Need To Rethink Our Administrative Services

For a nation that emerges from the trauma of colonisation, cultivating a sense of self-respect in the oppressed citizens becomes a prerequisite for overcoming the trauma that the citizens have sufffered, and moving forward on a path of rapid growth.  It is so because colonial powers trample upon the sense of self-worth and self-respect of the local population with a view to subjugate them, and these must be revived for people to emerge from that oppression.

In our case, the British did this by creating civil and police services that looked upon the general population as subjects and not brethren to be served.  They did it partly by employing people from upper castes, who already had a sense of entitlement, as officers, and perhaps, also through training.  These 'public servants' then ill treated their compatriots and kept their morale down to make things easy for the rulers.  Unfortunately this attitude continues unabated and the public has gotten so used to it that any ill and insulting treatment at the hands of public servants and police has become the subject of jokes rather than indignation.  Recall the joke about "suji" and "suji" during the COVID era.

The logical thing would have been to dismantle these services, gradually if so required, soon after independence and create new cadres without a sense of entitlement and with a sense of purpose and service.  This was never done and the maai-baap mentality amongst government employees continues unabated till date.  This is also the root cause of deep seated corruption in our society because public, as subjects to these rulers, must be subservient and must appease them with gifts and presents.  The fact that wherever we have been able to bring down corruption, it has been possible only by reducing or eliminating human interfaces with the the help of technology and not because of any change in the mai-baap attitude, bears it out.

The concept of swaraj, where more and more power is brought closer to people and then people given a chance to audit and provide actionable feed back on the outcomes achieved by the exercise of that power is one way to achieve the said goal.  This is opposed to a highly centralized model where the power holders get insulated by intervening tiers.

Please leave your thoughts on the topic in comments below.  Thanks for reading this. 

Veils Over Electorate's Eyes.

The ideal kind of politics that will build a better world will be real hard work.  Hard workers are conscientious people and unfortunately it is mostly the unconscientious who are drawn to politics.  So these politicians put up a veil to keep the real hard work that are not doing or are incapable of doing, carefully hidden from the public.  They fully subscribe to the wise saying "out of sight out of mind."  Sometimes this makes me wonder how did the saying "politics is the art of the possible" come about unless it means veiling up the real issues to the fullest possible extent.  While the real issues are objective ones and have the potential to unite the electorate behind them, the veils are emotive and mostly serve the purpose of dividing the electorate and keeping them divided. This division makes the life of the corrupt politician easy.

At times the public does get a glimpse of the real issues as it did during Anna's agitations.  Everybody united to demand a corruption free government.  Anna highlighted that politics and corruption have become synonymous.  The political establishment presented the non-incumbent party as non or less corrupt and the electorate put the power in their hand.  Now whenever the public wakes up from its slumber to ask whatever happened to promises on corruption and black money, it is dragged into a debate on Rashtravaad versus secularism.  This is the veil that is dropped down each time and will eventually drag the real issue into oblivion while deeply dividing the electorate.

The current charged up debate on reservations in education and jobs is a similar attempt to keep some underlying real issues veiled up.  The real issues in this case are several.  The foremost is persistent failure of governments to provide universal schooling for all.  Billions of rupees are drained off in the name of salaries paid to government teachers and maintenance of schools.  And yet we all know that the result is close to naught (You may like to read this earlier post.)  ITIs and Polytechnics that had the noble objectives of skilling persons who have received basic education are simply limping along with hardly any qualified and certificated electricians, plumbers or carpenters available in the market.  Even the private sector is opening up Engineering Colleges and Medical Colleges and not the equivalents of ITIs or Polytechnics.  Ease of doing business remains a distant objective and so there are not many jobs for the burgeoning population which cannot be absorbed in their hereditary profession of agriculture or other low skill professions.  Because of these abject failures of the political establishment, the only hope for the vast armies of unskilled and jobless persons remains a meaningless and learning-less degree followed by a government job.  (As an aside, the politicians have started calling these unemployable and unemployed people our demographic dividend!!)

