Jawahar jacket and Gandhi cap

Jawahar jacket and Gandhi cap
By Narendra Luther

Culture is mimetic. We not only live but also survive by imitation. A child would not learn to speak – and hence hear -- if it did not have the company of people who spoke to it day in and day out. Keep a newborn child in an isolated closed room and he will grow into a dumb and deaf person. This imitation is both conscious and unconscious. The fashion advertisers exploit this human trait. We imagine ourselves to be looking like the models we see and copy -- if use the products they hawk.

Our Role Models

In the days of my youth we wore ‘Jawahar Jacket’ and ‘Gandhi Caps’. The jacket was the same old one that generations of our ancestors have worn. But when Nehru made it his trademark, it acquired a new name and became a craze. The cap that Gandhi made fashionable was worn by the coolies in South Africa on whose behalf he fought against the regime there.

It was not the external vestments they popularized. They stood for certain ideals, and people of that age – my parents’ generation -- and their children -- my contemporaries also imbibed those ideals in varying measures. Some seniors burnt their normal imported clothes and gave up their vocations. Youngsters too emulated them in their own way and learnt to live frugally and to sacrifice some of their wonted luxuries. We read the books and articles of our revered leaders and heard their speeches. We fasted when they asked us to do so. We joined processions and shouted slogans. The atmosphere was charged and we felt ennobled in a life of voluntary deprivation. There was a promise of Churchillian ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ -- and of the reward of freedom. Subhash Chandra Bose exhorted the Indian POWs handed over to him by the Japanese in Singapore: ‘Give me blood and I will give you freedom’. In response, a famished and under-equipped soldiery buckled up and launched on a long march to Delhi to unfurl the tricolour at the Red Fort. People in their thousands went merrily to jails and underwent torture without squealing. People die for ideas and ideals given to them by their idols.

By way of a quiz, I asked some youngsters if they knew what ‘Jawahar Jacket’ was. They hadn’t heard of it. I showed them one that I have and they laughed. ‘It is a normal jacket. What is so great about it?’ ‘Gandhi Topi’ – yes that is what some ministers – and some attenders in offices wear. They are unaware of the history and the emotions of two generation associated with these items of quotidian wear. Some of them had seen Nehru’s photograph with his jacket, but there are very few photographs of Mahatma Gandhi with the cap that he made famous.

These items made many give up their jobs under the British and give up flourishing practice of law. They exchanged them for years of privation and even prolonged spells of imprisonment. They inspired hundreds of youngsters to do so. Some died, others were hanged, some became disabled for life. Because of them we are free today.

Handicap of peacetime

The present breed of political leaders provides no such inspiration. They have had no drama in their lives. They did not give up anything. They joined politics as an alternative profession. There were rewards to be had there just as anywhere else. How many joined politics with the aim of improving the lot of the poor, for removing tears from some eyes?

They are not to be blamed. Normal peacetimes offer little scope for drama. Freedom struggles, revolutions, and wars – these provide situations and opportunities for heroism, for drama, for exhibiting capacity for sacrifice, for demonstrating qualities of leadership. To show leadership in peacetime, in normal, routine situations is hard. One must have issues to fight for.

But in peacetime, conventional politics, must one indulge in favouritism, jobbery, and corruption? These unfortunately are the traits that can be seen aplenty in our political leadership. They do not inspire except in the wrong direction.

Match fixing

It is not as if there is a void. There are role models still aplenty. But they are a different breed. We have film actors, cricket players and now tennis players who become national heroes and thus role models for the youngsters. Film actors have made drug taking and philandering popular, to say nothing of other minor lapse of character, which they glorify. They make conspicuous consumption a virtue, which youngsters will do anything to acquire. Cricket is no longer a gentleman’s game. Match fixing has made it into a big international industry in which scamsters, smugglers and dons are actively involved. It is another matter that cricket by its very nature of being a most lucrative sport has killed all other sports in India. A victory in an international match is celebrated as a national triumph and the highest dignitaries congratulate the wining players. Recently during the course of the selection of a new captain of the Indian cricket team, an office bearer of the Board of Control of Cricket declared proudly that it was more important than the constitution of the Union cabinet! That reflects the current values of our society. Even for government campaigns for vaccinations or for timely payment of taxes, it is these heroes who are brought into the media. Not unoften it is the selfsame people against whom cases of evasion or nonpayment of taxes are pending. Power, whatever its nature, corrupts. And the power of our new idols is no exception

Thanks to the wide spread and reach of the media, particularly the electronic, there are more exposes now than ever before. We find wolves in sheep’s clothing everywhere. We find crooks and debauches in places which were held to be beyond reproach. We find them amongst godmen, religious leaders, teachers, high officials, and political leaders – in every conceivable place. We find gods with feet of clay. We find double standards practised as a matter of course. We encounter daily instances of moral turpitude and we have ceases to be shocked by them.

