"Top bureaucrats and cabinet ministers have their pay linked to top private sector wages, so most make well over $1 million a year, and their bonuses are tied to the country’s annual G.D.P. growth rate. It means the government can attract high-quality professionals and corruption is low."
How simple is it to add a little accountability into our political system in India ? It is in the hands of our generation. If the pay was comparable to private sector jobs and had good accountability, I am sure, more people will be interested in coming to politics than now. Now, politics is not a viable career opportunity, if you are not corrupt but this change would make it attractive overnight. No wonder, Singapore was able to eliminate corruption in a decade.
"Idealism is what precedes experience, cynicism is what follows"
I am going to tell a story about how I became a cynic from an idealist. Now, the fact that we have a bad government is nothing new. So, when I came to know that Dr Jayaprakash Narayan, an honest IAS officer is going to start a new party, I became overjoyed. I was so excited that finally, after years of waiting, a credible, honest and knowledgeable person was coming into politics. His policies seemed so sound, so coherent that I started rallying behind him with posts cheering him here. Little did I know that I was setting up myself for bitter disappointment. As the results of the general elections 2009 were declared, all my hopes of a good government crashed. I was down but not out. Why - Because in Lok Sabha elections, the number of educated people who vote is very less. So I thought if educated people really voted and more people are educated about the policies of Lok Satta, then surely we will have a good government. That is why I was even more excited when there was a call for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections. The percentage of educated people will be more in Hyderabad city. Moreover, Lok Satta launched a unique campaign in the elections, saying that they will pay fine to the people if they didn't resolve people's complaints within a posted resolution time. With this I thought they will surely win in the elections. And when the results were announced how many Loksatta candidates do you think won? Zero, nil, zich, no one...!!!! And that is when I became a cynic... If people fail to know what is right and what is wrong and when there is a chance for change also they will not utilize, then I didn't know how change can come...
And for a long time, I remained a cynic, convinced that no good change will come. The IPL fiasco, the CWG corruption only confirmed and made me more of a cynic regarding politics. Do you think I am peddling cynicism? No - and even I don't want to remain a cynic, but I didn't find a single hopeful thing to cling to then... But some things were happening around that again sort of gave me hope that all is not lost. So I am here not to make all of you cynics, but to show you rays of hope and ask you to reflect that.
The first thing that caught my attention was the website done by an NGO called Janaagraha, called http://ipaidabribe.com. Being a cynic, I was not at all convinced what change could a site like that where people who gave bribes were sharing their plight could change. Though I supported it whole heartedly, I was not hopeful of it changing anything. But I was pleasantly surprised by the success of the campaign. People started taking it seriously. One woman threatened a doctor who asked for bribe saying she will post his name in ipaidabribe.com and he backed down. More heartful news is that a transport commissioner gave show cause notices to twenty of the traffic commissioners whose name had surfaced in compliants on IPAB.
The second thing which showed that people are thinking about the problems and people are thinking of doing something when I heard the speech of Siddharth at TIE Connect 2009.
Though the speech was given in 2009, I saw it recently and was really impressed by the solutions he proposes.He talked about lot of things like the smaller attention span of our generation, the lack of ability of any person to make a difference, the lack of records of facts but what really hit me was the fact that we need to glamorize good government. We are in a time when it is very difficult to concentrate on one thing. We hve constants interruptions with twitter, facebook etc. So we have an attention deficit. Thats why we tend to forget quickly.Hence we need to keep the discussion going and keep this always in front of the people. The fact that people are talking about it and thinking of solutions makes me hopeful. And as he said media is wasting a golden opportunity by not taking the chance to lead from front for this.
And this brings me to the next thing that makes me hopeful of that. I saw someone implementing a suggestions given by Siddharth, one person using his glamour and influence to talk about problems facing India and how government is responsible for that which automatically leads to selection of better politicians. SS Rajamouli is a movie director who hasn't given an flop in the industry. And thats why he is the director with the most craze in the industry. When he talks about something, people in AP listen. And he is utilizing his influence and craze to talk about problems facing India and discussing the solutions for them. It is a program called 'Come On India' in Telugu. The links are here if you would like to watch it. In this episode he talks about the healthcare system in India. It is a fact that if we get any health problems in India, government hospitals are hopeless and private hospitals attach unknown diseases to us to get as much money as possible. So it is a very important issue. He talks about the better systems all around the world and what changes are required for improving the situation in our country and responsibility of everyone involved, the government, the doctors and citizens. I am sure whoever has watched it has understood how better it could be and how can we get that.
