Governance To Change India

4th anniversary special edition
February 1-15, 2014 | Vol. 05 Issue 01 | ` 30

RNI N o . U PE N G/ 2010/ 33798 | PRN: UP/GBD-150/2012-14
w ww .go ve rna nce no w. co m
Gopalkrishna
Gandhi on our
tranformative times
Irfan Habib on
lessons from history
of governance
CHANGE
India on the move
Making sense of transformation: leading thinkers and doers join the debate
TN Chaturvedi 8Walter Andersen 8 Srinath Raghavan 8Prakash N Shah

8 Anu Aga 8Kavita Krishnan 8Shyam Benegal 8Nanditha Krishna
8 Shekhar Kapur 8Buddhadeb Dasgupta 8J Satyanarayana
Founders Team
Gautam Adhikari
Markand Adhikari
Anurag Batra
Editor
Ajay Singh
ajay@governancenow.com
contents
50 Kavita Krishnan: Rules

waiting to be broken
Executive Editor
Ashish Mehta
Deputy Editors
Shubhendu Parth, Shantanu Datta
Senior Editor
Sanjay Behera
Contributing Editors
Rohit Bansal, Kajal Basu, Bhavdeep Kang,
Alam Srinivas, Dr R Swaminathan,
Imran Qureshi
Assistant Editor
Trithesh Nandan
40 Shyam Benegal: AAP

is catalyst for change
Special Correspondents
Jasleen Kaur, Pratap Vikram Singh,
Pankaj Kumar
Principal Correspondent
Geetanjali Minhas
Senior Correspondents
Shivangi Narayan, Puja Bhattacharjee,
Srishti Pandey, Ankita Lahiri
Staff Writer
Abhishek Choudhary
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Volume 05 Issue 01
UPENG03560/24/1/2009-TC
8 gopalkrishna gandhi:
change. its high time
14 irfan habib on the
history of governance
42 Nanditha Krishna: We
need a strong green
lobby
24 tn chaturvedi on rise
and rise of corruption
28 prakash N shah: awaiting
a gandhi of our time
30 walter k andersen: India
seeks a strong leader
34 Srinath raghavan on
changing global order
54 Shekhar Kapur:
Tweets provoke action
66 J Satyanarayana on how
ict impacts governance
48 TAKE Nine: CHANGES tHAT
HAVE BOOSTED INDIA
Cover photo: Arun Kumar

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EDITORS
COMMENT
The curious case

of statist anarchist
Ajay Singh
narchy is order, whereas government is civil

war. Such a differentiation between anarchy
and government, as illustrated in the Anarchist
Manifesto in 1850, appears more real than an
academic formulation in todays India. With Delhi chief
minister Arvind Kejriwal proclaiming himself to be an
anarchist, the transition from order to disorder is quite
palpable.
Kejriwal is neither the first chief minister to raise a
banner of revolt against
an autocratic centre nor
would he be the last. He
conformed to the pattern of
chief ministers who took on
the centre in their own way
since the unconstitutional
sacking of the communist
regime in Kerala in 1959.
Of late the chief ministers
of Gujarat, West Bengal,
Odisha and Bihar have been
known for using every forum to run down the union
government.
But Kejriwal is still an
exception for many reasons.
He is the first self-styled
anarchist who is trying to enforce a disorder through
the tool of governance. This contradicts the ideal state
of anarchy as prescribed in the manifesto. Here also he
reinvents himself as a neo-anarchist whose political objective of creating a just social order has to be attained by
acquiring the state power.
Look at the issues on which Kejriwal laid siege to North
and South Blocks, the ultimate seat of Indian state on Raisina Hill, and threatened to disrupt even the republic day
function. He demanded that the Delhi Police be accountable to him. Kejriwal was particularly irked by the manner in which the police snubbed two of his ministers and
refused to kowtow to their diktats which were patently illegal. Obviously Kejriwals grouse was his inability to lord
over the Delhi Police as an undisputed ruler of the capital.
But he successfully tossed the issue over to the public
domain by mobilising people for demonstration against

the police high-handedness and corruption. Anybody
slightly aware of statecraft would testify that the police
have always been bearing the brunt of peoples anger
against the state as they are the visible symbol of the state
authority. Kejriwal cleverly used the pretext of mobilising
public opinion to attain his political objective. His formulations are unusual and strategies quite subversive.
Yet he appears extremely fond of pelf and perks of
power minus its ostentatious display. He still looks for a
suitable official residence as the chief minister but tries
to find an endorsement for it from people. But is he really so much bothered by public opinion? The question
begs an answer as Kejriwal is capable of defying any
straitjacket definition for him.
For instance, shortly after his swearing in, he asked
residents of Delhi to conduct sting operations against corrupt officials if they demand bribe. But he acted like an
archetypal politician when some of his colleagues were
caught in sting operations purportedly making some
unacceptable demands. In this case, he was not so much
bothered about public opinion as he was about keeping
his flock together before the Delhi assembly elections. A
past scrutiny of his political conduct would bear this out
that Kejriwal has been usArun Kumar
ing government and public
opinion shrewdly to sharpen
his strategies.
Though the hypocrisy of
his political conduct is partly
exposed, it would be unfair
to say that Kejriwal has lost
his charm among people.
At times, he demonstrates a
streak of anarchism by hitting the streets and taking
steps which are considered
politically suicidal. In some
of these cases, the issues
raised by him pertain to the
common people who seem
to have been totally ignored
in the ongoing political discourse.
He has been carefully cultivating the image of a leader
who is identified more with the rising neo-middle class
than the traditional middle class which still retains faith
in the constitutional process.
There is little doubt that Kejriwal has calibrated his
strategies successfully to attain his goal. But there is an
inherent risk in running with the hare and hunting with
the hound. He is trying to create disorder to create an order of his own vision which is more of a statist than anarchist. The sooner he unravels his political goal the better
it would be for him and for people who put faith in him.
If he continues with ambiguity, his position would soon
become quite untenable. n
ANNIVERSARY
SPECIAL
Change
The only constant
hange is the new buzzword. Change, of course, is also

the only constant in life more so in a young democracy and kaleidoscopic society that India is. But of late
there has been altogether too much of this constant.
Unlike the Dickensian the best of times, the worst of
times, the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness, we
are living in the changing times for better or worse.
The crucial point is, India seems to be living in times
that are not superficially, routinely transformative but
substantively so. The Delhi election results, for example, might be just a surface effect of varied churnings going on below the radar with a dash of the
spring of hope, the winter of despair depending on your viewpoint.
In these churnings, in this paradigm of shifts, conventional narratives are
being replaced by new arguments and discourses from non-traditional social
and political forces. Add to it the demographic shift towards a majority of
youth: a new generation of young Indians is highly impatient with anything
that symbolises status-quo-ism.
This change, in all its semantic shades, is the theme of our special issue as
we celebrate the fourth anniversary of the publication that you, discerning
readers, have helped create its own niche. In the following pages, you will
have great minds debating the arc of this change.
But we also realise that a changing India is too large and too important a
theme to be covered in a single edition. So, we plan to further understand
and capture this change by undertaking a cross-country journey. Because we
feel random surveys of metropolises cannot capture the transformational
drives, nor can parachuting into a proverbially nondescript village for a few
hours give an authentic narrative of these alterations.
One of the aims of this admittedly ambitious and unique project is to find
out if there is a gap between aspirations and yearnings of people living in
cosmopolitan cities and in semi-urban or rural places. Has technology reduced that gap as much as it is claimed?
Similarly, the impact of free-market policies and resultant social changes in
semi-urban centres would be a key to understanding the future conduct of a
largely urbanised India in less than three decades.
The interesting part of this journey would be to make a detailed survey
of the younger generation, their aspirations and dilemmas, and find out
responses of top political executives and opinion-makers about the ongoing
changes. In all states through which our journey passes, we would make an
attempt to connect the youth with the top political and civil leadership to
encourage a new debate. The whole exercise, needless to say, will have no
political bias and remain focused solely as an exploratory mission to understand the impact of changing India. n
C
HANGE
Change.
(Its time)
Gopalkrishna Gandhi
here are two uses of the word change. The

first is lofty, big and all of us know it. Let me
start with the one that is not so famous, the
lesser change the small change, the smaller
denomination currency notes, loose coins.
In its sense and use of smaller bank notes, change
generally means the fifty, twenty, ten and five rupee
notes that one can give or get when breaking a hundred
rupee note. In its use for coins, change would mean the
one, two, five rupee coins that we know, the sound of
the word change recalling the ring of metal shaken in a
closed fist.
I do not know if you, the reader of this piece, have noticed it but, of late , small change, the khulla in Hindustani, the chhuta in Gujarati, or what in Tamil is called
sillarai (from which comes the Indo-Anglian chiller)
has become a rarity. The fifty, twenty, ten and five rupee
are around but not as plentifully as before.
The hundred rupee bluey is now legal tender. Whether
one wants to buy sabzi, a kilo of rice or atta, a tube of
toothpaste or a biro pen, the hundred rupee note pops
out routinely and is accepted matter-of-factly which is
when trouble begins. Khulla nahin hai ji And so one
buys something else, not so needed, and then the change,
in a reduced value, comes along with a toffee or two to
make up for the dregs of change due.
The hundred rupee note rules, reigns, like it has never
before, yielding privileged space only to the five hundred and thousand rupee note. The fifty rupee brownie
comes when it does, soiled, moiled, roiled, almost sticky,
by over-use. It looks like a used-up strip of band-aid. As
for the tawny tenner and the greenie fiver, they are
GovernanceNow | February 1-15, 2014
now in retreat. And as the Reserve Bank of India, bless

it, goes about a fresh issues in polymer, they will, mark
my words, become collectors items.
As for coins, they have become utterly pitiful. They
are not made of copper but in terms of status, now, they
are coppers as they have not been before. I have never
been comfortable dropping coins into outstretched
palms or tins, even less so, bypassing them. There are
too many issues involved: does alms-giving encouraging hideous exploitation by unseen beggar-dons, sloth?
Or, in not sparing that wretched copper, am I being lazy
myself apart from being un-caring? Be that as it may,
there is a clear expectation among alms-receivers, now,
of paper money. If the scarcity of twenties, tens and fives
had upped street-philanthropy to the fifty or hundred
rupee note, there would have been something to be glad
of. But no, the progressive regression in the value of the
coin and the availability of small paper money has had
its adverse impact on alms.
I know nothing of finance, monetary finance, the rarefied world of currencies, and such esoteric subjects. But
this much I can say: The use of a likeness of the Mahatma on bank notes at a time when khulla are scarce,
gives a new meaning to the saying attributed to him
Be the change you want to see.
hose exact words are not Gandhis, the idea behind it certainly is.
Another catchy phrase attributed to him There is
enough for everyones need, but not for anyones greed,
is also not his, the idea behind it being one he would
have gladly endorsed.
I believe in those two logical mis-attributions lies the

key to some important steps that need to be taken by
1. us as a people
2. by the governments that rule over India, and
3. by the corporates that hold us in their thrall.
As a people, we want administrations to be more responsive, more attentive, more accountable than they
are. And so they should be. In few countries does insensitive Babudom go as un-questioned as in India, inattentive Afsardom as un-tackled as in India and incommunicative Mantridom as un-admonished as in India. But do
we, as a people, have the moral right to administer those
correctives? Extraordinarily caring and public-spirited
instincts come to the fore amongst us in moments of
need, true. All of us have seen how people in a bus, on
a railway station, at sites of terrorist attacks, simple
people rise to the occasion in super-human courage to
give succour to the distressed or the traumatized. But
during normal times, we are horribly callous to fellowhumans, to society and, of course, to the physical environment. I will not even begin to describe the wanton
violence and cruelty that Indians, private individuals,
are capable of, towards the weak and the vulnerable.
This has to change. Easily said! And so, how? By those
amongst us who are constantly harping on the need
for administrations, for governments, for politicians to
change, also and in the same breath, challenge us, the
people of India, to also look within.
As Governments in a Republic, our ruling class has to

