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Civil Services Mains 2020 Results: In or Out ? Way ahead, gratitude and Pain

The Civils Mains result has been declared. This thread is for sharing your grief , joy , mixed feelings - absolutely anything and everything.



jack_Sparrow,musaand60 otherslike this
2.2m views

5.3k comments

Deleted
I hope people realise that deleted comments aren't that deleted

i dont believe you

Neither do I !


;)

NOLEisGOAT,
4.7k views
Mate I wouldn’t fault anyone for wanting to make a buck, but fact remains that there are legitimate ways to do that. 
You slog for years for this exam for years on end knowing fully well that:
1. Your pay won’t compare to the pay of your friend at a top MNC.
2. There is a lot wrong with the system and even if you clear, you might not be able to change a lot of things. 
3. Being super honest, transparent and bold could get you transferred or worse, killed. 
4. With your legitimate means of income, you could probably afford a good education for your children but won’t be able to afford say Harvard. Your friend who probably isn’t as hardworking or smart would be able to do that as well. 

Yet, you chose to do it. Why? It differs from person to person. Most do it for the prestige. This is the most coveted job there is in the country, and power is currency. It is self interest that motivates them. Many do it believe they can change the system. They might be idealists, but there’s always space for them as well in this world. Many do it because even within the contours of power, you are empowered to change the lives of the common man. Even these kinds of people are motivated by self interest, because pursuing these things is what gives them happiness. 

I don’t know what motivates you,@Johnny_Distracted and I don’t want to assume also. You are after all a deleted comment on an anonymous page. Just a reminder that if you consciously choose to follow this path, given all the facts, and then whine about anything and everything that isn’t in your favour, your arguments would seem immature and devoid of any merit. If you want to follow the path of your friend and make a buck, nothing stops you. No one would judge you. Hell, I’d even say that it’s the more secure and reasonable path for an average Indian to follow. 

Now, if you absolutely must join the services and still make a buck, there are still ways to do that. Priorities change. Maybe money becomes more important than the ideals you held in your twenties. Maybe you become disillusioned. It happens. Many retired IAS officers are on the boards of the largest MNCs operating in India. Many officers resign from service to join the private sector. They join at higher levels and rake in much more money than your friend who’s working his way up the corporate ladder right now. And there is nothing wrong with that. No one is holding a gun to your head to make you stay in the services AND be corrupt.*

You cannot say that you were forced to be corrupt by the rotten system, just because you wanted the best of both worlds. I feel like you need to commit to a decision and stick to it. 

*Until they actually hold a gun to your head. Pls appreciate the humour. 
EiChan,GaryVeeand7 otherslike this
4.6k views

Friends, just wanted to quickly plugin this interview of Mr Iqbal Singh Chahal, who is managing the Bombay Municipal Corporation right now, and is one of the reason for everything right (or wrong) happening in this city regarding covid. 


Will urge to watch this interview. 


For me, he seemed like an able adminstrator, a well prepared officer to face media scrutiny, and an inspiration to study little extra to convert that khayaali pulaao dreams into reality.



Saw this few days ago. Felt thrilled. What an amazing man! Taking the challenge head on. Even checked with some people in mumbai to know that most of things he said are being implemented very efficiently. 

12432TrivendrumRajdhani,
4k views
Deleted

these noble aspirants with godly powers can also work for 18 hours a day. please spare us mortals their comparison, if we compare ourselves with them we may shrink and shrivel like fallen leaves. anyways this idea about corruption was the least important thing occupying my brain till i came across it on the platform. but on deeper thought i wont do corruption not because i am inspired by some noble ideas, but simply because it's not worth the hassle. i dont want to be a paranoid losing his sleep on hearing police sirens. as simple as that. also i have come to value minimalist way of life and more than money my thoughts are troubled with existential questions. i dont see any point in pursuit of money. There's a study that says that beyond a point money loses its value, it stops adding any value to your life.

