Political Entrepreneurship of Civil Servants
Mangalore Today News Network
By Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon
Mangaluru, June 14, 2026: In his book “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy” Schumpeter (1942) defined democracy as ‘competition for leadership’. While the Constitution seeks to create a public service that is apolitical, professional and efficient, and seeks to insulate public service from political patronage, in reality political connection is the overriding factor in appointments, postings, deployment, and transfers of civil servants. Politics is a game of winners and losers and political institutions will evolve to accommodate the interest of either divide depending on which party grabs power.
Civil servants, especially those in the IAS and IPS, have a very challenging time, trying to appease new political masters every five years. Many utilize their position and power to perpetrate and perpetuate the interests of the ruling political party. This leads to substantial challenges for every political party upon assumption of power, to select and appoint bureaucrats, who will do their bidding without demur. This has encouraged a culture of shameless sycophancy, as an entrenched bureaucratic practice, which has led to systemic flaws in bureaucratic leadership. When bad people enter politics, and the government is the one arena where their actions are shielded from scrutiny, good bureaucrats are forced out, because the climate becomes intolerable.
Flagrant manipulation, intimidation, and assaults on opponents is a staple in all democracies and their elections, throughout the world. Consequently, political interests threaten public institutions, making them cumbersome, expensive, ill-suited for its purpose, and shaped by extraneous considerations and interests that have no stake in the outcome, except illegitimate earnings.
Civil servants, especially those in IAS and IPS, get a deep understanding of political fortunes that are made through land grabbing, monopolies, and opportunities for embezzlement of state resources. They also realize that for political pursuits there is no need for any education, what is needed are daring skills, constant unethical efforts to promote their own status, for which purpose crossing the floor for personal expediency becomes the sole pre-occupation of politicians. Most politicians think that the only function of their political party is to win elections, regardless of its tactics: intimidation, bribery, corruption, breaking up meetings of opposing parties, mobilising caste and religion hatred, or cheating at the polls or vote counting. Bureaucratic neutrality is undermined when senior bureaucrats align with such unscrupulous politicians, as it leads to the politicization of public service delivery and the distribution of resources based on political clientelism rather than merit. A morass of corruption, extra-judicial killings, democratic reversals, polarising politics and the normalisation of greed and theft as the primary values of success has entrenched in the political arena. Many bureaucrats believe that by actively behaving as a political servant instead of as a civil servant, will bring post-retirement bonanza like gubernatorial or diplomatic assignments, an electoral ticket to contest the elections or a chance to ensconce in some cozy Tribunals and innumerable commissions, being set-up every day, to lure obstinate bureaucrats into submission. Very few have the audacity to fling away their hard earned civil servant status to take the plunge into active politics.
But, a younger breed of civil servants is emerging in many State cadres, who are willing to stand up against the politicians and their wile tactics. Media hype their unconventional behaviour by conferring titles like “no-nonsense officer”, “singham”, “encounter specialist” and so on, sparking in the bureaucrat itself a secret political ambition, to experiment their bravado on the larger political canvas.
Tamilnadu politician Mr. Annamalai, and ex-IPS officer represents this new breed of officers, willing to renounce their safe and comfortable bureaucratic careers, to take the plunge into deep political waters. An IPS officer of Karnataka cadre, Mr. Annamalai, returned to his home state of Tamilnadu, with the ostensible goal of decimating the DMK stranglehold on the State, which believed that a large reservoir of young and corruptible electorate could undermine competitive democracy and make their family, the undisputed leaders for eternity. For this purpose, the culture of pre-election "freebies"—commonly referred to as political handouts, tokenism, or clientelism—as an active tool for spoiling and manipulating the electorate, was reinforced across the spectrum. Transactional distribution of cash, food, alcohol, apparel, bus travel, was resorted on an unprecedented scale, distorting the democratic process, shifting the State away from issue-based governance toward a cycle of predatory patronage.
Annamalai interacts with students during his tenure as Superintendent of Police in Udupi.
But almost a decade before Annamalai, an IRS officer named Arvind Kejriwal, created a nationwide ripple for political reforms and liberation from rule of political families. He rose to become the Chief Minister, but unfortunately he succumbed to the loaves and fishes of office.
Annamalai, made his impact by enlightening the young minds about the dangers of entrenched political families, using public resources to perpetuate family rule. His unassuming brazenness earned accolades and brickbats. But, this writer would assess his impact, by calling it ‘Annamalaism’. More than his impact on the political arena, his impact is on the younger breed of civil servants. Today, young IAS and IPS and also those in other civil services like IRS, IFoS, have started questioning the motives of their seniors and politicians, something unthinkable a decade back. In Kerala, young IAS officers are openly questioning their Chief Secretary and his actions. No longer can the young civil servants be treated as doormats.
‘Annamalaism’ is also visible in the young breed of Advocates. Collegium appointees are being questioned about ex-parte midnight stay and bail orders, issued from their official bungalows, demanding videography of Court proceedings, removing ‘Senior Advocate’ tags and privileges, and verdicts of dubious nature. Adjudicating authorities, in departments like Customs, GST, ED, Income Tax are all being questioned for routinely passing biased, pro-department orders, instead of passing legally proper orders.
‘Annamalaism’ is raising its head in religious fields. Lakhs of people are stridently questioning as to why only Hindu Temples are being controlled by politicians under the garb of government control. In States like Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Adivasis and tribals are questioning Kerala Christian priests and nuns, for their deep hatred for indigenous faiths. They are protesting and questioning the ridiculing and destruction of their ancestral faiths, and culture.
‘Annamalaism’ has caught up with even school students. The student who exposed the major discrepancies in the CBSE On-Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation system is Sarthak Sidhant, just a 17-year-old Class 12 student and self-taught coder from Jharkhand. Sarthak analysed public Central Public Procurement documents and found that CBSE allegedly altered eligibility criteria midway across successive tenders. He claimed these changes favoured a private firm and were relaxed to bypass industry standards. Other students, such as Vedant Srivastava (who received another student’s answer sheet) and cyber security researcher Niser Adikari (who highlighted system vulnerabilities), also played major roles in bringing the OSM crises to light.
Annamalai may or may not succeed in his coming new political avatar, but ‘Annamalaism’ is here to stay. Many ‘Singhams’ are emerging from their safe dens. The nation needs thousands of Annamalais in every sector, bold and fearless to dismantle systemic political patronage, dethrone entrenched political families, and address pervasive economic inequalities. Reformers are needed to embrace new public management models that foster mission-driven, efficient, and citizen-oriented service delivery.
As Nelson Mandela puts it “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon, IRS (Rtd), Ph.D. (Narcotics)
Former Director General of National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics & Multi-Disciplinary School Of Economic Intelligence India; Fellow, James Martin Centre For Non Proliferation Studies, USA; Fellow, Centre for International Trade & Security, University of Georgia, USA; Public Administration, Maxwell School of Public Administration, Syracuse University, U.S.A.; AOTS Scholar, Japan. He can be contacted at shreemenon48@gmail.com