Modi dares to Dream

Modi dares to dream in a nation that so far has witnessed a plethora of shattered dreams, not of its leaders who have done fairly well for themselves but of the common man.  His arrival after over six decades of existence as a free nation gives hope - the nation appears poised to emerge and occupy its place in the big league, albeit many years later than it should have actually done so.

How does the common man perceive the nation and its ruling class? Despite the inherent faults and there are many, the rapid advent of the multiplicity of channels on the idiot box has opened the vistas for the common man, who till then was totally oblivious of the developments that were taking place elsewhere and not in his own motherland. Now he is aware what civic infrastructure is ought to be and what is meant by service delivery; he also realizes that there is a better life beyond the shores of the country and that if he is asked to lay his finger on the biggest single ailment that the nation is seized of – he will unhesitatingly lay it on the pie of corruption. The idiot box has thus succeeded in changing the awareness levels of the common man living in way off towns and villages.

It is another matter that the common man perceives political leaders and government servants generally in the same league – kings of the present times. Continued existence of shortages and differentiation in social hierarchies has indeed shown him his place – at the mercy of the powers that be. Sadly the common man has abdicated his rights in the favour of the rulers whom he always learnt to fear. And therefore the question of his demanding good governance never arose; he neither expected good governance nor good conduct from those at the helm of affairs, yet within his heart he always castigated them!

It is this perception of the ruling classes, the entire tantra, in the eyes of the common man that needs to change if real change is to be brought about. The widely prevalent yet true perception that all government functionaries are corrupt needs to change, by the emergence of an environment in which interaction between the common man and the sarkar is not laced with graft. The general feeling that India is not for Indians – that it is a country only for the powerful or the rich needs to change for the big change to be really worth its while.

Our biggest misfortune has been the continuance of the british raj in the garb of swaraj. A system of governance based on mistrust and therefore warranting sanctions and approvals for almost anything under the sun is being continued even when the color of the rulers changed from fair to brown.  Our laws, our rules and our processes that the machinery of governance still follows are mostly as intact as they were when inherited from the empire and have miserably failed to meet aspirations.

Changing rules, processes and systems therefore has to be a major focus area. Simplification has to be the buzzword as this perhaps is the only way to achieve quantum growth that can reduce the chasm of difference between the developed world and ours.  

Government with a difference!

The difference has started showing within two days. For the first time in the history of the republic, we have a Prime Minister who plays on the front foot, who has clarity on the direction the country should take and the measures that would need to be taken to propel the nation towards prosperity and development.

Inviting the heads of SAARC nations for the historic swearing in served twin purposes – first to convey  the message that the country wants good relations with its neighbors and second that India is emerging into a nation that cannot be messed around with. Our heads swell with pride at the bold assertion of the nation’s sovereignty and self respect.

The setting up of a special investigation team for bringing back black money stashed in safe havens abroad clearly shows the will of the new government to eradicate corrupt practices. The missive in the form of an advisory to the members of his cabinet to abstain from nepotism in all their dealings and also not to splurge on improving offices and residences is akin to long awaited music to the ears. 

His message is loud and clear. Gone are the days when we had a reactive chief executive, we are now in an era where the top guy knows what needs to be achieved, how it needs to be achieved and believes that the conduct of those in the business of governance has to be exemplary and above board. The conduct of the government in the first two days gives me ample confidence that the slogan “Acche din aane wale hain” was not merely an exercise in creating a feel good factor.

I am absolutely certain that the message would also have traveled right across the bureaucratic spectrum and would be giving shivers in the spine of the corrupt, especially those who were brazenly indulging in corrupt practices and also exploitation of the government machinery for their personal gains. Yet fixing the bureaucrats would indeed be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack given the chameleon like traits that are widely prevalent in this tribe. Most of the tainted bureaucrats would have already dumped their old masters and would be busy attempting to attach themselves to the new guy in the chair.

The last ten years in the life of this nation displayed the worst that is possible to showcase in the arena of governance. The series of scams – with CWG taking the cake for brazen corruption and accompanied by the likes of 2G, 3G, Coalgate, Railgate, Chara and Adarsh to name a few had jolted the collective conscience of the nation. Open corruption at apex levels inspired the hoi polloi also to partake of the loot whenever they found an opportunity. It is indeed sad that our nation had emerged as an entity where each and every single interaction of the ruler and the ruled was invariably laced with graft. Apparently the book on ethics was thrown out of the window at the first opportunity.

Corruption is an issue, the biggest issue that now stares at this nation, yet it is merely a symptom of a much deeper malaise in governance, in the complexity of our decision making and contractual processes. Why a system designed for the british to rule over Indians is being continued even after sixty seven years of self rule, I wonder? The large number of thumb impressions that are required both for decision making as well as contracting provide a convenient shroud for the corrupt as well as the waster, and unless this realization dawns in, the republic would never get cleansed of this malaise.

Yet for the first time, we the people of India have great expectations, that have a fair chance of being realized and therein lies the ray of hope, the first ray of a rising sun that has started falling on this land, mercifully.

The failure of Indian democracy

Today for the first time I felt as if the Indian democratic system has collapsed. The suspension of Durga and the escalation of the political fight over her, not for the cause of justice but for earning brownie points made me sad as never before. Never before, even while witnessing abject poverty, failed governance, rampant corruption and rapid downslide of moral values I regarded them as the failure of the democratic system, yet this single incident crashed the world and hope around us.

I was momentarily transported to those cold wintery days of December 2002 when after having been given the boot from the post of CMD/ITDC, I was reverted unceremoniously to my parent cadre, the railways for having delivered a performance that was regarded as sterling even by my rivals in the hospitality sector. Despite the uproar and the apparent travesty of justice, the government did not budge and went ahead with the sacking even though many in the cabinet expressed their annoyance with the treatment meted out to an officer for turning around a sick public sector organization. Yet the difference remains that apart from the blatantly unfair repatriation, the government did not persecute me like the Durga of today.

The suspension of Durga somehow did not shock me. After all this was what she truly deserved in the India of today, a nation far removed from the ideals that it held close to its heart while aspiring for independence from foreign rule. It is indeed true that the tall personalities who led this nation to freedom would have been unable to visualize the massive drift from human value systems that we are witness to in the present times.

Perhaps our democratic model has been faulty. The social structure that has emerged post independence is bereft of values of any kind and service, despite the piety it evokes has degenerated to service of the self cutting across the bureaucratic and political spectrum throughout the length and breadth of the nation.

Durga Shakti therefore faced the consequences of her action, an action that would have placed her on a very high pedestal had it taken place in a society that places good acts above everything else. Unfortunately the degeneration that picked up pace in the early nineties now runs so deep that far from being considered laudable, such actions have started being regarded as worthy of a severe punishment. Yet the inherent strength of her name and the radiance that her personality exudes makes me confident that her resolve to take on illegal activities regardless of the strength of the powers that (mis)rule would indeed get strengthened with time.

The case of Durga, spurred by the media has caught the imagination of the nation. Yet there would be hundreds of such cases where honest bureaucrats are routinely crushed by dishonest politicos, cutting across party lines. Khairnar was one and Khemka is another. I wonder what would have been the state of affairs had the media not been what it is today.

Sadder still is the race amongst the politicos to adopt a holier than thou attitude in castigating the Uttar Pradesh government, yet following identical norms in territories that they govern. It is also true that the brazenness of the politicos and bureaucrats alike in committing loot or unjust acts is gaining ground in the absence of better alternatives with the electorate. The electoral system is now confined merely to election of the best amongst the worst and this is not what the founding fathers of Indian democracy visualized or what we actually deserve.