cease looking upon itself as a Huzuriyat. This does not
mean that high dignitaries must start travelling in buses
and autos though there would be nothing wrong in their
doing so from time
to time. This does not
mean that they should
Our ruling
shift from earmarked
residences and offices to
class has to
work from downtown,
cease looking
though a touch with that
suburb of life will do
upon itself as
them no harm. And this
a Huzuriyat
does not mean that they
should not exercise authey must see
thority with the firmness
what should be
that becomes authority,
though shedding hubris
obvious that in
will only befit them.
a Jumhuriyat,
This only means that
they must see what
Huzuriyat has
should be obvious that
no place, only
in a Jumhuriyat, Huzuriyat has no place, only
Insaniyat has.
Insaniyat has.
How are they to start?
By spending one day in a week as private citizens, joining fellow-citizens in their daily travails. Simplistic? Not
at all. Most realistic. Ask any government pensioner and
he will tell you that it is only after he became a pensioner that he realised what the common man has to go
through.
As trustees of the nations natural resources and investible capital and technologies, our corporates splurge
on the facilities at their command. See how they use
electricity, water and land. There are wastages to be
trimmed, huge un-accounted wastages. When I was Governor of West Bengal, a cripplingly power-deficit state,
I wrote to a great number of bulk users of electricity
to cut down on their consumption voluntarily. Not even
5% of those I wrote to even bothered to reply, let alone
comply. I was not questioning their production lines,
their manufacturing tracks, their product grooves, only
asking them as users of a precious commodity to use
them optimally.
Will they ever hearken to advice? They better, while
there is time.
Things have to change, but change has to come by personal example leading the way.
f coins are copper, notes are paper.

Money, therefore, is what it comes as.
It is the gold of real value behind those that gilds
moneys surface, unseen.
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A master-class in history of governance with Prof Irfan Habib
We could have
14 GovernanceNow | February 1-15, 2014
C
HANGE
photos: Arun kumar
done much better

in governance
t is seldom the case

in academics that a
book is treated as a
veritable classic soon
after its publication.
However, this is exactly what happened
to The Agrarian System of Mughal India 1556-1707 when
it appeared in 1963.
Its author was the
32-year-old Marxist, Irfan Habib, who in no
time came to be regarded as one of the foremost
historians of the country.
An Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and
Economic Maps with Detailed Notes was another masterpiece in the large body of historical
writings that he has produced in the past five
decades. At 83, he continues to cycle from his
home to the Aligarh Muslim Universitys history
department, where he has spent his entire working life, barring the few years spent at Oxford
pursuing his doctorate. His father, Mohammad
Habib, too was one of the top nationalist historians of medieval India.
Habib is no armchair intellectual. He has often
been the target of communalists of all hues for
his participation in peoples movements and eloquent articulation of secular views. Recently, he
came under attack once again because he publicly spoke against the demand to restore the
AMUs minority institution status. Recipient of
many top honours, including Padmabhushan,
Habib headed the Indian Council for Historical
Research for many years and is currently professor emeritus at AMU. Kuldeep Kumar spoke to
him about how the idea of governance evolved
in India over several millennia and what the experience of free India has been in this regard.
Excerpts from the interview:
Do we find a concern for governance

in ancient India? How did the idea of
governance evolve over thousands of years
in our country?
Lets first decide what governance means in

this discussion. We are excluding social organisations, for example, and tribal customs and
so forth as they actually go back to pre-history.
We are concerned with governance of the state
and the relationship of the state with its subjects or citizens. Therefore, the question arises
about the state itself. When did the institution
of the state arise and what were the necessary
prerequisites for its evolution? The classical
view is that of Gordon Childe, who heavily
drew upon Marxs and Engelss view that the
state arose only after the economy produced
a surplus. This view prevailed for a long time
but, with the rise of New Archaeology, it has
been challenged by a contrary view influenced
by ideas that are very close to the Washington
Consensus. According to this view, the production of surplus was not in fact necessary for
commerce as there were exchanges between
town and villages. Crafts production led to
these exchanges and the state originated as
a kind of protective mechanism for this commerce. I would regard it as an idealistic view of
the state and economic development.
With surplus, do you mean agricultural

surplus? What was the form of exchange
that the contrary view talks about? Was
it barter?
www.GovernanceNow.com 15
C
HANGE
Yes, basically agricultural surplus. This was Gordon Childes notion that with the growth of agriculture, surplus became possible and then the
more powerful tribes and clans enslaved and
subjugated others and drew the surplus. The
other view that commerce arose from simple
barter has many difficulties. If towns did not
depend on surplus but on exchange with the
villages, then when the villages are dug, crafts
products of the towns that went there in exchange should be found. But that is not the case.
In the Indus valley civilisation villages, only pottery is found, whereas towns are full of crafts
products. So, the first view is critical of the state
that it arose as a result of extraction of a large
part of the surplus, while the second view is that
even though the state did pocket a large amount
of wealth it performed a necessary function as a
protective agency.
We cant read the Indus script, so we dont
know what their concept of governance was
but there was obviously a strong state. However, in Mesopotamia, where inscriptions go back
to 3000 BC, we begin to find edicts of rulers in
which enforcement of civil and criminal law is
the business of the state. So, the first question
to ask is: when did the enforcement of civil and
criminal laws by the state begin in India? In the
Rig Veda and the subsequent Vedic literature,
this Mesopotamian concept of the state as a lawgiver is totally absent. It is the custom that sets
the law. In those days, where customs ended
and religion began is very difficult to say. If you
look at the ruler in Rig Veda, he looks more like
a plunderer than an enforcer of law.
So the legislative business was left to the

Brahmanas?
That came much later with the Dharma Sutras

and the Dharma Shastras. You dont even find a
reference to Manu as the lawgiver in Vedic literature. Then there is a glorification of abduction
etc. So, it was very much an inter-tribal society.
Historians differ on whether it was mainly a pastoral or agricultural society. At a particular stage
where the Mahajanapadas (Republics) come in,
you find powerful and more stable states developing. We have great difficulty in considering the state and the state of governance in that
period because all traditions, mainly Buddhist
ones, are of a later period. It is true that they are
confirmed in a manner by Ashokan inscriptions
that are the most important set of documents
from early ancient India. But whatever we can
reconstruct from the Buddhist traditions about
Magadha, Kosala and Avanti as strong monarchies while Lichhchhavis and Shakyas as the old
type of tribal republics where monarchies are

winning the day. Magadha subdues Lichhchhavis and Kosalas destroys the Shakyas (Gautam
Buddhas tribe). So these kingdoms have arisen
but we dont know how much these rulers laid
down the law. But certainly by the Mauryan
times, the position had changed.
So, does Kautilyas Arthashastra offer us a

theory of governance?
Before I come to Kautilya, I would like to take up

the role of the Dharma Sutras in making religion
or the priesthood a source of law. I think it was
a development not earlier but parallel to the development of the state as one of the sources of
law. You see, the Dharma Sutras come very late,
practically at the time of
Gautam Buddha. Even the
The first question to
middle Upanishads are dated to this period. So, there
ask is: when did the enis this process whereby law
is being formalised by two
forcement of civil and
sources the priesthood
criminal laws
and the king. Where the
caste system enters into it
by the state begin in
is again very interesting.
India? In the Rig Veda
In Magadha and Kosala in
Buddhas time, the varna
and the subsequent Vesystem is quite strong but it
dic literature, this
is not present in the Indus
Valley. When Alexander
Mesopotamian concept
comes here with his courtof the state as a law
iers and historians they
have left accounts on the
giver is totally absent.
basis of which later historiIt is the custom that
ans have given us detailed
accounts of that society
sets the law.
he finds Brahmanas in the
Indus Valley but not the
caste system, whereas when Megasthenes goes
to Magadha during the reign of Chandragupta
Maurya, he describes caste system very accurately. He talks of seven castes but actually no
one knows exactly how many were there because the intermediate varnas were there too
even in the Dharma Shastras and the four-fold
varna system is only an imaginary picture. But,
otherwise, his picture of the caste system is very
clear.
So, the state is established and the priestly version of governance is that the state should enforce the caste system. But in actual fact its only
in the early 2nd century AD that a Satavahana
inscription says that the duty of a ruler is to prevent admixture of varnas or castes. It seems to
me that society was creating the caste system
and religion was only recognising it, rather than
the other theory that Brahmanas created the

caste system. And one should remember that
the Satavahanas were the patrons of Buddhism.
Now, the source of law is the state and the first
evidence of this is the Ashokan inscriptions.
Apart from the fact that Ashokan inscriptions
are the first firmly dated, written documents,
there are a number of statements of Ashoka
in them that relate to governance and there is
a very interesting perception of indebtedness.
I, as a ruler, am indebted to my subjects obviously because they pay me tax and my officers
are indebted to me because I pay them salaries.
Prof RS Sharma, not invoking the Ashokan inscriptions but other early texts, has already
spoken about the theory
of social obligation or implied social contract in anSo, the state is estabcient Indian thought. But I
think the Ashokan inscriplished and the priestly
tions are the first statement
of this sort and are imporversion of governance
tant because they are not
is that the state should
from a subject but from the
ruler himself. So, its a kind
enforce the caste sysof double recognition of a
tem. But in actual fact,
contract between him and
his subjects and between
its only in the early 2nd
him and his officers. The
century AD that a Sataother interesting thing is
that he does not attribute
vahana inscription says
his ethical principles to any
that the duty of a ruler
religion. Dhamma is what
he regards as morality. It is
is to prevent admixture
true that in one inscription
of varnas or castes.
he says there are certain
passages in Buddhist texts
that are relevant to Dhamma but in his edicts he never says that Dhamma should be practised because Buddha laid it
down.
These are secular edicts in this sense.
What about edicts that banned animal

sacrifice and abolished religious fairs?
Yes, in that sense, it was interference in the