And thus the hotly debated issue of reservations in colleges and government jobs is merely a veil to disguise the successive governments' utter failure in the area of basic education, skilling people and making it easy to do business.  We probably need another mass movement to enlighten the public to the fact that reservation is NOT the issue and that it is merely a veil for the real issues which are going unnoticed.  Though, I have a premonition that this movement too may be trumped by the politicians.

Narendra Modi owes his landslide victory to the fact that he drew public's attention to the unifying real issues.  Will he stick to these issues or will the veilsters ultimely prevail?

Are we doomed to admit that "छद्ममेव जयते (Veilster alone triumphs?)"  

The Independence Day Speech

The Independence Day speech this year by the iconic PM of India befittingly broke the confines of bulletproof glass as also the shackles of a neatly typed out speech.  And hence it comes as a surprise that the PM chose to remain silent on the biggest malaise afflicting the citizens at large, sapping their vitality and putting them in dire straitjackets!  He had no comments to offer or promises to make on the twin evils of widespread corruption and criminalization of politics.  Same goes for the mind boggling figures of black money stashed overseas.  Was it not the pent up frustration of the public with the mounting corruption that led to a decisive rejection of Congress and a majority for BJP?  The very atypical conciliatory notes in complimenting all the previous governments in bringing the country to where it stands today (!) also come as no little surprise.  Didn't Modi thunder his way to a total majority by crying himself hoarse about what the Congress governments have done to the country over six decades?  And he is so overawed by the competence and knowledge of the all-pervasive bureaucracy that he doesn't have even a word of advice to them to work as humble public servants under the Pradhan Sevak?  The only criticism he had for the earlier government and the top bureaucracy was a lack of coordination that manifested itself as multiple governments within a single government.  I cannot figure out what to make of such mushy statements coming from someone hailed as the Iron Man!  Will such pacifist attitude ever enable us to weed out corruption in places high and low, and steep deterioration in the sphere of politics?

Again, it is quite okay to chide the citizenry for their unhygienic habits, lack of toilets and discrimination against girl children. But are these also not manifestations of poor governance and total lack of accountability on the part of the government machinery?  Have governments provided dustbins at public places for disposal of garbage?  Do we have enough public toilets in public places even in the cities?  Don't we have to charter our course carefully when going on an outing with the family so that we return to our home or a place with a clean toilet in time?  How many parents and doctors have been penalized for aborting female fetuses or for giving dowry or deaths related to dowry?  I am sorry to say so but such exhortations remind me of knee-jerk reactions from local corporators when approached with a complaint about poor sanitation.  They would lecture you on hygiene and cleanliness and add that if everyone could keep the drain and the sidewalk in front of his own house clean, there would be no need to complain!

A friend who shares the worry has something positive to comment in the matter.  He says, “….. he is a pragmatic person. He knows that corruption is so interwoven into the fabric of our society that if starts to pull out those skeins, the entire fabric may come undone. He has to do it gingerly. This is the best explanation I can offer. Time will tell. How things change at the ground level will ultimately decide if he has been working on corruption too.”

However such gingerly approach and caution was conspicuously absent when dealing with the appointment of a retired bureaucrat, or in dismissing a particular governor for misdeeds, or in changing the Collegium system for appointments in the judiciary after a particular claimant was vetoed out.  How come that strong, swift and decisive actions are warranted only when someone has crossed the path of someone powerful but not on life-and-death issues facing the country?  Are we witnessing a resurrection of Indira Gandhi?

Like most of us, I have great hopes from the PM.  And I do hope that my apprehensions and I are proved decisively wrong.  And yet I cannot help wondering whether we made a mistake in rejecting the AAP phenomenon.  We turned it into a sinking ship that is gradually being abandoned by all but a handful.

