The year was 1633 CE. Galileo Galilei, the renowned Italian astronomer, was facing the ire of the Catholic Church for challenging the old Ptolemaic view that the sun revolved around the earth. To save himself from being burnt at the stake, Galileo recanted his theory. However, under his breath, he murmured “Eppur si muove” (and yet it moves).
Cut to 2025 CE and nothing much seems to have changed. Punishments for religious heresy still exist in parts of the world governed by theocracy-dominated regimes, starting from our western neighbour Pakistan and extending westwards to a number of other nations. But punishments (and threats of punitive action) for political heresy abound all over the world, including India. The latest instance is the communication from the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to two well-known Indian cartoonists, Satish Acharya and Manjul. X has informed them that the Mumbai police has flagged cartoons carried on X, which the police deem objectionable. A long way from Nehru telling the famous cartoonist Shankar “Don’t spare me Shankar”.
The last thirty years or so have seen an alarming decline in our ability as a country to tolerate (leave alone appreciate) humour, or any news, that exposes our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The early years of this century were witness to the hounding of the noted artist M.F. Husain for his depictions of goddesses and Bharat Mata, leading to his self-exile. There was also the deplorable occurrence of the vandalisation of the venerable Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute by self-appointed guardians of Shivaji Maharaj, responding to a book by James Laing which they deemed derogatory to Shivaji Maharaj and his family. Since then, the downward spiral has accelerated: Sanjay Leela Bhansali faced an ink attack for his film on Rani Padmavati, which had to be renamed Padmavat. Any and every caste/clan group is up in arms whenever they perceive that a hero of their tribe has been slighted. Rightly have political commentators labelled us a “republic of hurt sentiments”.
We now seek to rewrite history in order to valorise rulers of yore, whether Maharana Pratap or Prithviraj Chauhan. Reference is made at the highest levels of governance to the “thousand years of subjugation to foreign rule”, a very north-centric view, considering that Hindu empires flourished till 1565 CE and thereafter in the south, not forgetting Maratha dominance till 1818 CE. Terming the Mughal or Bahamani rulers or Tipu Sultan as foreigners is to ignore the reality that they were firmly rooted in the soil of India, regardless of their religious leanings. Even the freedom struggle and partition, and the events that followed in their wake, have not escaped airbrushing, based on political ideology. It is always easy to view and comment on historical events in hindsight, ignoring the compulsions of that time, which led to specific decisions, whether on partition itself, the manner of accession of Kashmir to the Indian Union or the economic development pattern adopted in the 1950s.
The mass media and an obliging bureaucracy have also contributed to the twisting of factual accuracy. Official handouts from government sources are carried without any critical examination of the contents. Indeed, the print and audiovisual media, controlled largely by powerful corporate houses, not only parrot official versions but even go further to create alternative truths. Inconvenient (unflattering) data from nongovernmental/international sources is debunked: official data is released tardily, with no public discussion or debate on the figures. The time-honoured Decennial Census is now four years overdue, even though the Covid pandemic has come and gone. Data from official sites, which was available on the internet earlier, is now often not easily accessible.
But it is the easy recourse to brute state power and arbitrary vigilante justice over the past decade or so that causes greatest concern. This recipe has been tested time and again in different states of India. Any innocuous attempt at wry humour or any investigation of misdemeanours by the executive, by a journalist, comedian or cartoonist, has led in the past to filing of cases under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, with incarceration of the “offender” until s/he secures bail from the courts. Despite repeated suggestions from respected citizens and civil society organisations, defamation continues to be a criminal offence in India. Our former colonial masters, under whose rule the offence of defamation was made a part of criminal law, have abolished criminal libel in 2009. However, despite replacing the colonial era Indian Penal Code with the newly minted Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita (BNS), the provision for criminal defamation (Section 356) remains on the statute book, with untrammelled scope for misinterpretation and arbitrary interpretation. That a leader of the main opposition party could be convicted for apparently hurting the sentiments of an entire community and lose his membership of the Lok Sabha is a fair indication of which way the wind blows.
Section 152 of the BNS is even more chilling in its ambit. Spoken or written words, signs, visual representation or electronic communication can invite a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. The explanation to this section seeks to exempt from the operation of this section “comments expressing disapprobation of the measures, or administrative or other action of the government with a view to obtain their alteration by lawful means without exciting or attempting to excite the activities referred to in this section….”. However, given how often in the past the police machinery has shown alacrity in registering offences against anyone voicing views that go against the official grain, it can legitimately be apprehended that this section confers wide powers for arbitrary arrest, till the affected party manages to secure bail, possibly months or years later.
Article 19 of the Constitution confers on all citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression. With this right being infringed on many occasions, one is reminded of the quote attributed to Idi Amin “There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech”. Before uttering or writing any words that could be deemed offensive, the thinking citizen will probably consider s/he is better off remembering the words of the scamp in a droll song from the film Anpadh:
सिकंदर ने पोरस से की थी लड़ाई
जो की थी लड़ाई तो मैं क्या करूँ
(Sikandar (Alexander) fought with Porus. If he had a fight, what can I do?)
Archive for the ‘government’ Category
1 Feb
Eppur si muove
15 Jan
KYC – Keeping You Confounded
KYC entered the life of the Indian banking customer in 2002. Till then “know your customer” meant the intimate and friendly relationship the local bank branch manager had with the depositor. Not anymore. As India adopts impersonal modern habits of arm’s length, faceless transactions, banks are no longer the place where the retired person drops in for a mid-morning chat and cup of tea with the manager. The new normal is KYC: though KEEPING YOU CONFOUNDED fits the acronym far better than KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER.
The past decade has certainly put the depositor through the KYC wringer. Originally conceived to check money laundering and terrorist activities, KYC is today the scourge of the hapless common citizen. For accessing her hard-earned money kept in savings accounts, the citizen is compelled to prove her identity almost every year. While the eKYC is intended to allow for online verification of identity, there are numerous instances of the depositor being required to visit a bank branch to confirm her identity. My own harrowing experiences bear out the repeated trials and tribulations in ensuring KYC compliance.
I have a joint savings account with my spouse in the branch of a private bank in Mumbai. This account was opened before this millennium in a bank which was subsequently taken over by the private bank. Some fifteen years later, I was informed that this account was dormant since no transactions had taken place in the previous couple of years. Question no. 1: why would a bank need to verify the ownership of an account with a limited amount of deposit, just because the depositor has not undertaken either deposits or withdrawals over a period of time? Surely the depositor can exercise her democratic right to operate or not operate the account, since she may be drawing on her reserves in other bank accounts. Anyway, it took us three or four visits to the bank to get the account activated.
Stranger things have since befallen us with this same account. Despite transacting with the account in mid-2024, the account has again been marked inactive in late 2024. Now, the problem has assumed a new dimension. When the account was opened in the predecessor bank in 1997, my name in the account was just ‘Ramani’. Some bright spark in the bank has concluded that this does not coincide exactly with my name in the PAN card and Aadhaar records, where my father’s name precedes my own name. So, no go with eKYC procedure: I am required to present myself at a bank branch so that they can be satisfied that I do indeed exist in flesh and blood.
