Bureaucracy bashing has turned a fashion statement for Global Netas

HAS bureaucracy bashing become a fashion statement for global Netas right from British Prime Minister David Cameron to Japanese premier Naoto Kan?

As David Cameron entered No 10 Downing Street recently, he talked about a “post-bureaucratic age” which would not allow “the old top-down, big government solutions”. New Japan PM Naoto Kan’s insult to bureaucracy has been pretty well known in power corridors of the world’s second largest economy. As soon as Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took over in August, 2009, he called bureaucrats “a bunch of idiots who just got good grades in school.”

Kan who hailed from a middle class background, shot into fame in mid-1990s, for exposing the wrongdoing of his own bureaucrats. As the health minister then, he exposed his own ministry’s cover-up of HIV-tainted blood. Kan’s bureaucracy bashing has undoubtedly helped him achieving political mileage.

In fact, when DPJ registered a landslide victory last year in Japan, senior civil servants were in a state of nervousness, as the party had openly declared that it would bring in more elected representatives to fill up top bureaucratic posts and end the practice of Amakudari, under which Japanese senior bureaucrats take up high-profile positions in the private and public sectors after retirement. (Read: Japanese bureaucrats after retirement)

Meera Shankar’s party in US to honour FM

The Ambassador of India in US Meera Shankar hosted a banquet dinner in the honour of visiting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday at India House in Washington. Commerce minister Anand Sharma, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, leading business leaders from India including RIL chairman Mukhesh Ambani, Max India chairman Analjit Singh, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, CEO of Infosys Technologies S Gopalakrishnan, chairperson of Biocon Kiran Majumdar Shaw and Apollo MD Preetha Reddy were present along with other dignitaries.

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