The Times They Are A Changin'

The Times They Are A Changin’


Ah but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

From My Back Pages- Bob Dylan


It is quite possible to be several people at the same time, or more commonly, over time. Especially if it spans a long life, lived with what the French call anime.

And sometimes, we are forced into changing our ways in answer to pressures not of our own making. But this need not be seen as a defeat or a bad thing.

Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, novelist, poet, wit and early champion of “the love that dare not speak its name”, famously wrote, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative,” and was echoed later across the Atlantic by Walt Whitman, to wit: “Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds”.

But is this so much excuse making for breaks in the story-line that can’t be wished away? The jury is probably going to be perpetually “out to lunch” on deciding this one.

But, meanwhile, other observers and theorists of socio/political evolution, even revolution, and its cultural side-cars, find virtue in the dialectics of contention and difference of opinion. They say, the action of opposing views is the fuel of change and renewal.

And the radical elements amongst them, the Maoist theorists, Naxalites, even the jihadists, see the spillage of blood, innocent and tainted alike, as a necessity to the process. Without this, they argue, there is only oppression, ungodliness, stultification, corruption, obtuseness, distortion, stagnation, demise and putrefaction.

But change is always resisted by the forces of the status quo that stand to lose power and influence. And also change in one place induces change in another. In societal terms, it might be potentially ruinous keeping-up-with-the-Joneses. But how many desist because of this?

In politics, induction of youth in the ruling combine, particularly when it is seen to have paid electoral dividends, makes similar change inevitable elsewhere. Ergo, a change of guard at the RSS; and the induction of second generation heirs in the regional parties.

But in some cases, less dynastically configured, there is the contention and strife to go through first. But at the root, it may be nothing more than a generational struggle for power leavened by a search for an updated ideology that resonates with the voter in changed circumstances.

There is also the compelling cost-push of the changes wrought by political rivals in the ruling party, now enjoying its second consecutive term in power.

Short-term, there are a lot of embarrassing things being said by dissidents, but of an eventually inconsequential nature. But the strife will inevitably bring about the necessary changes in leadership and close the gap between factions. Much of the noise is a howl of protest at the passing of the torch in any case.

Though it may sound like capitulation to the losing side, on the wrong side of history, the beneficial effects of apparently destabilising change are well supported by history.

Witness that a young Henry the VIII of England, staunch Catholic and Defender of the Faith, was an entirely different kettle of fish from the latter-day “Good King Hal”. The latter became an apostate founder of the Anglican Church and defender of a markedly different faith. But did Henry know that his actions would put the “Great” into Britain in the time of his successors?

Perhaps he did, in the corner of his mind, even as he enriched himself promptly by plundering Catholic Church lands and wealth. Nor did he tarry in pitting Anglican Britain alongside other European Protestant powers against the Papacy and its adherents.

Closer home, we have the transformation of Ashoka the Great, from a ruthless empire-building conqueror to Buddhist-pacifist.

He was followed, centuries later, by the Great Mughal Akbar’s tolerant policies, his experimental Deen-e-elahi formulations. And both have clearly laid the foundations, to our present day “unity in diversity” conceptions.

Or witness the tired tale of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, travelling the diametrically opposed route from Nationalist Congressman and thoroughly modern Westernised gentleman, to inflexible, irreconcilable, prime-mover of the “Two Nation Theory”. But was Partition necessary after all, or just a consequence of his maniacal, consumptive, ego trip?

There are, in addition, a whole range and variety to the saga of Changelings. Some brought about momentous changes by shifting gear, but thereafter maintained great consistency in their reinvented lives. Others have allowed themselves to wobble from time to time.

One such wobbly changeling was Edward Moore Kennedy, eulogised solidly on his recent passing as the 20th century “Lion of the US Senate”. But Ted Kennedy’s overall record was not unblemished. There was the infamous Chappaquiddick incident and other occasional lapses into dissolution. But these were dips and troughs in a long life dedicated to a great and liberal legislative agenda that saw the passage of several landmark laws, sometimes diluted a little, because Ted Kennedy wasn’t chary of settling for the support he could get from his political rivals across the aisle.