Brahmanical religious practices although he
claimed that he patronised the Brahmanas and
the Shramanas and met them while going to
Mahabodhi. However, the essential fact is that
he does not attribute any of these principles of
Dhamma to religion or custom. In fact, there is
an edict against customs, saying that customs
are not important and Dhamma alone is important. The other interesting thing is that varna
and jati (caste) are not mentioned in his edicts
at all as part of Dhamma. It means, according to
my understanding, that since the Mauryan empire had grown to pan-Indian proportions and
since the caste system was not in vogue in many
regions at that time, therefore this omission was
made. Another very interesting thing that partly
relates to governance is Ashokas consideration
for people of other cultures. For instance, in his
Greek edicts, he does not refer to afterlife while
in his Prakrit edicts, he refers to swarga (paradise). He does not refer to nirvana because he
knows that his subjects are interested in swarga but not in self-annihilation. But when he is
addressing Zoroastrians and you know that
Zoroastrianism is very close to the Semitic religions; in fact, it is the originator of the Semitic
religious traditions Ashoka says that following
Dhamma will help you on the day of the judgment. So, in these edicts he even recognises the
day of the judgment although the Indian tradition does not do so. So, it is interesting that he
has consideration for different cultures and it
also comes out in Rock Edict-13 where he says
that the Greeks do not have Brahmanas or Shramanas. Of course, Ashoka was a unique ruler
and his notion of governance was probably not
shared by others but it is still an important element in our tradition.
Then we come to Kautilyas Arthashastra that
you mentioned in your question. It is a very interesting and a very important text. However, it
is not about good governance but about successful governance. (Laughs) Its about the personal
success of the ruler; other things are subordinate to this goal. It gives detailed descriptions of
administration and law.
Do you mean it offers a statist view, that

whatever is in the interest of the state
should be done?
No, rather in the interest of the ruler. The idea

that it is the purpose of the ruler to be chakravartin in Aryavarta means that he has to subdue
other rulers. It shows that he is writing in conditions when there is no great empire but there is
an ambition of empire-building to increase the
rulers wealth, not for the prosperity of the subjects. This is a very important notion of the Arthashastra that prosperity of the subjects is desirable insofar as it leads to the prosperity of the
ruler. And I think it is a very realistic idea and
Kautilya should be praised rather than criticised
for it because that is the reality. Otherwise, the
ruler can do anything he can commit murders,
deceive others, destroy temples, and so on. But
there is also a legal part in which he lays down
rules that are very different from those of the
Manusmriti. For instance, he allows divorce
C
HANGE
which in fact used to take place in ancient Indian society under Lekha Paddhati till as late as
the 12th century AD in which there is a document of divorce. Although the Shastras may say
that divorce does not take place, in society, especially in the middle and lower classes, divorce
did take place. So, many things that we think did
not happen in ancient Indian society because
the Shastras had prohibited them were in fact
quite normal if not normal, they were at least
there. Take, for instance, widow remarriage:
it was very normal in the Hindu society in ancient India and was also practised in most castes
till very modern times. I cite these examples to
show that everything that the Manusmriti says
was not the law in ancient India.
So, when Kautilya allows divorce and lays down
many other rules that the Manusmriti could not
even think of, it does not mean that he was writing earlier. Both coexisted simultaneously and
as Trautmann and others have shown, both of

them are dated not earlier than the 1st or 2nd
century AD, although some parts of the Arthashastra belonged to the Mauryan times. Both
offer differing views on what the social order
should be. Both are harsh on lower classes, but
they are harsh in different ways. Manusmriti
certainly does not allow that kind of wickedness
to the ruler that the Arthashastra does from a
statist view and considers quite normal. The
moral bounds on the ruler are quite lax in Kautilya but they should be enforced on the rest of
the society by the state and fines be imposed for
misdemeanour. In Arthashastra the state is the
enforcer of rules and laws while it is not so clear
in Manusmriti.
One aspect of the Arthashastra is its detailed

account of a system of administration,
bureaucracy and taxation. All this is part of
the system of governance.
Yes, the duties of various officials etc. and a system of taxation and punishment. The Arthashastra has many parts as it was compiled over
a long period of time and these parts are quite
different. The legal part is different from the bureaucratic part that refers to an obviously old
bureaucratic tradition. But the legal part is concerned with fines and punishments imposed by
the state. It seems Kautilya was more interested
in fines than anything else (laughs). All this is
missing in the Dharmashastras.
Did we have a civil society, as understood

nowadays, in ancient or medieval India? How
has it evolved?
The notion of civil society is

fairly modern. It was earlier called public opinion but
Kautilyas Arthashasis now called civil society. It
tra... is a very interestarises out of the concept of
liberty. If the concept of libing and a very imporerty as pronounced in the
tant text. However,
French Revolution is not
present, then public opinit is not about good
ion or civil society would
governance but about
also be very restricted. And
then, of course, the rise of
successful governance.
the middle class is also a
(Laughs) Its about the
factor. So, if the concept of
liberty in the modern sense
personal success of the
is not there, I dont underruler and other things
stand how we can look for
civil society in ancient or
are subordinate to this
medieval times. But this
goal. It gives detailed
is not to say that different
opinions did not exist. In
descriptions of adminfact, both in India and othistration and law
er countries in ancient and
medieval times, there are
many instances of different
views of the state as well.
When I read Banas Harshcharitam, even in
translation one feels that when he is praising
the ruler, he is in fact criticising him. For instance, the death of Prabhakarvardhan as he
is dying, he calls on his slave girls one by one
and they rush to do this and that. And one feels
that there are two Banas, one is praising while
the other is quietly criticising the way the ruler
uses his maid servants or slave girls. Or look at
Alberuni and his Kitab al-Hind where he says
that Mahmud of Ghazni destroyed so much that
the Hindus wont tolerate the Muslims. He is the
only author to say so. No other contemporary
source has said this. In fact, in Rajatarangini,
Kalhan thinks it was foolish of the Kashmiris to
go and fight the Mahmud of Ghazni. Or, when

Alberuni says that people should not question
astrology because as it is the rulers do not support science and mathematics, and if there is
no astrology they would cease to support astronomy too.
So, every society has its critics but I dont think
this can be called public opinion or civil society.
Civil society has many voices and one cant
always be very sure of its impact on the polity.
Look at Thailand. The entire middle class there
wants to overthrow a democratically elected
government and is openly expressing its views
against democracy itself. It is being asked how
the vote of an illiterate peasant can be equal to
that of an educated person.
What about rulers like Akbar or Shershah

Suri? Did they bring about a change in the
notion of governance?
Akbar is perhaps the first sovereign who begins

to question, for various reasons, some social
ideas that had been very deeply established. For
example, although it is laughable for a man who
had 300 lawfully wedded wives to say that monogamy should be the ideal for his subjects. One
god, one wife thats what he said. Or, that child
marriages should be prohibited. Now, you know
that both the Hindus and the Muslims love child
marriages. The Muslims do this because of the
Prophets precedent with Ayesha. But Akbar
prohibited child marriage. This was criticised by
contemporary historian Badauni who said that
it helped fill the pockets of officials who allowed
it for a bribe. He was against slavery and prohibited slave trade and later on freed a number
of his slaves whom he called chelas.
And, then his views on religion and religious
tolerance. This was not secularism, or if it was, it
was of the Radhakrishnan variety in which the
state allows all religions to flourish and also to
influence it to some degree. But secularism really means that the state maintains its distance
from religion. Even then, it was very important
because I have not seen any other ruler of the
Islamic world or the Christian world at that time
taking such a position. Therefore, a view of governance, in which some form of social equity is
enforced despite whatever religions may say, is
an important development.
There was another important concept which
follows from it. It was a peculiar formula that
remained popular with Mughal rulers from Akbar up to even Aurangzeb in the beginning in
which they said that just as God lets sunrays fall
on all people, similarly a rulers bounty must
fall on all people, irrespective of their religion.
C
HANGE
In fact, when Aurangzeb was trying to gather
Rajput support in the war of succession, he invoked this doctrine. So, you see, in this way, Akbar does make important contribution to the
concept of governance. His prohibition of sati
is another important thing and we are told by
European travellers that Mughal officers would
try their best to persuade women to not commit sati. You see, the law was that the woman
should not be forced to commit sati. So, the family members used to take the women to the officers to take the permission for sati. In fact, this
prohibition was invoked by the Peshwas too in
their dominion.
But apart from this, the fact should not be forgotten and I will here return to surplus that
as state power increased in India, land tax actually became equivalent in a large part to rent. In
discussions among economists in England from
Adam Smith onwards up to Marx, the tax-rent
equivalence in India was particularly interesting. James Mill and John Stuart Mill in his earlier
writings said that Indian peasants did not pay
tax because what they paid was rent. So, they
were untaxed.
This was a very important historically established measure that goes back up to the 13th
century. One does not know whether it was in
vogue even earlier because we do not have sufficient information. RS Sharma and DD Kosambi
in their discussions of Indian feudalism do not
consider this point although they say taxation
increased.
When you have tax-rent equivalence, there are
certain important implications for governance.
The peasantry was hard-pressed by the state,
not by individual landlords all the time but by
the state. Secondly, the village comes under
the state in a manner not possible earlier. You
mentioned Shershah, who said village headmen
were responsible for this. So, obviously, if you
are taking so much land revenue, you have to
administer the villages to a certain degree. You
of course make concessions to the upper peasantry and zamindars. So, this tax-rent equivalence has implications for extension of governance. Whether it was good or bad is another
issue. And this is sometimes not recognised by
writers like Burton Stein who talk about segmented sovereignty because even Vijayanagar
empire had this tax-rent equivalence. So, it is
not proper to talk of limited or segmented sovereignty even for South India.
What about the British? They introduced new

concepts of governance, did they not?
When we come to the colonial times, it is obvious
that we are dealing with two things the legacy

of the previous regimes and the new ideas of the
state. The legacy is clear in the way land tax was
managed. After Permanent Settlement in which
the zamindars were recognised as full proprietors and its failure to give the British sufficient
revenues, they shifted to the old view that land
revenue and rent are equivalent and should remain so. In this sense, the colonial state was different from the state in England where it was
not the landlord.
Was this state of affairs responsible for the

rise of the theory of Oriental Despotism
because the state held all the land, even if
theoretically?
Yes, thats right. This is the

basis and to that extent,
And when the British
even though one would discame to India, the East
like the word despotism, it
represented the reality. So
India Company showed
the revenues that the Britreligious tolerance
ish drew from India were
on the old pattern. The secand did not even allow
ond interesting thing was
Christian missionarthat they also inherited the
traditions of religious toleries to function. They
ance. I was looking at their
wouldnt allow missionrule in Ireland and the kind
of intolerance they showed
aries until 1813
towards
the
Catholics
down to 1800 was remarkto come to India on
able. The Catholics could
their ships. These two
not buy land, so 75 percent
of the population had only
were the legacies of the
5 percent of the land. The
older regimes. There
Catholics could not hold offices and indeed there were
was no such tolerance
so many limitations even
in England.
on their education... And
when the British came to
India, the East India Company showed religious tolerance and did not
even allow Christian missionaries to function.
They wouldnt allow missionaries until 1813 to
come to India on their ships. These two were the
legacies of the older regimes. There was no such
tolerance in England. But here, look at the Mughals, the Marathas, and others. They had soldiers and officers of every religion. So, the British saw how the earlier regimes functioned here
and did the same. They continued with the same
judicial system and retained the same qazis.
Warren Hastings got Manusmriti as well as Hidaya translated and said courts should enforce
Hindu and Muslim laws and so on.
But then changes occurred because all this is
against the concept of a modern state because

the modern state is the lawgiver. It decides to
what extent custom and religion should be
followed. It was there earlier too because the
hands of the thieves were not cut off under the
Nizamat and nobody in the Mughal times was
killed for adultery as required by the Muslim
law. So, it was quite recognised that certain religious laws could not be implemented. But with
the British, this notion of state-made laws and
even the religious laws enforceable so far as
the state recognised them becomes important
and begins to take roots. Of course, it comes
first with Sati Regulation Act. You could say that
they were continuing with the earlier regimes

but now even death penalty was prescribed for
colluding in committing sati. Female infanticide
was made into a crime and slavery was abolished without compensation. Permission had to
be sought for changing religion without affecting inheritance.
In 1888, when Dufferin ordered enquiries into
poverty in India the only volume that was published was on UP which was known as North
Western Provinces those days the officers reported that wherever they went, they found that
the poor people were very happy whenever a
daughter was born and very depressed when a
son was born because the daughter when married would bring a bride price of Rs 10 or 20 but
when the son would marry they would have to
pay the price. And the daughter begins working
when she is barely three or four years old while
the son doesnt work. So, the conditions of female infanticide for the poor were not present.
They were only for the bigger zamindars.
Although it was present in parts, the wholesale concept of civil law and criminal law being laid down by the state, and not by religion
or custom, is a British contribution through the
modern idea of the state. For their own reasons,
they unified the economy of India through the
railway system although India paid a lot for this.
But here, one must remember that the British
concept of governance did not include development of Indian economy. The concept that the
state can develop the economy came through
practice and not the ideology of the French
Revolution. The state started encouraging the
development of science and technology so that
France could develop its economy.
The notion that the state can develop the economy through its taxation policy came later. But
economic development of India was not part of
the British agenda. This was the contribution of
the early nationalists like Dadabhai Naoroji and
Ramesh Chandra Dutta.
What is the record of free India in the field of

governance?
(Laughs) Certainly much better as compared to

the British, who were just not interested in the
development of Indian economy. The constitution has given us a firm basis for governance.
(and) affirmative action taken by the state in
various spheres is a case in point. We could have
done much better. But the concept that the state
can intervene in every domain is at least firmly
established. n
C
HANGE
Time to go beyond
short-term promises
The politically aware citizen must know it takes time for reforms to take root
Anu Aga
Business leader and
concerned citizen
he rise of civil society is

a welcome change. It is
indeed a positive development when we realise
that we cant afford to
leave the affairs of the
country exclusively to
politicians; that besides
voting we need to participate actively to
bring about change in our country. The urban
middle class may be vocal and the media is reflecting their concern. But they are not alone.
People who work at the grassroots level tell us
that the need for change is equally intense in
rural India.
It is true the common man in our country is
fed up of corruption at every level of our society and feels helpless by the sheer enormity
of the problem. The Jan Lokpal movement
and the Aam Aadmi Party are expressions of
such deeply felt discontent. Though the anticorruption sentiment is the dominant theme,
such movements also amplify the cry for
better governance. People need better health
care, schools, drinking water, and safe streets
for women and children.
How long this desire for change is going
to last will depend on how effectively the
anguish of people is mobilised. Will such
movements create leaders who will show the
way ahead, who will use the institutions of democracy and who will also creatively come up
with new mechanisms to address the aspirations of people? Let us hope
that the new leaders dont
become part of the system,
and that they themselves
dont get embroiled in corruption or the disgraceful
practices of the political
parties that have brought
us to this sorry state.