Uses of calamities

What is missing today is integrity. That faculty which makes you distinguish between right and wrong, fair and unfair, black and white. That quality marks a man of character from one who lacks it. We imbibe that quality from our early life at home, from our schools, from its demonstration in our leaders in various walks of life, from our heroes. We emulate our role models. But that brings us back to the conundrum. Where are the role models?

It is ironic that human exploitation, aggression, wars, riots – and natural disasters bring out the best in human beings. They shake us out of our ordinary life and bring out some of the best human qualities in us. They also throw up role models for us to emulate. Strange, isn’t it?
nluther@hotmail.com

***

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Police to meet you

Police to meet you
By Narendra Luther

My choice of the subject for this column is generally by current events. Any thing that stands out during the month preceding the week when I sit down to strike the keyboard of my computer becomes the topic for the next issue. This time there I had a dilemma. Two topics were competing for my attention. One is the deep, larger national malaise represented by the deluge of Mumbai. The other is the conduct of the police which was dramatized by the IG of Ranchi who as of now is absconding. Since last month I wrote about the falling standards of IAS, I selected the police so that the picture of our two premier all -India services is complete. If they are not good enough, nothing else in the administrative machinery of the nation can work.

Security – the primary need

State comes into being to make life possible, so said the great philosopher, Aristotle. Life is made possible on the basis of security – what is generally referred to as law and order. The basic function – indeed the raison dệtre of the State (read Government) is provision of law and order. Every thing else is secondary. No welfare state is possible in the absence of law and order. State has to ensure for its citizens conditions of civilized existence. That is the responsibility of the police – to ensure compliance with basic laws, to keep anti-social elements under control and to control civil unrest. In that, if resort to force becomes necessary, it should observe the doctrine of the use of minimum force.

Only a few glaring instances underline the behaviour of the police generally. The 1984 riots against the Sikhs have been highlighted recently on the release of the Nanavati Commission Report, its discussion in parliament and the attendant demonstrations in the streets. The police failed miserably to protect innocent Sikh families by playing a brazenly partisan role. Indeed the charge is that it connived with the rioters. That is the lowest ebb to which men in uniform charged with the responsibility of providing security to citizens could fall. Its conduct during the Gujarat riots of 2002 was no different and drew nation wide condemnation.

The recent brutal attack on unarmed civilians in Gurgaon was, thanks to the electronic media, seen by the entire nation – indeed the whole world. No doubt the initial provocation was provided by the physical assault by the workers on policemen. But the doctrine of minimum force enjoins controlling the mob, not attacking it mercilessly. It was fortunate that the police were not armed with anything more lethal than lathis. If they had firearms, it would have been another Jallianwala Bagh. They were not at war with the striking workers. Their job was to ensure that the workers exercised their right within legal bounds. But they went after them in full fury to teach them a lesson. The use of excessive force at individual level is quite common and generally goes unreported. Gurgaon highlighted a deeper malady.

The Rs. 35000 - wallah

Analyst blames the lower cadres of the police with lack of education and proper training. There is a system of training in all states but the fault lies with the raw human material that gets recruited. It is common knowledge that the recruits pay heavy amounts for their selection. In a case of misbehaviour with me, an inquiry was conducted against an Assistant Sub Inspector of police posted at a Raj Bhavan. The inquiry officer asked him brusquely, ‘Are you a 25000- wallah or 35000- wallah?’ The delinquent officer replied meekly, ‘35000-wallah, Sir’. The Raj Bhavan officer who was present there asked the inquiry officer to be enlightened about the argot. The latter said, ‘This man has paid Rs. 35000 as bribe for recruitment. That is why he is not so good. That is why he has behaved the way he has. The better types pay only Rs. 25000. A recruit from that category would probably have behaved better.’ That was the end of inquiry. Of course the ASI was pulled up formally. The incident points out the root cause of the malaise. Bribes are paid not only for recruitment but also for posting in what is called ‘fetching areas’ - where one can make money. Ministers allegedly collect money for good posting for their petty officials. What will training do to such persons?

Cases of moral turpitude abound and are reported every other day. A woman going by bus late in the evening is in grave danger of being raped by the guardians of law- or their accomplices. Uniform seems to gives them a special privilege to do wrong.