To build on the madness, my demat account has been rendered inactive on the grounds that I have undertaken no activity in the past 24 months. Question no. 2: why is an investor required to compulsorily buy or sell stocks to satisfy the concerned agency that she is not a ghost operator- that again, when the amount involved is so measly? I tried the eKYC facility on the website: it accepted my signature but refused to accept my mug shot; apparently, a selfie is a must. Question no. 3: since banks and other institutions have already wrapped Aadhaar verification around our necks, why could a simple Aadhaar authentication not have sufficed? To add insult to injury, an affiliate of the same private bank is now sending me messages for eKYC of my car insurance policy, executed just five months ago. Honestly, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this buffoonery.
I read in the news recently that the Government of India is concerned about the large number of inoperative bank accounts in the country. With the huge number of Jan Dhan deposits, the mind boggles at the thought of 800 million or more Indians going through the KYC quagmire once a year. My entreaty to the Finance Minister of India, the Finance Secretary of India and the RBI Governor would be as follows:
(1) For bank accounts that have been in existence for years and where KYC has been complied with anytime in the past, do away with future KYC compliance.
(2) Select only those bank accounts for KYC verification which seem to reveal suspicious transactions.
(3) Even where KYC is felt to be necessary, rely on online procedures such as Aadhaar authentication and video calls to the customer, if identification by the bank is required. Many senior and super senior citizens may not be in a position to undertake the numerous trips to a bank branch to complete the KYC formalities.
What comes through clearly from this entire rigmarole is the absolute lack of trust that pervades the system. The banking staff does not trust the virtual customer (even when adequate documentary proof has been provided) and governing institutions do not trust the banking staff. In this entire process, the 0.01 percent of banking malefactors who ought to be caught and prosecuted for their financial wrongdoings go scotfree, while for the remaining 99.99 percent, it continues to be the same routine of KYC verification, ad nauseam ad infinitum, leading to LYC (losing your cool).
28 Jul
Of Kangaroo justice and Kafkaesque trials
While the origin of the phrase “kangaroo court” is still not certain, the term is quite clearly defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted.” I would modify the term to “kangaroo justice” where due process of law is given short shrift.
Three incidents in recent history make us wonder whether we live in an era of kangaroo justice: (1) In December 2019, four men accused of the rape and murder of a young woman were shot dead by the police when, while in judicial custody, they were being taken to the scene of the crime near Hyderabad for a reconstruction of events as part of the investigation. The subsequent judicial enquiry concluded that these men were summarily eliminated and indicted ten police personnel in this connection. (2) In April 2023, Atiq Ahmed, a former Member of Parliament, and his brother, Ashraf Ahmed, in judicial custody in connection with several crimes, were shot dead by assailants posing as media persons, in the presence of UP police personnel, while being taken for medical examination to hospital at the unearthly hour of midnight. (3) 84 year old Father Stan Swamy, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, passed away in July 2021, after a series of ailments, while in judicial custody, without being given bail on medical grounds.
In the first two instances, summary executions by uniformed persons and by ordinary citizens made a mockery of the rule of law. Legal processes were unfortunately short-circuited to render instant justice (injustice?). While there was public support for the two actions, this does not behoove a democratic society that ought to be totally committed to the rule of law. The third case is even more unfortunate: an octogenarian social worker, who was not questioned by the NIA during his incarceration for eight months in Taloja prison near Mumbai, was refused bail even when it was apparent that his health was failing and that his release on bail posed no threat to the state or society.
“The wheels of justice grind slowly, but grind exceedingly fine” is a metaphor attributed to both ancient Greek and Chinese philosophers, acknowledging the slow pace of delivering justice, though justice is finally done. In the Indian context, delivery of criminal justice is often excruciatingly slow, with the main stakeholders at the pre-trial stage — the police, victims and their families and the accused — left with a feeling of frustrated helplessness as cases drag on for years. The phenomenon of ‘encounter specialists’ taking the law into their hands to dispose of criminals and of public lynching of notorious ant-social elements are but symptoms of a deeper malaise. Shoddy investigation of crimes, prompted sometimes by political pressure and sometimes by the lure of lucre, and interminably long periods between the commission of a crime and the final verdict of guilt seriously affect the credibility of the criminal justice system.
It is against this unsatisfactory background that recourse is had to the arrest of persons for even petty crimes and/or where they are not habitual offenders, just to satisfy public sentiment. Once arrested, the accused remain in jail because, in many cases, they cannot manage to give the surety/security required for grant of bail. The courts and the police are reluctant to trust the release on bail of persons on personal bonds/undertakings. Non-granting of bail and overcrowding in jails are two sides of the same coin. According to the Bureau of Police Research and Development, in 2022, India housed 5.73 lakh persons in its jails as against a prison capacity of 4.36 lakhs. The National Crime Records Bureau has reported that the proportion of people in jails, who are not convicted, rose from 33% in 1947 to 66% in 2012 and 76% in 2022.
More disturbing is the increasing trend of arrests of those deemed by the ruling dispensation to be opposed to them politically or those who raise their voice against actions of those in power that smack of restraint on or misuse of constitutional rights — these range from politicians of opposition parties to “anti-nationals” and “urban naxals”. The draconian provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on grant of bail keep those accused under these Acts in prison for years on end. Under both laws, the court has to be satisfied, before releasing the accused on bail, that a prima facie case of guilt is not made out by the prosecution: this has led to a situation today where courts at all levels are reluctant to grant bail, never mind the provisions for bail and bonds under the newly enacted Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) (or its predecessor Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure). It has long been a judicial precedent that bail ought to be refused only where (a) the offence is likely to be repeated while on bail; (b) the accused may abscond; (c) witnesses may be influenced; (d) evidence may be tampered with. The Hindu newspaper has highlighted (September 10, 2022) the abysmal conviction rates of 3% for those arrested under UAPA between 2018 and 2020, and 0.05% under PMLA until March 2022. As a consequence of the stringent provisions for grant of bail, the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, Umar Khalid in the Delhi Riots case, AAP politicians Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in the Delhi liquor policy and former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren have been in jail for months and years on end without commencement of trial. The eagerness of a state like Maharashtra to enact the Special Public Security Act, modeled on similar legislation in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Telangana, with provisions for keeping lower courts from intervening in executive actions under the Act, does not bode well for civil liberties of citizens.
What is clearly required to safeguard the right to liberty of citizens are three sets of legislation to check abuse of authority:
(1) Requiring the courts to reach a preliminary conclusion about the possible guilt of the accused under the UAPA/PMLA vitiates the judicial process of a fair trial. It is essential to delete the proviso to Section 43 D(5) of the UAPA which reads “Provided that such accused person shall not be released on bail or on his own bond if the Court, on a perusal of the case diary or the report made under Section 173 of the Code is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against such person is prima facie true.” Similarly, Section 45 (ii) of the PMLA which reads “where the Public Prosecutor opposes the application, the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he (sic) is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail;” deserves to be removed from the statute book.