Legendary folk/rock musician Bob Dylan prides himself, even now, on defying categorisation. He sees his creativity and life as a multi-genre work in progress. His autobiography, Chronicles Volume 1, suggests as much, and a Volume 2 to come.

Dylan Draws inspiration for his lyrics from 19th century French poet/writers Baudelaire and Balzac; takes his stage name from 20th century Irish poet Dylan Thomas; and built his initial unplugged musical style influenced by Great Depression era Folk and “Protest” musicians such as Woody Guthrie.

But this didn’t stop him volte-facing with the use of electrified and amplified rock instruments; changing tone, tenor and content as often as he pleased, inspired by his own life events. There was the near-death inducing motor-cycle accident, drug usage, marriage, celebrity, fame, fortune, and later still, conversion to Christianity, for example.

A recent, very stylish film, directed by Todd Haynes called I’m not there (2007) reflects this chameleon-like quality. It occasioned Haynes to use four separate actors to play an adult Bob Dylan, including the androgynous Cate Blanchett!

So, despite the sulphurous fire and brimstone, we may be witnessing no more than a rite of passage. As the new RSS President Mohanrao Bhagwat, busy mentoring the BJP of late, put it: the BJP will certainly “rise from the ashes”. But first, as in the RSS, the old order must give way to the new.

(1,053 words)

30th August 2009
Gautam Mukherjee


Published as Op-Ed Page Leader on 7th September 2009 entitled "Just a rite of passage" in The Pioneer. Also published online at www.dailypioneer.com and archived there under Columnists.

Vox Populi Vox Dei:But To Hear It You Need Compulsory Voting

ROY LICHTENSTEIN- Drowning Girl.

Vox Populi Vox Dei:But To Hear It You Need Compulsory Voting


The Roman axiom had it that the voice of the People was indeed the voice of God. They, along with the Greeks, practiced a fairly direct form of city-state quasi-democracy.

And the Romans, even after the demise of their representational senate, tried to keep their imperial Caesars in check by constantly whispering “remember thou art mortal” in their ears whenever public enthusiasm for their proclamations or deeds got particularly enthusiastic.

But the Romans and Greeks defined “People” rather narrowly; meaning only the original inhabitants of Rome, or Athens, or Sparta as the case may have been; and not the slaves that served them, nor the inhabitants of the vassal kingdoms brought under the yoke of the Pax Romana or the conquests of Alexander the Great.

Unfortunately for us, under the big tent of a democracy based on universal adult franchise, we cannot, legally, constitutionally, or logically, pick and choose amongst our citizenry. Or listen to any section on a selective basis over the wishes of others; at least not on a theoretical basis.

Had we chosen a limited franchise after 1947, a knowledgeable, educated set of voters as it were, we might have also produced an oligarchy or even a dictatorship. But, thank God, we didn’t.

As things stand, we are certainly not meant to favour those amongst our citizenry who tend to be good voters, even block voters, citing the apathy of the others as reason to ignore them.

Of course, this kind of committed voter is what gets politicians elected and they tend to nurture their constituencies for the purpose. But by ignoring the others, who vote for rivals, or those who do not vote at all, the polity as a whole is not served.

This lop-sided representation, would, and does distort the intentions of our founding fathers. It not only mutates the polity into supporters and uninteresting others, but as all political parties imitate each other tactically, ends up working against its long-term survival. The political landscape becomes a morass of vested interest, caste, creed and demographic consideration and results in a complete logjam in governance.

We are perhaps already too far down the road of cynical vote-bank politics, with about half or less of our voters actually voting. To remedy things now, the answer lies in the imposition of universal and compulsory adult voting.

No democracy practices compulsory voting at present, it is true, treating the option with alarm as some kind of infringement of fundamental rights. Though some, like the US, do use a military draft in times of need, and others, like Israel, have compulsory military service.

