The injustice of the Juvenile Justice Act

Maneka Gandhi’s statement on juvenile justice and her resolve to bring to book juveniles who rape and murder is indeed music to the ears. I fully endorse the view that a so called kid who is into premeditated rapes and murders can by no stretch of imagination classify as a kid worthy of much reduced punishment. A rape is a rape and a murder is a murder regardless of the age of the person committing it and the perpetrator does not deserve any leniency whatsoever.

India is also home to a plethora of armchair enthusiasts who carry a view on almost all issues under the sun. It is these armchair enthusiasts who so far have been highly vocal against attempts to bring about suitable modifications in the juvenile justice act. I wonder what would be the response of the most vocal armchair enthusiast is his own daughter undergoes a fate akin to Nirbhaya, yet I am reasonably certain that his views would be taking a hundred eighty degree turn.

The Nirbhaya incident of the 16^th of December 2012 shook the collective conscience of the nation. Never before in the history of the republic the citizens emerged from the comfortable confines of their homes on the roads of the capital to protest against the incident. Yet justice is still awaited in this case and with the exception of the guy who committed suicide, the others are still cooling their heels and forever devising ways to delay the noose. The noose however would never await the one who was the most brutal of the lot, for the mere reason that he is a juvenile and therefore classifies for leniency under the juvenile justice act. What a travesty of Justice!

I abhor the double standards that we citizens generally tend to practice. The noose if our own kith and kin is involved and mercy or a total lack of concern if someone else is. I have always admired  instant justice the sunny deol style as witnessed in films and unless the same is implemented in real life scenario, innocents and the weak would continue to suffer.  

Spurred by the cover the act provides, juveniles have also become the favourite actors in cases of terrorism and organized crime. The act has already provided sufficient motivation to crime syndicates to bank on youngsters for their operations in India. During my stint as the head honcho of Delhi division of the railways the biggest headache was the nuisance and crime committed by the below eighteen group at almost all stations and yet we could not do anything in the matter.

For the sake of the society and also for the sake of my family I sincerely hope and pray that Maneka Gandhi does not fail in her efforts. 

What ails Indian tourism?

Tourism along with railways has always been a key focus area of the new prime minister even before he became one and it is now time that these sectors are actually harnessed for the national good. Unfortunately tourism, an activity of the masses has always been looked upon with an elitist undertone and therefore the sector rarely got the attention and the priority it rightfully deserved despite its unmatched multiplier effect and capacity for generating employment.

There has always been an ongoing debate over whether tourism is a state or a federal subject and voices to bring it on the concurrent list were always getting raised. Yet the fact remains that merely being on a list is not a guarantor of growth or development and what really matters are intentions and also the efforts to convert them into reality. During my earlier roller coaster stint in the federal ministry of tourism I always wondered whether merely putting Agra, the home of the Tajmahal in order should not be the starting point for setting right the entire gamut of tourism in the nation. Yet it was never to be as we always aspired to do something big while failing in achieving the small. 

Another issue that has always been on the top of my mind is whether the primary role of the tourism departments at the federal and state levels is tourism for the mandarins or tourism for the masses. For masses obviously it has to be, yet the tours beyond the confines of the shores have continued unabated, cutting across states and shades of governance. Our focus definitely needs to shift from beyond the shores to setting our own house in order and then zoom forward.

It is not merely about how many visitors we receive from beyond the shores. Tourism to my mind is more about enabling our countrymen to explore the richness of their own country, something that gets shrouded by the glimmer of what is regarded and worshipped as foreign stuff.

It is also of essence that the national perspective on tourism does not remain confined merely to figures both of foreign tourist arrivals and the home population moving within the country. Unfortunately the national mind-set is guided and also led by statistics, and therein lies the malaise. Even while remaining confined to statistics, the essential difference between the tourist, who is basically an explorer, and the traveller, who may be moving for many reasons needs to be   appreciated, though both form part of the tourism statistics that are regularly being churned out and touted by those who matter in the matter of tourism in the country.