Advantages of corruption

Recent deliberations at a conclave have brought out some enlightening facts about corruption as an economic activity and the damages that doing away with corruption may bring about.  I have much pleasure in placing the same before you:

• Though the fact can never be established for obvious want of data, corruption is the biggest industry in the country, that is, one with the highest turnover.
• There are ancillary industries that will be nearly wiped out if there were no corruption.  These include:
• Police
• Legal profession
• Judiciary
• It will severely damage the film industry where most themes have two central characters, one corrupt and the other who ultimately wins over him.
• Hospitality industry at the top end and luxury products at the top end too will suffer a severe setback because of an erosion in demand.
• FATF (Financial Action Task Force) will have to be dismantled and all software providers for generating Cash Transactions Report (CRR) and Suspicious Transactions Report (STR) will go out of business.
• People may lose all interest in politics and have to be conscripted for legislative positions.  If this happens the science of psephology will be lost to the world.  Lack of rallies will render thousands jobless.
• Discussions on the FB during election season, if at all there is one, will become absolutely dull and drab.
• Lack of corruption will mean everyone working according to rules.  Today this is considered a form of striking work!
• Swiss banks may face closure.
• As everyone turns holy, the phrase "holier than thou" will go out of circulation.
• There will be no need for a party like AAP.
• No one will ever know what is a Lokpal or what it is supposed to do!

This list is only illustrative and not exhaustive.

In the light of the aforesaid an appeal is made to AAP and its followers to do a rethink on their stand against corruption.

Issued in public interest.

How is this scam going unnoticed?

We all keep reading about massive recruitment of teachers by the government.  Then they hire Shiksha-Mitras (SMs) to assist them.  Though the SMs are not but the teachers are very handsomely paid.  Apart from their salaries a lot of money must be getting spent on school infrastructure and the fraud-ridden midday meal scheme.

While billions are getting spent on this presumably noble mission, what is the picture at the ground level?  I find from my personal interactions that even those at the lowest economic rung, like household help, rickshaw pullers, and street vendors do not want to send their children to such government schools.  They pay through their nose for schooling their children in private schools of dubious quality.

Sting operations by TV channels have exposed the astonishingly reprehensible quality of education given in these schools and the extremely poor caliber of teachers hired at high salaries.  I know teachers who visit the school only once or twice a month and pay protection money to functionaries in education department.

The billions going down the drain into the pockets of the corrupt could be much better utilized by providing a direct cash transfer to deserving people who could use it to pay the fees of private schools which are seen to be far superior to the government ones.

The hordes of teachers and SMs could be trained as plumbers, electricians and carpenters.  There is a real dearth of such professionals in the society.

In case it is not found feasible to dismantle this hoax of government schools, it must be made mandatory for all those whose draw salaries from the central or state government to school their children only in a government school at their place of posting.

Another sector suffering from similar massive corruption is health.  Here too it will help to make it mandatory for all government employees and legislators to avail services only at a government hospital in their area.  The government instead has chosen to fly its officers and ministers overseas for treatment!!!  Will they ever get ashamed of themselves?

Ragging Kejariwal - India Today Conclave

Just finished watching a program on Aaj-Tak where Kejariwal was grilled by an audience consisting of journos and industrialists.  I don't know for sure but it must be the conclave for which he was flown to Delhi by India Today group.  I joined the program midway where a journalist was reading out a piece of bad poetry ridiculing Kejariwal's dress sense and his persistent cough and calling him a fugitive who ran away from private sector to public sector to politics and then away from power.  It was pathetic, outrageous, disgusting and clearly the act of a person whose motive was not journalism but some ulterior one.

Kejariwal did not respond and it must have given a lot of satisfaction to this man who was an epitome of people living off the fat of this country and holding the common man in contempt and having no qualms about snubbing him.  Kejariwal could have given an equally acerbic response but did not do so.  And he has won my heart by doing so.  It shows that he is not yet a typical politician who has a witty response ready for all criticism, imagined or genuine.  It shows that he has not yet imbibed the art of snobbery that helps one distance himself from Aam Aadmi and remains as vulnerable as an Aam-Aadmi.  It shows that he is a really simple minded person who is vulnerable to such unethical and unscrupulous barbs from unethical sharp shooters.  It shows that he is a person who is constantly focused on his purpose and not busy inventing clever cliches and responses.  Kejariwal, I stand with you more firmly than ever.