But then, weighted against the perils, the right to not vote, is not worth upholding. After all, no other democracy of this size is as diverse and populous as India. And none in greater danger from its own centrifugal and fissiparous tendencies, let alone the machinations of its enemies.

China, increasingly being regarded as a rival in the South Asia domination stakes, recently allowed one of its serious think tanks to post an inflammatory article on its website. It suggested that it should be possible, by encouraging domestic separatists and dissidents, and using inimical neighbours such as “Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal”, to break India into some “20 or 30” independent states like “Europe”. The contents of the article written by one Mr. Zhan Lue, was publicised in the Indian media but elicited a predictably muted official response.

By using compulsory voting as a strategic shift in the way we run our democracy, we would, at a minimum, ensure a proper reflection of the Vox Populi. And, it would largely deprive politicians using their committed vote banks, to manipulate narrow electoral outcomes without much regard to the national consequences.

Also, just because every adult citizen is required to vote, it wouldn’t necessarily result in a jingoistic majoritarianism. In fact, recent electoral outcomes, have clearly demonstrated the Indian polity’s decided allergy to extreme political positions, in favour of a steady centrism and a desire to ensure stability, economic growth and national security for all.

Also, compulsory voting if instituted tomorrow, would not iron out all the lumps in the mattress all at once. But it would have a substantial and holistic impact.

Electoral roll manipulations will have to be controlled of course. But this is not as difficult as it seems in these days of super computers. Perhaps the work being done by Mr. Nandan Nilekani on the Unique Identification Number (UIN), will do more than the abortive MAPIN; the proscribed PAN; and even the Voter Identification Cards.

It will take time for compulsory voting to manifest benefits on the ground, and will prove to be more effective in some parts of the country over others. It will definitely cause an upheaval in the way political parties operate; and cause them to overhaul their perspectives. They will have to compete on merits, on competence to deliver, on development issues, rather than by the use of emotive hot buttons including fear and prejudice.

But it is eminently doable, for politicians, political parties and even government bureaucrats to change; just as long protected business and industry in this country learned to cope with global competition, and in many cases, even managed to better it.

We have come a long way from the days of the “Bombay Club” demanding a “level playing field”; and several of the club’s prominent members have actually led the way in making beneficial changes in their operations and methods.

But problems do lie ahead of us. In some places, rapid demographic shifts via unchecked illegal infiltration/ immigration, as cited recently in the Chief Ministers’ Conference, can still affect not only national security, but electoral outcomes too. This particularly over time, as the illegals have demonstrated considerable ability to grab domicile status and wangle their way onto the electoral rolls.

But the key side-effect of universal and compulsory voting, apart from comprehensive representation, will be the automatic moderation of the politics of division and difference.

Development, even competitive development, would become the major focus of political parties instead. And voters would try to assess the merits of competing dream merchants in order to determine which option was more likely to deliver. It wouldn’t be Ram Rajya still, but it would be a good beginning towards that ideal.

(1,049 words)

24th August 2009
Gautam Mukherjee

Published in The Pioneer on 25th August 2009 as Leader on the Op-Ed Page.The article is entitled "Make voting compulsory". It is also published online at www.dailypioneer.com and is archived there under Columnists.

Bharat Bhagya Vidhata

Painting by Abanindranath Tagore

Bharat Bhagya Vidhata


From the ramparts of the Red Fort on a drizzly August 15th 2009, The Prime Minister spoke of returning, at the earliest, to a 9% GDP growth trajectory. This, despite the drought that is upon us, along with a host of economic and security issues, looking a lot tougher than they ever have in the past.

However, this is not misplaced optimism or empty promise. A renewed high growth path
will come to pass soon enough, certainly before Shri Manmohan Singh’s 2nd term as PM is over.

But the question raised in countless minds is, how it will really change things. How is this any different from talk of “Shining India” that apparently saw the demise of NDA rule, in preference for the aam aadmi favouring Congress Party and its UPA compatriots. And now, they too are talking of GDP numbers that don’t touch the lives of the masses!

How does this high GDP growth help the 60% of Indians that live in rural India? Or are they to be perpetually ignored beyond sops, lip service, and crocodile teary emotion at election time?