(2) The right to bail must be enshrined as a fundamental right, under either Article 21 or 22 of the Constitution of India. This will ensure that special laws do not tamper with the right to bail of an accused, which should be governed only by laws of general application like the BNSS.
(3) India, unfortunately, has no statute governing tort law. Legislation must be put in place which provides for legal damages in the form of monetary compensation for confinement in prison which does not result in conviction. This compensation would be payable by the state. However, where a miscarriage of justice which leads to incarceration is established in a court of law as motivated by mala fides on the part of specific government functionaries or other individuals, compensation to the affected party would also be payable by the concerned persons. The same principle of individual as well as state liability would apply to all deaths in police/judicial custody that are attributable to gross negligence or deliberate actions in violation of the rule of law by the guardians of law or other persons.
Since it is evident that the executive at the Union and State levels seems to lack both the moral authority and the resolve to ensure that law enforcement agencies do not overstep their powers, it is high time that the legislature and the judiciary step in to ensure that the ordinary citizen is protected from arbitrary actions that interfere with her/his enjoyment of personal liberty. This will be a lasting tribute to the framers of the Constitution of India in the seventy fifth year of the Republic of India.
16 Jun
Respecting the Opposition (and the Constitution)
In a rather unusual disclosure amidst the flurry of scripted TV channel interviews he gave during the 2024 Lok Sabha election season, the Prime Minister claimed he respected the opposition; in fact, he bemoaned the absence of a strong opposition. He further went on to say that the opposition had been of no use to him and that they were so full of negativity, opposing decisions in the country’s interest for political benefit. In a parliamentary democracy, the very concept of political parties in opposition being useful to the ruling party is antithetical. It is the democratic responsibility, nay, democratic duty of the political opposition to question the government at every turn and criticise actions it feels are violating constitutional propriety or the rule of law.
While India has seen a complete breakdown of consensus between the government and opposition political parties over the last five years, this debate needs to be widened to clarify the term “opposition” as also to examine why respect for the “opposition” is critical to a functioning democracy and what those holding the reins of government need to do to demonstrate that they really respect the “opposition”. Based on my three decade-long experience at various levels of governance, I give below eight guidelines to a healthy, vibrant (even if raucous at times), functional democracy and how these have been repeatedly breached in recent years.
- Opposition is a far broader term than just political opposition
Political parties that sit on opposition benches in legislatures are, of course, the opposition (in the narrow sense). But there is also a wider universe of opposing ideologies and views. These include different stakeholders in a democracy — farmers, industrial workers, the salaried middle class, media, academia, entrepreneurs and businesspersons, to name just a few. It is very likely that a government will be able to satisfy the demands of any one group only to a limited extent. That is why consensus in policy making is stressed: while certain priorities may receive greater attention, those whose demands are not satisfied should, after due consultation and dialogue, receive rational explanations as to why their demands may have to be deferred to a later date.
- Adopt a collegial system of governance
In a feudal political environment where the top honcho calls all the shots, consultation, dialogue and debate are conspicuous by their absence. The past decade has seen a worsening of this trend of unilateral decision making, both at the centre and in the states. Cabinet meetings become a formality, with Ministers rarely giving their opinions on issues, let alone openly voicing dissent. Parliament has been reduced to a pale shadow of its former self: contrast proceedings in recent years with the vibrant debates of the 1950s. A disturbing feature has been the failure of the Leader of the House, the Prime Minister, to participate regularly in debates in the two Houses of Parliament. The strife in Manipur, caused in large part by executive inaction, has received little attention in the Lok/Rajya Sabhas and has seen no statement by the Prime Minister to date. Demonetisation, Article 370 abrogation, the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Farm Laws and the COVID pandemic are glaring examples of executive actions undertaken without the legislature being consulted. Standing Committees of the different Ministries have been rendered insignificant; important legislation with far-reaching implications for the right to liberty of citizens, like the UAPA and PMLA amendments and the new criminal laws, would have benefited from examination by select committees comprising members of both Houses of Parliament. The nadir was reached in the last winter session of the last Parliament, when important legislation was passed in the absence of 146 opposition members of both Houses, who were suspended after acrimonious exchanges with the Presiding Officers of both Houses, on not being allowed to raise issues of national importance.
- Accept dissent gracefully and give full space for freedom of expression
Given that, in a parliamentary democracy, the ruling party generally secures around 40% of the vote, there is always going to be a sizeable segment of the population that is critical of the policies and actions of the government of the day. Intolerance of dissenting opinions is evident when terms like “anti-national” and “urban Naxal” are freely employed against those with different points of view. Withdrawal of FCRA registration and 80G income tax exemptions are tools used to block NGOs that question government policies impacting human rights and the environment. A disturbing feature over the past decade has been the frequent use of sedition provisions and other draconian laws against those who are only asserting their right to freedom of expression and to stand up for the marginalised and underprivileged sections of society. The use (misuse?) of legislation that inhibits the judiciary from granting bail has been a powerful weapon in the hands of the executive. Activists and dissenters languish in jail for years without trial: the Bhima Koregaon and Delhi riots cases are only the most glaring instances. Selective implementation of the criminal law provisions relating to defamation and promoting enmity between communities have been widely employed to suppress criticism of executive actions and policies. Governments need to take to heart the wise words of Sant Kabir:
निंदक नियरे राखिए ऑंगन कुटी छवाय,
बिन पानी, साबुन बिना, निर्मल करे सुभाय ।
Heeding the words of critics keeps governments from taking wrong steps. Else, the people will respond appropriately at the time of elections, as the Lok Sabha elections of 1977 and 2024 and numerous legislative assembly elections have demonstrated.
- Respect institutional independence
A major casualty over the past few decades has been the steady erosion of independence of institutions mandated by the Constitution of India. The Supreme Court may have scuppered the establishment of the NJAC in 2015, but the executive has adroitly used delaying tactics to stall the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts who are perceived to be independent in their approach. The inordinate delays in hearing crucial cases like the electoral bonds, Article 370 abrogation and CAA, as well as judgments which limit personal liberties of citizens have tended to erode public confidence in the judicial system. The lukewarm approach to grant of bail has emboldened investigative agencies to undertake search and seizure operations even in minor cases involving activists, media persons and dissenters: the provisions of draconian laws like the UAPA and PMLA ensure that the process becomes the punishment, with frequent arrests and long periods of incarceration without trial, given that “jail, not bail” seems to be the new jurisprudence.
The administrative executive (the civil services and the police) have often deviated from the golden words of Sardar Patel, when he spoke to the first batch of IAS probationers on 21 April 1947: “I would advise you to maintain the utmost impartiality and incorruptibility of administration. A civil servant cannot afford to, and must not, take part in politics…I hope that you would…render your service without fear or favour and without any expectation of extraneous rewards.” Political interference in appointments, postings and transfers has become a flourishing industry. Police reforms as mandated in the 2006 Supreme Court directions in the Prakash Singh judgment are honoured more in the breach: as for wider reforms in the civil services, perish the thought.