Coming to this sharp shooter's comments, here are my observations.  Nothing could be in worse taste than ridiculing a person for dressing like a common man.  And one who calls Kejariwal a fugitive must be someone whose upbringing tells him to stick to exploits of power at all costs and come what may.  Must be a person who would lick the feet of those who can do him a favor and kick at those who are either not in a position to do so or would not do so.  I wonder if he would have the guts to read out such sickening poetry to a RaGa or a NaMo or a Sonia or a Mulayam or a Lalu et al.

Can we not understand the simple fact that providing sops was not AAPs goal even though they have done so for the simple tactical reason that those who stood for change do not get weaned and swept away by the pied pipers of the establishment.  Their goal can ONLY be achieved by creating the anti-corruption infrastructure in the form of a credible Lokpal and NO OTHER MEANS.  And hence the decision to quit after this move was defeated was the ONLY CORRECT RESPONSE.  In fact if AAP had decided to stick to power that would be suspicious indeed.

As regards his constant movement and not sticking to anything including power, a sane person would see it as the sign of a vibrant intellect that is constant alive to its environment and committed to his purpose.  Sticking to a plum position in government like a corrupt-to-the-bone rishwatkhor, or to a post (खूंटा) like a buffalo or a seat of power like one of our sickening leaders is becoming of only a decadent, corrupt and obnoxious person and not a visionary or a revolutionary like Kejariwal.  Movement alone is the sign of life.

Journalists would do well to expel the person who read out this poetry from their profession.

Ill defined processes and corruption at the grassroots level.

Many theories have been advanced to explain higher levels of corruption in our society, especially that at the lower levels of hierarchy, as compared to certain developed western countries.  One theory attributes lower levels of corruption in the west to their individualistic tendencies while an individual in India is defined only in terms of his family, community and society.  Another theory attributes corruption in our society to our firm belief in placating planets and gods and, by extension, all authority figures through offerings.  There are other theories too.  I would like to add one more theory to this collection.  I have constructed this theory on the basis of my observations during a few brief visits to USA.

I have noticed during my visits that operating procedures are very highly standardized and are modeled as an assembly line.  You notice this in fast food joints, retail stores, government offices and everywhere.  As a friend put it, USA is an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) driven country.  I am sure that the standard procedures are defined at the very top level where people have a complete view of the business and apply careful thought to processes.  As against this each operative at the customer contact point has a rigorously defined process to execute.  They are so focused on their process that they neither have the time nor the inclination to go or learn beyond it.  Even the language for interaction with the customer is standardized and any deviation from it often leads to confusion.  This ensures efficient delivery of services and eliminates any discrimination.

I feel that the situation is very different here in India.  Of course we are excepting the organizations that are an offshoot from the west or have deliberately modeled themselves on that pattern.  In our country the top only defines things in broad terms, if at all, and seldom takes the trouble of structuring the processes and procedures in complete detail and this is left to the people at the lower level who actually deliver the service.  I used to work in a bank and had the opportunity to see the manual operations being computerized.  There was frequent bewilderment while defining the standard procedures for implementation in the software because several branches and regions were found to be following a different procedure of their own.  I have seen most formats received from RBI or the government at the head office level for certain data being passed on to the branches exactly as they were received.  Nobody bothered to consider why should a format to be filled out by a single branch have rows for district-wise and state-wise totals.  As the government bureaucracy was the role model for Public Sector banks, I presume things must be the same in the government offices too.

The result is that while the top is busy with unabashed exercise and enjoyment of power, people at the lowest levels evolve all the detailed processes.  Their motive is seldom to provide the very best service to the customer.  Things are often kept vague to enable staff to evade responsibility and to browbeat the customer into submission to their demands.  The system is designed, rather misdesigned by them and they know it too well to twist and bend it as they like.  So if you are from the VIP class and have the contacts to get me chastised, your job gets done in a jiffy using embedded alternate shortcuts.  If you are not, God help you.  I do wonder if it is the lack of discrimination between VIPs and non-VIPs that offends the sensibilities of our VIPs when they travel abroad to more egalitarian and process-driven parts of the world.

The insistence by Kejariwal and his party for having well defined Citizens' Charter and ruthlessly implementing it is only an attempt at straightening out the garbled up processes in government offices.

