Ive worked in the Indian bureaucracy (on secondment, twice, each time 2 years) and, I promise you, there are many genuises in it, actively engaged in trying to make life as complicated for the citizen as possible with the least possible public benefit. There are a few hapless souls within it, not genuises, whose lowly duty it is try and control the damage. It is owing to these few souls that the machinery functions at all, and occasional innovations occur.

Its a closed shop of amateurs. Thats at the root of the problem. The system therefore facilitates malfeasance and incompetence, in any mix. It turns on little green sheets of paper that circulate endlessly with contributions in telegraphese constituting the collective wisdom of government. Sealed off from the outside there is ""application of mind"" ( a favourite Civil Service expression in India), by the mindless.

In departments that apply coercive power like Home and Defence the mixture is even more toxic as venality, too, goes unchecked

The sad story of civil aviation/aviation security in India is just one reflection of the horrid consequences of this broken, inadequate system. The Commonwealth Games was another. The list, sadly, will only grow.