853 IRS Officers Quit: When Babudom Files Its Own Return

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From babudom arrogance to faceless taxation, Narendra Modi’s reform era has stripped the IRS of pride, purpose—and patience.

By NIRENDRA DEV

New Delhi, December 24, 2025 — India’s babudom has always been a subject of folklore—feared, mocked, envied, and married into. In a country where dowry rates quietly track government postings, the civil servant remains a prized domestic asset. And yet, something curious has happened. The babus are leaving.

Between 2014 and 2024, 853 officers of the Indian Revenue Service quietly took voluntary retirement. No protest marches. No press conferences. Just the soft thud of resignation files landing on polished desks. Out of a total IRS strength of roughly 9,775 officers, nearly one in every eleven decided they had seen enough.

This is not a labour problem. It is a morale problem.

Once upon a time, the IRS officer was a feared figure—half taxman, half detective, fully human. He exercised judgment, discretion, and occasionally, restraint. Today, he is something else: a cursor on a screen, nudged by algorithms, judged by dashboards, chased by targets. Faceless assessments have ensured that taxpayers never see officers—and officers never feel trusted.

Retired IA&AS officer P Sesh Kumar captures the mood acidly in an article in The Raisina Hills. The IRS, he notes, was meant to shape tax policy through expertise and institutional memory. Instead, policy is tightly held by IAS mandarins and short-term board members who rotate faster than a cricket team selector. Chairs of CBDT and CBIC come and go in 18–24 months, leaving behind circulars but little confidence.

Reforms have arrived, yes. Corruption has been squeezed, perhaps. But so has dignity. Officers now process data, not decisions. They meet targets, not taxpayers. The “art” of taxation has been replaced by a digital treadmill—efficient, tireless, and utterly joyless.

Meanwhile, babudom survives in familiar forms. The empty chair with a coat on it. The clerk who behaves like a joint secretary. The office that shuts because the boss has gone for a carrom match—or a wedding reception.

The tragedy is not that babus are arrogant. They always were. The tragedy is that even arrogance needs pride to survive.

The exit of 853 IRS officers is not rebellion. It is resignation in its purest form. A silent verdict on a system that modernised everything—except motivation.

The babus filed their final return. The government should read it carefully.

(This is an opinion piece. Views are personal)