There was no place for independent players at the top and near-top layer of the system. Indira had added the new concept of ‘commitment’ in the bureaucratic system. Jawaharlal and Lal Bahadur did not tamper with the system and its nuts and bolts. They had carried out a few cosmetic changes to the inheritance they were endowed with by the British system. None of them had tried to indigenise the system to make it more compatible with the democratic and secular system of the Republic of India.
