Missing human touch at the grassroots !
Hari Jaisingh
Riding on the wave of the
people's massive
mandate in the mid-2014
general elections, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi
talked about "maximum
governance, minimum government". He
also promised to provide good
governance, to the delight of every
section of society.
On Good Governance Day on
December 25, the Prime Minister's
message was candid and forthright. He
said:
"Sushasan. Good governance is the
key to a Nation's progress. Our
government is committed to
providing a transparent and
accountable administration which
works for the betterment and
welfare of the common citizen.
'Citizen First' is our mantra, our
motto and our guiding principle. It
has been my dream to bring
government closer to our citizens".
Very fine thoughts indeed! The
problem with Narendra Modi, however,
is one of translating his noble thoughts
into a plan of action on the ground. If I
understand him correctly, the BJP-led
Modi government's idea was to correct
Cicero of the Roman
empire wrote the
following about the
situation during his
lifetime:*
1. The poor - work &
work.
2. The rich - exploit
the poor.
3. The soldier -
protects both.
4. The taxpayer - pays
for all three.
5. The wanderer -
rests for all four.
6. The drunk - drinks
for all five.
7. The banker - robs
all six.
8. The lawyer -
misleads all seven.
9. The doctor - bills all
eight.
10. The undertaker -
buries all nine.
11. The Politician -
lives happily on account
of all ten.
*Written in 43 B.C.,
but valid even today.
the inefficient functioning of the
administration and unproductive
"control mechanism" of economic
policies generally associated with the
Nehruvian model of socialism.
What he has so far done is to take
are certain steps like ensuring babus'
punctuality, replacing the Planning
Commission by Niti Ayogya etc etc.
Enforcing office punctuality is fine.
But this does not ensure a better work
culture and response system to
desperate pleas of ordinary citizens
who cannot manage "juggar" for
prompt disposal of their grievances in
the corridors of power.
Be that as it may. Critical issues
before the country are: ensuring
transparent, accountable responsive
administrative system,
decentralization of power and an
indifferent mindset of the ruling
cliques which make people go from
pillar to post to redress their
grievances.
I believe that any system or policy
that adds to the sufferings of common
citizens cannot be said to be Good
Governance in a democracy. This is
what Demonetisation did last year on
a large scale, both in rural areas and urban India. And this is how the
proliferation and overplaying of
Aadhaar in every activity of public life
is adding to the woes of the people,
even threatening their privacy. Upset
over the UP government's submission
that homeless people would have to
furnish ID proof like Aadhaar, the
Supreme Court rightly asked if people
without Aadhaar did not exist!
As a journalist and author, I have
closely watched the Indian scene for
decades. This happens to be my
passion as well as an area of concern
while Prime Ministers have come and
gone amidst the politics of expediency
dominating every walk of life.
Politicians call the shots in every
area of public activity. That is the
reason why even simple matters of
governance get politicized and
acquire rhetoric overtones in the
absence of ideological roots and
principled commitments to the
people's good.
No wonder, the country's political
bazaar continues to be a complex
spectacle of opportunism, regional
pulls and counter-pulls, personality
cults, caste and communal divides.
The voter, of course, knows how to
act decisively and throw out an
unresponsive government. All the
same, barring a few exceptions,
political behaviour patterns leave
many questions unanswered. This
makes India look like, to use the
famous Winston Churchill phrase, an
enigma wrapped in a riddle. Perhaps,
it is the invisible mystic-cum-mystery
touch that makes Indian democracy
dynamically complex.
Like Indira Gandhi's garibi hatao,
Prime Minister Modi, too, talks of
poverty elimination, but his policies
and postures give the impression of
his being pro-rich. Perhaps, this is not
his fault. He is in the business of
politics. And politics today has
become a big business. It is,
therefore, not surprising that larger
economic, business factors influence
his decision-making as well as day-today
operations.
Narendra Modi surely thinks big
and acts big. He is guided by yoga
and Digital India mantras.
The stress has to be
on key areas of social
and economic activity,
especially creating jobs
for the youth. Mr Prime
Minister, do we need
pilotless trains when
lakhs and lakhs of
youngsters are
desperate about jobs?
Narendra Modi also
needs to look back,
think and reflect
whether it was
necessary for him to
visit as many as 60
foreign countries in
three years instead of
providing a healing
touch to suicide-prone
farmers in distress! A
human touch at the
grassroots can provide
him better political
dividends than
thunderous applause
overseas.
However, the business of governance
can click if the existing ground
realities of rural and urban India are
properly understood. I feel that he is
yet to realise that the whole of India
cannot be run on the Gujarat Model.
The face of India and of poverty and
deprivations changes after a cluster
of 30 to 40 villages.
India is, of course, no fairyland,
though it is a colourful and fascinating
country that derives its substance from
the grassroots wisdom. And, those who
fail to grasp this common man's wisdom
or choose to ignore it, could be thrown
in the electoral dustbin. This is what
happened to Indira Gandhi. That is how
Rajiv Gandhi lost to his one time
colleague, Vishwanath Pratap Singh,
who too subsequently suffered a blow
when lost sight of rational perspective in
the pursuit of his caste-based politics.