The Election Commission of India has, especially in recent months, come in for severe criticism for its flip flops on electoral bonds and timely publication of votes polled. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, it can be faulted on three other issues as well: (i) It could have frozen the use of proceeds of electoral bonds, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in February 2024, using its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution of India; (ii) It looked the other way when prominent politicians were arrested and opposition political parties were harassed by investigative agencies after the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC); (iii) It took no action against various political functionaries for vituperative speeches that demonised a minority community.
Nor has the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) covered itself with glory with its performance in the last seven years. A body that brought out a plethora of reports in the pre-2014 era, with inspired leaks to the media, has severely curtailed the issue of reports covering audits of Ministries/PSUs in subsequent years, noticeable reticence being obvious in the Rafale and demonetisation cases.
The mainstream print and electronic media has abdicated its role as the Fourth Estate. Barring a clutch of online news media and social media channels, the corporate-run media outlets have functioned as fawning spokespersons for the ruling dispensation.
- Stop using investigative agencies to settle political scores and gain political advantage
The “caged parrot”, as the CBI was disparagingly referred to by the Supreme Court, has now been reinforced by “formidable falcons” — the ED, NIA, NCB, Delhi Police and the Income Tax department. All these agencies do have a crucial role to play in checking terrorism and crimes, including economic offences. The problem arises when they flex their muscles against political opponents of the ruling party around election time and, increasingly, in the interregnum between elections, to sway legislator loyalty in favour of the ruling party. Lure of office is definitely a major influence on legislators, but the promptness with which investigations are launched at moments of crucial political developments are definite pointers to pressures being put, especially when cases are miraculously dropped after months and years of investigations the moment the politicos concerned throw in their lot with the ruling party. The concept of a level playing field at election time has been severely compromised during the latest Lok Sabha elections by the arrests of prominent politicians and other executive actions by investigative agencies at a time when the MCC was in force.
- Stop “othering” communities and groups
A polyglot, multicultural country thrives on the joyous acceptance of different customs and traditions and the celebration of diversity. The past many years have seen shrill campaigns directed at the Muslim community, with abysmal depths being reached during the appalling election campaign focused on “infiltrators”, “vote jihad” and “appeasement”. State policy in states governed by the BJP has been directed at specific freedoms of the minority communities — food, religion, marriage and even dress. In the name of reasonable restrictions, fundamental rights of association under Article 19 of the Constitution of India (that includes with the opposite sex) and Article 25 (freedom to propagate religion) are being infringed upon through legislative measures pushed through without consultation with the affected stakeholders. Hate speech against the Muslim community attracts little attention from most governments and their police forces, and religious processions are used as a method to provoke the Muslim community. The bulldozer raj in Uttar Pradesh and a number of other BJP-ruled states, with scant regard for due process of law, has spread terror of arbitrary state action among dissenters and the Muslim community.
- Promote genuine federalism
Probably no aspect has been as severely impacted in recent years as the federal structure of India. Governors have always been handy tools in the hands of the party ruling at the centre ever since the days of Indira Gandhi. This breakdown of trust between Governors and opposition State Governments has assumed epidemic proportions today. Governors reserve to themselves the right to sit on bills sent to them for assent after passage by the legislature, a practice deplored by the Supreme Court. State governments also have major grievances about the tardy release of funds rightfully due to them from the centre, which also curtailed states’ powers to tax and borrow from the market. Subjects were moved from the State list to the Concurrent list, so that the scope for central interference increases. A move to give the Central government powers to move All India Service officers from the states to the Government of India without state government concurrence was aborted only after stiff opposition from state governments. The devaluation of the Inter State Council right from the days of Congress governments has resulted in the absence of an effective forum for centre-state discussion and dialogue.
- Observe decency and civility in public life
While there has been a steady coarsening of discourse within Parliament and in society over the past couple of decades, the rise of social media since 2014 and the rabidly partisan approach of a number of television channels has poisoned the social and political environment in recent times. The root of this degeneration probably lies in elections being treated as the end rather than as a means to an end. The recent Lok Sabha elections saw speeches descend to levels that would shame any decent society. The blatant use (and misuse) of platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and X (formerly Twitter) to spread fake news and indulge in slander and innuendo has sown the seeds of bitterness between political parties and, more dangerously, between communities.
Gresham’s Law has operated in Indian political and social life, with the basest tendencies driving out the basic human values of tolerance and kindness. Let us be clear: this sickness affects the body politic across the political spectrum. Autocratic, anti-democratic behaviour can be observed in a wide range of political leaders, starting with the way they run their parties, translating eventually into authoritarian governance. Institutional subservience supports such behaviour. The integrity and impartiality of the civil services and the police have long been compromised by the lure of plum postings while in service and comfortable sinecures after retirement. This tendency has, unfortunately, percolated to the armed forces and the judiciary as well. The public perception of the impartiality of government auditors, regulators and other constitutional bodies charged with maintaining checks and balance on the executive has suffered serious erosion over the years. Respect is given when it is earned through one’s actions. Only if the latest election results lead to introspection on their watchdog roles among various constitutional bodies, the media and the permanent executive can democracy hope to flourish in India. As Rabindranath Tagore has said “Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
14 Jan
India – still very much a man’s world
2024 ushered in a new head of the civil services in Maharashtra. Part of the usual routine, except that this change in guard saw the claim of a lady officer to the top post being given the go by yet again. When most states in India have had lady officers helming the state bureaucracy, it is rather odd that Maharashtra, a state that prides itself on its progressiveness and gender parity, is yet to appoint a woman to the coveted post of Chief Secretary. The question is – why was Sujata Saunik, with a good track record, overlooked for the post a second time? She is the fourth woman after Chitkala Zutshi, Chandra Iyengar and Medha Gadgil to be overlooked for promotion to Chief Secretary.
The conclusion is inescapable – seventy six years after independence, the Indian establishment is still slow and grudging in allowing women to shatter the glass ceiling. It took the prodding of the Supreme Court for women to be given permanent commission in the armed forces; inducting them in combat formations has taken even more time, never mind the legacies of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and Rani Chennama of Kittur. The private sector is little better, with independent women directors being appointed to corporate boards in recent years. It is heartening to observe that the appointment of women as District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police is now fairly common, a far cry from when I joined government service over four decades ago.
But the reality of womens’ place in Indian society is still far removed from the paeans sung to their exalted status as mothers, sisters and daughters. A patriarchal society still assigns the woman a place subordinate to her male cohorts. Girls are to be married off once they come of age (and, in many communities, even before that). Even in more educated environments, the female is expected to subsume her ambitions to fit into the role of wife and mother. Recent studies reveal the disturbing fact that the participation of women from higher income families in the labour force actually diminishes.
