MC Elections

 Shimla is heading for Municipal Corporation Elections  scheduled to be held on 2nd of May, 2023. The elections to rhe local bodies  carry a flavour of their own  as the voters are to elect a Councillor/  ward member from amongst their fellow local residents . There are only local development issues at stake.  This time the Government have decided to hold the MC election on party lines,  which on the face of it appears a wise decision as  even in the previous many elections,  the political parties have  jumped into fray  in support of one candidate or  the other,  though contesting on an independent non-party symbol.  Thus it is an open secret that the  it was a proxy contest between the political parties , though some independent candidates also  contested and won. 

The new decision makes it a direct  contest  between party candidates.  Whether the decision clicks in favour of the party  ruling the State or boomerangs will be seen after the results are  declared.  Previously the candidates had the advantage of getting floating / cross votes  but this time the things are going to turn out differently.  Traditionally,  the ruling party for whatever reason has had the slight edge. Nevertheless,  the contest is going to be tough and interesting.  The repeated candidates have  their achievements  to showcase,  while the new candidates will come up with a new fresh roadmap.  The ruling party candidates too have to canvass hard as they  cannot afford to  sit  smug and complacent.

Random Thoughts

 In the mid- '60s or thereabout,  The Illustrated Weekly of India once started a series of articles by retired or serving ICS officers with the title 'The ICS and I'. I, a school going  boy then and not much into reading    English  just glanced through  some of those,  not fully  comprehending what was written. The ICS fascinated all,though the successor service  IAS was already in existence.  We had read about  Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose qualifying the ICS in 1920 and quitting  it  to play his role in the Indian freedom struggle. 

During the '60s Newspapers and magazine carried the names of ICS officers like Kewal Singh, T.N.Kaul,  B.K.Kaul, C.D.Deshmukh,  L.K.Jha and the like who excelled in the various fields though belonging to a generalist service. 

As of today,  the charm of Civil Service remains in tact. Besides the IAS  & the other Group  A services  , the Engineering Services and the Indian Forest Service attract a lot of young talent and thousands of aspirants appear in examination to compete for a fraction of vacancies every year.

One commonly hears of deterioration setting in these services,  with reasons not far to seek. The political bosses rule the roost and  civil servants are literally at their  beck and call.  We see a lot of fawning,  cringing civil servants- bureaucrats and technocrats  , a very few of them having the courage to have spine  and put their foot down. Ironically the same fawning,  cringing lot  become arrogant while  dealing with public.