Well, consider the facts for a moment. This 60% figure is already down, over time, from an estimated 80%. Also consider that the contribution of this 60% to the economy is now just 23%, the figure attributed to agriculture, again down from some 80% in the first decade after independence.

Also contemplate for a moment that the world’s most successful agricultural country, the US, has only 5% of its population remaindered on the land farming up a mountain of food, using a great deal of mechanisation and science. The other 95% of Americans are now urban, as they well ought to be, this being the 21st century and not the 19th where the greatest aspiration of man is “the pursuit of happiness” and not mere survival.

This in turn implies that India, currently the second fastest growing large economy in the world, will also see a relentless urbanisation of its population looking for higher yielding opportunities. The migration from countryside to the city is a well trodden path all over the developed world; and it has been combined with an upgrading of rural facilities to considerably narrow the gap between the two.

The age old peasant-farming, bracketed by rain, flood, drought and pestilence, is a thing of the past in the developed world. And while it still ravages India and China, much as it did ancient Egypt; it is now a matter of learned speculation as to how much longer this state of affairs will obtain, even in the most recalcitrant parts of Africa; let alone prevail there, or anywhere else.

Things are changing rapidly, in decades, instead of centuries, in a small inter-connected world. So, though it may not be readily apparent in 2009, but in 2019, instead of necessarily streaming into the four or six Indian metro cities grown to eight by then, the migrating peasantry may well go to the fast growing tier II and tier III cities become sizeable places in their own vicinities instead.

The growth of some 30 in the one category, and over 200 in the other, is already underway now, changing many things in the understanding of business and industry in India Inc., well distributed natural entrepots that they are, and that too at quite a clip.

The process of migration will also accelerate, as the benefits of primary and secondary education penetration accrue to the masses; and will also make the livelihoods of those fewer who remain on the land far more viable. It will, again on the basis of the evidence, slow population growth, because urban families tend to be much smaller as aspirations are higher in the city.

Besides, if the past 62 years are any indicator, jobs as labourers; as artisans, as security guards; as servants; but in the cities, are preferred to rooting about in the meagre opportunities afforded in the villages. For the landless, for the low caste and downtrodden, for dirt farmers with inadequate and unviable holdings, and no resources to extract a livelihood from them - the city and its slums and daily wages are clear and away preferable!

The message is loud and clear. Farming has to change, to become altogether more productive, value-added, much less wasteful; more remunerative, not just in the starring states of Punjab and Haryana, but in all 28 states. This is how the rest of the developed world has dealt with the issue, and we will have to do likewise.

In ten years time, the percentage of India’s people still living on the land will be lower than it is today, and then lower still as the years roll on, till an optimum level and balance
is reached between the absorption capacities in the cities, and modern farming needs on a mechanised, irrigated, scientific basis - in the villages.

But to make all this possible, we need to prosper and keep on prospering. Our stock markets have to double and double again, FDI has to pour in, and many other things in the real economy have to grow in a geometric progression alongside.

The economy, at a rate of growth of 9% per annum will, in any case, double in size in a decade. And the stock market, with its futures and options components, with its tendency to discount the future, is generally several multiples ahead of the real economy.

In due course, it is conceivable that India Inc. will subsume ageless, timeless rural India, and put paid to this debate once and for all. But certainly, in order to get there, we need to restore ourselves to the high growth path as soon as possible. And, it must be recognised that while a healthy agriculture is necessary to feed our gargantuan population; it is not the best vehicle of economic growth that we can aspire to.

At best, agriculture will account for a percentage point or two of GDP, out of the overall mix, now weighted at over 50% in favour of services, and not industry. So let us understand rural India will not remain a static entity. And when there are only, say, 30% living in the countryside, the country will no longer be regarded as a sum of its villages.

(1,048 words)


17th August 2009
Gautam Mukherjee

India's New Direct Tax Code:Panacea or Deus Ex Machina?

India’s New Direct Tax Code: Panacea or Deus Ex Machina?