Some will say naively that the recruitment should not be done by officials but by the Public Service Commissions. Thy should be reminded of the cases of a former chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission, and of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission who even made it to the Union PSC before being apprehended.

One expects better from the higher cadres, particularly the members of IPS. They do things with greater finesse. Remember the case of the Haryana DIG who went into hiding and came out only when he failed to get an anticipatory bail. He is behind the bars. So is a former officer of UP allegedly involved in the murder of Madhumita, the poetess. The arrest of no less a person than the former Commissioner of Police of Mumbai for his alleged involvement in the Telgi Stamp scam is another instance of disgraceful conduct at the highest level. The most recent case is that of the IG of Ranchi who was looking into the case of misconduct of his deputy. He was accused of raping a woman, which he vehemently denied. When confronted with a strip of a film showing him in a compromising position with that woman, he explained brazenly the difference between rape and consensual sex between adults, which is not culpable!

The sanctity of uniform

Senior officers are the role models of junior officials and the lower cadres. When a person dons a uniform he should be proud that he has taken on some of the divine attributes. He becomes the human version of the tiune Hindu gods – Brahma, the creator, Vishnu the protector, and Siva, the destroyer. He creates goodness, protects the week, and destroys the evildoers. He has to be selected carefully; moral values need to be ingrained in him during training. The uniform should transform him into a superman if not a god. A police station should become a sanctuary for any one in danger or fear. People should feel safe and protected there. It is the threshold that leads people to that temple of justice – the court.

That was the dream when our ancestors fought for swaraj. When we meet a man in uniform, we should not be afraid of him, but be able to say genuinely – if you permit me a pun – ‘Police to meet you’!

***

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The Mumbai Syndrome

The Mumbai Syndrome
By Narendra Luther

What had happened in Mumbai on July 26-27 and on subsequent days this year is symptomatic of a deeper and recurrent malaise in our civic situation and in our administrative system a whole. It rained heavily for four days and the utter inadequacy of its entire civic infrastructure was exposed thoroughly. Nothing functioned. People were stuck in all sorts of situations. Business magnates used to commuting in swanky cars had either to trudge out with those used to walking to and fro their workplace on foot. Some who tarried a while were forced to spend the whole night and day in their offices. Roads became canals. Houses were submerged, slums were washed away. People were killed by the hundred. Water mixed with sewerage freely and people in humbler lodgings could not boil the lethal mixture to make it potable. There were no electricity and phones. Civic authorities could not reach many places because even in normal times they were inaccessible. There was no possibility of helping them even if the municipal officials themselves could come out of their own traps. Statistics have been purveyed to you for days by the media. The authorities have offered mitigating reasons for their lack or insufficiency of action. Of the annual average rainfall of 2300 mm, 1000 mm fell in one day! The high tide in the Arabian Sea compounded the situation. The abnormality of the natural disaster is conceded. But was the response system prepared to cope with even a quarter of the scale of impact? This sort of spectacle occurs every year in varying degrees. People pray for rains. When the prayers are answered, the civic services collapse. People wade through highways of water. The suburban trains are cancelled. We are only amused by pictures we see in the media; we are not roused to action. Ministers and chief ministers promise action against delinquent officials and declare solemnly that situation will not be allowed to recur. Next year is another year and sometime another government. This is Godsend for the new ministers. It gives them an opportunity to blame their predecessors and say that the problem was a part of the legacy that they inherited.

National problem

For Mumbai, substitute any metro, any city, any town of any size. You will see the same scenario replicated on varying scale. In fact, Delhi has just undergone a similar experience on a smaller scale. In Hyderabad in August, some people were sucked away through the topless drainage pipes and pictures of stranded people have started appearing again as I write this. In 2001 Hyderabad suffered a huge loss in life and property because of the flooding of the city in its most modern parts. It is an occurrence that can take place in any monsoon any where in India – and it does.

By classifying such disasters as natural in contrast with human, the authorities cannot escape their responsibility. As Marx put it, ‘philosophers have explained history; the nee however is to change it.’ The authorities are supposed to be ready to meet both types of situations.

The chief secretary of Maharashtra admitted candidly that the drainage system was outmoded and inadequate. He was not the first to make that sort of statement, and he won’t be the last. It is the echo of words we hear every year in every city and town. When the question is raised as to why such a situation is allowed to develop, the reason given is lack of funds.