anyways for the sake of bakar god created adam god created eve apparently in his own pure image....and what was their first act:joy:to steal

also , a great man once said i hate purity , i hate goodness, i want no virtue to exist. i want everyone to be corrupt to the bones. No this great man didnt write the holy bible for he was too unholy


Johnny_Distracted,
4.1k views
Deleted

D503said

Just read the whole justifying corruption stuff and this is so fun. :D Trust me, I can't stop smiling. Someone mentioned salaries. Just throwing in some data from an ex civil servant about the LOW salaries of a Indian civil servant. https://qr.ae/pGtnnb So damn low. I feel bad for the officers in my city, may be they need help. And mind you these numbers do not include the ridiculous amount of power differential Indian civil servants have with their western counterparts. And the social status differential.

Ram ji please kripa karo apne desh pe thodi to, saari sadbudhi satyug ke liye hi thi kya! 

Just went through that buffoon Awdhesh Singh's answer trying to make a point that Indian Civil servants salaries are higher than their American counterparts adjusted for perks, CTC and PPP using some charts and calculations.


Anyone with basic arithmetic proficiency can see how he errs in his calculations in his answers. (How he arrives at 300000$ figure for top salary of Indian CS is mind boggling!?).


Anyway, it's laughable on part of such a seasoned bureaucrat to even think of such anomaly (in American and Indian Govt salaries) in first place, but he actually goes on and makes a buffoonery of himself making wrong calculations to justify his point.

Anyway, the debate here was not to justify corruption per se but to have a debate on aspects of it.

And no debate can take place unless you have two sides to put their arguments henceforth.


Are waah boss ab Awadesh buffon ho gaye, thodi der pehle tak to state ki legitimacy vagarah sambhal rahe the, chalo leave buffon to hai. This world bank study is also behaving similarly and adding an infographic from that study here. 

 per capita gdp of korea 31k USD, for india its 2k USD. what this data points to is not indian civil servants being overpaid  but general population being too poor aka inequality , as far as i can infer.


In my understanding, The comparison has to be in the ratio right? My Family income with a family of 4 is one lakh rupees and elder brother gets 70k as pocket money. Rest all 3 get 10k. The ratio of elder brother's pocket money to family income is 7:10. My aunt in mumbai has a family income of 12 lakh rupees with family of 4. Elder brother their gets 3 lakhs as pocket money. The ratio of elder brother pocket money here to family income is 1:4. Now I cant' say that the my elder brother is not overpaid, its just my family being poor. One has to see things in context for every country to make it comparable. Please correct me if I am reading the data wrong.



Yes, you are interpreting the data wrongly on many levels.


It's the pay disparity between Govt sector and the equivalent jobs in private sector is what gives rise to corruption.

4.6k views
@Patootie Can the system become honest.Todays wealthy have their wealth because of biased decision making of govt of past.For example,rajput caste in bihar owns a lot of land .They all got the land because british made them the zamindar.Kurmi caste in bihar prospered because ranjit don made a lot of kurmis doctors, engineers,job holders by other means.Todays upper caste prospered because they discriminated against backward castes.A person from delhi has much better access to higher education than a person of bihar,even if they score same marks in JEE or NEET.Can you call that corruption?Being Wealthy in india is a function of a lot of biased govt policies.


D503,Johnny_Distracted
4.8k views
@Patootie Can the system become honest.Todays wealthy have their wealth because of biased decision making of govt of past.For example,rajput caste in bihar owns a lot of land .They all got the land because british made them the zamindar.Kurmi caste in bihar prospered because ranjit don made a lot of kurmis doctors, engineers,job holders by other means.Todays upper caste prospered because they discriminated against backward castes.A person fromdelhi has much better access to higher education than a person of bihar,even if they score same marks in JEE or NEET.Can you call that corruption?


I'd call that injustice, and all injustice is corruption. I don't see the system becoming honest, not in my lifetime. But I'd never say never. :)

KV17,
4.5k views

D503said

Just read the whole justifying corruption stuff and this is so fun. :D Trust me, I can't stop smiling. Someone mentioned salaries. Just throwing in some data from an ex civil servant about the LOW salaries of a Indian civil servant. https://qr.ae/pGtnnb So damn low. I feel bad for the officers in my city, may be they need help. And mind you these numbers do not include the ridiculous amount of power differential Indian civil servants have with their western counterparts. And the social status differential.

