The “PST” Writing on the Wall—II !! (A 2011 Blog) Key Lacunae in the GOI Approach to the Mao Rebels: Encounter and coercive suppression are the only languages the government controlled forces know by standard training, but guerrilla philosophy goes ahead of this by 20,000 leagues. In all government controlled operations since its command and control decisions are hierarchy-based and often need to be ratified by political figures stationed at a great distance, valuable time is what normally falls down a casualty by the wayside. If so many Indian CRPF men have so grievously fallen victims to the Mao rebels’ ambush, landmines and bullets it’s because the GOI lacks a fool proof strategy; and such strategizing is unthinkable when gratuitous and unwelcome political intrusion makes it virtually impossible in a theatre of battle. Don’t you recall the lines in Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” where six hundred men met their deaths only by obeying an order unquestioningly and without any advance preparation and scouting? Thinking of India from a Broader Base: What we have is the Nehruvian model of governance—not Nehru’s invention by any means—which is founded on the European colonial principle .It believes that the people of this country are really immature and that they are in bad need of guidance and control from above. Nehru was far from being an original but merely continued the forms and processes of governance that the British had. Hence the micro management that is happening at all levels in the GOI even today, and which necessitates a form of Permission Raj that is deeply dug in. The young people in the Mao movement suffered as a result of the steady shrinking of welfare space in consequence of this policy. 1. Economics-Politics relationship: What you and I can observe across India is this unhealthy relationship between the vote bank politics and electioneering approach—which presupposes that A-Z can be achieved only through hastily improvised elections—and mutual bickering among the parties, at the cost of the whole nation and her future. What creative thinking can ever take place when the incumbents in a ministry in power are imagining Damocles’ swords hanging above their positions 24/7? What innovation can ever come from a people surrounded by warring noises from every quarter about which clause in which Bill is right and which is not? What creative destruction can be thought of when the old in power refuse steadfastly till their last breath in life to leave their cushy positions? India can’t get her economics right if she doesn’t care to get her politics right. The only magic formula to combine political control and economic growth is through elimination of extractive set-ups and white elephant departments or institutions. The authoritarian grip of any party—including the ruling party- can but smother growth because it tends to monopolize power and resources on a massive scale but only for a short time without fostering the degree of what I’d call “creative destruction” that is vital for innovation to take place through people creativity. Sustained economic growth can come only through such nationwide innovation through individual enterprise but then it will inevitably lead to a mild destabilization when the older persons get replaced with younger persons even in politics. 2. Extractive institutions: Will any of our ministers sweep and clean his own office? No! He believes in hierarchy and stratification. And that is where the crux lies. A visit to any government office will show the lack of respect and attention given to members of the public by these neo-colonial representatives of the ruling politico-official elite. Toilets for the public are filthy and usually unusable. Chairs are in disrepair, where they are provided at all. No respect is given to the fact that the time of the citizen is valuable. He or she is forced to wait for long periods and finally receive atrocious service, unless a bribe be paid. Indeed, just as the British in India became wealthy by looting the public, so is the new ruling class. The British-Nehru system of governance is ideal for the generation of bribes. This is why every 5-star hotel has its restaurants filled with the families and friends of officials whose salaries would not pay for a single meal, especially given their affinity to Scotch whiskey and French wines. In their book titled Why do Nations Fail?, authors Daron Acemoglu (MIT) and James A Robinson (Harvard) send up a few warning flares for nations like India, which are struggling to move from developing to being developed in an uphill climb of sorts. Nations develop only when the institutions in them---departments, entities, committees, autonomous bodies etc—are inclusive and not extractive. India has in place many extractive institutions that are structured to benefit the few at the cost of the many, and do not operate free from political decision making at a distance. In other words they secretly abide by political decisions and not be facts on the ground available to them. The CBI and CVC are good examples of such extractive institutions, though both claim vociferously to be functioning on their own! Such institutions fail to unleash empower and protect the full potentiality of each Indian citizen to innovate invest and develop. Indifference to the Marginalized: Why is there so much righteous indignation among the commoners? Shall I explain? New Delhi has been