Laxity & Corruption

As is usual with every state in such situations, Mumbai has asked for a grant of Rs 1200 crores from the Union Government to update the drainage system and to complete the project taken up in 1993 which was originally estimated to cost Rs. 616.3 crores


It is not only the outdated and inadequate drainage system. It is the haphazard constructions -- some of them in the open drains both old and new -- that compound the problem. Such constructions are made by encroachers with the connivance of politicians and the municipal staff. Some are made by land mafias and then let out to the poor for their residences. Local residents also use drains and nallahs for dumping refuse. That reduces the carrying capacity of the drains – and sometimes completely blocks it. This was noted in Hyderabad in 2001. It was announced that all those encroachments would be removed. Some frenzy of action was noted for some time. Today the situation is back to ‘normal’. So, laxity in supervision, and corruption are a part of the problem.

Need for Infrastructure

However, we must not be bogged down by municipal affairs. The point is that our infrastructure is woefully inadequate. Infrastructure includes, transport, power, water, communications, and other utilities. It is one of the points in the Common Minimum Programme. Briefly, we need the development of infrastructure at the national, state and local levels for which the responsibility should lie with respective authorities.

However, given our resources the required quantum of infrastructure in diverse sectors cannot be provided entirely through our own resources. Various models for mobilizing resources through private internal and foreign sources have been worked out in different countries and they need not be spelt out here.

The root problem is that there is hardly anything in India which could be called local or municipal government. Water supply, drainage and sewerage, electricity, education, health, local transport -- are all not in the hands of the Municipal Corporation, but other departments of the government. In spite of the 74th amendment to the Constitution, the municipalities have not been empowered as envisaged in the aforesaid amendment. Apart from the 18 functions entrusted to them in the 12th schedule, nothing has been entrusted to them. Even those functions cannot be discharged for lack of funds which are not provided by the respective State governments. Ironically, on the other hand the State government of AP has taken some of the existing sources of taxation away from the Corporation. For example, the collection of Motor Vehicle Tax was taken over by the state government in lieu of a fixed compensation. That frozen amount is only a fraction of the actual tax collected today. Municipalities function not as the third tier of the Government, as was envisaged by the amendment quoted above, but as departments of state governments. Their scope for action is severely curtailed.

We therefore need to vitalize the local authorities and hold them responsible for the provision of adequate facilities. The funds for discharging their responsibility should be determined not by the whims and fancy of the state government, but by a formula determined by the Finance Commission. Their sources of taxation should not be tempered with by the state governments. The 73rd and 74th amendments should be implemented according to the spirit which inspired them.

But we have a tradition of sucking up power, not delegating it. That is the big challenge.

* * *

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The Budget and Me

The Budget and Me

By Narendra Luther

There are so many types of budgets - the householders' budget, the municipal budget, the budget of the State government, and the budget of the Union government. There are only two budgets that are important – the householders' and that of the union Government. Since the former is no one's concern except that of the individual concerned, we will talk only about the Union budget.

This budget comes regularly once a year – sometimes twice, like this time. It is a lot of work for the Finance Minister who has to read it standing without break for as long as the script demands. So far all Finance Ministers have managed to manage that level of that stamina. There must be something nourishing about the preparation of the budget that it enables even old men to live up to the rigour of its presentation. May be it is the knowledge that the whole nation is watching you.

The Great Show

I don't get excited about the budget. But a lot of sensexible people do. They sit round in big halls and see its delivery on a big screen. Not only the delivery, but also the blows and hugs it contains. They let go their exclamations at intervals appropriately, especially if the camera happens to focus on them. Then they proceed to dissect it to see, and show to the viewers and the Finance Minister, what they think it Learned articles are written by experts to show how they will affect the lives of people in the country. For the fist half of my life, I did not understand the budget and so I did not care. For the second, I began to understand it and so I did not care. The portion that interests me is the exemption limit of income tax. The rest I leave to experts – and I have many friends amongst them.

But honestly, there are a few points that I still don’t understand. There is no harm in admitting them. Let me tell you about some of them. One thing is how government can run with fiscal deficits year after year. Dear reader, tell me as an individual, how long can you live that sort of life without falling foul of law. But nothing happens to government.

Sensexitvity

Second, while the limit of exempted income is raised, a surcharge is slapped in the name of education cess. That means the government is serious about education. But education will first have to be imparted to State governments. Otherwise there are likely to be more Kombakonams even in the non-Tamil parts of the country.

Thirdly, why is it that what is good for the country is not good for the Sensex? It first showed its unhappiness by loosening the bears. When it did not frighten the Finance Minister, they started an agitation. They were against the transaction tax. But has there been any levy - transaction or non-transaction that has not been passed on to the consumer in some form or the other?

