Bureaucrats need more than a bogeyman to ensure good behaviour

There are nursery rhymes aplenty in all cultures to persuade children to be good or else face the consequences. And, usually, there is a bogeyman to do most of the heavy-duty coercion. So, it stands to reason that by the time these children grow up and start working, they would have learnt their lesson and there would be no further need for a bogeyman.

By adulthood, they should also have realised that such formidable creatures were largely the figment of parental imagination, adroitly used to obtain juvenile acquiescence and cooperation.

So, the recent characterisation of the Prime Minister as the bogeyman for the inhabitants of government departments is amusing. Reports that shambolic sarkarioffices (and officials) are being spruced up in anticipation of visits from the new big boss are reminiscent of children cleaning up their act before the bogeyman gets them.

The Prime Minister should certainly take such fear of his omniscience as a compliment, but it begs the question of what the usual state of officialdom has been.

And while the disappearance of paan stains, rusty cupboards and somnolent staff from the corridors of government power will surely be welcomed by the aam aadmi, something more systemic than a bogeyman needs to be introduced to ensure more permanent good behaviour from the denizens of babudom.