It is in the efforts to free herself from the straitjacket of patriarchalism that the woman faces her greatest hurdles. The female students of the Government Medical College, Kozhikode had to move the Kerala High Court in 2022 against the restrictions imposed on their movement outside their hostel after 9.30 PM, when no such restrictions applied to male students. Authorities justify such restrictions on grounds of safety of women students, a damning confirmation of the insecurity that pervades the lives of women even today. In an earlier blog (see here), I had mentioned a book “Why Loiter?” by three women researchers that highlighted how public spaces were out of bounds for women to enjoy, untroubled by the prurient attention of men.
It is not just in the public space; women face ordeals even in their homes. Sections 63 to 92 of the recently enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita detail crimes against the female sex, ranging from sexual offences to dowry demands, domestic abuse to unwanted male attention and rape. Despite the Supreme Court guidelines in the Vishakha case as far back as 1997, and the enactment of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act in 2013, it took till the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century for the MeToo movement to find its feet in India. With the fear of loss of employment and of ostracism, both from their own gender and from society, women were hesitant to publicly name those harassing them. The ongoing episode of India’s women wrestlers fighting sexual harassment by those running their federation reflects the sobering reality of the continued dominance, socially and politically, of the rich and powerful male. The MP accused of sexual harassment continues in Parliament while the wrestling federation continued to be his fiefdom through his trusted lieutenants, till, thankfully, the government stepped in to try and put an end to this unsavoury chapter.
The enquiry by the Ethics Committee of Parliament against the now former MP, Mahua Moitra, is another example of how a hierarchical male-dominated society firmly tries to stifle the independence of women, especially if they are single, “modern” and with strong opinions of their own, which do not gel with the prevailing orthodoxy of their social milieu. The questions put to her by the Chairman ranged from wanting to know the nature of her relationship with the male who had access to her parliament questions login, the number of her visits to Dubai, the hotel she stayed in in Dubai and whether she met that person there. When the issue under examination was only the access of a private individual to an MP’s parliament questions login, these questions would clearly cast aspersions on her character (as perceived by a patriarchal society). Had the MP in question been a male who had given access to his parliament questions login to a female, these questions would never have been asked. Obviously, the Indian male escapes the scanner for behaviour that is not tolerated in a female.
The Indian male is nurtured in a milieu that, while paying lip service to the female, expects her to subordinate her aspirations to her family expectations while tolerating behaviour that would raise eyebrows in gender-progressive societies. Domestic violence at the hands of her husband and in-laws is a feature in many families. The birth of a girl child is often not welcomed, leading to instances of foetus abortion and female infanticide. The girl child has the last priority in access to health, nutrition and education, causing intergenerational deficits in the healthy development of the girl child. Boys are given a lot of latitude in the parental home. This leads to a sense of entitlement: there is no sharing of household chores and responsibilities, an attitude that is evident even after marriage: witness the rampant alcoholism in males and the abandonment of women post-marriage. The Government of India has rightly given primacy to the slogan “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” : checking sex-selective abortions/female infanticide and educating the girl child will improve the female:male sex ratio as also enable women to be active in social, political and economic life. I suggest the addition of “Beti Badhao” to the slogan, to enable the girl child to function as an independent agency, free of patriarchal restrictions.
31 Dec
Our neocolonial complex
When the new criminal laws were recently passed by the Indian Parliament, a frequent refrain was that these laws were framed to do away with the colonial criminal jurisprudence of the nineteenth century. But, in fact, the new laws reinforce the colonial view of a huge population as fundamentally untrustworthy, hence the need for a wide range of offences that are punishable with stiff terms of imprisonment or death. This set me thinking: have Indians really, as a people, shed the colonial complex that was inherited from the British?
Actually, it would be more appropriate to categorise the mindset that dominates Indian thought as neocolonial. This is because, after World War II, the axis of power and influence shifted across the Atlantic from the UK to the USA. The UK has attempted some military forays since 1945, in the Suez (1956, with disastrous results) and in the Falkland Islands (1982, with a somewhat better result). Otherwise, the UK has been very much an understudy to the USA, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. It is the USA that has colonised the global (including Indian) weltanschauung over the last 70 years, apart from meddling in the politics of innumerable countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia, at great cost to and human suffering in these countries.
As one born in the 1950s, my generation was exposed to propaganda from the USA & the UK (and countries allied to them), in the impressionable early years of our lives. Our young minds were filled with a surfeit of Enid Blyton (Famous Five, Mallory Towers) and Frank Richards (Billy Bunter). Apart from exposing us to life in good old Blighty, there was also a subtle racial stereotyping of the “natives” from India and other Asian-African countries. Fiction by the likes of Leon Uris painted Israel as a country with a divine right to get its Promised Land. The USA had, by the 1960s, stepped into the quagmire of Vietnam. Magazines like Reader’s Digest, Time and Newsweek printed rubbish week after week, detailing the atrocities of the Vietcong and artfully evading the horrors of the My Lai massacre and the carpet bombing of civilian populations in Cambodia and Laos. Other magazines like Playboy, Life and Vogue catered to the prurient tastes of the younger generation, awakening in them desires to partake of the bounty that Uncle Sam could offer.
Unsurprisingly, many of us, especially those educated in elite missionary/public schools, were ashamed to claim what was truly our heritage. As a participant in the Bournvita Quiz Contest, I informed our Quiz Master, Hamid Sayani, of my interest in Hindi film music, to find my response drawing derisive titters from our opponents, the girls from a prominent Delhi convent school. At university festivals, western music competitions drew crowds that the Hindi music competitions never did. Come 2023, I am most happy and gratified that my friend and college mate, Ajay Mankotia, has come out with Bollywood Odyssey, an ode to the Hindi film music industry. Hindi popular music has, in recent times, acquired a massive fan following, as mobile phone technology has penetrated large sections of the population. Bollywood has spread its wings internationally, thanks to the Indian diaspora.
To some extent, the shedding of the Indian inferiority complex vis-à-vis the West began with the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991. Freed somewhat from the shackles of a pseudo-socialist economy, the Indian economy accelerated away from its hitherto sluggish growth rate. Positive state policies in a number of sectors, ranging from infrastructure to energy, finance and telecommunications, have propelled the country to a different growth trajectory. At the same time, the need to step up job creation, improve social development indicators, make governance efficient and facilitate the explosion of entrepreneurial talent by removing bureaucratic hurdles faced by the citizen are still works in progress.