I am not going to tell you about the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh points that I don’t understand because it will contradict my earlier claim that I began to understand the budget in the second part of my life. I should not have made that sort of boast and then proceeded to make admissions of my enormous ignorance. But believe me, the candid admissions that I had begun to make were done in the genuine belief that you would not believe me. But some of you may. That will affect my credibility and nothing is worse than that. So, I shall let them pass and depend upon others to raise the remaining points, which might enlighten me also.

The 'Sarality' of the Form

My basic difficulty is to fill up my Income Tax form. Successive Finance Ministers have claimed to make the form saral and saraler. But the only thing saral about them is writing my name, my father’s name and my postal address. The assessment year is a year ahead of the financial year and I feel I am dealing with the future while I am only disclosing my past financial status. Though they say it is only one page, they don’t talk about the enclosures that you have to attach to it. So, I always go to a pundit friend of mine, and like the illiterate village woman who wants to get a letter written to her errant son or an absconding husband, pour my facts and papers before him and plead with him to give them a shape acceptable to my assessing officer. My predicament has become all the more galling after I returned recently form a trip to Saudi Arabia where there is no tax. Imagine, being told immediately that the last date for filing the returns is fast approaching. The Saudi Government can afford not to levy tax because its enormous reserves of oil are matched only by its sparse population. I suggest we emulate them. Let the Finance Minister invest more in exploration of oil reserves and give incentives for not producing children. He can, for example, give a rebate for the educational expenses of every unborn child. Anyway, these suggestions can be considered only in the future.

‘Roll –Backy’ FM

I have seen all Finance Ministers right since independence. I don’t think any one of them was roly-poly. They were all normal sized persons without much extra weight. But lately, our Finance Ministers have become, if I can coin a term, ‘roll-backy’. They introduced some brave measures in their budget. But when they saw the storm some of them raised in some powerful sections of the polity, they either withdrew them or modified them. The new term for that manoeuvre is ‘roll back’. I don’t think the term applies to the Finance Minister. That would appropriately be ‘somersault’. It applies to the measure which is withdrawn. ‘Withdrawal’ is not an elegant term. It has the connotatation of retreat, a defeat, bank deposits, and also of Vatsyayana. ‘Roll back’, on the other hand is undoing something that should not have been done in the first instance. Chidambram, the charming FM also did likewise on the transaction tax. The sensex jumped up with joy. Now people who matter are happy. Which means the country is happy. But wait a minute. It is not all over yet. There is an ally, which is supporting the government from the outside. It wants a number of roll backs, but will probably be satisfied with one. That is the reduction in the limit of direct foreign investment. That, they say, is dangerous. They remember from history that that flag follows trade. Though thee are many attractive flags in the world, they would like only the tricolour to fly in this rich land inhabited by the poor.

***

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Police to meet you

Police to meet you
By Narendra Luther


My choice of the subject for this column is generally by current events. Any thing that stands out during the month preceding the week when I sit down to strike the keyboard of my computer becomes the topic for the next issue. This time there I had a dilemma. Two topics were competing for my attention. One is the deep, larger national malaise represented by the deluge of Mumbai. The other is the conduct of the police which was dramatized by the IG of Ranchi who as of now is absconding. Since last month I wrote about the falling standards of IAS, I selected the police so that the picture of our two premier all -India services is complete. If they are not good enough, nothing else in the administrative machinery of the nation can work.

Security – the primary need

State comes into being to make life possible, so said the great philosopher, Aristotle. Life is made possible on the basis of security – what is generally referred to as law and order. The basic function – indeed the raison dệtre of the State (read Government) is provision of law and order. Every thing else is secondary. No welfare state is possible in the absence of law and order. State has to ensure for its citizens conditions of civilized existence. That is the responsibility of the police – to ensure compliance with basic laws, to keep anti-social elements under control and to control civil unrest. In that, if resort to force becomes necessary, it should observe the doctrine of the use of minimum force.

Only a few glaring instances underline the behaviour of the police generally. The 1984 riots against the Sikhs have been highlighted recently on the release of the Nanavati Commission Report, its discussion in parliament and the attendant demonstrations in the streets. The police failed miserably to protect innocent Sikh families by playing a brazenly partisan role. Indeed the charge is that it connived with the rioters. That is the lowest ebb to which men in uniform charged with the responsibility of providing security to citizens could fall. Its conduct during the Gujarat riots of 2002 was no different and drew nation wide condemnation.

