Should impartial and being non-partisan be considered as indispensable qualities to make a successful…

Question

Should impartial and being non-partisan be considered as indispensable qualities to make a successful civil servant? Discuss with illustrations.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Impartiality and non-partisanship are indispensable for a successful civil servant because they secure equal citizenship and frank advice to every government, but they must be joined with constitutional commitment and empathy. The Shah Commission (1978) showed how officials who obeyed illegal Emergency orders became instruments of excess.

**Introduction**

Impartiality means deciding without bias; non-partisanship means serving every lawful government without party loyalty. The Nolan Committee (UK, 1995) captures the first as objectivity, and their value depends on whether success means pleasing the government of the day or earning every citizen's trust.

**Why They Are Indispensable**

1. **Equal citizenship**: Articles 14 and 16 promise equal treatment, which only an impartial officer delivers in a police station or a tender committee.
2. **Frank advice**: Sardar Patel told the Constituent Assembly in 1949 that an All-India Service needs the independence to speak out its mind, possible only for an officer tied to no party.
3. **Cost of their absence**: The Shah Commission (1978) found many officials carried out illegal orders during the Emergency, showing how partisanship breeds excess.

**Why They Are Not Sufficient Alone**

1. **Neutrality is not value-blindness**: Eichmann's plea that he merely followed orders, Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil", shows obedience without conscience serving grave wrongs.

SKETCH: spectrum | Where a Civil Servant Should Stand
left: Party loyalty
right: Value-blind obedience
- Committed bureaucracy
- Constitutional neutrality
- Mechanical neutrality

2. **Commitment to the Constitution**: The 1970s "committed bureaucracy" was rightly resisted as party loyalty, yet officers must stay committed to justice and dignity.
3. **Empathy for the weakest**: S.R. Sankaran enforced the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and built schools for Dalits, showing that fairness sometimes demands active care.

**Conclusion**

These values are indispensable but not sufficient: without them a civil servant cannot be trusted, and with them alone he may still fail the citizen. The successful officer is neutral between parties and persons yet partial to the Constitution and to the last person, in the spirit of Gandhi's talisman.

Should impartial and being non-partisan be considered as indispensable qualities to make a successful civil servant? Discuss with illustrations.

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