This is also the reason that IT-enabling the bureaucratic processes is seen as one way of curbing corruption.  IT-enabling forces you to define your processes clearly and also provides efficient tools for monitoring (by a Lokpal!?)

Clean Chit Funds (CCFs)

Lesson 1:

First you amass huge funds by whatever means, and then get as many people as possible to give you a clean chit each.  Now the fortune you have made becomes a Clean Chit Fund.

The rating given to such a fund is CCF followed by as many plus signs as the number of chits obtained. If there are no clean chits but only fingers pointed at it, the CCF rating is followed by as many minuses as the fingers.  If there are both, each plus cancels out one minus and vice versa.

If the CCF holder is from an illustrious family, the initial of family name may be prefixed to the CCF rating.

Lesson 2:

Sometimes smaller funds amassed in ways similar to those stated in lesson 1 can be termed CCF even if they are not able to procure clean chits.  The ceiling amount for such small CC fund is stated to be 71 crores by highly placed sources.  Other requirements for such funds to be classified as CCF include the head of such a fund being supported by a highly placed and respectable dignitary.

Lesson 3:

It can be shown as a corollary of the profound Zero Loss Theory that CCFs, by their very nature, carry very little risk and do not require skills for managing them that are too complex.  This has been exploited for the very laudable purpose of upskilling people in lowly professions.  Drivers, gardeners and orderlies now have an opportunity to acquire directorial skills in such Funds.

Lesson 4:.

Interestingly, both sources and uses of CCFs are, more often than not, the same, namely, natural resources.  But some CCFs do choose to deploy funds in accounts abroad with a view to diversification.  In this case the customercentricity displayed by a particular bank has been commented upon by none other than the highly credible head of a recently launched political party.  The bank is said to have gone out of its way in helping CCFs in opening and funding accounts abroad.  They have made doing so easier than opening a no-frill account in a Public Sector Bank for receiving cash transfers from the Government.  This has led to much customer delight.

Fight against the cancer of Corruption.

Corruption and the miserable life of a common man are linked together in a vicious circle.  Corruption is an osmotic process that transfers wealth from poor masses to the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.    I do not think that the rural poor are not for the anti-corruption movement.  It is only that they have been misguided to think that asserting their social identity is the real issue and NOT corruption.  However this delusion can be sustained only as long as they do not attain critical minimum level of education and income.  The astutest amongst the politicians realize this and oppose all policies that can truly uplift the common man and other trodden sections.  And the tool that they have perfected for the purpose is the politics of identity management. This is the reason that all economic reforms have been put on the backburner for such a long time.  What is most unfortunate is that many of the practitioners of this devious politics are from among the downtrodden themselves!

So it is an unfortunate truth that there are few takers for the anti-corruption movement beyond the middle class. And yet this battle against corruption can be fought only by gaining political power and aggressively pursuing policies for the economic upliftment of the masses so that can see the real issue and bring about the change this country so badly needs.  There is no other way.

Anna Hazare is worried about the sky-high costs of contesting elections.  The costs have been deliberately pushed up by our current breed of politicians with a view to keep the entry barrier high.  The communication technologies available today can help pull these costs down.  Televisions, CD players and projectors, SMS, internet connections in e-chaupals can all be leveraged to bring the costs substantially down.  The challenge lies in making the rural and urban poor see that corruption IS the core issue.

I think that Anna's skepticism notwithstanding, Mr. Kejariwal and his team have taken just the right decision.  Many in the middle class will be willing to provide the funding for the low cost electioneering using the tools mentioned above.

A Letter to Sri Kapil Sibal

Dear Mr. Sibal,

Like many of my fellow countrymen, I had known little about you till you surfaced on the political scene as a minister.  Most of us had an initial impression of you as a learned man with a cheerful disposition and felt happy that people like you could make it to politics.  I searched out your bio-data on the internet using Google and the bio-data, as provided by you or whoever, seemed to confirm the initial impression.  However this image gets a severe blow as one scrolls down to the end and reads the angry comments by visitors on your recent move to censor social media on the internet.