in a maelstrom of its own making for over many years now. As Frank Jack Daniel mentions ion one of his Reuters reports about the key risks to watch out for in India, New Delhi are a policy paralysis even after the credit negative budget, internal dissension and consequent pressure over which the coalition makes a laboured appearance, shyness for initiating bold reforms perhaps due to the ministerial senility factor, below average global ratings(S&P BBB Minus, Fitch BBB Minus, and Moody’s Baa3) fear of oncoming scandals about the cheap sale of coal fields and CAG’s remark on it, Rahul’s disastrous flop in UP, the worst fiscal deficit among BRICS nations, and imported subsidized energy. But that doesn’t absolve New Delhi from its basic obligation to provide for everyone in the nation somehow or the other. It’s because this machinery has failed that the marginalized have been at the receiving end. The powers that be ought to have altered their erstwhile attitude too about the revels as enemies of the State born, which they are at worst only secondarily. Perhaps it’s due to a combination of mutually conspiring factors at work but it’s a fact that the nation’s true administrative efficiency is in general visible only in the places around the national capital and the nearest States, and gets weaker and weaker the more distant the state happens to be. To put it in another fashion, rebellious movements can grow with iniquity if they are at a distance from Delhi. You and I know that all rebellious movements like the ULFA, NSCN and Naxalites are in places geographically far away from where the political power is centred. Think a little more and look at the same coin from the reverse side, and you can see why this is so. It’s a question of control and its effectiveness when only intermediaries can be depended upon. This in turn means that India’s official cadre is at fault for nurturing all rebellious movements in general and the Mao Movement. Why so please? The answer is as clear as daylight; its corruption and embezzlement of allocated funds in unjustified ways to the eternal distress of the common people at large and the overnight enrichment of a few persons that are super crooks. This system perhaps put in place in Free India with the presumption that all State level officials would be paragons of demeanour perfection and individual probity got derailed many years ago. No one in the corridors of power cared enough. Thus the officialdom is almost entirely at fault for both establishing sub systems that eat and corrode the credibility of the government machinery at the centre but also for laboriously nurturing such a “covet-all give-away-nothing” approach through trade unionism till the marginalized groups on our coastlines get practically no PDS food or provisions except at exorbitant prices. Denial of empowerment: Democratic change, to be sustainable, has to emerge from grassroots movements Opening up the table and strengthening them is unavoidable. Our huge growth in economic inequality is undermining the inclusiveness of Indian institutions. “The real problem is that economic inequality, when it becomes this large, translates into political inequality.” People empowerment is an issue that New Delhi never took seriously enough all these years .In any democracy it’s the Demos, the individual, that is holding the reins at all times, before ,during or after the election. Denying him his basic rights is mutely eloquent but in a negative manner. As Francis de Sales observed, ”We must not undervalue any person. The workman loves not that his work should be despised in his presence.” What is freedom worth if a citizen that tells the truth about the implementation of a scheme is killed forthwith often in broad daylight? What effect will self glorifying speeches from the Red Fort have if roti, kapda or makan—food clothing and shelter-- continue to be daily challenges for vast numbers of people after 63 years of independence? What message will go out to people at large when the Central Government ignores starvation deaths of peasantry or the rotting tons of wheat left out in the open in Haryana? Won’t the credibility of the national government be adversely affected when a case in court takes 30 years before a solution can be found? MD Nalapat writes in this connection: “While India has a relatively democratic constitution, thanks to individuals such as BR Ambedkar, the country still has a colonial criminal code and a colonial system of administration. So does Singapore, except that the difference is that in that city-state, the administration is free from corruption, and hence delivers results. In India, while the vast discretionary power of the colonial state remains in the hands of those in control of the machinery of government, there is so much corruption that the administration has become much of a burden and a hindrance as was the case under the British. What the people of India are enduring today is the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru, whose concept of democracy was to give people the right to vote in exchange for taking away all other rights.” [ Free India from the Nehru British Model. Organizer] Not only the citizen but also the women back home that depend on him must be empowered through tailor-made schemes. Literacy was denied to millions of individuals –mostly women--even in Amethi and Rae Bareli in UP, the very constituencies from where the Nehrus started