The recent brutal attack on unarmed civilians in Gurgaon was, thanks to the electronic media, seen by the entire nation – indeed the whole world. No doubt the initial provocation was provided by the physical assault by the workers on policemen. But the doctrine of minimum force enjoins controlling the mob, not attacking it mercilessly. It was fortunate that the police were not armed with anything more lethal than lathis. If they had firearms, it would have been another Jallianwala Bagh. They were not at war with the striking workers. Their job was to ensure that the workers exercised their right within legal bounds. But they went after them in full fury to teach them a lesson. The use of excessive force at individual level is quite common and generally goes unreported. Gurgaon highlighted a deeper malady.

The Rs. 35000 - wallah

Analyst blames the lower cadres of the police with lack of education and proper training. There is a system of training in all states but the fault lies with the raw human material that gets recruited. It is common knowledge that the recruits pay heavy amounts for their selection. In a case of misbehaviour with me, an inquiry was conducted against an Assistant Sub Inspector of police posted at a Raj Bhavan. The inquiry officer asked him brusquely, ‘Are you a 25000- wallah or 35000- wallah?’ The delinquent officer replied meekly, ‘35000-wallah, Sir’. The Raj Bhavan officer who was present there asked the inquiry officer to be enlightened about the argot. The latter said, ‘This man has paid Rs. 35000 as bribe for recruitment. That is why he is not so good. That is why he has behaved the way he has. The better types pay only Rs. 25000. A recruit from that category would probably have behaved better.’ That was the end of inquiry. Of course the ASI was pulled up formally. The incident points out the root cause of the malaise. Bribes are paid not only for recruitment but also for posting in what is called ‘fetching areas’ - where one can make money. Ministers allegedly collect money for good posting for their petty officials. What will training do to such persons?

Cases of moral turpitude abound and are reported every other day. A woman going by bus late in the evening is in grave danger of being raped by the guardians of law- or their accomplices. Uniform seems to gives them a special privilege to do wrong.

Some will say naively that the recruitment should not be done by officials but by the Public Service Commissions. Thy should be reminded of the cases of a former chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission, and of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission who even made it to the Union PSC before being apprehended.

One expects better from the higher cadres, particularly the members of IPS. They do things with greater finesse. Remember the case of the Haryana DIG who went into hiding and came out only when he failed to get an anticipatory bail. He is behind the bars. So is a former officer of UP allegedly involved in the murder of Madhumita, the poetess. The arrest of no less a person than the former Commissioner of Police of Mumbai for his alleged involvement in the Telgi Stamp scam is another instance of disgraceful conduct at the highest level. The most recent case is that of the IG of Ranchi who was looking into the case of misconduct of his deputy. He was accused of raping a woman, which he vehemently denied. When confronted with a strip of a film showing him in a compromising position with that woman, he explained brazenly the difference between rape and consensual sex between adults, which is not culpable!

The sanctity of uniform

Senior officers are the role models of junior officials and the lower cadres. When a person dons a uniform he should be proud that he has taken on some of the divine attributes. He becomes the human version of the tiune Hindu gods – Brahma, the creator, Vishnu the protector, and Siva, the destroyer. He creates goodness, protects the week, and destroys the evildoers. He has to be selected carefully; moral values need to be ingrained in him during training. The uniform should transform him into a superman if not a god. A police station should become a sanctuary for any one in danger or fear. People should feel safe and protected there. It is the threshold that leads people to that temple of justice – the court.

That was the dream when our ancestors fought for swaraj. When we meet a man in uniform, we should not be afraid of him, but be able to say genuinely – if you permit me a pun – ‘Police to meet you’!

***

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The Missing Base

The Missing Base
By Narendra Luther

A group of citizens rampaged the office of the Electricity Board in Maharashtra protesting against prolonged power cuts in rural areas.

Irate residents of a government colony came out in the capital of India for non-supply of water for five days.

A man was killed in Hyderabad over a dispute over filling his pot with water.

Women in Rajasthan trudge for miles for getting a bucket of water.

You pay for a tanker of water and it takes five days of chase to get it.

A TV image shows you a part of a stretch of 30 miles of the national highway in Bihar. It takes four hours to cover the distance because the road is in an utter state of disrepair.

In Bangalore the industries go on a one- day token strike to underline the state of disrepair of a road leading to an industrial estate

A young engineer in Bihar is killed because he complains to the Prime Minister about corruption in the implementation of the scheme for the national highway project.

Early in June 2005, the special train of the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad was stopped by hundreds of people of Brauni and adjoining areas agitating against acute shortage of power and water.

Three persons died in Tonk in Rajasthan in mid-June when the Police fired on farmers agitating for water.

