There is a lot of vigorous debate going on about the current choices that emergence of leaders like Arvind Kejariwal and Narendra Modi have thrown up. Like everyone else, I also have my views in the matter and would like to share them with everyone else with a few explanations.
But let the disclaimers come first. I have lived in Gujarat for over a decade and I simply love the state and its people. I must add that my familiarity with the state was limited to the cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara (Baroda), and Gandhinagar. The people seem to be so mild, peace loving and business minded that the recurrent riots used to come as a surprise to me. And though the riots peaked in 2002, mercifully it has put paid to the annual ritual. Coming from UP, I found the government departments, in a quite small number of encounters with them, far more responsive and much less corrupt. When in Gandhinagar, I was very impressed when Mr. Modi had a Sai temple razed to the ground. It was said to be an unauthorized construction and it was reported that a couple of hundred more temples scattered over Gujarat that were unauthorized met the same fate.
I saw Gujarat as a state that had all the right ingredients built into its DNA and a good leader could take it to great heights. I believe that Modi did so. And yet I had doubts whether he would be able to deliver on the same scale if he were to be transplanted to UP. The northern states seem to have a DNA that is quite different from their southern and western brethren even though many common strands do exist. If one could use, somewhat loosely, the terminology from Capability Maturity Model (CMM), the northern states persist at the lowest CMM level while those in South and West have climbed a step or two up the ladder.
So in Gujarat we had a good leader leading a great state and the results could not be otherwise than what we have seen. But then the country as a whole is different and much too complex. It is at a CMM level that cannot guarantee consistent great outcome. It may give an acceptable outcome in combination with the personal heroics of a good leader, or it may not.
The burning need is NOT so much to get a great hero who can bulldoze the system but to move the system up on the CMM scale. And how can that be done? By creating institutions and structures that can prevent all the devilish acts that have been going on for decades. We need to create Lokpal, we need to carry out police reforms, we need to make bureaucracy accountable and responsible and we need to amend Representation of People Act to ensure better parliamentarians and legislators. In short, what we need most is not personal heroics but a more mature institutional framework with Acts and rules that enhance the capability maturity of the country as a whole.
It is indeed surprising that few politicians are talking in terms of enhancing the framework itself. Most are busy praising the virtues of this leader or criticizing the weaknesses of that leader. There is little debate on the issues that we have highlighted in the last paragraph. And though Modi is talking of governance all the time, he is not talking about how that will be brought about: perhaps he is too sure of his personal heroics.
Under these circumstances, AAP comes in as a gust of fresh breeze. It is not talking about personal heroics but about the extremely urgent need to repair and enhance the framework of governance in the country.
I also dare say that unless the higher level CMM framework is created, a strong-headed leader may even pose a risk to the system. For he / she, in his / her impatience to deliver, might further damage the existing rickety framework. And that will be like a medicine that alleviates your symptoms temporarily but paves the way to a much greater problem. Many of the readers must have had an experience of emergency in 70s. Things improved dramatically in government offices and elsewhere. And we also know what followed.
The people are impatient now and they want all the symptoms to be overcome at the earliest. Few have the patience for the kind of changes that are the crying need of the hour. And this is the essence of the BJP-AAP debate.
They say great organizations are those that can consistently get extraordinary performance even from average people. And that happens when you have a great framework of processes and governance.
I know that Modi Sarkar is well on its way. I welcome it too, for we desperately need Congress out. But let us keep AAP - the voice of sanity - alive. I must also add that BJP's victory may even be seen by the great System as its own victory against forces trying to change it for the better.
But let the disclaimers come first. I have lived in Gujarat for over a decade and I simply love the state and its people. I must add that my familiarity with the state was limited to the cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara (Baroda), and Gandhinagar. The people seem to be so mild, peace loving and business minded that the recurrent riots used to come as a surprise to me. And though the riots peaked in 2002, mercifully it has put paid to the annual ritual. Coming from UP, I found the government departments, in a quite small number of encounters with them, far more responsive and much less corrupt. When in Gandhinagar, I was very impressed when Mr. Modi had a Sai temple razed to the ground. It was said to be an unauthorized construction and it was reported that a couple of hundred more temples scattered over Gujarat that were unauthorized met the same fate.
I saw Gujarat as a state that had all the right ingredients built into its DNA and a good leader could take it to great heights. I believe that Modi did so. And yet I had doubts whether he would be able to deliver on the same scale if he were to be transplanted to UP. The northern states seem to have a DNA that is quite different from their southern and western brethren even though many common strands do exist. If one could use, somewhat loosely, the terminology from Capability Maturity Model (CMM), the northern states persist at the lowest CMM level while those in South and West have climbed a step or two up the ladder.
So in Gujarat we had a good leader leading a great state and the results could not be otherwise than what we have seen. But then the country as a whole is different and much too complex. It is at a CMM level that cannot guarantee consistent great outcome. It may give an acceptable outcome in combination with the personal heroics of a good leader, or it may not.
The burning need is NOT so much to get a great hero who can bulldoze the system but to move the system up on the CMM scale. And how can that be done? By creating institutions and structures that can prevent all the devilish acts that have been going on for decades. We need to create Lokpal, we need to carry out police reforms, we need to make bureaucracy accountable and responsible and we need to amend Representation of People Act to ensure better parliamentarians and legislators. In short, what we need most is not personal heroics but a more mature institutional framework with Acts and rules that enhance the capability maturity of the country as a whole.
It is indeed surprising that few politicians are talking in terms of enhancing the framework itself. Most are busy praising the virtues of this leader or criticizing the weaknesses of that leader. There is little debate on the issues that we have highlighted in the last paragraph. And though Modi is talking of governance all the time, he is not talking about how that will be brought about: perhaps he is too sure of his personal heroics.
Under these circumstances, AAP comes in as a gust of fresh breeze. It is not talking about personal heroics but about the extremely urgent need to repair and enhance the framework of governance in the country.
I also dare say that unless the higher level CMM framework is created, a strong-headed leader may even pose a risk to the system. For he / she, in his / her impatience to deliver, might further damage the existing rickety framework. And that will be like a medicine that alleviates your symptoms temporarily but paves the way to a much greater problem. Many of the readers must have had an experience of emergency in 70s. Things improved dramatically in government offices and elsewhere. And we also know what followed.
The people are impatient now and they want all the symptoms to be overcome at the earliest. Few have the patience for the kind of changes that are the crying need of the hour. And this is the essence of the BJP-AAP debate.
They say great organizations are those that can consistently get extraordinary performance even from average people. And that happens when you have a great framework of processes and governance.
I know that Modi Sarkar is well on its way. I welcome it too, for we desperately need Congress out. But let us keep AAP - the voice of sanity - alive. I must also add that BJP's victory may even be seen by the great System as its own victory against forces trying to change it for the better.
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