Another fallacy is related to international advertising. Our sheer inability to appreciate that the bottleneck in so far as foreign tourist arrivals is concerned is not the inability to showcase but the  number of seats in the aircrafts plying between the homeland and the rest of the world. It is time to realize that advertising is not merely for increasing the numbers but also for improving the image perception and creating the desire to visit and it therefore has to be primarily driven by the Indian ethos, culture and achievements and not merely the numbers game.

And it is also about infrastructure. The much-needed basic tourist infrastructure is a dire necessity and merely releasing grants to the State Governments who permit only a trickle to reach the ground is not making the difference it actually should. The release of funds alone is an inadequate measure unless it results in an actual conversion and in its absence a pat on the back is not really in order. The emergence of a good monitoring and executing machinery is the desperate need of the hour.

The India Tourism Development Corporation is indeed the sad story of Indian tourism. An inherently profitable commercial organization also entrusted with the national mandate of development of tourism has been brought to seed by inept leadership provided by high ranking bureaucrats. Is it not really unfortunate that along with Air India, ITDC is also now regarded as the national symbol of sloth, inefficiency and corruption? Both these commercial monoliths could have given a tremendous push to the cause of tourism as well as travel within the country, something they did till professionalism remained at the core of their operations. Yet both can turnaround provided………

It is beyond doubt that tourism as an activity almost always happens on its own, without prodding from the governments, and that it helps local economies to grow at a pace much higher than in other sectors. Its employment potential as well as impact on economy many times over the investment in the sector have already received adequate national hype and now it warrants real inputs not merely rhetoric  from the governments. 

It is now time that the handling of tourism moves beyond the established clichés and it actually starts  driving local economies, besides giving a thrust to the re-emergence and positioning of ancient Indian heritage, art, culture and thought. It would indeed be futile to look at tourism without looking at all that the country stands for. The sectors encompassing tourism and culture are complimentary and a much higher natural synergy will now perhaps be achieved after the merger of the two ministries.

The role of the Government of India Tourist Offices, popularly known as GOITO’s that earlier formed the backbone of the national effort to give a thrust to tourism need a much deeper understanding and appreciation. Merely finding faults without suitably empowering them to function efficiently in a fast changing international scenario is causing more damage than good. Perhaps an injection of fundamentals of administration and management is the need of the hour. It is also necessary that the unfortunate state of affairs in which these offices and the men who man them stand castigated should cease once and for all. 

Lack of cleanliness and hygiene is also a bane of the tourism sector in the nation. Perhaps it is an issue related to the mind-set that is prevalent, yet there is no alternative to maintaining in a state of utmost cleanliness both our tourist destinations as well as places of human habitat in general. The recent clean india campaign marked a good beginning, yet the effort has lost steam midway or so it appears.

And make it easy for the private sector to invest. That the number of hotel rooms in the organized sector is far lower than that in the city state of Singapore indeed says it all. A multi-pronged strategy focussed on cleanliness, private sector participation, infrastructure development, promotional advertising and tourist facilitation would make all the difference in proper positioning of the country as a tourist friendly nation in its own national interest, is indeed the need of the hour.