The traditional political parties which till
now have played a dominant role are still not
showing signs of being ready to be accountable. Their refusal to come under the ambit
of RTI is a clear indication of their unwillingness to change. It is decisions and actions that
matter, not what they say in their campaign
speeches and election manifestos.
As to the unprecedented levels of public
participation (in social and political campaigns) we have seen in recent times, whether
it will strengthen democracy or descend
into anarchy, will depend on the quality and
commitment of leadership. It is heartening
to note that civic groups like the Association
for Democratic Reforms (ADR) are making
people aware of the rot in our system. More
people have to come forward to be involved
in the civic and political transformation of our
country. They have to create suitable ways to
keep up the momentum, to help this political
impulse to find creative expression.
The ordinary citizen has to realise that the
malaise of corruption and apathy have gone
deep in our society. She has to accept the fact
that changes are not possible overnight. It is
not cosmetic fixes that can save the day. We
need systemic changes for which we need to
have a well thought-out plan of action and find
credible ways of realising them. Instead of
waiting for someone else to give us a foolproof
blueprint, the average citizen should articulate
his ideas and make them heard at appropriate
forums. With the political class shaken up, the
time is just right for such interventions.
Personally, I would never join a political
party. But I am convinced that honest and
intelligent youngsters need to join the political
process if we need to bring about fundamental changes. We have to go beyond knee-jerk
reactions and short-term promises. The awakened and politically aware citizen of today
has to be prepared for the long journey ahead
and confront the reality that it takes longer
for mindsets to change, for reforms to take
root. n
As told to Geetanjali Minhas
Need based Loan to meet the requirement

for the purchase or construction of House of
your dream.
Loan upto ` 10 Lacs for Renovation &
Upgradation
Option of Fixed & Floating Rate of Interest
Interest charged on Daily Reducing Balance

No Prepayment Charges
Special Concession in Interest Rates
available to Women Borrowers under
Dena Shakti Scheme.
C
HANGE
The craft of graft

(and how it grew)
Lack of accountability and auditing in successive
governments has led to rise of corruption
TN Chaturvedi
Former comptroller
and auditor general
of India
enerally, there has

been a political
apathy in tackling corruption in
our country ever
since independence. Corruption
has been in our
society for long
there were a few
scandals even
during the first government of prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru.
The Jeep scandal was the first scam in independent India but there was never a serious
effort to curb it. VK Krishna Menon, who was
embroiled in the controversy later, became
the defence minister. Even in the late 1950s,
the Mundhra scandal that broke out led to the
resignation of TT Krishnamachari. The justice
Chagla committee, which was constituted to
inquire into it, said it was responsibility of the
political masters.
These were all high-level scams and inquiries were also set up against former Punjab
chief minister Partap Singh Kairon and former Odisha chief minister Biju Patnaik but the
political masters avoided taking stern action

against them.
The Kriplani committee to find irregularities in the Indian railways was formed in 1953
and brought out a vivid picture of corruption prevalent in the railways. It also gave a
glimpse of the entire system.
Another seminal report by the Santhanam
committee appointed in 1962 found corruption not only at higher and lower echelons of
administration, but also at the political level.
Had these reports been implemented properly
many things would have been nipped in the
bud and corruption might have been contained. Though there was a follow-up of the
Santhanam committee report, it was lackadaisical. The central vigilance commissioner (the
earlier avatar of the current CVC) had been
appointed, but nothing much happened.
There were the odd incidents once in a while
that raised hope like steel and heavy industries minister C Subramaniam appearing
before the public affairs committee (PAC) after
the comptroller and auditor general (CAG)
castigated him on blacklisting of a Kolkatabased steel trader but they remained just that:
odd incidents.
A large-scale political apathy [towards corruption] continued in the Indira Gandhi government. The division of the Congress in 1967
was a turning point in a restrained approach
towards the venality of public affairs; in fact,
there was a no-holds-barred approach to it.
There was some kind of collusion and the corrupt ministers felt bureaucrats are part of the
nexus. The political parties needed money to
purchase the candidates. Unlike today, however, there was hardly any nexus between
politicians and businessmen then. That trend
started particularly with the rise of Reliance
Industries.
During Indira Gandhis tenure whenever a
discussion took place on corruption, she used
to say that it was a universal phenomenon.
Large-scale development activities had
started by the time
Indira took over and it
became easy to siphon
off money. Both officers
and politicians benefitted from it. There was
collusion on two fronts
among the political
parties and between officers and politicians.
In fact, so closely did
the two get interlaced
that many development
economists used to call
corruption a lubricant
to the wheels of development. Such expressions had a long-lasting
During Indira Gandhis
impact and were certenure whenever a
tainly a bane for a poor
society like ours. There
discussion took place
was never any accounton corruption, she
ability measures.
used to say that it was

a universal phenomenon. Large-scale development activities
had started by the time
Indira took over and it
became easy to siphon
off money. Both officers
and politicians benefitted from it.
The 24-page report

that shook India
I was appointed the

CAG during Indira
Gandhis second tenure
(1980-84). I resigned as
the home secretary to
take this constitutional
post. But I felt unhappy
as there was too much
interference in Punjab
affairs by the baba-log
[Rajiv Gandhi and Arun
Nehru]. I knew that the
central governments policy is not the way I

wanted and something drastic needed to be
done.
When Rajiv Gandhi took over (as prime minister), the Bofors scandal rocked the nation.
There is a director of audit in the defence
ministry who does the auditing of normal
purchases [by the ministry]. But since it was
getting difficult to get documents on Bofors
from the ministry, he complained to me. I
was surprised and rang up the then defence
secretary, SK Bhatnagar, and asked about the
documents. He promised to hand over the
document to the defence audit. But, despite all
my effort, the documents were not provided.
The defence audit again rang up and told me
that they were given some papers but not the
entire set of documents. When I met Bhatnagar, I told him to take corrective action. But
when the papers were not supplied even after
that, I approached defence minister KC Pant,
who immediately told his officials to supply
the papers.
When we got the papers, we found something wrong in them, as a different technical
assessment was made in the purchase. We
sought clarification and gave them a chance
to clarify. When scrutiny was going on and we
came to a tentative conclusion about some irregularities, the Swedish radio broke the news
of the Bofors scam.
All hell broke loose. In India, many papers
had already started writing about it but now it
became a high-profile case.
I had to work on the draft several times but
since I wanted to be sure about everything,
it came out in public that I was changing the
report. One day VP Singh rang me up after he
resigned from the Rajiv Gandhi government. I
told him that the report would come out with
the best of my judgment. The CAG office was
very fair to the government at every stage it
enquired. It was a small report of 24 pages.
Though some officers wanted it as a separate
report, I said no, and it was part of the defence report.
But I was very firm about one thing: whatever facts emerge, I would bring them out.
The problem for Rajiv Gandhi was that economics of the deal must be worked out [as
Gandhi, the then PM and also defence minister, wrote in one of the deal documents]. But
the same economics was never reworked and
the contract was signed within a week. When
people went to test the gun, it was hardly
tested they [the Bofors guns] were moving
around somewhere else. It is unfortunate for
C
HANGE
the country if such things happen in defence
deals. The report was checked many times
over from every angle before it was made
public.
Changes I brought into CAG
Earlier, company 'A' or 'B' was written in the

CAG report (instead of identifying the firms
concerned) but I stopped the practice. Why
not name the company? The officers were
afraid (but) I said this is a constitutional document prepared with extreme care, so remove
the speculation in the
report.
The probThe second thing I
lem for
started was the practice
of bringing out excerpts
Rajiv
of the report in easy lanGandhi
guage for the press and
public to read, underwas that economics
stand and comprehend
of the deal must be
because these reports
are not always easy to
worked out [as Ganread. In my time it was
dhi, the then PM and
published in 'yellow
paper' but the practice
also defence minister,
was stopped by my sucwrote in one of the
cessor. When Vinod Rai
became CAG, he again
deal documents]. But
introduced it (excerpts,
the same economics
or Noddy books, as
they are popularly
was never reworked
called) in a much more
elaborate form.
and the contract was
The CAGs job is not to
signed within a week.
find corruption but how
the government intends
to spend the sanctioned money. Three submarines were purchased before Bofors (deal)
and that also came out in the CAG report. We
were not chasing anything in the Bofors case
but it so happened that our officers were not
getting the papers from the defence ministry
(which raised suspicion).
Credibility for the CAG office was established
after the Bofors report and reinforced by
Vinod Rai. He also had a good eye for important cases and restored confidence of the
constitutional post. People say there was a lull
after me and before Rai took over [as CAG].
Some reports like Coffin-gate (allegations of
corruption in the purchase of coffins after
the 1999 Kargil war) came out, [but] this was
again politicised much more than what was
there in the report.
After the Bofors scandal broke, we felt handicapped by the lack of government financing
whenever we wanted to start something new,

or wanted to send an officer abroad to learn
auditing practices.
People often ask me why CAG doesnt have
power to recover money, as is the case in
some other countries. I tell them there are
checks and balances in the Indian system. If
CAG does it, there will be court cases and one
officer will always be attending these cases.
The job of CAG is to alert the government
and inform the public that money sanctioned
through parliament is spent properly. We are
not an investigating team or authority.
Corruption has increased [over the years]
due to [increasing] government expenditure
over populist measures without accountability. Not only accountability, there was
hardly any accounting system for any populist
scheme. An internal audit, if it functions properly, will help each ministry function better.
But the internal auditor should report to the
secretary he/she may be a small person in
the ministry but you must give him/her the
authority.
In the 1980s, JRD Tata made a suggestion
that industrialists should form a club to channelise money given to the political parties
for fighting elections. Every record should be
made available in public so that people know.
But it was a non-starter. That was a lost effort.
The present set of bureaucracy is much
more informed and knowledgeable; and
have much better education. However, one
disturbing aspect is their attempts to manage
postings in their favour. During our time, we
never bothered about the job given good or
bad. Seeking favours have now become more
apparent but there are many honest and
hardworking officers.
Another thing I ensured during my tenure
was to take the citizen's viewpoint into my
job.
Many would not have thought that corruption would grow exponentially after liberalisation in the early 1990s. But I would say
the same class of people who benefitted and
exploited the system in the regimented and
planned economy are exploiting and benefitting from it even today.
Any anti-corruption movement can only
alert the government; the system then has to
be institutionalised. Now every eye is on the
Lokpal. People who will man the institutions
will have to work very hard to make them
good institutions. n
As told to Trithesh Nandan
C
HANGE
Waiting for a Mahatma