Ram ji please kripa karo apne desh pe thodi to, saari sadbudhi satyug ke liye hi thi kya! 

Just went through that buffoon Awdhesh Singh's answer trying to make a point that Indian Civil servants salaries are higher than their American counterparts adjusted for perks, CTC and PPP using some charts and calculations.


Anyone with basic arithmetic proficiency can see how he errs in his calculations in his answers. (How he arrives at 300000$ figure for top salary of Indian CS is mind boggling!?).


Anyway, it's laughable on part of such a seasoned bureaucrat to even think of such anomaly (in American and Indian Govt salaries) in first place, but he actually goes on and makes a buffoonery of himself making wrong calculations to justify his point.

Anyway, the debate here was not to justify corruption per se but to have a debate on aspects of it.

And no debate can take place unless you have two sides to put their arguments henceforth.


Are waah boss ab Awadesh buffon ho gaye, thodi der pehle tak to state ki legitimacy vagarah sambhal rahe the, chalo leave buffon to hai. This world bank study is also behaving similarly and adding an infographic from that study here. 

 per capita gdp of korea 31k USD, for india its 2k USD. what this data points to is not indian civil servants being overpaid  but general population being too poor aka inequality , as far as i can infer.


In my understanding, The comparison has to be in the ratio right? My Family income with a family of 4 is one lakh rupees and elder brother gets 70k as pocket money. Rest all 3 get 10k. The ratio of elder brother's pocket money to family income is 7:10. My aunt in mumbai has a family income of 12 lakh rupees with family of 4. Elder brother their gets 3 lakhs as pocket money. The ratio of elder brother pocket money here to family income is 1:4. Now I cant' say that the my elder brother is not overpaid, its just my family being poor. One has to see things in context for every country to make it comparable. Please correct me if I am reading the data wrong.



Yes, you are interpreting the data wrongly on many levels.


It's the pay disparity between Govt sector and the equivalent jobs in private sector is what gives rise to corruption.

Maafi sarkaar! May the god of parity bless us and this country!

(Mere arguments khatam tata bye bye good bye )

thesleepyhead,
3.8k views
Deleted
@qwerty111111 How is the solution of your problems get solved by civil servants making quick bucks? It is not like he would give his money to a weak person. You are against the strong person taking advantage of the system and still supports civil servants being corrupt?



AJ_,
3.7k views
.
thepolicydreamer,
3.6k views
Deleted
This isn’t a firm belief, just want to ask people’s views on this. 

I feel that our society can’t function without corruption. Corruption has many hues to it, like someone mentioned about the ill practices in large companies, call it profiteering, crony capitalism, bribery, they’re all forms of corruption. I’ve first hand seen what opportunities lie in the government sector to make money, seen many earn a lot, seen some earn just enough. Some are ‘ethical’ in their demands, some are brutal. 
Since we’re talking about the top echelons of government service, I’ll confine my comments to this strata.
Nearly all postings in government service have a cost [no empirical data to confirm this, simply my observations because out of the many cases I’ve seen, barring 3-4, I’m yet to see a posting which wasn’t given in lieu for money or as a punishment(ignoring early postings in IAS, IPS, IRS, State Admin, Police etc.]. 
Before I jumped into UPSC preparation, I was about to start my training for a job which was absolutely tension free, enjoyable, a lot of free time, a lot of travel and the salary growth was phenomenal (₹1.5 lakhs/ month at joining and after 6-ish years, around ₹7-8 lakhs/month). I thought a lot about what I really wanted from life. Flashy cars, clothes, gadgets or giving something back to the society.
Salary in Govt. services is just about okay if you compare to what I left behind. I won’t be able to drive any German beauties, I wouldn’t wear expensive watches,I wouldn’t stay at posh hotels. But I realised, I don’t need it. Come to think of it, you can easily lead a comfortable life if you’re able to control your desires. So yeah, personally I’m convinced that I would be very comfortable with what’s on offer. 
Now, what we’re pursuing, it offers us immense opportunity to bring about changes. Not like ‘duniya hi hila denge’ type, but realistically, wherever you’re posted, you’ll have so much potential to work with. That excites me and I suppose it’s the same for everyone else too. 
But
The reality is that you’re part of a system. A system which won’t hesitate in chucking you out if you are a rebel nut in the vast array of gears. To get and remain at good postings, you need to grease hands of the higher ups (again, very rare exceptions do exist). To do good work you have to remain at good postings. 
What I personally believe is this, if you have your heart in the right place, you’d know what to do. Temptation is an alluring slope but it is a slope nonetheless. If the corruption you indulge in doesn’t at large bring you any ‘personal’ gains, you’re doing it to remain a part of the system, continue doing good work, I would say that it’s justifiable in the grand scheme of things. 