Railway Reforms - Article published in TOI of 1st July 2014

Jul 01 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

INSIDE VIEW- Railways in decline, it's time for overhaul

Ashwani Lohani





That Railways, the great monolith often christened as the economic lifeline of the nation, is in for a major overhaul is both sad as well as gratifying. After all, even the most modern machines require periodic overhauls and therefore why not organizations?
Actually , the Railways are in crying need for an overhaul.
The recent spate of accidents and the general public perception of an organization that still delivers where many others fail to, albeit not up to the satisfaction of customers, is the sad story of the Railways.It's an organization that carries over 20 million passengers a day and over thousand million tonnes of freight a year. But, it has almost reached its limits in its present shape and structure. And that's where the nub lies. There's no longer time to beat about the bush -rather it's time to call a spade a spade.
An archaic, feudal and sycophantic organization steeped in complex processes cannot be expected to meet the expectations of 21st century India.
Its three-tier structure on departmental lines, with a redundant tier in the middle, with its cadres aligned on similar lines is the real issue that is preventing a monopoly commercial organization from meeting the country's aspirations.
At one level, the well-researched reports made by persons of eminence -Prakash Tandon, Rakesh Mohan and Kakodkar need to be acted upon. At another level, the organizational structure needs to be shaken.
The famous Railgate scandal that surfaced and shook the nation almost a year ago failed to make any dent in the collective psyche of the organization. What emerged was just one symptom of a flourishing malaise, but the disease continues to grow unchecked.
How can an organization, often considered the epitome of corrupt practices, meet the needs of a rapidly emerging nation?
Leadership or the lack of it has been a key issue with this gigantic organization. Vision has been the biggest casualty .
The departmental structure is the underlying reason behind this as it has created satraps, each with their own jagir. This has created a situation where almost everyone always has a perfectly valid reason for not delivering.
The arrival of a new government has signalled chang ing times and hope, both in the hearts of the common man and the honest bureaucrat.
Hopefully , the reasons behind the Railways performing below par and also regularly failing to meet the expectations of a nation on the move would now find suitable redressal.
Look at history . It took less than 25 years for the quadrilateral connecting the four metros to be built, and each hill railways took less than a decade to be commissioned. And, this happened in an era when both technology and transportation were primitive. That 80% of the route we have at present was built in the first 94 years with 20% taking the next 67 years says it all.
The solution lies in simplifying the maze of complex rules, procedures and processes that this monolith is mired in, spurred primarily by a feeling of mistrust that pervades like mist. The answer lies in restructuring and trimming the huge bureaucracy that complicates this organization each passing day .
Increasing route kilometres by quadrupling the golden quadrilateral to begin with, creating the much-needed new passenger and freight terminals and ushering in an era of real high-speed travel, among other goals, would necessitate a radically different approach that is beyond the capabilities of the existing structure.
Basic improvements, therefore, would need to be followed up by measures that usher in a true corporate culture. The nation cannot be held to ransom by an organization that underperforms in a target-driven business scenario.

Accidents linger on - The rail way

Beginning with the bomb blasts at the Chennai railway station on the 1^st of May 2014, there have been four tragedies classified as accidents on the Indian Railway system in the last two months. The bomb blast incident was followed by the 4^th May accident on the Konkan railway system wherein twenty died, 26^th May collision of the Gorakhdham Express killing twenty five and the 25^th June derailment involving the Dibrugarh Rajdhani wherein four persons breathed their last. Yet it is much more than mere numbers game as road accidents alone account for over a lakh and thirty five thousand deaths per annum in the country. A major railway accident irrespective of the number of people that lose their life is a national catastrophe that shakes the collective psyche of the nation and conveys an impression that all is not well with the country.

Such accidents are invariably followed by compensation and a CRS enquiry that goes into the basic causes leading to the incident. Platitudes are mouthed in the silent backdrop of a hectic blame game being played amongst different railway departments. Yet it is certain that the railway brass is shaken to the core by the spate of accidents else how without even a preliminary enquiry, railways proclaimed Maoists as the perpetrators of the accident, a charge promptly and vehemently denied by the federal home ministry and the state government.

Railways being a human centric organization, human failures are bound to happen, howsoever much we may like to decry the same. Six Sigma, theoretically the best possible performance talks of a one in a million rate of failure and yet in almost all areas of our operations, the railway employees are consistently performing much better than that. The employees at the cutting edge level therefore should ideally remain above reproach, yet that does not happen. In the eagerness to apportion blame and inflict punishments and in the process close the file till the next calamity strikes, railway staff and also officers at the base levels are severely taken up as if they have by their acts of commission caused the accident to happen. This in my view is not the right way to go about things.

