Don’t just reshuffle, make heads roll

When the Prime Minister, rested and jovial after his Himalayan holiday, was asked last week about a Cabinet reshuffle he treated it as a jok...

When the Prime Minister, rested and jovial after his Himalayan holiday, was asked last week about a Cabinet reshuffle he treated it as a joke. Some ministers were ‘‘over-burdened’’, he said, and there were ‘‘new faces’’ in the wings.

He even made light of the timing by saying it would be at an ‘‘auspicious moment’’. By the time you read this, that auspicious moment may have come and gone and yet another tedious swearing-in at Rashtrapati Bhawan would have been televised nationwide and a bunch of new clowns will have leapt eagerly into ministerial cars and bungalows.

What difference does it make to you and I? Only that as we pay the bills, for those houses and cars and fancy foreign holidays, we should be demanding a measure of accountability in return.

Let me, on your behalf, ask a few questions. Having just toured those hellholes they call hospitals in Uttar Pradesh may I begin with healthcare. I am aware that this is a State subject and that Sushma Swaraj (or whoever gets the job) cannot be blamed for what happens in UP hospitals but if there is a Union Minister for Health then is it not his job to make policy? If it is not then whose job is it? And, if it is, then would the Health Minister please explain why taxpayers’ money has been squandered on buildings and land when it should have gone on medicines, doctors, ambulances and modern equipment? Thousands of crores of rupees have been spent on what we do not need and so little on what we need that more than 80 per cent of India’s population relies on private healthcare. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s last election manifesto (1998) promised ‘‘health for all’’ and ‘‘housing for all’’ by 2003, so can someone explain why this has not happened? Incidentally, it could happen quite easily if we had a policy that changed the priorities.

Speak of housing and we come up with another minister whose head should roll on grounds of broken promises. Why should the Urban Development Minister not be made to explain why we still do not have ‘‘housing for all’’?

Again, this is not hard to provide if we had a policy that allowed private real estate developers to make their profits as long as they guaranteed schemes that provided affordable housing for those displaced by their building activities.

Buried in the bowels of government offices in Mumbai and Delhi there must be a thousand schemes that would transform our cities from slums into beautiful, modern cities. These days, there are also thousands of architects and town planners who would be more than willing to help and yet nothing happens except that our municipal planners thumb their noses at the Urban Development Minister and build illegally wherever and whatever they can. So our cities continue to look like slums and we continue to pay for an Urban Development Minister, does that make sense?

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Another minister that has to go is the one responsible for education. If things are bad at the primary level (a State subject), they are worse in the realms of higher education because of crackpot schemes that continue to emanate from the ministry. The most recent bit of lunacy is the shiksha kosh, or whatever, that orders all private money to institutions of higher learning to go through the government.

Who will pay? Why should anyone pour good money into a scheme that will end up benefiting nobody except the officials who run it. Instead, had the ministry been doing its job, it should have examined ways of opening up our universities to private investment so that they could stop being the clapped-out institutions they have become.

If things are bad in health, education and housing, they are worse in the infrastructure ministries with the exception of roads where we do see some improvement. It should be mentioned here that whatever the flaws and hitches in the Golden Quadrilateral it is one of the few government schemes that has so far escaped the taint of scandal.

Businessmen involved in building the roads say no bribery was involved in obtaining contracts and that is already an achievement in our fair and wondrous land. But, what of Power? There can be no development, economic growth, progress or anything without electricity. India remains one of the few countries left in the world that is unable to meet basic needs, our State Electricity Boards owe the Centre more than Rs 25,000 crore, there are power cuts in every Indian city except Mumbai and still the Minister of Power keeps his job.

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Sorry, Suresh Prabhu, a fairly competent man who understood the need for reform, was sacked to be replaced by some nonentity who has done nothing. Does that make sense?

The Railways trundle along in much the same way the British bequeathed them to us and, inevitably, accidents become more frequent and still nothing changes. Ports, we hear, are showing signs of improvement but so marginal as to not matter.

The Finance Ministry continues to harbour thieves and looters in the garb of tax inspectors and does nothing to reduce their powers. The Home Ministry has still not woken up to the fact that police training needs to be de-colonised and that we need anti-terrorist forces that protect ordinary Indians instead of only ministers and officials.

So, a Cabinet reshuffle is a very good idea but not one designed only to accommodate a few more clowns.

— Write to tavleensinghexpressindia.com