Attacking the aam aadmi's swabhiman

Sun, Mar 1 05:54 AM
Sudheendra Kulkarni
In a recent interaction with my party's young campaigners in the coming parliamentary elections, I asked them, "What is the first and foremost expectation of young people like you from the next government?" I was expecting them to say "employment", "better education" and so on. One of them, an alumnus of IIT Delhi who studied and worked abroad and has now taken to political activism, gave a one-word reply: "Swabhiman" (self-respect).

My instinctive interpretation of his answer was that he was referring to India's honour and self-respect. "No, I am not talking about desh ka swabhiman and desh ka gaurav. Every patriotic Indian, belonging to any party, wants India to be heard, honoured and respected more by the international community. What I am referring to is the self-respect of ordinary citizens. When the aam aadmi deals with the government in his own country, why is his self-respect routinely bruised? Why do government officers and employees behave with citizens as if they are our masters and we their subjects? Why do they make us feel that they are doing us a favour when the service or information we are seeking is our right as citizens? And, often, the 'favour' is done to us only after we have met their demand for bribes."

Why have we failed to make the system respect the citizens more? It's a complex problem, but some roots of it lie in the fact that the government has two parts-the democratically elected executive that is accountable to the people and has to seek their mandate; and the 'permanent government' of the bureaucracy that is largely unaccountable and remains unchanged even after Party A is voted out and Party B is voted in. It is high time the progressive section of our political class and leaders of civil society paid serious attention to reforming these "permanent rulers" to make them truly citizen-friendly. Good governance is being much talked about in the current election campaign. We can move towards this goal only by introducing radical citizen-centric reforms.

Write to: sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com
Read more:Attacking the aam aadmi's swabhiman

Vice President releases ‘India Corruption Study 2007’

Extract of Shri M Hamid Ansari, Vice President address:

Over the years Transparency International India has done commendable work to quantify corruption, described by the Xth Plan as the ‘most endemic and entrenched manifestation of poor governance’. The focus of this latest report is on analysing the misery caused by corruption to the poorest of the land, for accessing the most basic of services. What are the findings? They cover five basic services – PDS, hospital, school education, electricity, and water supply - and six need-based services – police, land records, forests, housing, banking and NREGS. In specific terms, they reveal:

About one-third of BPL households paid bribes to avail one or more of these eleven services.

The benefits of recent steps taken to improve delivery of public services have not substantially percolated down to the poor as yet.

Nearly two-third of BPL households could not avail of PDS, School Education and Electricity as they could not pay the bribe or use contact or influence to avail of the service.

The situation stands at an alarming level with regard to police and Land Record/Registration.

I am confident that both the government and civil society would take the Study and these suggested correctives seriously. An old maxim states that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. In today’s world, it is also insurance for proper governance. In the final analysis, good governance involves meaningful response to the public’s desire for clear, effective, and transparent governance. I commend the effort of Transparency International India and Centre for Media Studies and thank Admiral Tahiliani for inviting me today.

Read full address at India Corruption Study 2007

Comment: A similar study needs to be undertaken by the Ministry of Defence in respect of working of Zilla Sainik Boards all over India, with a view to streamlining and eliminating corruption so that the innocent Jawans do not fall prey for whose welfare the organisational set up exists.

Bureaucracy revamp a challenge for Prime Minister

It is difficult to agree that the Indian bureaucracy has become a great stumbling block and is quite incompatible with the democratic set- up. Thanks to periodic general elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for more than five decades, the bureaucracy in India has subtly attuned itself to the aspirations, wishes and sentiments of the elected representatives of the people from their pre- independence role of serving the colonial masters.

A few upright and neutral bureaucrats, true to their oaths, are sidelined as they do not submit meekly to their political bosses. Even senior bureaucrats like chief secretaries and directors- general of police cannot resist the temptation of post- retirement rehabilitation and so oblige their political masters.

In an atmosphere charged with rampant corruption, infecting both politicians and bureaucrats, the efforts of the political bosses succeed, as, unfortunately, they have got the measure of the bureaucracy and found it wanting. In such a scenario, despite his best wishes for revamping the bureaucracy, the Prime Minister can hardly do anything.

Arun Kumar Bhaduri,
Kolkata, 27 April 2008.