Until the realization that accidents and consequently the safety environment on the railways or for that matter any other organization is merely a symptom and not the malaise, sinks in, rhetoric shall continue to preside over rational thought. Perhaps it is all about how organizations are run, how leadership roles play their part in bringing about quantum improvements in performance including the operational and safety scenarios that has not yet appeared in the radar of those who matter yet do not matter in the running of monoliths like the railways.

An archaic, feudal and complicated organization headed not by leaders but by satraps cannot be expected to meet the expectations of the twenty first century India, and therefore it is failing with amazing regularity in almost all fields of its operations, except perhaps taking good care of the bureaucratic and political masters. The ivory tower approach that is at the core of the managerial thought process ensures a total disconnect from the field and therefore witnesses emergence of ideas that appear good on paper and in discussions yet do not exactly matter in the long run. We invariably remain where we started.

The arrival of Modi on the national scene has aroused tremendous expectations in the masses and there is absolutely no doubt even in the minds of the worst of the skeptics that the nation is indeed in for a rapid improvement in the scenario. Yes that is what one man is capable of that a collective can never ensure. Unfortunately till the recent change of guard at the center, railways lacked that one man, both at the political as well as bureaucratic leadership levels.

Mammoth organizations that are operational in nature are meant to be led by a leadership that is proactive, decisive and honest besides having a vision for the future. Unfortunately the forever practiced strategy of fumbling in the dark in search of a miracle cure may be a remunerative exercise for the bureaucratic leadership but not for the teeming millions for whom the railways is the only means of going places. 

THE RAIL "WAY"

It is generally accepted yet never practiced that unless we call a spade a spade and accept and also project the reality as it is, progress in the real sense would never materialize. After all the welfare of the nation needs to be at the core of all our actions always.

Modi’s thumping arrival on the national scene has heralded rapidly changing times and hope in the hearts of the common man and the honest bureaucrat. It is my fervent hope and desire that the reasons behind the railways continuously performing much below par and also with amazing regularity failing to meet the expectations of a nation on the move would now find suitable redressal.

It is sad that apparently there is no other way or forum in the railways where even an officer with over thirty four years of service can place his point of view with the hope that the powers that be would bring about changes, for the better. Unfortunately the communication is always downwards, never upwards and therefore the existence of the ivory towers far removed from ground realities.

Is it not surprising that I have never witnessed or partaken of a meeting or a conference in the railways where the welfare of the men who actually run railways and matters relating to ethics and probity in public life are discussed threadbare. Perhaps our inability to accept the realities and remaining in a denial mode forever has been spurred by the feudal and sycophantic culture that this organization now finds itself deeply enmeshed in.

The tragedy of railways has been that despite always being in the best possible business scenario, monopoly in a sellers-market in a nation as populous as ours, it has always found itself in a deep mess unable to meet the rising aspirations of a nation on the move. Perhaps now the time has come when this organization would overcome mere rhetoric and emerge as the economic lifeline of the nation provided it accepts its follies with an open mind and then boldly gets over them.

While initially after inception the railways grew rapidly, the growth post-independence has not been commensurate with the requirements of a developing and populous  nation. The reason lies not in lack of capability, but the slow yet regular injection of complexities in processes, both in decision making and contracting that have led to a scenario where paperwork takes more time than execution and the quality also suffers.  

Perhaps we need to revisit railways history. It took less than two decades and a half for the quadrilateral connecting the four metros to be built, and the hill railways, each one of them took less than a decade to be commissioned and this happened in an era when both technology and transportation was highly primitive. That 80% of the route we have at present was built in the first ninety four years with 20% taking the next sixty seven indeed says it all. 

The solution lies in simplifying the maze of complex rules, procedures and processes that this monolith is mired in, spurred primarily by a feeling of mistrust that pervades like mist. The answer also lies in the huge rudderless bureaucracy that infests this organization and is busy devising new restrictive procedures and rules every day. The deeply entrenched culture of feudalism and sycophancy also makes its valuable contribution in ensuring that the mess continues unabated.

