öç‡âçèÕóŠ
áèõ‡áèõ‡ôèáŠæ‡
îæì‡ç¨ÄëŠ
íç‡îçèÕóŠ
âëáŠç‡îçèÕóŠ
æèÚˆç
ê÷¨²
423
In fact,
a gist of the above
Kural is printed at the
top of the front page
of every issue of the official
Gazette of the Vigilance
Department of the Government
of Orissa. The need for
impartiality and objectivity in
the perfomance of an administrator
is brought before us by
the Kural :
êÆê¨
öäâôèäŠ×
åäŠî÷
çÆê¨áèùŠ
çè÷Šçì‡Ì
øÇæç‡
ç÷¨äŠ
111
A frequent
criticism of the present
day administrator is that
he tends to evade taking
decisions. He chooses to pass
on the buck. He lacks
the courage to take bold
decisions and, what is
worse, is not willing to
accept responsibility for the
situation resulting from whatever
decision he may ultimately take.
In this context Tirukkural
lists out three important
characteristics of persons in senior
levels of administration. First
is hard work. Second is
professional knowledge. Third is
boldness in
taking decisions. A combination
of these three will immediately
mark out the ideal administrator
in the present day governments.
The Kural is :
§‡æèéë
æùŠô¨
ÊÚ¨²éìéë
¬ëŠËäŠ×ëŠ
婧‡æè
å¨ùäèóŠ
çô÷ŠÆ
383
In the
rush and stress of modern
life and the complexity
of public administration, most
persons in the administrative system
spend more time in issuing
orders to others down the
line for carrying out several
tasks, than in doing original
work themselves. The salient
point emphasised by Tirukkural in
this regard is that before
and administrator issues and
order to any one down
the line, he should also
have an idea of how
exactly the subordinate would
be proceeding to implement that
order. In other words,
the supervisory officer should
have in view not only
the end product of his
command but also the means
by which it would be
carried out by the subordinate.
This very healthy requirement,
specially at senior levels
in administration, is brought
out in the
Kural.
¬êéä
¬êäèùŠ
¬ôäŠËïæ‡ÆëŠ
öäŠ÷èáŠå‡Ê
íêéä
íôäŠæÚˆô¨ìùŠ
517
The word
' ¬êäèùŠ
' appearing in the above
couplet is very significant
and it is that which determines
the cleanliness of the
entire operation. Unfortunately, most
of our administrators tend to
ignore this aspect. Further,
the word ' ô¨ìùŠ
' stresses that after
having entrusted a task
to a competent subordinate after
careful consideration, and also
making sure of the means
by which the task would
be carried out, the administrator
should not unnecessarily interfere
with the subordinate, but should
leave him free to do
the work. This again is
a management concept very relevant
to modern times.
A government
that merely depends on
the strength of its defence
forces and their striking
power in a war situation
will not last long unless
it also functions as a
good government and secures efficient
administration for its own
people. In the language
of the Sangam age, a
government will survive not on
the strength of its ' îôù
Š'
but on the strength of
its ' îæèùŠ
' . The relevant Kural
reads:
îôùäŠ×
âôäŠ÷¨
êÕôÊ
ëäŠäôäŠ
îæèùãëŠ
îæèìè
âêä¨äŠ
546
Quite often,
government departments are
saddled with the task of
securing 'voluntary' donations or subscriptions
from the public for a
nationally sponsored small savings
drive, Flag Day celebration, birthday
celebration of some national
figure, and the like. When
government agencies themselves start
asking for such payments,
they cease to be voluntary.
In fact, they degenerate into
extortions which sometimes include
an element of bribery also.
The administrative system gets badly
corrupted by such periodic
exercises. A severe warning
against such practices is uttered
by the Kural.
îôîùèÌ
å¨äŠ÷èäŠ
¬ÌöäŠ÷ÊîçèÙëŠ
îæèîùèÌ
å¨äŠ÷èäŠ
¬õ²
552
Intelligence
agencies have come to play
a very important role in
modern governments. The effectiveness
of an intelligence agency
is ultimately determined by
the quality of timely intelligence
collected by it. No intelligence
chief worth his name can
afford to build up his
report on the sole information
passed on to him by
some subordinate down the
line. The credibility of
the source of intelligence and
the availability of information
from the other independent
sources to corroborate it will
all be carefully viewed
by the intelligence chief
before acting on such information.
The need for cross-checking
the information given by
one source with another
source, and the probability of
an information being true
if it comes up from
at least three independent
sources are well brought out
in the following couplets:
ø÷Šâ÷è÷Š÷¨ê‡
êå‡ê
âçèÕéó±ëŠ
ë÷Š×îëèõ‡
ø÷Š÷¨äèùŠ
ø÷Š÷¨æ‡
âæèóùŠ
588
ø÷Šâ÷è÷Š
×Úõèéë
ÍóŠæ
ãìäŠËôõ‡
âòèùŠâêèæ‡æ
îêòç‡
çÌëŠ
589
Sri. B.N.Mullik,
who had held with great
distinction the post of
Director of the Intelligence
Bureau of India for several
years under Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru, has on
many occasions referred to couplets
in the to couplets in the
chapter on ' ø÷Š÷èìùŠ
' in Tirukkural and
expressed his great admiration
for
their relevance
even in modern times.