The days preceding elections are the ones that are brimming with crisis analysis and hypothetical solutions. Thus every article emerging out of the media boombox is yelling about every issue from corruption, unemployment, development, farmer’s issues, education, health, and pollution, carelessly meandering through jargon that includes coalition governments, caste politics, dynastic ambitions, and business interests in politics, and yet suggesting that it is only consensus, discussions, debates, and persuasion that have the power to push forward the most appropriate legislations where the ultimate solution rests. Every solution-provider, the politicians with different party affiliations in this case, somehow agree with this and are only too happy to pass the buck to changes in the law governing the country.
The problem with placing so much confidence on the overhead tank called the law is that the tank itself has no way of knowing if the implementation pipes leading out from it are going to the right recipients or not. The politicians shout that the legislation overhead tank is the Rambo that India needs and the masses have been coerced to believe that the panacea lies in the tank. With this perspective dug in, let us see if this Rambo can take care of economic growth. Amartya Sen once remarked that ‘the whole idea that you could somehow separate out the process of economic growth from the quality of the labor force is a mistake… India is the only country in the world which is trying to become a global economic power with an uneducated and unhealthy labor force.’ Our political voices have a massive chorus of statistics from the world of education and can prove that the intake of students at the primary level has gone up, the secondary school data talks about how literacy has penetrated way into the rural heartland, and higher education institutes and seats are increased to unrealistic numbers every year by AICTE. The new reporter goes a step further and shows us doctorates who are applying for the job of a peon. People like me are left wondering if the real villain is being over-qualified or meaningful education.
The same conditions afflict every other issue that anyone brings up. The truth is that we helplessly watch millions of desperate people leaving their homes in villages and smaller towns to migrate to bigger cities in search of jobs… and education for their children. City folk are equally distraught and live in appalling conditions where the civic infrastructure is doddering faster than a delivery man from Swiggy fights his way through the arrogance resident on Indian roads to deliver on time. There is no respite from pot-holes that appear regularly just before the monsoon sets in, foot-over bridges that crumble because the civic authorities don’t respect the word maintenance, the corrupt minds that invokes the Goddess of creativity to find newer ways to beat the system, and a million other problems that are not even on the radar of our politicians. All that matters to leaders are the votes that will bring to them the fruit of being in seats of power. Akhilesh Pillalamarri wrote in The Diplomat that ‘long-term planning is vital for India to prosper. Neither the short-term platforms of the BJP or Congress, which often involve subsidies and giveaways of things such as gas canisters or televisions, will engender large improvements in people’s lives.’ Debu C wrote in an article published in 2015 in mapsofindia that ‘Indian politics is often described as being feisty, vibrant, colourful, controversial, debatable, provocative, all of that and more. It all depends on which side of the spectrum you stand and there is a perspective, always. Ask a billion people what is wrong with Indian politics and you will get a billion perspectives.’
Dealing with a billion perspectives isn’t easy for just one leader. Yet we go on living in an era where just one (or add a few more in a group) leader is constantly expected to deliver all that this country really needs. The truth is that India needs a combination of effective regional leaders in the state assemblies who work in tandem with leaders in the parliament who together believe less in being argumentative and more in getting things done. Arguments and debates are healthy but cease to be so if all they do is to make corruption seem innocuous or if they are used to justify the ills that are plaguing the country. It is only once the fallacy of debates and logic seeking joy inside a bottomless well is realized and well-intentioned words clamber out to deal with small problems one at a time that there is any possibility of vision entering Indian politics.
Our politicians are still inside this proverbial bottomless well.
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Arvind Passey
04 April 2019