Looking back in a wider perspective
of nation-building, V P Singh had a
golden opportunity to reshape the
destiny of India but frittered away his
energy in chasing petty sectarian and
mandalised goals and in the process lost
his sense of direction. He virtually
divided the nation by his one-track
obsession with the reservation issue. By
his senseless attempt to extend the
caste-based reservations to the
educational field, he provoked a violent
backlash from the middle class student
community in urban India.
Amidst strikes and gory spectacle of
self-immolations, the nation virtually
came to a halt. In a swift turn of political
fortune, V P Singh lost support of the
media and the educated middle class
that had helped him win the poll.
Suddenly, he was viewed as a villain of
Indian politics.
I am recalling the V P Singh
phenomenon, simply because of its
relevance to the present and future
leadership. The setting and issues could
vary, but the basic lesson is the same:
how not to govern India.
Even for Narendra Modi there are
lessons galore from his shrinking
electoral base in his home state of
Gujarat. The Patidar stir, headed by
firebrand young leader Hardik Patel,
along with youthful Dalit and OBC
leaders, conveys to Modi a number of lessons on rising unemployment,
inadequate education opportunities
for the middle class youngsters in the
face of very costly privatized
education and health systems.
Equally disturbing is the social
scene one and a half years after
brutalities on four Una Dalits of
Gujarat shook the nation. The Dalit
victims have now decided to forsake
Hinduism due to unabated caste
discrimination and embrace
Buddhism. And Gujarat has been the
BJP-ruled state for the past 22 years!
These are all matters of good
governance vis-a-vis people and their
problems.
I am not questioning the Prime
Minister's good intentions to make
India go in a big way. But he has to
come to the grip of multi-dimensional
distortions the polity is suffering
from. There are loose ends
everywhere.
Power flows from moneybags. And
money flows from power. To whom
can the common man turn to when
muscle and money power operates in
tandem? Those who do not have a
share in the booty are showing signs
of restlessness. Those who are part of
the system merrily exploit it and
virtually become insensitive to the
sufferings of the less privileged. This is
not the India we had bargained for.
Politicians exploit the innocent
masses. Businessmen and traders
exploit consumers by selling
substandard or adulterated
commodities. Malpractices, such as
black marketing, underweight or
overcharging, are not signs of good
governance. The bureaucratized
system, more often than not,
hardly cares for the susceptibilities
of the poor and the have-nots. The
guardians of the law tilt towards
the rich and the mighty.
How can we arrest such a decline?
Simple. No one should be allowed to
get away with any violation, minor or
major, of the law. How about cow
vigilants who take the law in their
hands to harass the Dalits or
Muslims?
Law has to have a humane face. It
should be applied equally for all, the mightiest as well as the weakest of the
land. This is the essence of democracy
and good governance.
I believe that any
system or policy that
adds to the sufferings
of common citizens
cannot be said to be
Good Governance in a
democracy. This is what
Demonetisation did last
year on a large scale,
both in rural areas and
urban India. And this is
what the proliferation
and overplaying of
Aadhaar in every
activity of public life is
adding to the woes of
the people, even
threatening their
privacy. Upset over the
UP government's
submission that
homeless people would
have to furnish ID proof
like Aadhaar, the
Supreme Court rightly
asked if people without
Aadhaar did not exist!
As part of the concept of good
governance, the Prime Minister and
his policy makers need to promptly
take care of basic national priorities,
such as drinking water for villages,
better public health system, drive
towards aforestation, halting
deforestation, more vigorous drive to
check the "baby boom", tapping solar
and indigenous sources of energy for
the benefit of rural India, pollution
control, urban planning with green
lungs, strengthening road and
communication network, improving
the quality of public health and
education, expansion of career and
professional courses, generation of
new employment opportunities.
The stress has to be on key areas of
social and economic activity, especially
creating jobs for the youth. Mr Prime
Minister, do we need pilotless trains
when lakhs and lakhs of youngsters are
desperate about jobs?
Narendra Modi also needs to look
back, think and reflect whether it was
necessary for him to visit as many as 60
foreign countries in three years instead
of providing a healing touch to suicideprone
farmers in distress! A human
touch at the grassroots can provide him
better political dividends than
thunderous applause overseas.
Democracy demands fairplay and
honest approach to men, matters and
issues. If men could be expected to be
selfish or worse, as James Madison once
put it in the American context,
"ambition must be made to counteract
ambition". In the Indian situation this is
possible if a proper system and effective
instruments of governance are created.
For "if men were angels, no government
would be necessary".
In absence of a viable and responsive
system, manipulators and operators
have a field day. This is not acceptable.
The existing system needs to be
revamped and rebuilt on the new edifice
of transparency and accountability at all
levels of public activity. Equally vital for
good governance is less of secrecy,
more of openness, and greater
involvement of people in development.