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Sunday mornings in Delhi winters are generally spent in wasteful indulgences, particularly if the sun is shining bright, after two weeks of playing hide and seek. Sipping endless cups of tea and gorging on gobhi parathas/ moong dal cheelas, with half a dozen newspapers and magazines on the side table! This is stuff dreams are made of. It is the sum and substance of lazy Sunday mornings spent in the sun, with little cherry oranges providing the extra dash of colour in the balcony!
This was one such Sunday morning. Three articles, read together, captured the mood of the nation on the new experiment in Delhi: 1) Chetan Bhagat’s column The Underage Optimist in ToI, Get the priorities right: India first, AAP second, 2) Swapan Dasgupta in Sunday Pioneer’s Usual Suspects: If missed calls could change India and 3) Tavleen Singh in Indian Express: My vote is not for AAP.
By the the time the morning ended, I had it neatly figured out; that there is some sort of disillusionment with the way things are panning out. It would be worthwhile to gauge this fresh sense of despondency which is setting in and take corrective measures forthwith to prevent further sliding of the euphoria and expectations. Basically, this country is past the stage of being treated as a Petri dish yet again. We have no time to allow young interns to learn-on -the -job. It is time to unveil a clear ideological definition of what one stands for, along with a road map of how one plans to achieve it. Also, cosmetic gestures and experiments are no longer necessary as there are examples galore of failed, partially successful, fully achievable interventions. If ideology is irrelevant, as some would say, let's get down to policies & programmes that will prove we are in the 21st century and not perpetuating 20th century rubbish of subsidising inefficiencies and creating disincentives.
To begin with,one should get the priorities right, study the bench-marked successes, modify and adapt them for the greatest good of the greatest numbers. It is about Governance first and foremost. Get on with institutionalising reforms in governance, instead of treading the populist path of Junta Durbars, which have been tried and discarded as non-productive acts of symbolism. It's seen as plain and simple Playing to the Gallery. Even the junta wants action, not just an outlet for ventilating their grievances. Any seasoned civil servant can tell that it is the complicated cases, defying solution that come to these Durbars. The real challenge lies in preventing this complication to set-in and for that, systems, rules and procedures have to be simplified and transparency made the norm, rather than the exception. Contractual drivers of state transport authority cannot be regularised through durbars, nor should they be made to feel that there is a case for their regularisation! Were they “contracted” through a transparent process? Did they possess the right qualification and was there competition to select the best? If not then can they be regularised? Would we not be guilty of perpetuating a wrong in regularising them? These are serious issues, embedded in nepotism, cronyism and related maladies and need to be addressed, but not in public hearings! Governance is a serious business and it requires serious attention to detail, including amending statute books, reducing discretion and using technology to minimise personal interface at the lower level. None of it can be done in a hurry through populist measures.
However, It's still early days and comparisons with the Shibu Soren's, Laloo Yadav’s of the world can wait. Also, is Population Stabilisation not on ANYONE’s list of priorities? The surge of humanity during the Durbar should ring the right bells and push policies in that direction, if nothing else.
This was one such Sunday morning. Three articles, read together, captured the mood of the nation on the new experiment in Delhi: 1) Chetan Bhagat’s column The Underage Optimist in ToI, Get the priorities right: India first, AAP second, 2) Swapan Dasgupta in Sunday Pioneer’s Usual Suspects: If missed calls could change India and 3) Tavleen Singh in Indian Express: My vote is not for AAP.
By the the time the morning ended, I had it neatly figured out; that there is some sort of disillusionment with the way things are panning out. It would be worthwhile to gauge this fresh sense of despondency which is setting in and take corrective measures forthwith to prevent further sliding of the euphoria and expectations. Basically, this country is past the stage of being treated as a Petri dish yet again. We have no time to allow young interns to learn-on -the -job. It is time to unveil a clear ideological definition of what one stands for, along with a road map of how one plans to achieve it. Also, cosmetic gestures and experiments are no longer necessary as there are examples galore of failed, partially successful, fully achievable interventions. If ideology is irrelevant, as some would say, let's get down to policies & programmes that will prove we are in the 21st century and not perpetuating 20th century rubbish of subsidising inefficiencies and creating disincentives.
To begin with,one should get the priorities right, study the bench-marked successes, modify and adapt them for the greatest good of the greatest numbers. It is about Governance first and foremost. Get on with institutionalising reforms in governance, instead of treading the populist path of Junta Durbars, which have been tried and discarded as non-productive acts of symbolism. It's seen as plain and simple Playing to the Gallery. Even the junta wants action, not just an outlet for ventilating their grievances. Any seasoned civil servant can tell that it is the complicated cases, defying solution that come to these Durbars. The real challenge lies in preventing this complication to set-in and for that, systems, rules and procedures have to be simplified and transparency made the norm, rather than the exception. Contractual drivers of state transport authority cannot be regularised through durbars, nor should they be made to feel that there is a case for their regularisation! Were they “contracted” through a transparent process? Did they possess the right qualification and was there competition to select the best? If not then can they be regularised? Would we not be guilty of perpetuating a wrong in regularising them? These are serious issues, embedded in nepotism, cronyism and related maladies and need to be addressed, but not in public hearings! Governance is a serious business and it requires serious attention to detail, including amending statute books, reducing discretion and using technology to minimise personal interface at the lower level. None of it can be done in a hurry through populist measures.
However, It's still early days and comparisons with the Shibu Soren's, Laloo Yadav’s of the world can wait. Also, is Population Stabilisation not on ANYONE’s list of priorities? The surge of humanity during the Durbar should ring the right bells and push policies in that direction, if nothing else.
The truth lies in between often!
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