For a new science and art of a meaningful co-relation
between state and civil movements
Prakash N Shah
Veteran civil society
activist, editor of
the Gujarati journal
Nireekshak
t is true that home

minister Sushilkumar Shinde called
him yeda, or mad,
chief minister, and
our protagonist,
Arvind Kejriwal, too
identified himself as
anarchist. It is then
understandable if
people ask: can you imagine a chief minister
on protest fast? Governance is among the two
or three buzzwords these days, and somebody
can well point out that a government cannot

be run from the streets; lets see how well you
can govern.
But if we discount the whole AAP phenomenon like this, we will be able to make sense
of neither history in the making nor the
process of history going through its ups and
downs, twists and turns. From Jantar Mantar via Tahrir Square to this day, what we
have been witness to in these two or three
years is that an anonymous crowd swarming the streets can transform suddenly into
Jan Virat and a charged-up civil society can
It would be unfortunate
if our definition of
democracy was limited
to only the institutions,
because they all have to
find direct or indirect
support from who else
but people. The sage in
Shatpath Brahman put
it so beautifully when he
told the king, O ruler,
the roots of your power
are in your people.
Photo: Arun Kumar
mould governance
into new, necessary
forms.
Such a process
is not a negation
of governance or
the state. It is a
direct warning
from the political
sovereign (that is,
the people) to the
legal sovereign
(the government)
to put governance
into government
and make the rule
of law a just rule.
This much should
be clear in light of
the tradition of the
freedom struggle
inspired by Gandhis
satyagraha.
Thirty years after independence, the nation felt the pleasing winds of change when
people, so to say, came to power in 1977. This
change was made possible thanks to the Jayaprakash Narayan-led campaign against the
authoritarianism of a decrepit state.
The maverick Raj Narain had then made
a telling remark for prime minister Morarji
Desais consideration: that Gandhis most
important legacy is satyagraha, civil noncooperation. Narain had
said that now that the
country was experiencing the winds of a
In spite of its
second swaraj, why
limitations, what is
cant a Gandhian prime
happening across the
country after the AAP
minister find a way to
came to power in Delhi
create a meaningful
is very much on the
relationship between
Gandhi-JP frequency.
extra-parliamentary
satyagrahi methods and
government?
Born from the Anna
Hazare movement, the
AAP phenomenon in this sense shares a link
with that second freedom struggle. In fact, in
its constantly agitating ways you can see the
shades of Trotskys Permanent Revolution
countering the Soviet establishment.
Admitted that we are far from the charisma
and influence of a Gandhi-JP-like leadership,
comprehensiveness and depth of their movements, and the explosive, creative possibilities
they ignited. Yet, in spite of its limitations,

what is happening across the country after
the AAP came to power in Delhi is very much
on the Gandhi-JP frequency.
A question that was raised back then is now
being asked again: why launch direct-action
agitations when we finally have representative democracy?
Well, we need to take a look at political
developments across the globe before posing
this question. Navajivan, or resurgence, is not
possible without putting those in their place
who swear by status-quo and look at any
agitation with the dog-in-the-manger attitude.
Civil agitations, then, are possibly like that
young woman in a Kalidas play whose kick
revived the Ashoka tree and made it bloom
again. The political elite, for its own sake,
should appreciate this role of civil agitations.
There is certainly a role for democratic
institutions that enjoy constitutional status.
But from time to time, these institutions seem
devoid of sensitivities and can be perceived
as anti-people. In such times, people coming
out on the streets can prepare a ground for a
course correction even if that is extra-constitutional. Students of political science would
point out that John Rawlss insistence on total
reliance on constitutional bodies has not remained as acceptable as before.
If we step back in history, for a long time,
Montesquieus Spirit of the Laws has been
the ruling theory on separation of powers.
These powers are the
legislative, the executive and the judiciary.
But it would be unfortunate if our definition of
democracy was limited
to only these institutions, because all three
have to find direct or
indirect support from
who else but people.
The sage in Shatpath
Brahman put it so beautifully when he told the
king, O ruler, the roots of your power are in
your people.
So, the question is, whether you will limit
your debate to these institutions or expand
its ambit. If you limit yourself to institutions,
well, you will remain limited.
A new science and a new art of a meaningful
co-relation between the ruling establishment
and the civil agitation awaits a new Gandhi. n
INTERVIEW/ Walter K Andersen
India
needs a
strong leader
alter K Andersen is
one of the pioneering scholars in the
study of the Hindu
right. His 1987
work, The Brotherhood in Saffron:
The RSS and Hindu
Revivalism (co-authored with Shridhar Damle), remains a landmark. Andersen
taught comparative politics before joining the
US state department as a political analyst for
South Asia. Now he heads the South Asia Studies Program at the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University.
Of course, his India connection goes beyond the
professional expertise as an academic and an
officer, having studied in India and married to
an Indian.
During one of his many India trips, he sat
with Ajay Singh and Ashish Mehta on a Sunday afternoon for a freewheeling chat on the
change in this country and in the Hindu right.
Excerpts from the interview:
How does Hindu revivalism differ from

modernism? Are they interlinked or
separate?
When our book was published, there was

enormous criticism from the RSS for the word
revivalism in the title. They thought the term
was pejorative, and nationalism would have
been a better expression. Now we need a new
title [for an upcoming sequel]. Revival is not
appropriate. But how did this term come up?
It was because Hedgewar and others spoke of
returning to the cultural past, of how to revive
a culture that would give them political clout.
As for modernism, the problem with any
word with -ism is it means different things to
different people.
In your work, you have dealt exclusively

with RSS-Jan Sangh and the Hindu right
till 1980. Then Jan Sangh metamorphosed
into BJP, and over the decades much has
changed. What are your observations?
There have been growing strains of the political and the reduced role of the non-political.
RSS had a moral high ground on the party,
but after Atal Bihari Vajpayee became prime
Arun kumar
minister, it began to change. The RSS does

not have the same amount of influence as it
used to have in the past. There is a general
impression within the BJP that the party has
outgrown the RSS. If you take the present
context, I think Modi definitely sees the party
as superior to the RSS. The very fact that Modi
is elected whereas the sarsanghchalak, or RSS
head, is appointed makes a lot of difference to
many people at least to Modi.
Your book, which critically analysed the

rise of the saffron brotherhood, often refers
to RSSs emphasis on return to the roots
and traditions to restore Indias glory. Is
this emphasis still relevant?
I will have to do more research on this aspect.

A changing India, with its growing middle
class and more higher education, may have
an impact [on these RSS objectives]. In postindependence India, the emergence of RSS
was linked to various factors. But now, with
an expanding middle class, things have drastically changed. Even the RSS has been changing its curriculum and trying to reinvent itself
to adapt these changes. In my visits to India, I
have noticed these changes.

Yet, I have also met brilliant young pracharaks. I recall an engineering graduate I think
from UP who was assigned the task of working with Nepali refugees in the US. He went to
Cleveland and arranged classes on Hinduism.
The point is, they are still able to get bright
people. This is a good sign for the health of the
organisation. The doubling of Indias middle
class had such impact on the RSS that the
organisation is devising new ways of holding
shakhas to attract youth.
Your work mentions Article 4B of RSS

constitution, which says it will shun
politics and devote itself to social work.
How do you see recent instances of RSS
openly participating in politics as it did in
prompting BJP to name Narendra Modi as
its PM candidate? Do you see a pattern?
I wrote that in a tongue-in-cheek manner! The

fact is that the RSS was always interested in
politics. It had a very narrow definition of politics; thus they would not be interested in, say,
candidate selection and so on, but they would
certainly provide cadres (for campaigning).
C
HANGE
They used to exercise complete control over the
party by lending pracharaks (whole-timers) for
the Jan Sangh and subsequently the BJP. In the
partys structure, such pracharaks, often holding the posts of general secretary (organisation), are extremely powerful.
At the same time, RSS traditionally shunned
individuality and believed in the collective.
That is why the flag that is, the organisation
matters (in RSS), and not the individual. That
was the credo of the RSS and the BJP. (But)
that has changed. Now the question is, what has
happened to their RSS training, of working as
a collective? Modi still sees importance of the
qualities RSS prescribes, like austerity and simplicity. He has been often quoting his mentor
Vasantrao Gajendragadkar saying that I am not
here for long; life is short, so make good use of
it. Of course, he seems to
mean it for others! But his
Modi is probably a
concept of organisation is
not delinked with individbetter politician than
uality: he sees himself as
Vajpayee. Vajpayee was
an organisation.
never a chief minister;

he had no administrative experience (before
becoming the prime
minister). On the other
hand, Vajpayee was a
much warmer person
and had the image of a
grandfather. Modi is a
tough guy.
What do you think of the

overbearing influence
of RSS on BJP? Is this
valid, or a convenient
ploy of every disgruntled
leader? Even Balraj
Madhok referred to it
when he was sacked.
The argument of the RSS

influence more often
than not is contrived for
convenience by disgruntled leaders. You are
right; even Madhok did
it. I think the BJP was not
controlled by RSS (in the
past), and it is less so now. Of course, the RSS influence was always there but things are never
static. If you look at the RSS leadership, I came
to know that the dominance of Brahminism
has been giving way to inclusion of OBCs in top
echelons. This transformation is bound to have
a profound impact on the saffron family.
In a changing India, equality and merit are
important. If you look at the BJP leadership, it is
dominated by OBCs, not Brahmins. This is why
Modis background as a chaiwala is not held
against him within the Sangh parivar; he is promoted from the ranks.
How different is the Modi phenomenon

from the Vajpayee phenomenon?
Modi is probably a better politician than
Vajpayee. Vajpayee was never a chief minister;

he had no administrative experience (before
becoming the prime minister). On the other
hand, Vajpayee was a much warmer person
and had the image of a grandfather. Modi is a
tough guy. Vajpayee had a talent for attracting
the old veterans whereas Modi will surround
himself with young, talented people.
And I am sure he would not hesitate to opt
for younger people with non-RSS background
than old party leaders having trained in the RSS
value system. When I met him at the Gujarat
Bhavan, all the people around him were young
not a single person with grey hair. They were
tech-savvy, with one educated abroad. Modi
loves technology, and he would use it heavily to
promote his political project.
You spoke of his image as a tough guy. Does

India need a strong leader?
I am told Indian people say they need a strong

leader. I tend to look at politics from the standpoint of political economy. Given the trends
of the recent past, I think, India does need a
strong leader to realise its full potential. And all
three [Modi, Gandhi and Kejriwal] are positioning themselves as strong leaders.
And what is the difference between them?
The Congress is positioning itself as a party for

social welfare, whereas Modi is more right of
centre. In a sense, that is the argument between
Amartya Sen and Jagdish Bhagwati and the
question of development versus growth.
Of course, the poor far outnumber the rich
and equality is a top concern. What difference
Modi makes is in terms of capacity to deliver
on both growth and development fronts.
How do you see the controversy over denial

of the US visa to Modi? In retrospect, do
you see the US decision as a moral stance
or a kneejerk reaction when the Bush
administration was battling an image crisis
in the Islamic world?
No, it had more to do with US politics; with

