Game Changers

To have a hat that fits has many benefits, as E T o n S u n d a y has pointed out. Chief Mentor or Chief Monster, Head Gardener or Managing Worker, bosses of Indian companies surely know what they want from their staff and their market when they anoint themselves thus. After all, changing times demand changing descriptions: front office staff become Vibe Managers.

But as Indians get increasingly irked with the government , the bureaucracy and the politicians, it may be time to do a bit of judicious jugglery with job descriptions there and perhaps create a few new ones, too. Could the Prime Minister and chief ministers be persuaded to redesignate themselves as Prime People’s Minister and Chief People’s Minister to demonstrate more clearly where their offices derive power? Remember what the oxymoronic designation People’s Princess bestowed upon the late Princess Diana by a clever Tony Blair did for her image and the newly-minted Labour government’s — and what the fuddy-duddy stance of Royal officialdom did for the Windsors.

Then if our principal secretaries become Principal Public Servants (considering they enter their professions through examinations conducted by the Public Service Commission) and others down the line are similarly realigned, it could bring them at least mentally closer to whom they are contracted to ‘serve’ .

A Chief Dustbuster charged with cleaning up murky government departments and a Chief Taint Detector to roust out the corrupt may be timely, too. More than just a Chief Vigilance Commissioner and a Chief Election Commissioner, as crucial as these posts are to keep the powerful in line, the government probably also needs to appoint a Chief Belief Commissioner and a Chief Conscience Keeper to rekindle the people’s faith in the government.