their procession to power. Denial of basic rights and the right to exist in some kind of joy is a prostitution of the freedom of this nation and it generated unbounded anger, as Rahul experienced in the hard way recently. It may be noted in passing that events of 2011 have aggravated all standing problems at a single stroke. For instance, the attempt to prevent access to the Net exposes not only Mr Sibal but also the UPA in all its nudity! Fluency in international languages and the Internet is core to the future of India and both are being neglected by a ruling caste that knows very well that only a lack of knowledge and consciousness among the people can preserve the system that first made the British in India rich, and now them! Refusal to Respond in Time and in Proportion: “UPA is in the ICU” according to Natwar Singh, ”The pharmacy is locked and the doctor has run away.”This may be a hyperbole of course but there is no doubt that the UPA has in place a system that takes its own sweet time to respond to even a national emergency. 26/11 was one unforgettable example of such slowness and another mythical one perhaps instance of top level indecisiveness is shown in the vernacular film titled Mission 90 days relating to the assassination of Rajeev Gandhi. If the people on our coasts are not getting food and provisions or if the officials are misusing money, or if there is widespread diversion of funds allocated for developmental projects is a habitual occurrence in a place, how soon can that problem be redressed? That is the key question. Democratic ‘chalta hai’ mindset won’t do here but expeditiousness and efficiency alone. Tactical changes needed in approach: “Freedom” should not come once every five years, but ought to be present 24/7 in the citizen’s life. Unfortunately, in India almost any activity necessitates a visit to a government office and the payment of a bribe to secure a service. This is in line with the core philosophy of Nehruism, which is that the people of India ought to be treated the way children are. They should always be under supervision and guidance, the way it was under colonial rule. It is a philosophy that has been wholeheartedly accepted by Sonia Gandhi, and which she is making sure her government follows. This is what has engendered alienation of the thousands of young people in the outer reaches of our nation, and why they took to arms to highlight their discomforts galore. As G .K. Chesterton observed the aim of all life is appreciation. There is no sense in not appreciating things and persons if you happen to be in a political career. All ministers and parliamentarians ought to remember that they are the servants of the people and not vice versa even if de-elect option has not come down to us as a bounty of sorts. Elections have to be funded by the people themselves and not y the rich few. When one person can write a check to finance your whole campaign, how inclusive will you be as an elected official to listen to competing voices? So electoral reforms are also needed. Negotiation alone is the eventual solution to the Mao Menace, but that should be finely orchestrated and intelligently calibrated too. Prospective administrators must be trained in rural lifestyle and negotiation skills if they are to get their way with the Maoists. There are several countries that have been democratic for many more decades than India has been. In each, those in government do not observe the wall between the Governors and the Governed that is commonplace in “democratic” India. The British-Nehru School of Governance, in which the people of India are regarded as children needing to be constantly chastised and directed. If in the past, such over lordship was conducted by those of European (especially British) ethnic origin, the only change since 1947 is that these days the rulers are from the same gene pool as their subjects. The GOI must not think of encounter killings as the final solution too. The GOI is dead sure to lose out in the game and it’s likely that Mao movement will have sleeper cells in the national capital too in that case. Political solution alone can help. This is because the psychological alienation that underlies the Mao movement was generated through over emphasis on power and politics at the cost of official efficiency. It needs to be removed .Listen to the rebels and jot down the points that they insist upon. Consider them one by one over a time span and set a deadline before which both groups must come to amicable terms. Conclusion: That we are having something akin to a sham democratic set- up we know for sure but it takes as few more years for it to get transformed to our satisfaction. Our colonial criminal code and colonial style of administration can’t solve the Mao crisis by any means. This is the reason our civil servants make such a poor show when dealing with them. The Mao Movement means business and action from the muzzle of the gun and the pushbutton on the remote control unit. As a result the UPA will have to listen to what they say. That alone is absolute justification of the method they have, in desperation perhaps adopted to save their souls. Please think seriously of what is at stake here and come tomorrow as usual dear children. We shall thrash out another topic of similar urgency to our great nation! Jai Hind!
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 01:14:41 +0000
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