With all these changes happening around us, it is not difficult to be hopeful of better days isn't it. So will it magically happen? No, there is more responsibility on us to spread the awareness, talk about issues and take a strong stand wherever required. So however you can, facebook, twitter, blogs, movies, videos, short films, tv programmers whatever you want to make, whatever discussions you want to have, keep the discussions going and spread the word, I am sure, we will live to see days with better governments and a happier and developed India. Jai Hind.
If you read political news, then you would surely have encountered this expression. If you see my 'About Me', then you would have observed that 'good governance' is one of my many interests.
I am really ignorant about how government works. But from my childhood we have been seeing that we blame Government for all our ills. Roads are not good - blame it on the government, Prices are rising - blame it on govt. , no power, no water - blame it on govt. Ok, whatever is not good - blame it on the government. That increased my interest in why government is not working well. And, I think under the tutelage of Atanu Dey, i have learnt well. During the same time many things were happening around the world which increased my interest towards government and governance. I closely followed the campaign of President Obama as he was running for President of U.S.A. Similarly at home, just before that there were general elections and I was rooting for Lok Satta to win in the elections.
As I read more and more, I was trying to get a feel what a government should do and what a government is expected to do. Okay more on this in my next post. For now I want to introduce the basics of government and about the 'Left, Right And Center'
So what is a government from Wikipedia - AGovernmentis theorganization, machinery, or agency through which a political unit exercises its authority, controls and administerspublic policy, and directs and controls the actions of its members or subjects[
What is the function of a government? Again to quote from Wikipedia
According to supporters of government,the fundamental purpose of government is the maintenance of basic security andpublic order.[15]The philosopherThomas Hobbesfigured that people were rational animals and thus saw submission to a government dominated by a sovereign as preferable toanarchy.[16][17]According to Hobbes, people in a communitycreateandsubmit togovernment for the purpose of establishing for themselves, safety and public order
O.k Acceptable. They try to maintain law and order in the society. Good till there. I think this is the 'Center' of the political discussion.
From this, the discussion is different - The government has different questions ?
Is it just enough to provide basic security and public order ? Can't it do anything else ?
The answer is inevitably Yes as you see all the governments in the world do.
The discussion of left and right arises here.
The government collects taxes from us to do the basic things it has to do. What does it do with the remaining money - It can help people in need.
Far left thinks something like this - "It is government's responsibility to see that all are living atleast with basic needs. It can redistribute the wealth so that everyone has atleast something to eat and has minimum basic things." It can start from just helping in time of need and it can create a vicious cycle whereby those people will be expecting from the government and the people who are producing will lose an incentive to produce more than required and hence the productivity decreases. It is closer to socialism and communism. Liberals come are termed as left.
Now the far right feels that this is wrong and rightly so as people will not work but just get paid by the government which is not at all useful as the productivity drops. They say that government should be very less, people are best are to decide what to do with their money and they even cut taxes. The ill effects of this is before us to see - vast income inequalities and hence resentment between people and masses being poor. This is capitalism for you. Nationalism & conservatives come under this.
Ofcourse, now a days no government is completely Left or completely. They will try to balance them as they have to cater to all the people.
When on Nov 29th, KCR started an indefinite fast for separation of Telangana from AP, no one would have thought that he will get it. But the congress govt. surprised everyone by announcing the formation of Telangana state on Dec 9th. All the parties namely TDP,PRP and the left except the Congress were supportive of the Telangana cause then. All the parties have done a volte face and started working towards Unified Andhra pradesh...
Assembly is adjourned sine die and there is no work that is going on in the state. Most of the MLAs from Andhra and Rayalaseema region have resigned and they are working towards a united Andhra Pradesh.
Looking at the historical facts that surround Telangana, it is clear that having a separate state is good for Telangana and the need is also there. Time and Time all the promises made to Telangana have been violated and the situation is right for a separate Telangana.
But there is no movement on the issue, what can be done - The Centre has to invite TRS and the leaders from the united movement to come for a discussion. As TRS leaders say that they will wait till 2014 elections for Telangana, the Centre can ask for certain demands of Telangana which will be fulfilled by 2014 and implement all the guarantees of the 'Gentlemen Agreement' given during the formation of AP. Centre can broker that peace deal such that if those conditions are not met, the United leaders have to peacefully agree for separation and if all the guarantees and safeguards are implemented, then I think the Telangana movement will die down peacefully.