It is here that the Indian government (and domestic public opinion) still remain overly sensitive to studies and surveys emanating largely from the western world. Like Rome, India cannot be built in a day. It will take time for indicators, especially in the social sectors, to register dramatic improvements. Nor is it necessarily the case that figures for other countries (especially those under authoritarian leadership) are accurate. So, there is no need for government spokespersons and proudly nationalist commentators to launch into a denunciation of such reports. What is important, however, in the interest of meaningful policy making is that data gathered for different sectors be accurate and open to the public (and experts) for critical examination. If there are serious reservations about the applicability of international standards to Indian conditions, appropriate indicators can be developed for application in the Indian context. Take the example of the child nutrition measurement indicators used in India till 2008. Since the child nutrition indicators used in the USA would probably have overstated the percentage of underweight and stunted under-6 children in India, an underweight measure devised by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) was used in the ICDS to assess the numbers of children who were very severely/severely/moderately underweight and normal as compared to the weight of the reference child population. Post-2008, India has moved to the universally used WHO growth standards. There is now a debate on whether India should adopt its own child growth standard indicators. Even if this is developed and officially adopted, there still needs to be a sound theoretical basis for the standards and ongoing progress in reducing child undernutrition should be measured by the same yardstick over time, without shifting goalposts to show achievement. Nor should data be withheld from public view. Unfortunately, there is a growing tendency in respect of various economic and social indicators to either modify baselines to show better results or to just stop publication of crucial data. Third party evaluations that differ from officially published figures are debunked. Not only do these reveal a deep sense of insecurity in official circles, they also impact effective policy making based on reasonably accurate data. There will always be some gap between the desired and actual outcomes: the shortcomings in implementation and the ground-level realities need to be analysed to effect mid-course policy corrections.
The neocolonial complex also has its reflection in the “neoliberal” economic policies followed in most nations (India included). These are based on a preoccupation with gross domestic product, with a corresponding sidelining of concerns relating to the environment and unequal income and wealth distribution. Manmade natural disasters and frustration and a growing sense of grievance in marginalised, deprived populations are the consequences that society has to face. Unless economic policies are fashioned to keep harmony among the four elements — the market, state, households and nature — that constitute the modern economy, imbalances are sure to develop over time. Glitzy malls, superhighways, high-speed transport and luxury products are no indicators of a healthy society, especially when the state has to repeatedly step in to alleviate large-scale misery.
Governments in India need to focus on economic and social policies that lay stress on job and income creation for the mass of people. Reducing income and wealth disparities without destroying the entrepreneurial spirit or the environment should be the guiding principle in this context. Unless a new direction is forged with a people-centric focus, we can only rehash the prescient words of George Santayana “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
20 Nov
The 70 hour week
Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy set the cat among the pigeons with his recent advice to the young to put in a 70 hour work week. Apparently, this is essential if the country is to become a global economic powerhouse. He was silent on whether the rise in the country’s economic status would translate into rising living standards of its citizens. As a long-time sceptic of the theory that GDP growth solves all problems, especially unemployment and low incomes, I wonder, given the way wealth has distributed itself unequally (in India and elsewhere), whether India’s youth would not be justified in taking his advice with a generous pinch of salt.
Narayana Murthy’s assertion begs the question of whether low working hours were the reason for the low rates of growth in the pre-1991 period and whether the subsequent rising growth rates in India reflect greater time spent in the workplace. I am not getting entangled in this controversy but would merely like to highlight some issues, based on my work experience as a cog in India’s mammoth bureaucratic machine.
A 70 hour week (about 12 hours a day in a six day week) does not mean 70 hours continuously at the desk. Whether functionaries of private or public organisations, individuals need to have their nourishment from time to time, their visits to the loo/coffee machine and some time spent in relaxed banter with their fellow workers. It does imply, however, the time spent away from home and from one’s loved ones (Work From Home is a recent COVID/post-COVID phenomenon and the jury is still out on that one). My Personal Assistant in the Secretariat in Mumbai left her home in suburban Vasai before 8 AM and returned home after 8 PM by the Churchgate-Virar local train. My five year stint in Delhi involved, after a ten to eleven hour stint in a stuffy Shastri Bhavan room, road travel of over an hour both ways from Central Delhi to the outskirts of South Delhi (and this when I had the benefit of my own transport).
More to the point is the mistaken presumption that government servants, especially those at the middle and senior levels, have nothing to do with government work once they leave their offices. Having worked in a number of quasi-judicial capacities in the revenue, cooperation and general administration departments, I fully sympathise with the views of the Chief Justice of India, Justice Chandrachud, that a Supreme Court judge probably spends most of her time outside courtroom hours on judicial work, whether it be reading up on cases listed in the coming days, finalising judgments or keeping abreast of the latest developments in jurisprudence. IAS officers with quasi-judicial responsibilities also spend a considerable part of their evenings and weekends dictating judgments. Apart from this task, senior officers of the All India and Central Services have to clear files, to a large extent at home (don’t believe us, ask our long-suffering spouses). This is because the hours in office are often spent in meeting hordes of visitors and in countless, often unproductive meetings. The officer in the field has also to accompany Ministers and those senior to her in the bureaucratic hierarchy on their visits to districts, etc.
The 70 hour week exhortation also does grave injustice to the female half of the population. Whether a homemaker (a term I am not especially fond of) or a working woman, most women put in at least fourteen hours of work a day, seven days a week. National income statistics do not account for labour in the home, covering washing, childcare, cooking, cleaning and a host of other duties. Though men have become a little more responsive (and responsible) in assisting their partners in housework, the bulk of the burden still falls on women — the most evocative image being of women office goers in Mumbai’s locals who chop vegetables, purchased outside stations, on their way home.
Many misspent years in government later, I ruminate over the differences between inputs, outputs and outcomes in the implementation of public policy. You put in manpower and financial resources into a programme, your implementing machinery declares, come April the first (rightly named April Fools’ Day), that so-and-so targets have been achieved, whether it be sterilisations, toilets or drinking water supply to hamlets, and all in government retire to a blissful contemplation of March-end completion figures and rosy visions of glowing annual confidential reports. Till some busy body third party comes along and pricks the sarkari balloon: the outputs are either not there on the ground or the outcomes of the policies do not lead to the achievement of the desired goals, whether it be slowing population growth, reducing child malnutrition or eradicating open defecation.
The input-output-outcome drama applies in equal measure to presence in government offices. The government servant is seen at her desk zealously executing her duties, the files move up and down the bureaucratic ladder, but public satisfaction with the speed of delivery of public services shows no improvement. There is an apocryphal tale of two governments down in South India: “… ( ) government very bad government, apply apply no reply; ( ) government very good government, apply apply immediate reply no vacancy.” It reminds me of the Citizens’ Charters which were in fashion a quarter century ago. Time limits were prescribed for expeditious disposal of cases. For one clearance, my junior officer had suggested a time limit of thirty days. When I doubted that the approval could be given in thirty days, he breezily remarked that on the twenty-ninth day, the department would seek some further clarification from the applicant, thus buying a further thirty days’ time till the last syllable of recorded time (with apologies to Shakespeare and Macbeth).
So, finally, it is not the number of hours one puts in at work that matters, it is the end result of all the work that is put in. Assess your workforce by their contribution to the end-goals of the organisation and its long-term health. Embrace the maverick who can deliver in two hours what others take eight hours to execute and don’t grudge her the attention she gives to seemingly frivolous activities in the remaining hours. Her seeming inactivity may well be the fountainhead of immense creativity that will take the organisation to great heights in days to come.