Not saying that you necessarily have to participate in corruption but a lot of times you would have to turn a blind eye. I’m not saying this as a firmly established principle but just saying that I don’t have a hard stance that I won’t indulge in any corruption or I would definitely indulge in corruption. 
I’m only clear on one count, I personally am not going to take/ use any sort of illegitimately earned gains.

Would love to have some learned opinions on this. 

One comment which started with realism but unfortunately veered away towards idealism towards the end. 


What pains me is the spirit of total rejection of corruption as a concept in a country which lies so low on integrity parameters with all wings of democracy and otherwise taking dives of corruption day in and day out.


And the same hypocrisy of some 'uber honest aspirants' here and of the society in general, actually, amuses me!

4.5k views
Deleted
man is selfish, selfseeking, avaricious by nature. what was hobbes prescription to deal with it? did he endeavour to change the very nature of men? no. that's impossible, but what can be done is creating a system of checks and balances that atleast eliminates the worst form of corruption the type that costs lives, while benign form of corruption is allowed to exist. Even in society we have brothels and intoxicants , despite all religion and every learned man considering them evil. Follow aristotle- golden mean is the golden rule. Dont be plato, his idealism and holy ideas came to be used to justify fascism.
Sankoza,mehuifsand1 otherslike this
3.7k views
Deleted

D503said

man is selfish, selfseeking, avaricious by nature. what was hobbes prescription to deal with it? did he endeavour to change the very nature of men? no. that's impossible, but what can be done is creating a system of checks and balances that atleast eliminates the worst form of corruption the type that costs lives, while benign form of corruption is allowed to exist. Even in society we have brothels and intoxicants , despite all religion and every learned man considering them evil. Follow aristotle- golden mean is the golden rule. Dont be plato, his idealism and holy ideas came to be used to justify fascism.

"benign form of corruption is allowed to exist"


Thank you.

4.3k views

forget perfect man. can we even draw a perfect circle ?:neutral_face:

Curious_souls,Sankozaand1 otherslike this
3.6k views
There is a college named IIIT allahabad.Udhar dekha tha corruption kya hota hai.The director must have made 100 crores.The director itself was some arts graduate,with almost all of the employees belonging to a certain caste.Their I got to know that India has too many multimillionaires and powerful people just play system to keep the power with themselves.Fraud PhD holders being made professors even when the professor was a multimillionaire.Admission main bhi dhandhli.USA se jyada easy hai India main millionaire banna.Jise corruption karna hai uttar pradesh le lo.
Johnny_Distracted,
4.4k views
Mate I’m not asking anyone to follow this or not participate in corruption. You know your conditions well, if you feel you need this, it feels ethically correct to your conscience then sure, go ahead. In cases like these, I can’t judge someone without being in their situation.
That being said, it veers towards idealism because I personally believe in progress. I don’t envision radical progress but gradual progress. Being a part of the system, if I can make things better, I would. You can’t improve the system by aspiring to just be a part of the status quo. At the same time, the system needs to be gamed. It’s pretty much about where you find the balance. 