It seems that what is exercising the collective public consciousness and hogging the eyeballs today is not your impressive bio-data.  Instead it is the collection of vakeel-like tricks that you have been trying out, albeit unsuccessfully, to confound the 2G case, then to browbeat Baba Ramdev, subsequently to infiltrate the Anna Movement and tarnish it jointly with another outspoken colleague from your profession.  I have deliberately used the hindi word vakeel as like neta it is used in a not-so-flattering sense and no longer commands the respect that it may have initially done.

It is sad indeed that you remain undeterred by your failures and are now trying the same dirty tricks to force censorship on the social media on the internet.  You cannot be fool enough to believe that you will succeed in this matter that is so close to the hearts of public at large.  And you must also know that you are making yourself look like the villain of the piece.  And if you still persist in the matter, it must be on account of a conviction that the electorate is powerless against you and your class.  Perhaps this is why you and other of your ilk keep on challenging Anna and other crusaders to contest the elections.  And this is why the politicians are even more afraid of demands for changes in the electoral system than the fight against corruption.

Well this state of affairs will not last forever and your own actions will provoke the public to force changes down the collective neta throat that keeps gulping nation’s resources shamelessly.  But till it happens, enjoy your antics.

Yours musingly

JANATA

Persecuting Kiran Bedi

I haven't researched much about Kiran Bedi and my opinion about her is based on her coverage in the popular media over past several years. These have shown her to be an upright police officer and individual who strived to break free of the set mould and bring about changes in the system for the better. Chances are that you haven't researched Ms Bedi's life very thoroughly either.

However our politicians, their stooges, and agencies that are at their beck and call, seem to be making up for this lack of research on Ms Bedi. Never mind that these agencies are frequently admonished for public, media, and court for their dilly-dallying in many important and crucial cases awaiting swift action from them.  But they have all the time in the world for inspecting Kiran Bedi's life with an electron microscope!

Their hard academic work now shows that Ms Bedi has refused to pass on the benefits of certain concessions to sundry organizations and business houses. She became entitled to these concessions through her meritorious work. There should be little debate that the monetary value of these concessions belongs to her and hence it should be her decisions as to who would benefit from them. So she is very much within her rights if she decides that the benefit should go to her trust and not to a commercial organization that may have invited her and agreed to bear the costs. In fact even if she chose to retain the benefit for herself, it will be absolutely okay because the concessions are meant for the recipient as an individual. So what is all the brouhaha about?

The netas and agencies have further made a brilliant discovery that Ms Bedi's trust received a donation from Microsoft. As this can not be labeled wrong by any stretch of imagination, a vague accusation is being made that it has not been used for the purpose for which it was meant. Though Microsoft has never made any noise about it. 

All this is being done without sharing the specific details of their research project with the public.

So what signal is being sent out?  Are the netas asserting that they can be as vindictive as an underworld Don? Are they desperately trying to prove that the crusaders against corruption are also tainted, howsoever lightly, and have no right to question their huge blots?

We must send out a clear and strong message to the netas that their games now stand painfully exposed and they must mend themselves instead of persecuting those who urge them to do so.

Why should politicians be given special protection?

How would you react if a soldier demanded protection against the professional hazard of getting shot? Though this a rather dramatic example, each profession carries hazards that must be squarely faced by those who engage in that profession. A statistically dictated number succumb to the hazards in each profession and are routinely replaced by new incumbents.

So why should it be any different for politicians? They think it is their job to play with public emotions. After all it is emotions that help them win votes and not real issues. None of them care for the real issues. They put up farcical fights to win certain groups over to them without ever acting on the real issues plaguing the electorate at large. An exaggerated example of this is provided by statements currently being dished out by Mr. Digvijay Singh and his counterparts in other parties on serious issues of corruption and governance. This entails obvious professional hazards. They should face such hazards squarely as people in other professions do. But instead they stridently demand and get special protection. There are hordes of them at various levels. We are told that there are more policemen allocated to guarding the politicians than to their hapless victims - the public at large.