20 Feb
Underage marriages in Assam – why the danda will not work
Almost half a century separates 1976 and 2023, yet the French saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same” seems so relevant. The heyday of the Emergency saw the forced sterilisation programme that was one of the reasons for the ejection of the Congress from power in 1977. Recent events in Assam point to the continued use of coercion in family-related issues. Ostensibly concerned with high rates of underage marriages and its implications for maternal and child health, the Government of Assam has decided to arrest those who participate in the marriage of girls under 18, whether they be husbands, fathers or fathers-in-law. Unfortunately, the government has gone in for a remedy that is worse than the disease.
For the first 50 years after independence, India’s population policy suffered from a myopic fixation with directly controlling reproduction through sterilisation. It is only in recent years that realisation has dawned on our policy makers that human development is the best contraceptive. More specifically, it is now acknowledged that promoting womens’ agency and enabling them to control vital life decisions are the best methods to limit population growth while also bringing maternal and infant/child mortality rates in line with those in developed countries.
Assam has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country of 215 deaths per 1,00,000 live births, almost twice the Indian average. While institutional deliveries have shown a rise from 71% to 84% between 2016 and 2019, only 51% of pregnant women availed of at least four antenatal care visits in 2019. Only 45.3% of currently married women in the 15-49 age group use any modern family planning method. Poverty and poor educational levels are clearly the driving factors behind early marriage of girls. 32% of women in Assam are married before reaching the age of 18, increasing the chances of infant mortality in children born to mothers in the teenage group as compared to children born to women in the 20-29 age group. Five districts of western Assam are among the top seven districts registering underage female marriages of over 40% – Barpeta, Dhubri, Goalpara, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon. These are also the areas where the government appears to have focused its crackdown on underage female marriages.
In a society which is still traditional and patriarchal in its attitude to women, lack of access to education and formal schooling for girls has serious implications for womens’ empowerment. Less than 30% of females in Assam have completed ten or more years of schooling. The 2011 Census shows female literacy rates for Dhubri and Barpeta districts in Western Assam at 50% and 56% respectively. The latest figures for 2023 show that total literacy percentages for many districts in Western Assam are still between 58% and 67%: obviously female literacy percentages are likely to be lower. The lack of womens’ education has serious consequences for the next generation. The NFHS5 Report for Assam bluntly states that children whose mothers have no schooling are twice as likely to die before their first birthday as compared to children whose mothers have completed ten or more years of schooling.
There is every likelihood that the resort to police action could have very adverse repercussions where women are concerned. The rise in institutional deliveries over the years has been heartening. Now, there is a distinct possibility that families will resort to home deliveries or resort to unregistered doctors/quacks to avoid state action, as evidenced by the recent report of a young woman in Bongaigaon district bleeding to death because of unskilled delivery at her home. Equally disturbing is the likelihood that teenage pregnancies will not be reported to the health authorities, denying these pregnant women access to professional antenatal care. Out of pocket expenses on deliveries would put an increasing burden on the straitened finances of poor families. Further strains on family finances would arise from the arrest of male family members, who are in most cases the sole breadwinners for the family. The result could well be increased mortality and morbidity in the mother-child dyad.
In fact, this knee-jerk reaction of the Assam government to the problem of teenage pregnancies could well have been avoided. Pregnancies in women under 20 years of age could hardly be the sole reason for the high maternal mortality rate in Assam. Other factors like poor nutrition and health care access (especially during pregnancy) on account of poverty, and lack of spacing between deliveries are also contributory factors. Social behaviours are slow to change in the absence of rising standards of living, better education and improvements in the socio-economic status of women.
The Assam government should take heart from the statistics in the latest NFHS5 survey, which show significant step up in institutional deliveries, substantial reductions in infant and child mortality and levels of child undernutrition that are comparable with those of more developed states. ASHAs and other frontline health and ICDS workers, as well as community workers, have gradually earned the confidence of local communities. Community education on the dangers of early marriage and pregnancy and promoting the use of effective family planning measures to delay pregnancies till the age of 21 and above are measures that need to be pursued patiently and systematically. The state government should encourage civil society activists and government workers to deal with communities while pursuing policy measures that emphasise girls’ education, state-sponsored nutrition for pregnant women and lactating mothers and employment creation.
This blog has been published in the Free Press Journal of 20 February 2023 (see here)
26 Dec
An Open Letter to the Chief Election Commissioner
Dear Chief Election Commissioner,
Congratulations on the successful conduct of elections to the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Legislative Assemblies. You had expressed concern over the lacklustre turnout of voters in urban constituencies in these elections. As one who has, while in government, conducted and supervised elections, I feel the reasons for this lesser voter turnout in urban areas (which may also be the case in some rural areas) may lie in the process of voter enrolment as also in the inability of certain sections of voters to access the polling booths where they are required to cast their votes.
The eligible voter’s name may not figure in the electoral roll at all. The responsibility for the voter’s name being excluded from the electoral roll has to be laid squarely on the electoral registration machinery. Certain categories of society are highly prone to exclusion from electoral rolls. These include the urban homeless, sex workers, trans people, women (single, widowed, abandoned, divorced), highly stigmatised caste groups like manual scavengers, persons with mental illnesses, Adivasis, particularly vulnerable tribal groups, denotified tribes, differently abled persons, uncared-for elders and those from minority/disadvantaged communities. The electoral registration machinery has been found wanting in reaching out to these vulnerable groups. Excessive reliance on relatively junior staff for undertaking voter registration without adequate checks and balances, superficial verification of house addresses, arbitrary decision making and ingrained stereotyping of groups makes members of these groups susceptible to exclusion.
The absence of names from the electoral roll is often detected only when the person goes to the polling booth on the day of voting. Names of voters in the electoral rolls are not arranged according to house numbers, as required by the relevant Rules, which, apart from making the detection and deletion of ghost and duplicate names easy, would also enable the voter to easily locate her name in the electoral roll. Voters can check their names on the website of the state/UT by querying by electoral photo identity card (EPIC) number or by name on the National Voters’ Service Portal (NVSP). This approach is beset by a number of problems.
Since 2018, electoral rolls have been published as image PDF files with CAPTCHA protection. To look up her name in the electoral rolls, the voter should know her assembly constituency and part number, something she is often not aware of. The part number of voters can change with delimitation of constituencies, with consequent changes in the voter serial number as well. Names can also appear in parts other than where they should be, due to wrong addresses in the electoral rolls. Since the online electoral rolls are image documents, text can only be searched by scrolling the voter records one by one. I do not think such an exercise is feasible for the common citizen, with limited access to the internet, who may have neither the time nor the energy to go through what is a grueling exercise.