Christian fundamentalism that has clout in the
US (and) in the administration. Riots (of 2002
in Gujarat) gave them an excuse to deny visa
to Modi and it worked, even though he is not
convicted by any court. But Modi doesnt seem
offended by it. It has actually helped him here. I
have a feeling he doesnt care about the US visa.
I think he wants the US to invite him rather than
seeking visa himself. India is too big a country
for the US to continue ignoring Modi. n
C
HANGE
Looking west,
putting best foot
forward
Indias foreign policy has kept pace with the times

but bigger challenges lie ahead under changing
global order
Srinath Raghavan
Senior fellow, Centre
for Policy Research
ver the past two decades, Indias foreign policy has coped
quite
successfully
with the transition
from the Cold War
international
system to one under the
American hegemony.
During this period,
Indian economy has also plugged into and
enormously benefited from globalisation. If
India is billed as a major power in the making,
it largely due to its ability to handle these two
transitions with some finesse.
Yet, the international order with which we
have grown comfortable is undergoing subtle
but significant change. The ongoing change is
taking place at several levels and will play out
to different timelines. But it will pose challenges for Indian foreign policy that are arguably
as pressing as the ones we faced in the beginning of the 1990s.
Consider, for a start, the changes that are underway at the global level. It is commonplace
to assert that the central problem of international politics is the management of change. It
is usually assumed that the drivers of change
are the rising powers that want to alter the
existing system, while the reigning great powers want to preserve the status quo. China,
for instance, is routinely described as a rising
power that wants to change the global status
quo. Yet the trends that we are now witnessing
confound this conventional expectation. In

many ways, the challenge to the existing system stems from the fact that the status quo
powers the US and its allies are dissatisfied
with the status quo.
Take the global trading system, for instance.
Emerging powers like China and India have
benefited tremendously from globalisation. At
the same time, their growing economic profile
has also given them substantial stakes in the
management of this system. Given the differences in their interests from those of the US
and its allies, it is not surprising that the latter have grown increasingly uncomfortable
with the existing system. The WTO is a case in
point. The inability to compel countries like India and China to toe its line in trade talks has
led the US to consider other ways of changing
the system.
So, the US is promoting a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Signed in 2005 by Brunei, Chile,
New Zealand and Singapore, the TPP has
drawn the interest of five other countries: Australia, Malaysia, Peru, Japan and Vietnam. The
TPP has an ambitious tripartite agenda. It aims
at a regular FTA with provisions for protecting
intellectual property; at the creation of investor-friendly regulatory frameworks and policies; and at emerging issues, including measures to ensure that state-owned companies
compete fairly with private companies and
do not put the latter at a disadvantage.
The TPP as an economic grouping aimed
principally at China, though its provisions will
Prime minister Manmohan Singh with US president

Barack Obama at the White Hoiuse summit meet in
September 2013: American leaders have also spoken about the importance of partnership with India
in their engagement with the Indo-Pacific region.
hurt Indias interests as well. The US evidently hopes that a successful TPP will eventually
compel China to come to terms with it just
as China did with APEC and WTO. India, too,
will be forced to follow suit. Negotiations are
also underway between the US and the EU for
a trans-Atlantic trade and investment pact. The
prevailing global economic order is set to undergo far-reaching changes with equally important consequences for India.
New world order
New norms and principles are also being introduced in the global political order. The structure of the UN system, particularly the Security
Council, is increasingly seen by the US and its
allies as uncongenial to them. While countries
like India and Brazil point to the need to expand the Security Council, the US rightly believes that this would further complicate the
management of its global interests.
To facilitate the pursuit of these interests, the
US and its allies have spearheaded the introduction of norms like Responsibility to Protect
(R2P). Designed to protect gross abuses of human rights by sovereign states an agenda
shared and championed by human rights organisations R2P provides the perfect fig-leaf
behind which to preserve and advance US
interests with the Security Councils acquiescence if possible and without if necessary.
It is hardly surprising that the US and its allies
invoked R2P for their humanitarian intervention in Libya, secured the Security Councils reluctant authorisation and used it to overthrow
the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. Tyrants like
Gaddafi may deserve to go, but this should
not mask either the ruthless pursuit of great
power interests or the ensuing instability that
continues to rock countries that were at the
receiving of such humanitarian beneficence.
In turn, the expected resistance of Russia and
China to the application of R2P to Syria has led
to a bloody impasse.
All this poses serious challenges to India. After all, West Asia accounts for nearly 65 percent of our crude imports, $93 billion of trade,
and has 6 million Indian expatriate workers
who remit over $35 billion every year. The
changes being introduced in the global political order will have direct implications for Indias interests.
C
HANGE
At the regional level, too, important changes
are in the making. The spectacular rise of China
is part of the larger economic transformation
of East Asia, yet it has wider political and security implications. Put simply, East Asia today is
at once the most dynamic economic region of
the world and the theatre of major strategic rivalries. East Asia is also a region that does not
despite the alphabet soup of organisations and
groupings have any settled institutional architecture for dealing with political and security
problems. The US proclaimed a pivot Asia a
couple of years back, though it remains unclear
if this has a definite security component to it.
Meantime, the Obama administration is looking to reinforce ties with its other formal allies
in the region Japan, South Korea, Philippines
and Thailand while crafting new relationships
with erstwhile foes like Vietnam.
The US has also shown its willingness to intervene in regional disputes such as the South
China Sea.
India has distance to cover
American leaders have also spoken about the

importance of partnership with India in their
engagement with the Indo-Pacific region. This
emerging scenario presents both opportunities
and challenges for India. So far, New Delhi has
done well to leverage this opportunity to build
strategic ties with countries like Japan and South
Korea. But India has considerable distance to go
before it becomes a serious player in East Asia.
Its economic ties with the region are just beginning to grow. It is useful to remind ourselves
that Chinas trade with ASEAN is almost five
times that of India. India is largely unplugged
from the integrated supply and production
chains that are central to East Asian economies.
Similarly, while India does have relative advantage in the maritime domain, it is far from
being a maritime power to reckon with. At the
same time, we must also bear in mind that Indias interests will not be served by a regional
architecture that is explicitly aimed at containing China. Indias own relationship with China is
a complex mix of competition and cooperation.
Adding a volatile regional dimension to it will
only make our ties with China more difficult to
manage.
Indias extended neighbourhood in the West
is also in throes of transformation. West Asia
has been a zone of great power intervention for
much of the 20th century, but these trends have
accelerated since the late 1970s. The conjunction in 1979 of the Iranian revolution, the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan and the Camp David
agreement between Egypt and Israel set the

stage for deep American involvement in the region one that continues till date. The ongoing
ferment stems from two factors. First, the US invasion of Iraq unintendedly set the stage for extending Irans influence in the region by knocking out Saddam Hussein.
Second, the series of demoThe wish-list for change
cratic movements that are
collectively called the Arab
can be very long, but
spring have unhinged oldtwo issues are of
er dictatorial regimes and
have unnerved the monarsingular importance.
chies. The transformative
First, it is imperative
capacity of democratic upheaval is undeniable.
that India rebounds to
But it is nave to assume
the higher growth rates
that the ensuing transformations will always
of the past decade.
be benign. Revolutions
Second, the capacity of
that begin as broad-based
movements are prone to
the Indian state to cope
being captured by the most
with these changes and
organised elements. These
are usually the most ruthchallenges needs to be
less ones as well. The comconsiderably enhanced.
bination of these trends is
evident when we consider
the most serious crisis currently playing out in
West Asia: in Syria. The support extended to the
Syrian opposition groups by Saudi Arabia and
Qatar has introduced a sectarian, Shia-Sunni, dynamic not just in Syria but the region as a whole.
India has interests on both sides of this divide:
Manmohan Singh
addresses the SAARC
Summit in Maldives
in November 2011:
Indias immediate
neighbourhood too is
witnessing important
changes, and this will
be an important year
for India in the region.
with Iran as well as with the Arab Gulf monarchies. Besides, it has an important strategic
relationship with Israel as well. As regional rivalries get accentuated and the fault-lines widen, India may well face unpalatable choices
in West Asia. Furthering our interests in this
rapidly changing political terrain will remain a
key challenge for Indian foreign policy.
Changes in the neighbourhood
Lastly, Indias immediate neighbourhood too is

witnessing important changes. 2014 will be an
important year for Afghanistan. The only thing
that seems certain is that the drawdown of
Western troops will be completed in the coming months. It is unclear what, if any, will be
the number of residual US troops in Afghanistan. It is equally unclear whether the presidential elections will play out to plan. Nor it is
clear whether the attempts to bring elements
of the Taliban into the political fold will at all
succeed. Much will, of course, depend on the
tack taken by Pakistan, where a fresh constellation of security and political elites is currently crystallising.
The uncertain portents for democracy in Afghanistan seem to be part of larger trend in
South Asia. Compare the state of the region
with that of four years ago. The constituent assembly of Nepal failed in its appointed task and
had to be elected afresh. In this round of polls
the Maoists have taken a beating. But this outcome may not be most conducive to the prospects of a stable democracy in the long run.
In Sri Lanka, the defeat of the LTTE presented an opportunity to move towards a political
arrangement that addressed the Tamils legitimate aspirations within the framework of a
united country. Four years on, it seems clear
that the Rajapakshe government has no such
intention. Worse still, the president and his
siblings have taken the country as a whole in
a distinctly autocratic direction one that will
make solving the Tamils problem even more
difficult.
Maldives has had more than one election following the political coup that ousted President
Nasheed. At this writing it is unclear if the new
government will provide much-needed stability to the country.
Above all, it is Bangladesh that underscores
the changing regional dynamic. Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League was voted into office in 2009 with a strong mandate. In office,
she made important moves to marginalise the
Islamists while simultaneously repairing relations with India. Yet the latest elections held in
Bangladesh have dealt a blow to democracy in
Bangladesh owing to the oppositions boycott,
widespread violence and low voter turnouts.
In each of these cases, Indian foreign policy
has been unable, for a variety of reasons, to
craft a clear and consistent approach. In consequence, Indias larger project of regional economic integration seems more elusive than at
any point in the last decade.
The international landscape confronting India, then, is undergoing multiple changes at
several levels. In coping with these, Indias
own policies and approaches will have change.
The wish-list for change can be very long, but
two issues are of singular importance. First, it
is imperative that India rebounds to the higher
growth rates of the past decade. It was Indias
economic growth that underpinned its own
ability to craft a new foreign policy as well as
the willingness of other states to recognise India as an important emerging power.
Second, the capacity of the Indian state to
cope with these changes and challenges needs
to be considerably enhanced. This is not merely a matter of increasing the size of the Indian
Foreign Service, but also of creating structures
that will enable to achieve better coordination
within various arms of the government as well
as with entities outside. If we fail to address
these fundamental issues, our ability to play
a consequential role on the changing global
stage will remain open to question. n
C
HANGE
A maturing
democracy
Shyam Benegal
We live in a representative democracy which

eventually will have to become more participatory
than it is at present. That will take time
Photo: geetanjali Minhas
he democratic constitution like