Such special protection also betrays their lack of confidence in the system that they run. The system is created to implement the constitutional guarantees given to the public such as the right to life. If the system created by them is good enough to serve the vast ocean of general public, why should they insist on special treatment for themselves? And even if they had no protection and were to succumb to their perceived hazard, why do they consider themselves irreplaceable? And is this paranoia justified by the available data? As far as public memory can tell all successful and unsuccessful attempts have only been on persons occupying highest office of Prime Minister. It is only people at the very top who face dangers from outsiders. As such outsiders are not subject to our control, it may be proper to accord more protection to the said class than what is available to common citizen. Everyone else must must be on equal footing.


Accordingly I strongly suggest that the current system of providing special security to politicians / bureaucrats at various levels except to a few at the very top should be done away with.

Wake up, dear fellow countrymen!

It is quite fashionable to blame the government for all the imagined ills plaguing the country. In doing so we tend to completely overlook the altruistic measures taken by the government for boosting the economy. Altruistic because in doing so the government has risked its own credibility and image. Yet it persists in doing the right things, ingratitude of the public notwithstanding. I would like to illustrate this with some very concrete examples.


We cry ourselves hoarse about the unsteady and erratic power supply and long power outages. But we fail to see the abundant availability of all kind of gadgets for overcoming these annoyances. These include voltage stabilizers, inverters, generators etc: Gadgets, unknown to denizens of more developed economies. Have we ever given a thought to the employment that the manufacture and maintenance of these gadgets generate? And we must not forget that this not achieved by understaffing the power corporations. It is quite to the contrary. It is common knowledge that these corporations err on the side of overstaffing. Erring may not be the right expression because it is this overstaffing that leads to the inefficiencies and incompetencies that stimulate industrial growth by creating demand for power conditioners at retail level. I do trust that this shows the power boards and corporations in better light. Can you see that the apparent bad governance in power boards is in fact deliberate and prompted by the noble objective of promoting industrial growth and employment?


Take the case of another essential item - water. We have heard of Coca-cola’s frank admission in USA that the packaged water marketed by them is plain tap water. And it is quite okay as the tap water there is absolutely potable and guaranteed to be so. (Though, this being the case, one fails to understand the need for purchasing packaged water unless it is purchased by the homeless only.) Back home here tap water carries no assurances of potability and many a time it has positive visual evidence of not being so. Having learnt our lessons in the previous example let us refrain from calling names and look at the positive side instead. Yes, this too has spawned an industry, the water purifier industry. And let us not forget the packaged water industry. We do hope that they do not follow the US practice of packaging tap water itself.


Yet another example is apparent lack of law and order. This too is a studied and deliberate act aimed at promoting private security agencies that provide employment to ex-servicemen in large numbers. What could be more patriotic than this?


Look at our primary education. Despite huge outlays and employment of an army of well-paid primary teachers, primary education remains the butt of jokes. We know that even the BPL guys earning INR 32 per day or less hardly display any preference for these public (government) institutions for their progeny. This deliberate mess painstakingly created by governments and its pay-happy teachers has again been done with the sole objective of promoting schools in the private sector. What is difficult to understand is the insistence of these private schools on calling themselves public schools! These schools also provide employment to a large number of educated unemployed.


What has been said for education applies equally to the health sector. This has helped a large number of health care businesses to come up and India now figures as a medical tourism destination for people from developed economies. This would perhaps have never happened if the public health care system left little incentive for private players in this sphere by working all too well.


This penchant for promoting employment has been imbibed by each and every department of all governments - central, state and local, especially those supposed to directly interface with the public. They encourage enterprising people to come forward and facilitate this interfacing by deliberately making themselves a little too difficult to approach directly and making procedures a wee bit too difficult to be correctly understood by the public directly.


The public is not merely deluded about the real motives behind apparent shortcomings and inefficiencies in governance. They are equally deluded about the real reasons behind politicians occasionally dipping their fingers in the Consolidated Fund of India. The do it with a view to provide capital to industries, their own or those of deserving entrepreneurs. This again generates employment and improves general well-being. And after putting in all this hard and thankless work for an ungrateful public, they do need an occasional break. So what is wrong if they set aside some funds at well-known tourist destinations like Switzerland?


Wake up dear fellow countrymen and stop quibbling over bad governance, corruption etc. Thank your leaders for their hard work and vision and give credit where it is due.