Direct taxes, throughout independent India’s 62 plus years, have generally yielded less than the cost of the administrative apparatus created and sustained to collect them. One of the reasons for this is the ease with which any but the employee classes working in the “formal” sector can underpay or dodge them.

The other reason is the sheer impracticality of assessing liability against perquisites and indirect income. Departmental instructions are drafted as clearly as mud, and made infinitely worse by confused amendments year after year.

The Government has made little headway on expanding the tax payers’ base. The direct tax payers are, in fact, a miniscule number of a few lakh in a population of over a billion. And corporations would rather plough back would-be profits into expansion than pay taxes.

As things stand, if it weren’t for the multiple layers of indirect taxes, duties and excises on raw materials, intermediate goods/services, as well as on finished products/services; it would be difficult to carry on. This massive taxation, combined with borrowing from institutional sources, both domestic and international; and massive deficit financing keeps the engines running.

The Government of India would be hard pressed to support itself, let alone its various development programmes and other obligations, without recourse to its various Deus ex machina that keep it trundling forward.

In the context of reform, direct taxes need to be reasonable and comparable with other large economies to encourage compliance, discourage tax exiles and flight of capital. The Government also needs to eschew hidden whammies. Similarly, indirect taxes should not be so onerous so as to cripple competitiveness, particularly in a rapidly globalising India.

Most FMs, cleaving to discretion being the better part of valour, have given direct tax reform a miss. However, Mr. P. Chidambaram, our once and many times FM, took the bull by the horns during his last tenure and drafted a code on direct taxes to replace the Income Tax Act of 1961.

Coda are generally associated with big time reform. They have traditionally been major dictates that consolidate, harmonise, unify and systematise clusters of laws, written and unwritten, forging them together with custom, tradition and political vision. The term has been applied throughout history to mark milestones in the evolution of law-making and, more importantly, the very serious business of nation-building.

Thus, we encounter the ancient and famous Codex Hammurabi from 1790 BC. Hammurabi changed the face of criminal law and justice in ancient Babylon with this code which nevertheless was simple enough to come down to us carved onto a single stone.

Napoleon Bonaparte laid down his path-breaking Civil Code in 1804, after the fall of the Bourbons; after the French Revolution and its blast of liberté, égalité, fraternité. The Code Napoleon was a unification and modernisation of civil law based on older,
largely royalist French and Roman predecessors. It abolished the privileges of birth and laid out property laws, opening the door to modern democracy. The Code was thought to be so good that it remains the basic template for civil law in most of Europe to this day.

The question before us then is what can free India’s first declaration in the form of a code hope to accomplish? And the answer: unless shorn of its sleight- of- hand, old wine in new bottles provisions, very little indeed!

It continues, for instance, to exempt the 60% or so of the population engaged in agriculture. It is ironic perhaps that all tax revenues of centuries past, in British and Mughal India, was either tribute, indemnity or spoils from vassal/vanquished states; or land revenue extracted from toiling peasants through their overlords.

And even written in clear, succinct and simple language, it nevertheless seeks to conceal more than it reveals. For example, it is true that corporate taxation has been reduced to 25% from 30%, but MAT has been reworked to accrue better returns than it is getting at present to make up the shortfall.

Also, an ostensibly reduced Wealth Tax, dramatically down from 1% on a low threshold of just Rs. 30 lakhs to 0.25% per annum is proposed to be made applicable on all Wealth greater than Rs. 50 crores. Except that “Wealth” will now include shares and other financial instruments and thus tax even promoter shareholdings in companies on a recurring basis year after year! How this retrograde intention is meant to help corporate India grow into sizes that can help it compete on the global stage is beyond comprehension.

The individual taxpayer is pleased at first at the contemplation of tax slabs made much broader. Proposals such as a modest 10% rate of tax for income up to 10 lakhs, 20% for up to 25 lakhs and 30% for all income beyond this figure are most encouraging.