Excerpts from Bureaucracy revamp a tall order for PM

Comments: The bureaucratic set up has systematically degraded the Honour and Stature of the Armed Forces for the last 60 years in connivance with the the elected Politicians. Neither of them have any clue as to the tribulations of Armed Forces personnel whose civil liberties have been denied/ curbed in consonance with the Army Act. The ESM suffer more indignities due to the corrupt bureaucracy.

Governance and Transparency

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Plato

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. Tom Stoppard

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. Jonathan Swift

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. Alexander Woollcott

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. William Ewart Gladstone

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. Benjamin Franklin

Work and creativity are what built this country- not money. Karl Hess

The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means. Georges Bernanos

Bureaucracy is the epoxy that greases the wheels of progress. Dr Jim Boren

Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. Justice Louis D Brandeis

Corruption and hypocrisy out not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtadly are today. Mahatma Gandhi

The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference. Bess Myerson

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. Friedrich Nietzsche

Corruption never has been compulsory. Anthony Eden

The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another. Thomas Blackwell

There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed. Johnson

No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous. Johnson

Good government is no substitute for self- government. Mahatma Gandhi

There are two kinds of people- those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group, there is less competition there. Indira Gandhi

Praise and money, the two powerful corrupters of mankind. Samuel Johnson

An evil- disposed citizen cannot affect any changes for the worse in a republic, unless it be already corrupt. Machiavelli

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. George Washington

A minister who moves about in society is in a position to read the signs of the times even in a festive gathering, but one who remains shut up in his office learns nothing. Duc de Choiseul

Politics is more difficult than physics. Albert Einstein

All political power is a trust. Charles James Fox

He serves his party best who serves the country best. Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Politics can only be a small part of what we are. It's a way of seeing, it's not all- seeing in itself. Brian Keenan

Those who would tread politics and morality apart will never understand the one or the other. John Morley

Better a hundred times an honest and capable administration of an erroneous policy than a corrupt and incapable administration of a good one. Edward J Phelps

Political necessities sometimes turn out to be political mistakes. George Bernard Shaw

At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self- evident. Schopenhauer

We have no constitution which functions in the absence of a moral people. John Adams

Bureaucracies are designed to perform public business. But as soon as a bureaucracy is established, it develops an autonomous spiritual life and comes to regard the public as the enemy. Brooks Atkinson

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections upon human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. James Madison

Whatever is morally wrong can never be politically right. Abraham Lincoln

Those who talk about the peoples of our day being given up to robbery and similar vices will find that they are all due to the fact that those who ruled them behaved in like manner. Niccolo Machiavelli

There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice. Mark Twain

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. Woodrow Wilson

Far more has been accomplished for the welfare and progress of mankind by preventing bad actions than by doing good ones. William Lyon

Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes. Panchantantra

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. Publius Cornelius Tacitus

All bad precedents began as justifiable measures. Gaius Julius Caesar

It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. David Brin

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. C L De Montesquieu

You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook. Harry S Truman

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. Ambrose Bierce

We can’t solve the problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first thing to be bought and sold are legislators. P J O'Rourke

Citizens Rights

Government of India has an online Grievance forum at http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/
The Government wants its citizens to use this tool to highlight the problems they have faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like Passport Office, Electricity board, BSNL/ MTNL, Railways, Rashriya and Zilla Sainik Boards, or any other state or central government departments.

I know many people will say that these things don't work in India, but this actually works as one of our colleagues has discovered. The guy I'm talking about lives in Faridabad. Couple of months back, the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new roads in his area and the residents were very happy about it. But 2 weeks later, BSNL dug up the newly laid stretch of roads to install new cables which annoyed all the residents including this guy. But it was only this guy Who used the above listed grievance forum to highlight his concern. And to his surprise, BSNL and Municipal Corporation of faridabad was served a show cause notice and the guy received a copy of the notice in one week. Government has asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it's clear that both the government departments were not in sync at all.

So use this grievance forum and educate others who don't know about this facility. This way we can at least raise our concerns instead of just talking about the negative 'System' in India. Invite your friends and veterans to make use of this Grievance Forum to redress their problems online.

We should never be afraid of TEARS. They soften our HEARTS, Wash our EYES & Clear our VISION.
We must become the change we want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi.

Hubert Chandran
Chennai

The blog Team thanks Hubert Chandran, who is a casual visitor, for the valuable information. Go to website. Grievance Forum