The uphill battle continues. What really foxes me is the mess
and the amount of indecision at all levels that must have gone into almost on a continuous basis to achieve the grand mess that we are saddled with today at the
national carrier.
Yes it is true that the typical staid way of functioning must have helped a lot, as that alone
guarantees maintenance of status quo and hefty premium on non-deliverance. Strange
it may sound but in the PSU jungles, it is not the tiger who is the most
feared but the cunning fox that surreptitiously appears out of nowhere to claim
its prey.
Addressing the young budding
management students at the legendary IIT Delhi recently, I was literally at
pains to explain to them the unlimited bundle of power that a human being is, yet
that power and the potential remains untapped almost forever, with rare
exceptions of course. The system that everyone criticizes and mourns for, yet accepts and
perpetuates has a tremendous crippling effect. Endless debates and
deliberations and yet remaining indecisive over even petty matters is the
hallmark of the system.
It is a fact that the new
government is trying its level best to pull the nation out of the accumulated
mess of almost seventy odd years. No new scam hitting the nation since the
present dispensation took over is at stark contrast with the legacy that they
inherited. There is stress on integrity and value systems and interference is almost absent. Honest intentions are also conspicuous by their shining presence. While we are indeed witness to good strides in governance and development, yet the fact remains that a quantum growth and improvement would be possible only if the machinery
radically changes the way it has been working. If it keeps working in the way
it has been all along in the past, we would keep on getting the results we had been getting
in the past. A total overhaul is required. Simplification is the name of the
game. Things have to be made simple to happen and they shall.
The role of the check-posts,
namely the vigilance and audit setups has to be reviewed and drastically
curtailed. Malafide has to be handled with an iron hand, mistakes need to be merely
glossed over. Trust in human beings has to be brought back and also the
realization that if mere punishments could reform, crime would have hit a new
low in India by now.
The recent facebook post of the
coal secretary in which he has laid the blame for the lack of initiative at the
feet of the five C’s is like hitting the nail bang on the head. That the 5C’s
including the CVC and the CAG have succeeded in curbing initiative is a
statement of fact that I have been living almost all my life. Initiative for an officer working within the governmental machinery is a personal risk for which he may end up bearing the cross all his
life. And many therefore ask - why risk it, when a life devoid of initiative provides the same
personal comforts sans pressures and also keeps the door open for elevation
to the highest levels. Premium is there, but only for doing nothing.
Process reform is the key. Almost
everyone appreciates it but hardly understands the same. It is indeed all about
simplification of the decision making and contractual processes that swamp the
governmental machinery. Unfortunately over the decades, in the garb of transparency
and curbing corruption, almost all processes have been complicated to ridiculous
levels. And therefore most of us who are not satisfied with merely twiddling
our thumbs, are often at a loss for how to proceed forward and do things. And having
worked in almost all sectors of the machinery, I can say with the courage
of conviction that this maze is omnipresent.
The maze has to lift for the jewel of the east to rapidly emerge from the shadows.