But, all perquisites of individual tax payers including medical expenses will be taxed at the applicable slab rates and this includes the perks of government servants. This will be very hard to calculate equitably. For instance, try to imagine the perquisite value of a government allotted “quarter” versus a commercially leased flat and you will intuit the new can of worms coming up.
Besides, one of several flies in the ointment is again in the treatment of capital gains which would be taxed at the applicable slab rates and include all financial instruments including equity, fixed deposits and mutual fund earnings.

How is this expected to encourage the equity cult, or indeed saving, one does not know. Traders and active investors responding to a bull market will be taxed on profits at their slab rate, though curiously, passive recipients of dividends will continue to receive them free of taxes.

There will be no distinction between short and long term capital gains. This also means anybody who sells a property after the code comes into force will probably pay 30% in taxes instead of the 20% he used to pay after “indexation”.

The most worrying part is that this back-loaded code is being promoted as a panacea for future tax administration, when, unless it is shorn of its retrograde provisions, it is no more than yet another deus ex machina, an expedient bolt from the blue that seeks to solve a problem of revenue generation, rather than prescribing a lasting cure to low direct tax compliance.

(1,049 words)

15th August 2009
Gautam Mukherjee


Published as "Reforming direct taxes" in Leader slot on Op-Ed Page of The Pioneer on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009. Also appeared online at www.dailypioneer.com and is archived there under Columnists.

Plurality and Imagination

Plurality and Imagination

Medieval theologian William of Occam is known for challenging the Avignon based Papacy for its doctrinaire excesses. But he is still revered for his reductionist system of logic evocatively dubbed “Occam’s Razor”. The razor is designed to cut out the obfuscation of “imaginative theorising,” or to keep it simple. But even Occam had to concede that there was indeed a time and place for multiple threading, running in parallel, only stating that: Plurality should not be posited without necessity.

And it was indeed necessity that drove India’s Constituent Assembly in the drafting of our Constitution in 1949. It had to recognise India’s diversity of caste, creed, religion, habit, manners, mores, cultural, culinary and political persuasion. And then there was the matter of unifying Princely India with British India, protectorates and special territories included, with the rest. India had to meld together as a brand new republic, post-imperial, post-feudal, post a very traumatic partition; with the bold gift of universal franchise.

But even then, our founding fathers did point towards one law for all under Article 44. The controversial article refers to an intended Uniform Civil Code, to come about someday, when, as a consequence of the natural evolution of our polity, it becomes possible.

This original intent was modified somewhat by aspects of the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution of 1976 which stipulates that we are also specifically “Secular”. This insertion is interpreted as meaning that imposition of a uniform civil code is thereby unconstitutional and in breach of a plural peoples’ fundamental rights. It is also considered mercilessly majoritarian, and threatening to the minorities and their entire way of life.

But if one wants to look for signs of hope, of Occam’s Razor being applied to the debate of one civil law for all; we could look to yet another insertion made in the 42nd Amendment, namely that we were to be “Socialist,” thereinafter and evermore.

However, Socialism is not what it used to be. If not quite given the complete go-by in India approaching Independence Day 2009, the old Socialism of the Nehru and Indira Gandhi years is certainly much diluted.

And the future is headed towards a competitive, integrated and globalised market economy. This is essential if we are to sustain high growth rates and eliminate the very poverty that Socialism has never been able to tackle. India has already emerged as the world’s second largest market and the world is clamouring for greater access to it.

So, despite the gloating of the Indian Socialists who think the recent troubles of the global economy are emblematic, there is no way out. The Capitalist system may not be perfect, but it is still the best system that global economics has evolved. It is also much more resilient in 2009 than it was even twenty years ago. The cycles of recession are getting much shorter due to globalisation, better communications, real-time decision-making and a much bigger world economy.

Tacitly conceding that Socialism’s day is largely done, our present Government is leaning towards a much more wholesome Welfarism. This shows commitment towards reducing the travails of the poor without curbing the entrepreneurship of the rich, while concerning itself with eventually balancing the fiscal deficit too!

