Country's premier investigative agency (CBI) has filed a charge-sheet against former senior civil servants Ashok Kumar Jha (former DEA Secretary), Ashok Chawla (the then FIPB Additional Secretary) along with country's former Finance Minister Chidambaram, his son Karthi among 18 accused in the Aircel-Maxis case. In the fresh charge sheet filed on Thursday, CBI alleged that Chidambaram had the power to approve foreign investments only up to Rs 600 crore but he cleared Rs 3200-crore investment without referring the matter to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). In the light of these developments, Indian Mandarins found many senior civil servants developing cold feet. Their immediate response was 'now all this would lead to the next phase of policy paralysis'. Top officials are of the view that apart from Secretaries in departments, insecurity will grip the cabinet ministers and they would think twice before deciding critical issues. This development has hit the morale of the bureaucracy in recent times. A series of bank fraud cases worth billions of rupees erupted and more than a dozen senior bank officials were sent to custody and those who looted flew out of the country. A special CBI court in May last year had convicted former coal secretary H C Gupta in a coal scam case. It had also convicted coal ministry's then Joint Secretary K S Kropha and then director K C Samaria beside others in coal block allocation case. Many senior officers and politicians believe that the grammar of governance and administration in recent years have totally transformed. In view of the same any government which will come to power with a majority would aggressively question policy decisions of the previous government and officers would be framed in conspiracies and would be made scapegoats. This will impact decision making in the future. Decision makers quite often take decisions in public interest. But the investigating agencies decide public interest under the anti-corruption framework. It may be recalled that amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act has been pending in Parliament for six years which, if passed, will provide the much-needed protection to retired government servants. As the investigating agencies are trying to scrutinize several cases from the perspective of corruption, the bureaucracy may develop a cold foot to take bold decision. This will affect the risk appetite of bureaucracy. Subsequently, foreign investment will also be affected. Precisely, the government may face a stage of policy paralysis in the coming months.