More,not less

The anger against corruption that drives some in urban India to the streets must be properly understood. It follows the investigation and prosecution of several high officials of state,and the sums that they allegedly cost the exchequer were widely disseminated as being astronomically high. It is easy for some,therefore,to lazily blame the 20-year reform process. Where,but for reforms,this argument runs,would so much money have existed in order to be purloined,anyway? The hollowness of this argument barely needs to be expanded upon. Further,it fundamentally misunderstands the causes and nature of the anger on the streets,and therefore lays us open to suggesting solutions that will not,in the least,help the underlying problem. The cause of this discontent is the present governments consistent neglect of urban India,and the consequent sense of disconnection from politics and policy that some in our towns feel. Part of the spark was an awareness of continued crony capitalism; it was aggravated by the thousand little pin-pricks of the continued presence of an indifferent,sometimes grasping,state in peoples daily lives.

It is precisely those pin-pricks,the petty humiliations and tyrannies of the licence-quota raj,that the reforms process was supposed to remove. It was not just about increasing Indias growth rate,so as to finally address the basic needs of the abjectly poor. It was about bringing about a degree of dignity in a citizens interaction with the state. It is a similar quest for dignity that motivates many of those who have gathered at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi,and the governments solution should be more reform,not a further slowdown. It is fortunate that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,at the golden jubilee of the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta,made it clear that any diversion from the path of reform would be a grave error. We cannot but agree that what is needed is a comprehensive restructuring of government procedures,and reform in the speed and independence of trials for corruption.

More,and quicker reform,not less,is how,in the medium- to long-term,urban discontent must be addressed. UPA 2,however,has been tardy and neglectful of the reform agenda. Dr Singhs words have,once again,reassured; but he must speak more often,and his government must be seen to be desirous of cleaning up its act and also of being more quick-moving and responsive than it has been hitherto.