The traffic police boss in a metro explains that our roads are not able to take the increased number of vehicles. Hence the traffic jams.

Infrastructure

I could fill up pages with such authentic news items but that is not necessary to bring home the point that there is an acute lack of infrastructure in our country. Infrastructure or ‘social overhead outlay’ covers roads, railways, transport and communication system electricity, water supply and other public services. It is also generally widened to include the health, skills, education and other qualities of the population – resources necessary for any development to take place. Let us forget about the second category of the list above and talk about the hard part of infrastructure.

As ordinary individual consumers of utilities you and I know this - and to retain our sanity, have reconciled ourselves to the situation. We utter the serenity prayer: ‘God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change; courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference’. Only the philosophy of acceptance and retreat flourishes in such an atmosphere.

The importance of building infrastructure was fully appreciated by our early leaders. Considerable accretions to it were made under the leadership of Nehru in that respect. It entailed sacrifices on the consumption front and we have lived through a regime of restrictive imports for building a better future. But after him, in the hands of smaller netas, investment on infrastructure became a casualty of populistic politics. Short-term sops to people took precedence over long-term investments. Communal and casteist politics too had an adverse impact on the building of infrastructure. Subsidies were given, in some cases with justification. But it became difficult to withdraw them later. They became part of the system and every attempt to remove or even reduce them has been vigorously opposed by the Left parties.

Dog in the manger

They impact adversely on the building of infrastructure. That, in turn, affects the entry of foreign capital and enterprise. Today we are not in a position to undertake investments of the magnitude required for improving our infrastructure. Yet there are people and parties that oppose the entry of foreign capital to enable us to do that. They invoke the ghost of the East India Company and they warn us that history will repeat itself. They ignore the fact that we are living not in the 17th but in the 21st century. In an era of globalization they want us to remain wrapped up in the slip of isolationism. We have seen the advantages of globalization accruing to us through BPO and increased immigration. Yet many amongst us oppose it.

Our present situation is such that we should welcome direct foreign investment in many fields like road building, power generation, surface transportation, airports and civil aviation. They will trigger growth of ancillary industries and small business. Exposure to competition will also improve the quality of our products and services as has been witnessed in certain fields like telephony and the automobiles. Phone calls are becoming cheaper every day. The prices of electronic gadgets and white goods are also falling instead of increasing. But poor infrastructure is the main hurdle to growth. We don’t have road lengths to drive on; we don’t have enough planes to fly people. We don’t have adequate capacity at airport lounges and tarmacs to bring in tourists. Our services at all levels are poor by international standards. And it is the service sector that has played a crucial role in the growth of all advanced economies.

At your Service!

Our service sector is marked by inefficiency and corruption. Corruption is of course the all-pervasive factor in our life. The late India expert, Prof. Hanson once invited me to speak to his class on Indian administration. In his introductory remarks, he said that in India it was either influence or money which made things happen. I felt hurt at that observation but on return to India, I have seen time and again how perceptive his observation was. In corruption the tone is set by the politicians and is eagerly adopted by the bureaucracy at all levels. That however is a subject by itself. We saw how corruption affected the Dhabol Power Project in Maharashtra. When the Congress Government sanctioned it, the Shiv Sena cried ‘corruption’. However, when the Shiv Sena came to power, it sanctioned the self-same project. It was then the turn of the Congress Party in the opposition to cry ‘corruption’. As was shown by what happened to the Enron Company later back home, we found that both were right in their accusation.

Attention: Election Commission

We are deficit in power. Yet party after party in politics has won election on the basis of a promise to give free power to farmers. After winning the elections, some of them had to scrap or modify the scheme. The latest is the Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh. It is now trying to refine the scheme of free power to the farmers by applying some sort of means test. The point is why is such a promise is allowed to be made by any political party. The Prime Minister, a distinguished practising economist himself, has spoken against it. The Union Power Minister has expressed himself against it. Yet their Party made this promise in its election campaign and formed government in two states. The Election Commission should prohibit the inclusion of such inducements in the election manifestoes of political party by making it a corrupt practice. Let the election manifestoes be realistic and not promise moon to the voter. The fraud has to be stopped.

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The Flavour of Salt

The Flavour of Salt
By Narendra Luther

Public servants in India have often come in for criticism, amongst other things, for their lack of integrity. There was a time when members of IAS were considered exempt from this censure. They were also jealous about their reputation. Thirty years ago if some one even so much as hinted that anyone in IAS was corrupt, I would fly at his throat. He was uttering a heresy, committing a sacrilege.