the one we have in our country
takes into account our immense
and extraordinary diversities,
our long history, our aspirations
and demands in political, economic and social spheres. Not
only does it confer upon us fundamental rights
but also points to the direction our people and
our nation should take in order to ensure equity
for all. While we work towards these ideals we
have sometimes taken a few steps backward.
Since a nation is always in animation and people are living beings, nothing is static. Everything
changes; new influences enter the scene. Just as
the world impacts us we too impact the world
around us. In this constant churning our constitution helps us find stability, security, growth and
development moving towards a future that we
desire for ourselves and for the country. We have
amended our constitution many times to make it
meet our changing needs.
It requires constant assessment to see how far
we succeeded or failed as a democracy. Obviously
we have succeeded in some areas and have not
been as successful in others.
As a democracy we are in the process of maturation. It is 63 years since we became a republic and
our constitution came into force. Over the years
there have been much dissatisfaction with our
constitution but nothing has threatened to destroy its framework except during the emergency
during 1975-1977, unlike several of our neighbouring countries.
I am not a political thinker but I can see that our
civil society is getting stronger and more articulate as it should in a democracy.
Are we heading towards any kind of crisis? I
dont believe so. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in
many ways functioning as a catalyst. At the moment it is unlikely that AAP on its own is going to
have any kind of impact on the all-India scene as
a political force but its role as a catalyst cannot be
overstated.
We live in a representative democracy which
eventually will have to become more participatory than it is at present. All this will take time.
Not for a second do I believe that globalisation
is a threat to our cultural heritage. Our culture
has always been and continues to be cumulative.
As Jawaharlal Nehru said, India is like a palimpsest. Culturally it has numerous layers nothing
that we have accumulated disappears. n
Benegal, a leading filmmaker and former Rajya Sabha
member, is working on a TV serial on the making of
the constitution. He spoke to Geetanjali Minhas.
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On change
Change is important and change is inevitable. As new

needs and technologies develop, society will change.
Some change is for the good, while some is not. However, we cannot stop the juggernaut of change. In the last
few years, the urban middle class has become larger and
more aware. Unfortunately, corruption has pervaded all
sections of society and all ideals have been destroyed
by political class. Simultaneously, the cost of living has
zoomed out of control, and the middle class has to spend
every penny to have decent living. Thus, naturally, there
is resentment. It is good if resentment brings some change
in the politicians of this country.
On environment
I am afraid that even while there are more environmentalists and environmental issues and, of course, awareness of these issues, the scenario is actually worsening
with the growth of consumerism. There is the recent case
where 70 projects were cleared in one month, while 350
files were pending. How much thought would have gone
into this overnight clearance? Most importantly, the ministry of environment and forests has rejected the recommendation of the expert committee on the Western Ghats.
This can only result in the clearing of forests and disappearance of wildlife, especially endangered species like
the tiger, leopard, elephant, and so on. It is very sad that,
on one hand, the urban middle class is very aware of ecological issues and, on the other hand, there is an I dont
care attitude.
On environmental politics
Nanditha Krishna
Director, C P Ramaswami
Aiyar Foundation, Chennai
We need a very
strong green
lobby,
if not a Green
Party
Unfortunately environmental activists are not active in

politics or governance. The space has been left for professional politicians including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
which has not shown any concern for environmental issues. We need a very strong green lobby, if not a Green
Party, which can leverage influence in political and economic decision making.
On cultural heritage
As far as artisans and craftsmen are concerned, they respond to the needs of society. Those objects which have a
social, cultural or economic use will survive. At a certain
point purely decorative items will disappear unless they
are reinvented. An example is the Kalamkari painting of
Sri Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. While there are no more
kings to commission paintings on temple walls, the artists
have started creating small wall pictures, saris, tableware,
etc. in Kalamkari. As long as there is a market, artists will
survive. Loss of cultural heritage is far worse in the value
systems, which are in great danger. Change has destroyed
traditional values without replacing them with something
equal or better. It is a tragedy because India is becoming
more urbanised by the day. If urbanisation is destructive,
then it is worrisome. n
DRIVES URBAN MOBILITY
Hudco's support to Urban Mobility
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2 Metro Rails 201Roads & Bridges 19483 Buses 27Transport Nagars

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th
15.6 million houses sanctioned
i.e. one in every 16 house in India is supported by hudco
Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited
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Tel: 011 24649610 -23
www.hudco.org
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The anatomy of
an urban village
A near-complete absence of planning has led to a stunted

growth of this south Delhi locality, bang next to IIT
Abhishek Choudhary
he only entrance
to Jia Sarai a tiny
suburban sprawl in
south Delhi, surrounded by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus
from three sides is
littered with posters.
Posters of all sizes
scream from the walls names of coaching
institutes populating the village, names which
range from creative to funny to outright ridiculous: Every entrant has the invitation to
become a BrainStorm Achiever of GATE or
NET entrance exam; or to find a PANACEA
for IES or PSU entrance; and many more.
The second half of the 20th century saw a
great deal of urbanisation all across the developing world. In Delhi, where the percentage
of urban areas increased from 22 percent to
75 percent between 1961 and 2011, the intersection and conflict between the rural and
urban spaces has been starker than in most
other parts of India. And yet, while a lot has
been written about Delhi (and various facets
of its development), less attention has been
paid to the oxymoronic entity called urban
villages. Jia Sarai is one of the 112 urban villages in Delhi.
The main road turns left after the entrance,
and that is where most of the coaching institutes are located. While sweatshirts reading
IIT Delhi are common, most migrant students are either from lesser-known engineering colleges or science graduates from different parts of the country. Anywhere between
17 and 30 years (and sometimes a little more)
of age, these men and women attend the
coaching and spend rest of the time studying. For a social life, they gather at one of the
many shops selling chai or paratha, where the
dominant conversation is often that of this
and that examination, and their results.
Over the last two decades, Jia Sarais reputation as one of the destinations for preparation
of competitive exams (the ones mentioned
above, and many more) has spread across tier-II and -III cities and villages of north India.
The place, true to its reputation, has the air
of lower middle class India at its aspirational
best. Almost the entire economy of the village
depends on this constant flux of students.
A handful of them succeed. Most dont, and
move on in lives: some enter related professions, often at lower posts; some women
especially go back to their native places and
get married. (I came across several blogs in
which ex-aspirants, having met their share of
successes or failures in life, reflected on their
days at Jia Sarai with a tinge of nostalgia.) At
least one ex-aspirant I met decided to stay on
Photos: Arun Kumar
Jia Sarai, which

comes under
the South Delhi
municipal corporation, doesnt have
any of the benefits
a hospital or
community centre
or even an authorised parking
space that areas
planned under the
Delhi development
authority get.
in Jia Sarai: Shailesh Bharatwasi, who came

here almost a decade ago to crack the Engineering Services, runs an independent publishing house called Hind Yugm; the publishing house has recently acquired a reputation
for publishing unorthodox literature in Hindi.
But in this island of young men and women
and their dreams, a few elderly men and
women moving about their daily lives look
like an anachronism; this despite the fact that
even as students come and leave, this small
community of natives is the only connection
between the bustling suburb that Jia Sarai
now is and the jungle that it once was.
ia Sarai is named after

Jiaram, who, the lore goes,
moved here from a village
in Rohtak (Haryana) almost
two-and-a-half centuries ago
sometime during the later
years of the Mughal sultanate. Till as late as the
late 1960s, the village was inhabited by
20-odd families of Gaur Brahmins, Jiarams
descendents. They cultivated their lands,
tended cattle, and were shielded from any
outside influence.
The village witnessed two major changes
after independence: The first began in 1954,
when a large chunk of the village land was
acquired by the central government for building a state-of-the-art engineering college in

the heart of the capital. The IITs were part
of the larger experiment of Nehrus state-led
industrialisation drive, and were expected
to churn out technocrats who would go on
to make the country self-sufficient in science
and technology.
With the loss of agricultural land (which,
owing to the rocky terrain, wasnt supremely
fertile anyway), many villagers found smalltime administrative jobs with the IIT and
elsewhere in the city. They used the compensation received from selling their land
for other investments: most built a house.
From the 1970s, as the city expanded and the
migrants started trickling, the villagers saw
an opportunity in renting their houses: with
time, as savings added up, one became two,
two became four.
Some villagers also sold land to the outsiders, and, in turn, purchased farmhouses in
nearby areas, and slowly started learning the
art of real estate speculation.
Around the early 1990s, as Delhi started
becoming popular as the hub for preparation
of all competitive exams, Jia Sarai became
one of its crowd-pullers. This was partly due
to its proximity to educational institutes like
IIT and JNU, but also because higher education in tier-II and -III north Indian cities was
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fast declining even as the middle class there
increased considerably. And therefore, at a
time when the private sector in India was
beginning to expand exponentially, Jia Sarai
along with other neighbouring villages in
south Delhi such as Katwaria Sarai, Ber Sarai,
Munirka and others became a preparation
hub for top-level jobs in the government.
The results were mixed: the influx of students led to many illegal constructions. All
single- and double-storey buildings sprang up
till five and six floors; individual flats were
divided into tiny rooms and converted into
hostels and PGs to accommodate as many
students as possible. The villagers suddenly
found themselves rich.
But this influx slowly started playing havoc
on the village infrastructure: the illegal constructions made roads narrow. Earlier a
truck could easily pass through the village;
now, if there is a fire somewhere, even the fire
brigade cant come here, an affluent villager
who was thinking of shifting to Vasant Kunj,
a posh locality nearby, said. The village also
started facing water shortage, which has only
got worse with time.
In 1987, all urban villages under the Delhi
development authority (DDA) were transferred to the municipal corporation of Delhi
(MCD); in 1993, a municipal raj under the 74th
amendment of the constitution was imposed
on these regions. Caught in the transition,
Jia Sarai lost out on all benefits that an area
planned under the DDA gets: it doesnt have
a hospital or community centre, or even an
authorised parking space.
But perhaps the saddest irony about Jia Sarai
is that even as the village routinely churned
out toppers in the civil services and other entrance exams, not even a single village kid has
ever cracked an IIT or an IAS entrance exam.
Khud bhi jyada padhe-likhe nahi thhe (they
were themselves not very educated), Narendra Gaur, the first person to earn a doctorate
from the village, said about an earlier generation of villagers. An unexpected affluence
made the villagers complacent. Children here
are used to seeing their parents count stacks
of notes they get every month [as rent], another villager said.
By the time these children become adults,
they get too used to a comfortable lifestyle to
work hard in academics, or anywhere else.
Only the privileged could afford even a
bicycle in our times, Devdatt Sharma, whose
house is surrounded by some of the most
popular coaching centres but still refers to Jia
Sarai as a gaon, said.

The results were mixed:
Now every house has a
the influx of students
car. Sharma, 66, retired
as a supervisor from
led to many illegal conthe New Delhi municistructions. All the sinpal council in 2008, and
laments that neither of
gle- and double-storey
his two sons, both in
buildings sprang up till
early-thirties, works.
Khaali baithe hain (they
five and six floors; indiare unemployed). All
that a majority of young
vidual flats were dividmen in this village do
ed into tiny rooms and
is while away time, he
said. They spend their
converted into hostels
evenings at SDA [Safdarand PGs to accommojung market, which lies
on the other side of the
date as many students
main road], get drunk,
as possible. The viland come back home at
mid-night.
lagers suddenly found
Sharma considers this
themselves rich.
a bad omen: Land is not
increasing. The next generation cant simply depend on the
rent for survival.
n the early years of IITs

foundation, the relationship
between the college administration and Jia Sarai villagers
was amicable. They used
to send students for social
service; the students used
to clean the village, said Ravi Dutt Gaur, the
Congress vice-president from Malviya Nagar
district. According to Ravi Dutt, as IIT became
Over the last two decades, Jia Sarais reputation as

