Please, no U-turns in this dream

Let us begin this perspective by remembering that the NHAI has handed out more than Rs 30,000 crore worth of contracts, since work on the highways started, with almost no charges of corruption. This is unheard of where government contracts are concerned. Let us also remember that the Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways has achieved the near miraculous feat of speeding up the process of road building from eleven kilometres a year to eleven kilometres a day. This would not have happened if it had done what we did in our socialist days which was rely totally on the technical skills and questionable efficiency of the Public Works Department PWD. Speaking of which can we please also remember that the PWD is not exactly an organisation that shines in the glow of honesty. Not only is it famously corrupt but it is famous for handing out contracts to friends and relatives and equally famous for incompetent, shoddy work. And, can we keep in mind that PWD engineers are rarely known to risk their lives to build a road which is what the construction companies are doing. The people we have taken to loosely calling the 8216;8216;construction mafia8217;8217; are on a daily basis risking the lives of their employees to build those roads.

You do not need me to tell you that in rural Bihar there is no such thing as the rule of law. The police is so totally incapable of protecting anyone that construction companies are often forced to pay protection money to Naxalite and Maoist groups in order to survive and continue building the roads. It is these terrorist groups, usually working under the protection of local politicians, that constitute the real mafia in Bihar and it is, in all likelihood, one of these groups that was responsible for killing Satyendra Dubey. Local sub-contractors could well be part of the same umbrella of thugs but the big construction companies are not. But, on account of 8216;8216;construction mafia8217;8217; having been used loosely it sounds very much as if they are and very much as if NHAI is itself a gang of criminals.

A former head of the Mumbai IIT was quoted in the Times of India, last week, as saying, 8216;8216;This is not about Bihar but about the functioning of a national corporation, namely NHAI. Satyendra was not fighting local vested interests, but powerful forces based outside Bihar.8217;8217; This is quite simply not true. The NHAI has done a remarkable job and it would be a tragedy if it is now restricted to answering questions by inquiry commissions instead of building those highways. Please remember that even if they are built on time India will still be one of the few countries in the world which still does not have a modern motorway with access limited to fast moving traffic so that distances between cities could be reduced by half. Where roads are concerned we will have miles to go even when the Golden Quadrilateral is completed.

There has been much talk of Satyendra Dubey8217;s death not being 8216;8216;allowed to go in vain8217;8217;. It will have gone in vain if as a result of it the roads do not get built. From his letters and poems he sounds like he must have been a courageous and remarkable young man whose terrible murder will always be remembered and mourned. But, in matters of governance and corruption he seems to have been an innocent or he would have realised that to ask for more state control was unlikely to reduce corruption. If we are listed today among the most corrupt countries in the world it is mainly because of corruption arising out of too much state control.

We need to remember this also when we now talk glibly of laws to protect 8216;8216;whistleblowers8217;8217;. Those who propose them need to keep in mind that whistle blowing could become a hobby for some. As it is the wheels of development roll slowly in India because there is always some busybody or other dragging every project off to court for usually flimsy reasons. We can be sure that if there is a law that protects whistleblowers whistle blowing will soon become a tactic used by vested interests both political and commercial. Think of how useful it could be for those who lose out on a contract or for opposition parties determined to prevent a government from investing in development. Think of how useful it could be for the thugs who killed Satyendra Dubey, how easy it would be for them to falsely blame it on someone else. So, while we should continue the mourn the murder of a fine young man, while we should continue to honour him let us please try and see what happened with the right perspective.

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