My defence became milder two decades ago. A decade later, I stopped putting up any defence. Now I am grateful if they spare me personally from the reproach. Every day you get a shock. CBI or ACB of some state or the other raids houses of some officer and finds unaccounted for assets. Some are arrested; some abscond till they are able to secure an anticipatory bail or fail in their attempt and have no option left but to surrender to a court. When they are taken to court they cover their faces to avoid being photographed by the media so as to avoid recognition by the viewers. The dramatic public part over, they go into protracted trials and some time come out on technical grounds , procedural lapses or defective investigation. But the damage is done all around -- to the individual, the system and the public confidence. The gods’ feet of clay are revealed to the public and those who were considered incorruptible are seen as just ordinary mortals subject to the temptation of greed.


Falling standards

I remember the time when I headed the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad four decades ago. Many parties used to approach me for a personal inspection to see the injustice done to them. Some time I had too many of them and said that I would depute one of my senior deputies to do that. The instant reaction of the party generally was that that would not do since they were the selfsame people who were involved in the foul play. By and large, there was implicit faith and trust in the integrity of an IAS officer. Touched by that faith, I asked the government to give me one IAS officer of whatever seniority as a deputy so that I could have my burden shared. I did not get any and so had to carry on all by myself. The same was the case in many of the other departments that I handled. That belief that the party could expect justice and fair play was enough compensation and the pride it gave made one try harder to rise to the expectations of the people -- and even beyond.

IAS was the successor service of the ICS which enjoyed a very high degree of reputation for honesty, personal integrity and fair play during the British rule. Not that there were no dishonest or corrupt ICS officers But if anyone was found to be so, he was confidentially advised to put in his papers and go home. No scandal thus came to light and the reputation of the ‘heaven-born service ‘ was kept in tact. The same was expected of the IAS and for a time it did hold good. But with the passage of time it got diluted. There are many reasons for that. One is the diversity of sources which supplied the recruits. There was no commonality of traditions amongst them. The other is the comparatively low salaries in a world of higher cost of living. Yet another is the character of the latter generation of politicians. They are not the people who made sacrifices for freedom. They came to politics not for any ideal of social service, but in pursuit of power and what power brings to its holder. In our system supreme power belongs to the elected masters. The civil service is required to offer its considered advice on issues of public policy. The pros and cons of a proposed course of action and its likely fallout in the public are highlighted by the civil servants. The new breed of politicians did not like frank and independent advice. They wanted compliance. Those officers who toed the line prospered; those who stuck their neck out got into trouble. Officers were often put in the loop line for daring to advice while remaining within their bounds. The message went round and soon in places, a nexus came to be established between the politician and the elite IAS corps. Officers saw the advantages, albeit short-term of aligning themselves with the politicians in power. The permanent and neutral civil service pattern of the British model yielded place to the ‘spoils system’ of the United States. The old form remained, but the essence changed.


The Spoils System

Young officers still having a spark of idealism did not relish that and we have seen that for years in Uttar Pradesh the IAS Association has been preparing a list of most corrupt officers. Many of them land plum postings and make the lives of honest officers difficult. How long will the young people hold out?

I have given the example of UP, but this is happening all over. In the neighbouring Bihar the Fodder Scam is old history. Recently a young officer having earned international praise for his dynamism, had to go into hiding to escape arrest. In Andhra Pradesh recently two scandals have emerged in quick succession . The house of an IAS officer was raided and reportedly assets beyond the known sources of income were found.

I have dwelt upon IAS because that is supposed to be the elite service and so is expected to exhibit the highest standards of probity. There are numerous cases of top officers of other services having been trapped and their houses raided revealing unaccounted for assets. The rot is therefore wide spread.

What can we do to remedy the situation? When the salt itself loses its flavour, with what shall it be salted is an old conundrum.

It is difficult to stay clean in a sea of muck. A saint does so by withdrawing from the world of action. A public servant has to be a crusader. That role is enervating. Ours is a society which glorifies favouritism. Concentric and enlarging circles around the holders of office are expected to benefit from him. How does one break that chakravyuh? Most importantly, how does one reconcile the demands of political master for partisan action against objective criteria? When ministers alternate their time between courts and jails on the one side and cabinet seats on the other, what is the bureaucrat to do? He can ensure probity on his part, try to enforce it on his subordinates, but he is not his master’s keeper. So, the rot has to be stemmed there. That leads us to the issue of electoral reforms. Also the delinquent official must be dealt with speedily and handed condign punishment. I know, it is easier said than done. So is the case with every problem that matters.

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