The famous Railgate incident of merely a year ago was the tip of the iceberg, a symptom of a much bigger malaise that has been simmering ever since railways started going down the hill. Sadly even an incident of this magnitude has not led to a cleaning up exercise that was expected. Sometime back the railway was positioned as the most corrupt organization in the country. While the magnitude may be comparatively small, the spread of corruption in railways is wide and deeply entrenched. Today it is almost impossible for a commoner or a corporate to deal with the railways without the conventional greasing of palms and also incurring tremendous wasted effort. That the lower echelons of the railways also face similar music when dealing with the monolith dawned on me during my recent tenures in the northern railway where official vision was restricted to punctuality and expenditure figures with absolutely no concern for basic human values. How can an organization the biggest employer in the globe shy away from fundamental administrative and HR related issues and core value systems, yet talk about much bigger things?

It hurts when even the apex levels display taint, disregard for ethics and a dismal conduct, for it is then that hopes start receding into the abyss. And this scenario is borne out of the complexity of processes that shield both the inefficient as well as corrupt. A system designed for britishers to rule over natives, tweaked time and again spurred by mistrust has now emerged as the paradise for the corrupt and the shirker.   

We now have a rule for everything under the sun, and also the “tod” for each of these rules. Show me the man and show me the rule has emerged as the style of working of the railway bureaucracy. And we have a vigilance set up that treats even a deviation from a rule or procedure as malafide and in the process many suffer often for no fault of their won. The rationale behind keeping a sword hanging over the executives almost always, in an organization that often calls itself commercial is beyond understanding.   

Is this the way an organization that has a commercial department in tow, should function? An organization that regards a difference of opinion as dissent, is mired in archaic processes and is deeply entrenched in feudal practices will never really deliver in the long run. An organization that does not do anything to bring out the best in its men shall have to either abandon its archaic cloak or continue to function, albeit at the bottom of the scale.

Perhaps it is all about leadership, bureaucratic leadership that I am talking about. The system corrupted by total lack of objectivity as well as meritocracy is on expected lines abjectly failing in shoring up the best and consequently the results that we are saddled with. Imagine an organization where petty issues that impinge upon personal comfort are regarded more important than caring about the men who run the railways or the travelling public for whom the railways is run. The feudal trait is also amply reflected in the existence of saloons, the luxury apartments on wheels utilized for travelling by senior bureaucratic levels that would actually never blend with the scenario of dense crush load in trains or a developing yet poor nation like ours! Yet these mighty symbols of feudalism continue to roll on.

Even after thirty four years of service, I am clueless about the vision of this organization for none has ever been communicated and indulgence in sheer routine takes the better part of the working day of almost everyone. I am equally clueless about the grounds on which annual assessments are made – whether on delivery or sycophancy and invariably it is the latter. Fortunately the bulk of the functional staff is committed and it is they who are keeping the wheels moving. The senior officers on the other hand at almost all levels have been miserably failing in their role of providing vision & direction and making things easier for the field level functionaries.

The absence of even a single railway services officer is also a major issue. The Rakesh Mohan committee had recommended the abolition or merger of most of the nine services and creation of an Indian Railway Service. Unfortunately like all good reports this too was confined to the dustbin and the railways, continues to chug along with departmental officers who lack an overview of the entire organization with inter service rivalry playing its role in maximizing the damage. 

The solution lies in abolishing the bulk of the rules and simplification of almost all its processes. The presence of a pragmatic, honest and simple bureaucratic leadership that gives the go by to feudal practices and sycophants is the need of the hour. The solution also lies in drastically reducing the officialdom and questioning the existence of a three tier structure when we need only two. While the railway board with over four thousand on its rolls needs to be made lighter, the zonal headquarters that hardly have any substantive work and thrive only on controls have no rationale to exist. Clarity also needs to be brought in the functioning of the board, whether it is a policy making body or plain executive. Perhaps hiving off the policy making function to a ministry with the board remaining confined to routine executive functions would be the right way. 