Similar evolution is expected in the political and theoretical debate on Secularism.
It is daunting to behold the inflexibility with which the concept is widely viewed in India. It is as if the religion of the majority is the unmentionable elephant in the room. And without specific protections against this threat, the minorities are truly done for. Of course, this notion is aggravated by vote-bank politics that seeks to leverage not only religion, but caste, sub-caste, language, water-sharing, even the proper ownership of heroes and saints of old!

Ergo, Secularism must be treated both as shield and sword, to keep the would- be predator at bay. That this is clearly in conflict with the traditionally tolerance and tranquillity loving people of this land is continuously ignored.

We are not only unbelieving of our own better nature, but clearly influenced by a largely dysfunctional and insecure SAARC muttering about regional hegemony. This is compounded by Pakistani and sporadic Bangladeshi propaganda from without and certain right-wing Christian evangelist postures within. The Hindu majority, like some hydra-headed gorgon, is allegedly hard-wired to gobble up everyone else--leaving nary a trace of the minority culture, custom or demographics.

This is laughable in a country that has never been expansionist. And the only influence the Bharatvarsha of old exerted was cultural, and this did travel far and wide and endures; in China, in the Far East, in Arabia, in Africa, even to this day.

Hindustan has been ruled for 400 years by Mughals and 200 years after that by an Anglican Britain, with both entities not above pushing their religions at the people as a matter of course. But this has not happened in a free India and the communal rioting we have seen in over 60 years is minimal compared to the horrors of partition. And this, despite recent terrorist provocations at revered shrines, mosques and churches.

It is self-evident that we need a revision of our assumptions. We have successfully implemented a non-denominational attitude in the Indian Armed Forces with complete freedom of worship. We have done this also in the composition and working of our national and regional cricket teams. We have implemented this in Bollywood. India Inc. too is integrated and dynamic. So is the burgeoning media, be it in print, online and broadcast. So why can’t the same uniform wave be carried through legislatively, politically and judicially?

Secularism is indeed a big idea. It means much more than petty protection of the right to worship and practice one’s religion freely. It is about refusing to let prejudice of all kinds affect the political, legislative and judicial workings of our nation. This properly should take in Ageism, Sexism, exploitation and all other oppressive constructs that live within communities attempting to erect or retain protective barriers under the cover of pluralism.

But we cannot afford to hang onto these twisted versions of the truth. It is dividing people with illogical notions of what is communal and secular. The time may have come to use Occam’s Razor to cut out the cant and get ourselves a fresh new start.

(1,052 words)

9th August 2009
Gautam Mukherjee


Published as Leader Edit on Edit Page of The Pioneer on August12th,2009 as "Plurality and imagination". Also published online at www.dailypioneer.com and archived there under Columnists.

India's Rising Aspirations Vs The Last Mile Syndrome

India’s Rising Aspirations Vs The Last Mile Syndrome


British Queen Elizabeth II’s consort, Prince Philip, well known for his hilarious, if less than diplomatic wit, remarked, on espying a badly wired electrical fixture at an electronics factory the royals were inaugurating, that it must have been put in “by an Indian”. The remark may be redolent of ethnic stereotyping, but the truth of it cannot be denied.

Indians do have a problem with the “last mile syndrome”. Like a nation with attention deficit disorder, we seem to lose interest once the most of something has been done. Consequently, the last 5% or so, consisting of finishes and attention to detail, indeed the very aspects that would commend us to other people, including the all-important customer or end-user, is usually a sad story of sloppiness, neglect and dangerous, even callous loose ends.

It is a product of the chalta hai/ unnees-bees/ the thora-bahut/ the all embracing mish-mash jugad way of thinking overlaid by a statist Soviet influence during our formative years. It makes us great innovators and make-doers, but also obtuse, in a kya kar lenge aap manner, with low standards of finish, safety, reliability, and doubtful durability.

But this last mile syndrome is indeed hard to get rid of unless there is a seismic shift brought on by rising aspirations, not just from the moaning and griping elite given to drawing room and dinner party activism, but from the ordinary man in the urban street, and the Kisan in the village.