When citizens apply for inclusion, deletion or corrections to voter records, they generally receive no intimation of the status of their application. Names of lakhs of voters have been deleted in the past without intimating the concerned voters. Wrongly recorded addresses in the electoral rolls lead to deletion of names at the time of inspection by the block level officer (BLO) responsible for updating the rolls at the field level. Wrong updation of records can result in both deletion of names of valid voters and creation of duplicate entries of the same name. Removing names of dead people from electoral rolls also requires, apart from intimation by relatives of the deceased, use of digitised records of births and deaths by the electoral registration machinery. When people shift residence and register as voters afresh in their new locations, their names at the old addresses do not always get deleted.
Three areas need the urgent attention of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the election machinery. First, revision and updation of electoral rolls needs far more attention from the electoral registration authorities. BLOs need to be trained more professionally. Assistance of local residents, including resident welfare associations and public-spirited citizens, needs to be enlisted proactively to identify and register/delete voter names, rather than relying only on local influential persons, who may have their own axes to grind.
Second, in this era of digitisation, software tools need to be employed more imaginatively to update electoral rolls. Searching by EPIC number on the NVSP is easy, but the software lacks the capability of searching by names, in the absence of a “fuzzy” search feature. Improved data entry software made available to the electoral registration machinery would enhance efficiency in detection of duplicate records. Above all, to ensure complete transparency in maintenance of electoral rolls and public verifiability of all decisions regarding enrolment, updates and deletions, the ECI should maintain two bulletin boards online for each assembly constituency — the first would be the official master electoral roll up to the time of the last update and the second would detail all transactions relating to voter records, these being accessible to and verifiable by members of the public.
Third, since the ECI is seriously considering allowing online voting for non-resident Indians, the same facility should be made available to resident Indians who have migrated to other areas of the country but whose names are still on the electoral rolls of the areas they have migrated from. The elderly and infirm may also need to be allowed to vote online.
Finally, a word of caution on the linking of Aadhaar numbers to voter IDs. The ECI will need to be extremely vigilant to ensure that the linking of Aadhaar numbers to voter IDs does not lead to large scale deletion of voters (as has happened in the past in Telangana) or to attempts by governments in power or political parties to target and manipulate voters on the lines of the Cambridge Analytica pattern.
Wishing you all success in the firm, impartial conduct of all future elections.
Sincerely yours.
(This blog was published in the Free Press Journal, 25 December 2022)
16 Sep
The many nuances of ‘Ji Mantriji’
India’s Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari is a person I admire for his huge contributions to improving and augmenting road communications in Maharashtra and India. But his statement in Nagpur in August this year that bureaucrats must always say “Yes, Minister” to every order of the Minister made me do a double take. It revived memories of the BBC Yes Minister series, which I viewed four decades ago, shortly after joining the civil service. Doordarshan followed suit two decades later with the “Ji Mantriji” serial, adapted from the Yes Minister series. In these serials, the Minister is effectively house trained by the civil service.
Now, although I am a former member of the often criticised IAS, I hold no brief for the civil servant who obstructs sensible policy implementation mainly to preserve her/his turf. This has led to an unfortunate perception in the public mind that the civil service is lazy, conservative and opposed to reforms. At the same time, we would do well to keep in mind that Ministers often come to power without knowledge of the processes and procedures of administration. This is even more so in the last two decades: in the first half-century of political administration in independent India, a fairly large number of politicians, in both the centre and the states, had come up from the grassroots and had reasonably detailed understanding of how the government worked.
Ministerial desires fall in two categories. Category 1 cases are those where the Minister wishes to implement pre-poll promises made by her/his party to woo the electorate (Minister here can include the PM/CM and the Council of Ministers). The bureaucrat’s role here is to work out the nuts and bolts of the programme, point out the possible difficulties in implementation and, most crucially, assess the financial implications, given the competing budget priorities of different departments. The bureaucracy can offer its dissenting opinion on the proposed policy, but once this policy has been approved at the highest political level, it is her/his responsibility to give effect to the policy.
It is the Category 2 cases that can land a bureaucrat in the soup. These include allotment of land, award of contracts and providing jobs to those recommended by the Minister’s supporters. Such cases can be particularly dangerous when elections are around the corner, since favours have to be dispensed quickly to gain access to funds. Based on my thirty years as an insider in the system, I have worked out the possible stratagems for the bureaucrat to wriggle out of this ministerial chakravyuha:
- The K. Kamaraj/G.K. Moopanar approach: Kamaraj had this magic word ‘parkalam‘ in his repertoire. This Tamil word can be translated in English as ‘Let us see’. By the time I was old enough to follow politics, Kamaraj was a distant memory. However, I have heard Moopanar use the English equivalent on numerous occasions. In Maharashtra, we employed the Marathi equivalent ‘baghto‘. This is a time-honoured tactic to buy time and engage with the Minister in a battle of attrition.
- The “locating the file” excuse: The bureaucrat informs the Minister that the file is not immediately traceable but that all efforts are being made to unearth its whereabouts. Not too great an excuse, this can lead to a volley of abuses and a threat of transfer, these definitely preferable to a future suspension from service.
- Sending the file into orbit: This mechanism is specially recommended when there is a time-limit for decision making. It can be used to great profit on the last couple of days of the financial year or just before the Model Code of Conduct for elections kicks in. Select the most obstinate of your colleagues in other departments, justify why the file needs to be referred to their department and dispatch the missile (sorry, file) in that direction. Once April the first dawns or the election process starts, the beleaguered bureaucrat can heave a deep sigh of relief.
- Making the file and yourself scarce: Lock the file in a steel almirah in some corner of the office and ensure that you and your co-workers leave the office for the day. This trick works best near closing time and I can testify to its utility, particularly if you stay 30 kms. away and keep your mobile shut.
But whether the case falls in Category 1 or 2, the cautious civil servant is well advised to adopt certain precautions to stay out of Tihar or Arthur Road jails in her/his advanced years:
- Dodge discretionary cases: Even if the time-honoured practice in government is to go by past precedents, stay away from decisions that lack transparency and a rational basis. Job appointments and selection of institutions for government grants are best done through competitive examinations and laid-down guidelines respectively, where subsequent audits can show a clear pattern of decision-making free of fear or favour.
- Record on file and keep copies: If you don’t want some decision you signed off on 15 years earlier coming back to haunt you in your retirement years, ensure you put your views on file and keep copies of crucial pages (never rule out subsequent alterations or missing files).
- You are known by the company you keep/kept: Your political bosses in the departments you headed can determine your future unease. Bureaucrats have gone through the wringer even in Category 1 cases (think coal, spectrum, etc.), where they merely executed extant government policy. Totally unconscionable are those instances where the bureaucrat plays along with the decisions of her/his political boss or (what is worse) willingly participates in a division of the spoils, whether in terms of wealth or power. There are enough news headlines today pointing out the many consequences of such collusion.
In the ultimate analysis, a smart bureaucrat ought to combine the characteristics of an experienced sanitary inspector and an uncanny bomb expert to know which file/decision stinks and which is a ticking time bomb. Negotiating one’s way safely through these sewage traps and minefields will ensure a comfortable home and hearth in her/his later years.
This blog was published in the Free Press Journal on 12 September 2022 (here)
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