Increasing route kilometres with quadrupling of the golden quadrilateral to begin with, creating the much needed new passenger and freight terminals and ushering in an era of real high speed travel amongst other dreams would necessitate a radically different approach that is evidently beyond the capabilities of the existing structure. Basic improvements in the existing structure may need to be followed up by corporatization and subsequent privatization for the nation cannot be held to ransom forever by an organization that fails to get its act together despite being in a dream business scenario.

Amen!

Political Will Alone Can Contain Graft

POLITICAL WILL ALONE CAN CONTAIN GRAFT

Monday, 16 June 2014 | Ashwani Lohani | in Oped

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Prime Minister Modi’s June 11 address in Parliament was sincere and simple, which is why it impressed millions and re-affirmed their faith in his leadership

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address in Parliament on June 11 was magnificent. Never before in the history of the republic have we witnessed a Prime Minister touching the chords in the hearts of the people of his nation to the extent witnessed that day. His words aroused emotions and his simple strategies made people identify with them.

Amongst other issues, he focussed on rampant corruption that has earned the tag of a scam-ridden nation for the country. Mr Modi promised pro-active action against corruption, transparent policies that reduced the scope for discretion and extensive use of information technology for curbing this menace. Mr Modi has hit the nail on the head. Corruption is indeed the biggest malaise facing the nation. It is so deep-rooted that almost every interaction of the commoner with the Government machinery is invariably laced with graft and, therefore, he suffers every time he gets his property registered, gets an electric connection, applies for a driving licence, and so on. The plight of those running businesses is worse. For example, with over a 100 clearances needed for running a hotel, an entrepreneur is forced to satisfy the desires of the Government babus before starting his venture and continue to do so in perpetuity for the sake of his survival. It is this petty corruption that is indeed killing the denizens of this nation many times more than the scams that have been hitting the nation.

Reducing discretion would indeed reduce the scope for corruption, but the corrupt thrives not out of wavering from the set path for illegal gratification, but for doing the right thing. It is his price for not lolling in inaction, for not delaying files or partaking of a cheque for genuine work done. Masters in the art of corruption would vouch that they also made money not by doing the wrong things but by forcing their subordinates to do so for fear of retribution in the form of transfers, bad confidential reports and other harassment. It is this corruption that would indeed be the most difficult to tackle for there would be no direct evidence against the masters anywhere on the files.

Deterrent punishment would indeed be the answer. Unless fear is instilled in the hearts of the corrupt that detection of any wrongdoing on their part or on the part of their subordinates on their instance would lead to very heavy punishment, those in the services of the Government would never give up acts that gives them a luxurious lifestyle that mere salaries would never ensure. Simplification is the answer. In the generally prevalent scheme of things, the plethora of thumb impressions that adorn every single act of commission or omission successfully camouflage the corrupt as well as the incompetent. It is indeed time that archaic rules and processes — many of which have been further tweaked to the extent of appearing ridiculous — be shown the door.

Time-bound decisions and acts is the call of the day. Delays are generally spurred by inefficiency, corruption and at times merely sloth, yet laying the finger on the exact cause is more often than not extremely difficult. Laying down stringent timelines may help, yet would need to be followed up with extensive monitoring and severe punishments in cases of violations. It however needs appreciation that in the already complex maze of official systems and procedures one more process and monitoring machinery thereof would only give temporary results unless of course a massive simplification exercise reduces the burden and in the process improves efficiency.

The address by Mr Modi is a milestone, for it is perhaps for the first time in the history of independent India that its chief executive has on the floor of Parliament displayed his resolve to eradicate corruption from the everyday lives of the common man. A major cause for celebration indeed!

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.