Its time of redemption for Telangana people and they have to be convinced that staying together will be best course of action for all involved and not only for Andhra people who have invested in Hyderabad. That way the situation can be resolved amicably.
My company is conducting a competion on 'My Vote goes to' ... As the readers of the blog know, development of our country being one of my passions, I decided to submit an entry.
This is what I am planning to submit
My government is one which doesn’t make me worry about security, terrorism, power cuts or bad infrastructure but provides a healthy environment where I can mind my own business.
My government is one which doesn’t fragment the society based on caste, religion or region but recognizes all are created equal and provides a level playing field for equitable development.
My government is one which doesn’t stop with providing temporary relief like handouts when calamities strike but work towards eliminating the root of the problem to provide permanent solutions.
My government is one which doesn’t stunt growth through reservations and quotas but gives everyone the confidence and empowerment to break the shackles and grow in the world.
My government is one which doesn’t make availing basic government services a dreadful thing but makes it a pleasure by eliminating corruption and automating processes.
My government is one where the disabled or people unable to work are not made to feel that world is a bad place to live but are given confidence that they can not only live with dignity but serve uniquely.
My government is one which works more to provide better education, livelihood, healthcare, security and faster justice to its people than thinking of each as a business to make money.
My government is one which doesn’t get caught up in petty religious or personal issues, but work on promoting sustainable livelihood and world peace.
My government is one which has grand vision for the county and is willing to lead the citizens towards it by encouraging research and innovation.
People dont need pity or handouts.. What they want is confidence and equal opportunity. Each person is and has to be responsible for his life. Dont encourage parties who think they can make people live their lives without taking that responsibility.
Go OUT and VOTE... If you dont vote, you have no right to complain...
I personally prefer LOKSATTA, as it is the only party that understands that it has to make people responsible for their progress and governments only role is to create an equal opportunity ground.
Yes there are people who are needy and for whom a more direct financial help is absolutely required - but that shouldnt be the only goal, he has to develop where he should be able to fend for himself as well as become a contributor.
Vote, take people to vote and vote responsibly.
Update: watch this slideshare presentation how Loksatta is different from all other political parties
The the decision of AP government to shut down non performing APSRTC depots has come as a shock to all the APSRTC employees. Their arguments for closing down the depots are RTC is already in loss. In order to bring it into profits they have decided to close loss making depots. But the people are realising that it has closed only depots in those areas where the elected members are not of the ruling party. They have pointed out that eventhough geeta reddy's constituency buggaram is also a loss making depot but it is not closed whereas dubbaka where there is no ruling party leader has to face the music.
Eventhough the government has made it clear that only the depot will be closed but the services will not be affected, it cannot be trusted fully. If the buses are not starting from the depot then inevitably they have to come from other depots which are atleast 60kms far from present depot which means timings of the buses will surely change. It would affect the students most who go to the nearest towns to study. If the bus timings change or the buses are completely stopped in the route because only few people are travelling, then obviously students cant go to schools and colleges on time and government will have to take the blame. Again all the depots which are being closed are in rural areas where there is not much traffic and if suddenly the depot is closed and buses in all loss making routes are withdrawn then surely for lot of tribal villages in Adilabad ( in proximity of Utnur depot which is closed) and Khammam( in proximity of Madhira) will suddenly have no means of transport available to them. The effect will not only be on the passengers but also on the people who have indirectly depended on the bus depot for their survival( traders).
But finally the main argument is RTC being a public sector operation, its main aim being providing bus facility to people should not only think about profitability but should also consider the social aspects before closing the depots. It is argued that it should even take the profits from other sources to provide the bus facility to all the people like electricity ( which the govt provides free of cost to farmers). The RTC has to make a study to know the routes in these depots which are profitable. It should run the buses in these routes. It should also get to know the loss making routes and the reasons for that ( whether it is excessive private competion or less travel) and take the decision accordingly( to give an ultimatum to the people to increase the occupancy or to close buses on the route). There was a study of RTC by IIMB last year which was not used. It is high time the government used the reports it prepared for the development of RTC and not take sudden decisions like this without necessary debate
As I write this article I came to know that due to the publicity in teh media and the timely action of the the opppsition parties and the strikes and dharnas done yesterday, the government has gone back on its decision and has stopped closing down of the depots.The silver lining is that it has planned to start new bus depots.!!
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