by the rough deal that technocrats were getting-left in 1975 and proved his mettle in UK, the family has financial stakes in UAE too. Right in UAE, you have Vakils running a huge business chain. I agree it doesn’t amount to much, nevertheless it is not only in traditional technical fields-medicine and engineering that Kashmiris are excelling. They are slowly inching forward in other fields too; to illustrate it I need to quote a UAE episode worth recounting.
Two delegations from UAE sheikhdoms-Fujairah and Abu Dubai were negotiating a huge deal of laying down an oil pipeline from Abu Dubai to Fujairah-the east coast Sheikhdom, the Arab sheikhs left it to technocrats in the delegations to settle the deal. As the technical heads started sizing each other, they had a pleasant surprise in store-both were Kashmiris. They settled the deal worth millions of dollars, Arab Sheikhs signed on the dotted line. Abu Dubai wants the pipeline to circumvent Gulf of Hormuz-the main energy sea lane, however a risky venture. Fujairah is deep water port, a precondition for huge mercantile shipping.  One of the two technical heads could not get even a junior engineer’s job here, managed to get a masters in ‘construction management’ from the prestigious Leeds University and is now a UAE based Chief Engineer, heads planning and revenue and is an advisor to ruler of a UAE Sheikhdom. That brings us to the theme-bureaucratic and technocratic combine. Don’t you think this gentleman is doing exactly that? I would now venture into Balraj Puri’s take up of the subject.
Balraj Puri is a famed socio-political commentator. Having been virtually grown to respect a famous son of the state, it was a high point for me to interact with the grand old man in a recent Jammu conference, particularly to know that he had a encouraging note for my columns. Balraj Puri attributes high performance of IAS aspirants with science subjects to almost mathematical marking in science subjects. I would take that, science has precision. However he seems inclined to believe that social sciences students need to be the favoured ones for IAS, as the knowledge of social sciences equips the administrative officer to get versed with social conditioning of the places, he serves in. He may be right to an extent, given its historical perspective.
Plato (Aflatoon) (428/427 to 348/347 B.C) theorized the republican concept and sought to put social sciences to practical use in running a state. The concept did not compartmentalize academics.  Although science too originated with Greeks, the early masters made its pursuit a philosophical exercise-meant to seek clear notions of what the universe possesses and how could we use it to improve life. Aristotle (Arastoo) (384-322 B.C) wanted a ‘philosopher statesman’ to head the republic and he raised ‘Lyceum’ a parallel institution of learning to Plato’s ‘Academia’. Social sciences and scientific streams became parallel disciplines-the former to streamline the society and the later to make life as comfortable as possible by scientific inventions. Hippocrates (Bukrat) (466-377 B.C) a contemporary of Socrates (SUkrat) (470-399 B.C) had already laid a foundation of biological sciences. Archimedes (Archemeed), Galen (Jilinus) followed with inventions in physical sciences. However the concept of total education stayed. Greeks were followed by Muslims in academic pursuits. The ‘Hakim’ in Islamic lore was not the one to provide remedy for only the physical ailment; medicine was a part of his pursuit. Otherwise, he had to be well versed in all academic streams. The concept of total education stayed.
As the logos of Greeks, pursued later by Muslims widened in renaissance of Europeans, specialization was a natural corollary. Total education suffered, hence the modern bureaucrat is a technical novice and a technocrat lacks briefing in social sciences. I wonder, I really do, how a bureaucrat could comprehend the technical details or how could a technocrat bereft of social grasp operate in his field. It is not a view to challenge the mental capability of either the bureaucrat or the technocrat; it is competence which is in focus. Even with his lack of technical capability, bureaucrat is empowered to overrule the technocrat and technocrat ill equipped with knowledge of societal demands feels stifled by bureaucrat! Is there a way out?
Total education of bygone ages might not be possible, due to wide dissemination of knowledge in all fields. The technocrats however need to have a briefing in social sciences, say by introducing humanities as a subject, already in vogue in engineering sciences. In medicine, health/hospital administration is already a specialty. Shah Faesel could clear IAS after MBBS with Urdu as one of his subjects, Owase Jeelani, the London based neurosurgeon I mentioned in my previous column cleared MBA after FRCS, by studying microeconomics. Technocrats in all fields-medicine, engineering, agriculture, commerce, education could be expected to take over their departments including secretarial services without bureaucratic over-lording. There is a civil service rules book, which is not a difficult take and no special training is needed to master it. It is at the most a reference book, easy to interpret for any educated person of average intelligence-it just tells you what to do and what not to do. Managing finances could be a trickier proposition-but then isn’t financial management too, a technical enterprise and almost every department has a financial consultant, even in the present set-up.
The traditional administrator-ICS and its post independence version IAS had primarily the responsibility of revenue collection and to maintain law and order-the two roles were combined in colonial times to ensure revenue collection. It is debatable whether in a democratic system, law enforcement agencies need to come in to ensure revenue collection. Computerization of land record-the basic government record and revenue collection has already shrunk in the role of ‘Todar Mal’s’ revenue services. Law and order maintenance is a security related subject, yet again a highly technical subject in modern times. The role of administrators in maintaining security, revenue collection and services coordination at district and divisional and provincial levels might still be desirable; however administrative Services (IAS/KAS) need to overhauled and reshaped and the technocrats equipped with social awareness to meet the demands of a highly technical age-tough call, however the way forward! More over bureaucracy in its reshaping should not be designed to shrink the operating space of technocrats in the society-a desirable combine is the need of the times!Yaar Zinda, Sohbat Baqi [Reunion is subordinate to survival]

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