Perhaps a modicum of rising aspirations are changing things already, if sales of consumer durables and FMCG company soaps and shampoos in rural India are anything to go by. And the gap may be narrowing further between an impatient 21st centuryist India Inc. and timeless cow-dung encrusted Bharat. There is better information dissemination via the internet, satellite TV and telecommunications. The Government too is trying hard with the introduction of scientific farming techniques, better education, health and rural infrastructure.

But actually, this messy last mile syndrome is just one of the large problems that dovetail into each other. It is difficult to take ourselves seriously when we’ve been unable to tackle the monumental overhang of the undone, the huge shortage of electricity and water for example; a curious inability to deal with regular floods and droughts in the same places, and grinding poverty for countless millions still.

Then there is also rampant corruption that has us cheating on specifications in government and private projects alike; so that the capital’s DDA, just like all the state units with a similar mandate, is notorious for its consistently shoddy workmanship; and even the better established private brands are content to exploit their name; having their work executed badly by “cousins and brothers-in-laws”, rather than people with the requisite expertise. And this, while they themselves provide PR cover, like the look-outs at a robbery.

But again, if there is anything that has improved this dismal prognosis, it has been the introduction of the classic nostrum of competition since 1991. Now, none of our stalwarts can get away with inflicting hugely outdated technology and hopeless standards on the hapless public. The sad thing is when they could, in the bad old Socialist days, they didn’t bat an eyelid.

Today, we have a much improved scenario, with relatively vibrant rates of growth but some things have not yet changed. We are still low on integrity and have little regard for quality.

And the faster we go to meet a deadline, the more corners we are happy to cut. And the key reason is, in addition to our chronic slap-dash last mile syndrome, our inordinate capacity to sit on approvals, both at the political and bureaucratic levels, till there is very little time left for execution.

That is why sections of the Delhi Metro collapse killing innocents; though the witch hunt is on to apportion responsibility. This is also, generically speaking, why sections of the much criticised BRT corridors subside; why flyovers break-down, or, owing to design and traffic flow faults, turn into death traps. And also why a much awaited sea-bridge in Mumbai has mother-of-all-bottlenecks at places where it connects back to the mainland!

The other reason is superannuated and sub-standard rolling stock and equipment. This is endemic to practically all Indian infrastructure including the railways that carry millions of people and tonnes of equipment daily.

Delhi’s dented and dirty old buses, unfit for the most mofussil of hinterlands, are being replaced at long last with more contemporary models, hopefully putting an end to the daily killing of at least one or two pedestrians and would-be passengers.

There are worse things too. Like how Mumbai pretty much drowned a couple of years ago because protective Mangrove swamps have been reclaimed and the drainage system
hadn’t been improved upon since the British left our shores. Some changes have been made now, but not a moment too soon.

But side by side with this ineptitude, this third-world incompetence and lack of pride of workmanship, there have been signal achievements of considerable sophistication, such as in the information technology sphere that has not only ours, but the world’s admiration. And we have always been capable of exquisite craftsmanship.

India proceeds paradoxically, lurching, flanking crab-like, attending to its highs and lows with near equal dedication. But for the highs, we rise above our limitations, and for those routine lows, alas, they seem to come naturally.

But a new current is discernible. It is not so much born out of contrition. It comes instead from a feeling, an instinct that we need not be second-class anymore. We have demonstrated first-class ability and success in some quarters. And this has created an appetite for similar standards of achievement elsewhere.

If this keeps up, and there is nothing on the horizon to suggest it won’t, we will perhaps be admired one day for our last mile execution too. The urge will come from within, as it must. Indians invariably do well abroad where the environment lets them better express themselves. Domestically too, things are changing to allow for greater measures of growth without the old ideological taboos. So perhaps, despite short term flubbing there is no need for eventual cynicism. Besides, as author Anais Nin put it, it is “Easier to be deceived than to doubt”.

(1,049 words)

3rd August 2009
Gautam Mukherjee


Published as Leader Edit on Saturday, 8th August, 2009 in The Pioneer--entitled " We are like this only!". Also appeared online at www.dailypioneer.com on the same day and is archived there under Columnists.