Permanent executive

The permanent executive: bureaucracy. Besides the PM and ministers, the executive includes a large body of trained, skilled, permanent government employees, the civil service (named to distinguish it from the military). They assist ministers in formulating and implementing policies.

• In a democracy, elected representatives and ministers are in charge, and the administration is under their control and supervision; the legislature also controls it. Officers cannot act against policies adopted by the legislature.
• The bureaucracy must be politically neutral: it takes no political position on policy, and must serve faithfully and efficiently whichever party forms the government, even one that reverses the previous government's policies.
• India's bureaucracy is enormously complex: All-India services, state services, local government employees, and technical and managerial staff of public sector undertakings.

Recruitment on merit. The framers wanted a non-partisan, professional bureaucracy selected impartially on merit.

• The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) recruits civil servants for the Government of India; State Public Service Commissions do so for the states.
• Members of the Public Service Commissions have a fixed term; they can be removed or suspended only after a thorough enquiry by a Supreme Court judge.
• To make the bureaucracy representative, the Constitution provides reservation in jobs for SCs and STs; reservations have since been extended to women, OBCs and the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).

IAS and IPS. Officers of the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service, selected by the UPSC, form the backbone of higher administration in the states. The district collector is usually an IAS officer.

• An IAS or IPS officer is assigned to a state and works under the state government's supervision, but is appointed by the central government, can return to central service, and, most importantly, can be disciplined only by the central government. This strengthens the Centre's control over state administration.
• Other state officers are recruited through State Public Service Commissions.

Problems and remedies. The bureaucracy is the instrument through which welfare policies reach people, yet people often fear approaching officers, and it can be insensitive to ordinary citizens. Elected governments must control it; but too much political interference turns it into a politician's tool, and there are few protections against such interference or provisions for accountability to citizens. Measures like the Right to Information are expected to make it more responsive and accountable.

Conclusion. The modern executive is the most powerful organ of government, so democratic control over it matters greatly. By choosing a parliamentary executive, with periodic elections, constitutional limits and democratic politics, the framers kept it answerable.

Example (new): when a new government decides to replace a free-bus scheme with cash transfers, the same transport officials who ran the old scheme must now design and run the new one, faithfully, whatever their own views.