Principally though, corruption is a malaise. People tend to start at ‘a little’ but it doesn’t stop there. Individually some people might have some justification but not the society at large. 
People aren’t rejecting the concept of corruption, they know it exists, many would have seen it firsthand. They’re simply saying that as an aspirant, you know well the conditions beforehand. Yet if you continue to follow this path, you must realise what responsibilities lie on you, also that you would have sufficient to live a comfortable life, therefore if at this stage you’re dreaming about ‘making a little on the side’ or justifying the gain of wealth by illicit means, your heart isn’t in the right place. 

That’s all I have to say and I wouldn’t like to participate further in this discussion. :)

May Kasahara,Orlando Mazzottaand2 otherslike this
3.7k views

D503said

forget perfect man. can we even draw a perfect circle ?:neutral_face:

if you exclude my teacher, then no.

3.3k views

D503said

man is selfish, selfseeking, avaricious by nature. what was hobbes prescription to deal with it? did he endeavour to change the very nature of men? no. that's impossible, but what can be done is creating a system of checks and balances that atleast eliminates the worst form of corruption the type that costs lives, while benign form of corruption is allowed to exist. Even in society we have brothels and intoxicants , despite all religion and every learned man considering them evil. Follow aristotle- golden mean is the golden rule. Dont be plato, his idealism and holy ideas came to be used to justify fascism.

Immoral does not equal illegal.

ArchAngel96,AJ_and1 otherslike this
3.8k views

Seeing this firey thread while trying to figure out where on earth did I hide my blue lays packet from my younger brother, I'm reminded of a couplet by Shakeel Badayuni -

Har cheez nahi hai marqaz par; ik zarra idhr ik zarra udhr, nafrat se na dekho dushman ko, shayad woh mohabbat kar baithe :p.       






Aurora,Rise from Ashesand2 otherslike this
3k views
Deleted

So, here's the cheatsheet on corruption (no pun intended) deduced after this series of dialectics:


1. Corruption cannot be eliminated from our society, it can only be reduced or harmlessly transmuted. 

Comment: Whenever there is sovereign power (be it democracy of US or India, or autocracy of Saudi or China), there will always be individuals at the top and the brokers who, due to very beastly nature of man, will resort to corruption. That notion of sovereign power changes from time and place (e.g. Saheb and bada babu duo in a Certificate office are de facto sovereigns in matter of issuing certificates)


2. In order to reduce corruption, we must study the core reasons causing corruption and try practical fixes instead of acting as epitome of integrity and repeat same old cures which are obviously not working on the ground. 

e.g. Pay disparity wrt Priavte sector is indeed an issue which fuels corruption in Govt sector employees, especially at the lower end jobs. And increasing salary will actually help inreducingcorruption amongsome %of workforce. 

Same way, harsher punishments must be ensured for acts of corruption, more so in higher echelons of the ladder.

Then, Something must be done to root out the elephant in the room, the extent of black money in elections which is a big fountainhead of corruption in India.

Same way, technology can be employed in a massive manner to cut corruption. Case studies of IRCTC ticket booking and online passport making process offer much hope.


3. Corruption is a very complex issue which encompasses historical injustices, generational inequality, subtle forms of daily corruption in kind or cash. We should give up our hallowed sense of righteousness and  propensity to seek solutions in black and white like a non sensical moron.


Many developed economies of today which were at similar development stage as India is now (e.g. USA in 1910s and 20s) underwent the similar stage of corruption in jobs, crony capitalism, etc.  You can refer to "The Billionaire Raj" by James Crabtree on this topic.

Some may also argue that overall poverty levels (and ensuing actual inequality or perceived sense of future inequality) and underdeveloped state of the economy is the major contributor to corruption, especially at lower levels - which actually pinches the common man in a more visible manner.


It was nice interacting, fellas, and going through your impassioned raw idealistic arguments as well as the grounded realistic ones. What else is needed for a person in quarantine needing some break from monotony of Netflix and chilling.


Shubh Ratri.

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