What more appropriate time to make an assessment of the state of the republic than on Republic Day? At the risk of being vilified (yes, I read all your e-mails) for always attacking ‘‘everything’’ about our fair and wondrous land may I say that the sight of barefoot, underfed, half-naked children selling flags at traffic lights on Republic Day is to me the most shaming reminder that the state of the republic is not good. So many years after the British Raj was sent packing, so many years after the Indian princes were officially abolished and the ‘‘secular, socialist republic’’ established, why do India’s children look so bad? Why do Indians still starve to death when drought hits our poorer states? Why do millions of Indians still lack access to such basic needs as clean drinking water and literacy? The defence that our political leaders usually offer is that you can see the cup as either half full or half empty in that things are much better today than they were fifty years ago. Perhaps, but that is no longer good enough because, as any objective observer of India’s development will tell you, we would not have been a poor country at all today if we had followed the right economic policies and if we had noticed that the republic cannot be prosperous as long as we cling to the systems of government our colonial masters used to enslave us. By this, I do not mean that we should chuck parliamentary democracy into the Indian Ocean and revert to some ancient, Hindutva mode of governance. Only, that we inherited a colonial method of administration and even with a Hindutva prime minister at the helm we make no effort whatsoever to change it. The result is that the fruits of India being a modern republic continue to go to that small, increasingly greedy, increasingly insensitive group of people who live off the fat of the land in the name of ruling us. Let me give you a few examples. The week before Republic Day, this newspaper carried a story on how bureaucrats in Mumbai had quietly given themselves a large piece of the most expensive real estate in the city to build themselves a club. Living conditions in Mumbai are so appaling that more than half the city’s residents live in hideous, unsanitary slums but IAS officers and Maharashtra’s legislators think nothing of allotting themselves 23,000 square feet of land worth more than Rs 200 crore to build themselves a club. It should shock us but the story barely made a ripple in the press because we have got used to judges, ex-judges, MPs, ex-MPs, ministers, ex-ministers and sometimes even journalists helping themselves to public land in this fashion. Similarly, although our governments have singularly failed to provide enough schools to educate India’s children they think nothing of helping themselves to the best land in cities like Mumbai and Delhi to build schools reserved exclusively for their own children. When it comes to healthcare the story is similar with government hospitals mysteriously always finding room for VIPs and VVIPs while somehow never having any for ordinary citizens. VIPs have the added facility of using taxpayers’ money to travel abroad for treatment when they are not satisfied with Indian healthcare. If these ‘‘perks and privileges’’ were not outrageous enough we also continue the colonial tradition of public servants being totally unaccountable. Even when they misuse their power to harass innocent citizens, even when they are caught helping themselves to public land and money they cannot be sacked. Their ‘‘punishment’’ is a transfer unless citizens protest, as happened in Assam recently when allegedly corrupt judges were transferred to the local High Court. With so many powerful people having a vested interest in the system remaining unchanged change is not going to be easy but it is not impossible. A prime minister who was serious about de-colonising governance would begin by making it possible to sack officials. Step number two should be to ban politicians and bureaucrats from going abroad for medical treatment. Step number three should be to forbid them from sending their children to anything but government schools and colleges. We would see instant, visible improvement in standards of healthcare and education. If we want living conditions to improve, especially in our cities, we need to insist that public servants and legislators be denied free housing or subsidised electricity and water. The day they have to live like the ‘‘common man’’, they would quickly discover the importance of improving housing and other public utilities. Only firm, innovative measures to improve governance will enable our economy to grow at the more than 20% growth we need annually if in 25 years the average Indian is to be as rich as the average American already is today. The Prime Minister has often promised 9% growth without managing to achieve it in any of the years he has been in power. If he stops to ask himself why he could find that it is his smug, self-seeking officials who are to blame. Let him begin by sacking those who have not performed and those who have patently abused their power. Add to this a few general curbs on perks and privileges and he could find governance defeating Hindutva as the winning slogan of the 2004 general election. Write to tavleensingh@expressindia.com