one of the destinations for preparation of competitive exams has spread across tier-II and tier-III
cities and villages of north India. Almost the entire
economy of the village depends on this constant
flux of students.
a big brand, and some of the prominent villagers became moneyed, there was a communication gap and the relationship deteriorated.
Phir hum gaon-waale unhein dushman lagne
lage (they started looking at us as enemies).
Finally, sometime in the early 1990s, the IIT
administration put a boundary wall that left
Jia Sarai closed from three sides.
Most of the other villagers I talked to
deemed IIT a lesser villain. The absence
At one point, political
of planned developambitions made Laxmiment, said Narendra
Gaur, who now teaches
chand a rival of his elder
physical education at
brother: in 2007, when
Sri Venkateswara College, is to be blamed
his nephew Ravi Dutt
on both certainly the
Gaur was given a ticket
government policies,
but also on the villagby Congress to contest
ers. With urbanisathe municipal elections
tion, joint family ties in
for a councillor, Laxmithe village also started
weakening. It became
chand manoeuvred to
more dependent on the
have him defeated; in
city for its daily life and
acquired new aspirathe next MCD elections
tions for wealth.
in 2012, when Rajesh
Laxmichand Gaur is
tall and bulky, and has
Gaur, Laxmichands son,
the gait of an important
was given the ticket by
man who knows his
Congress, Ravi Dutt Gaur
position in the world.
In his mid-sixties, Laxplayed the same trick.
michand is the presiThe loss, in each case,
dent of the residents
welfare association of
was Jia Sarais.
Jia Sarai, but perhaps out of nostalgia for

the old hierarchy likes to be called pradhan-ji. On the two occasions I approached
him for an interview, his family shooed me
away saying he was busy preparing for his
granddaughters wedding. But almost every
villager I met narrated an immediate biodata of Laxmichand: unable to go beyond
primary schooling, Laxmichand started his
career as a DTC bus driver; later, after a brief
stint in Dubai (where he went with the help
of his elder brother Kanta Parshad, Ravi Dutt
Gaurs father), he got introduced to senior
Congress leader Arjun Singh, who hired him
as a driver. While Laxmichand never rose to
prominence in politics, an acquaintance with
politicians allowed him to wield an influence
on the decision-making in matters concerning
the village.
At one point, political ambitions made
Laxmichand a rival of his elder brother: in
2007, when Parshads son Ravi Dutt Gaur
was given a ticket by Congress to contest the
municipal elections for a councillor, Laxmichand manoeuvred to have him defeated; in
the next MCD elections in 2012, when Rajesh
Gaur, Laxmichands son, was given the ticket
by Congress, Ravi Dutt Gaur played the same
trick. The loss, in each case, was Jia Sarais.
As the individual interests of some of the
prominent villagers conflicted with that of the
village, it became possible for politicians to
give Jia Sarais issues a village with less than
a thousand voters a comfortable miss.
Perhaps the lesson has been learnt. With
construction of a metro line under way outside the village, Jia Sarai will have stations
on either side. Ravi Dutt Gaur sees a possible
solution to the parking issue. A metro station will certainly have a parking space, he
said eagerly. There could be an arrangement
through which villagers could be given access
to parking space there.
Harping repeatedly on the fact that a survey
by Doordarshan in the 1970s had named Jia
Sarai an aadarsh gaon, or a model village,
he said, Its still not too late; bas vision hona
chahiye. n
abhishek@governancenow.com
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ashish asthana
9 things that have changed in India and changed India
Run, India, Run!
Bottoms up: Rise of middle class

In the 1980s, the middle class seemed
such a novel concept that people
made movies about them, and the
likes of Amol palekar and Farooq
Sheikh made careers out of the idea.
But thanks to Indias rapid economic
growth since 1991, a massive chunk
of the population made the gradual
shift from the lower to this new
middle class, mostly concentrated
in urban landscapes. In 1983, 93
percent of Indias population lived
on annual household income of less
than `90,000. By 2005, this fell to 54
percent. Indias middle class will hit
250 million or 20 percent of the
population in 2015. Such is their
numerical strength that politicians,
after harping on pro-poor policies
for decades, are now wooing them.
A post-ideological India?
Are the days of ideology over? Is the government of the day past the stage where the right can
seamlessly merge with the left and the centre can shift slightly, or more than slightly one
way or the other? The rise of the Aam Aadmi Party, and its exemplary performance in the
Delhi assembly elections late last year, seems to indicate precisely that. The state, in this case,
is the provider of services as is happening in Delhi.
Right rights: Of info and blackboards

In recent years, India has moved ahead of the six basic rights provided originally in constitution and brought in newer ones. Today, the right to information (RTI) and right to education
(RTE) have become new talking points. While the former, enacted in 2005, has brought in
issues of corruption and transparency and kicked in a new political storm, RTE, enacted in
2010, made India one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right for every child
between 6 and 14 years. It also specifies minimum norms in elementary schools and requires
all private schools to reserve 25 percent of seats to children.
Technology: So smart
We Indians are not technology-friendly. But give us a gadget and, bingo! We know just what to
do with it. Communication is one form of technology that we have as good as made our own in
the last couple of decades. Take personal computers, for instance. Seen once only in offices and
the big ones at that today PCs are omnipresent; their sales up from 23 million in 2006 to 140
million in 2013. Smartphones, a more recent phenomenon in India, have seen sales rise from
9.5 million in 2011 to 20 million in 2012. Want more? Its likely to go up to 81.5 million in 2015.
Indias teledensity, meanwhile, has gone up from a meagre 0.8 percent in 1994 to 73.32 percent in October 2013. With the growing competition between telecom service providers for
market share, access to communication services has never been better and this is only going
to improve in future. Okay, now time to answer that text and finish that Angry Bird game.
Corporate governance: Vision in regulation

This term seemed as alien as aliens themselves even five years back like golf is to the average Indian. Except that the
people who tee off and perhaps play fat shots on fringes are probably the ones who introduced the concept to the aam
Indian office-goer. Either way, given the rise in demand for transparency in even private companies, corporate governance is the new buzzword. Corporate governance, touted to be an effective disaster-aversion tool to mend the way
businesses are conducted, received the much-needed push with the new Companies Act last year. And, wait a second;
its not the only legislation formalising how our corporate entities should be governed. The Securities and Exchange
Board of India, or SEBI, the markets watchdog, is soon set to announce its own set of corporate governance norms for
listed companies to comply with. So all you corporate fraudsters engaging in funny business, watch out!
Banking: Withdrawal symptoms

There was (or must have been) a rowdy time when banks meant everything to everyone it was the place to keep the
cash, coins and jewellery for the rich, and the place to loot the cash, coins and jewellery for desperados. Thats exaggeration, of course, but what was once considered a luxury for the rich and better-off has certainly become a basic
necessity for everyone. Banking in India has expanded with great speed given the rising standards of living, aspirations and literacy of people. Apart the safety, convenience and ease of access has also increased multiple folds.
Look only at the number of banks and ATMS, and you will understand the story. While the number of bank branches increased from 68,681 in March 2006 to 1,02,343 in March 2013, the growth in the number of on and off-site ATMs
has seen far more significant: from just 16,750 in 2005 to 1,37,080 in November 2013. Well, these whopping figures
still leave out 40 percent of the population out of the banking fold but with financial inclusion becoming the new
mantra and newer entities emerging as banks, this group will not remain excluded for long. And whats your online
banking password you said?
Goodwill hunting: Gender sensitivity

Following the gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in south Delhi in December 2012, parliament passed
the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013. Drastic changes were made in the existing rape laws and stringent punitive measures were incorporated. The public outcry over the brutal assault has encouraged many women to come
forward and report sex crimes. The editor of a high-profile magazine and a former supreme court judge are in soup,
facing flak from the public and forced to resign from their posts (a post-retirement constitutional post in case of the
judge) following allegations of sexual assault leveled against them.
The rising consciousness has sparked a debate surrounding gender sensitivity in the public sphere. A mere glance
at the number of sex crimes reported (and that is by no means the full picture) would show that more women are
coming out and reporting crime against them: up from 68,317 in 1990 to 2,37,931in 2012, according to the national
crime records bureau (NCRB).
Media explosion: News you can reuse

The media landscape in India is expansive. The boom of the Indian media, touted as the fourth estate, has been
remarkable and, unlike in the West, where the media industry has hit a saturation point, the growth story here is
not likely to fizzle out any time soon. The figures are also reflective of this remarkable growth. For instance, from
one government-owned radio network, the All India Radio, we have around 250 radio channels today. An Indian
newspaper with a circulation of more than 3 million and a readership of twice the circulation is the worlds largestselling newspaper. And there are expected to be around 250 news channels by the general elections this year.
The social media frenzy has also been noteworthy, with more and more people logging in to explore ideas, share
their views and remain connected.
LGBT movement: United colours of rainbow

Not long ago, LGBT was an abbreviation as recognisable at SDXMQR (which doesnt mean a thing). Today hundreds
of people are ready to come out in the open, thousands are ready to take part in any march to fight for their rights,
and lakhs express their rage and frustration at the antiquated Section 377 on social media. The LGBT or lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender movement is gaining momentum in India with more and more people coming out of
the closet and embracing their sexuality. Although the supreme court recently recriminalised gay sex, the community
has garnered widespread support. n
Compiled by Srishti Pandey
Rules are
waiting to be
broken
We are at a juncture when it is the right time
to start talking to people of Delhi about how
an aam Kashmiri feels about India
Kavita Krishnan
Womens rights
activist
n electoral victory or
laws doesnt necessarily mean change.
While their importance
cannot be denied, the
barometer for measuring change for peoples
movements has to be
calibrated differently. On the question of
gender, however, there have been significant
changes in the last few years, and they do
have a tremendous potential for progressive
changes further, though there is always a dialectical potential for the opposite as well.
There had earlier been big protests against
rape in different parts of the country. A significant change last year was that though the
dominant mode among the protestors was a
demand for death penalty, there was also another voice in it: a tremendous concern, anxiety, and anger, especially among the young
women, that every time there is an outcry
against rape, people start tightening shackles
on women in the name of safety.
For the first time, there was a sense of rebellion among women: against sexism and patriarchy, against victim blaming, against being
told that they could prevent rapes by behaving in certain ways or dressing in certain
ways. That tone of rebellion eventually began
Photo: arun Kumar
to take shape around the slogan of We want

bekhauf aazadi fearless freedom!
Death penalty is nothing new its been
demanded by many womens rights groups
and others on multiple occasions but people
started assessing whether death penalties are
at all useful: Do they make us more bekhauf?
Do they threaten patriarchy in any way?
These things were discussed in a way that was
unprecedented in the course of any movement in the last several decades.
It also took up the case of rape by the armed
forces or paramilitary forces [in states where
the Armed Forces Special Powers Act applies], and rape of dalit women. And it didnt
just stop at women; it actually did manage
to unsettle the discourse: it raised questions
about the right of a dalit man to fall in love
with an upper caste girl, or a Muslim man to
fall in love with a Hindu girl, or the right of a
Kashmiri man or woman to feel bekhauf in
Kashmir or elsewhere in the country.
Last year, we were asking why we wait for
a particular brutal rape or murder for the
media and people to pick up and then react;
what about the daily fear that women face?
One year later, these things are playing out
in different ways. Sexual harassment has become part of a debate. Of course there is also
a backlash bogey of the misuse of laws but the
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fact that we are talking about them is contributing to a better understanding of what sexual
harassment is and what kind of mechanism
we need to deal with it.
We dont need primitive laws. We need
something that will change, for example, the
workplace culture in a very systematic way:
the Vishaka guidelines were aimed at that.
Something similar can also be said of the rural
areas, where anger against victim-blaming
and moral policing has been building up. I witnessed this mood in Siwan in Bihar early last
year. When Asaram Bapu visited Siwan after
making his remarks on the December 16 gangrape [blaming the victim], 500 women, of all
ages, came out, armed with eggs and tomatoes,
to protest. He literally had to retreat.
These women were not just angry with
Asaram. Around the same time in Siwan,
panchayat heads and religious communities
both Hindus and Muslims had issued diktats
saying girls shouldnt use mobile phones,
shouldnt wear jeans, etc. The women protested against moral policing and said, Hamari
beti kya pehnegi, humein tay karne do (let us
decide what our daughters will wear)!
Looking at the new government in Delhi from
the point of view of last years movements,
though, I have some concerns now. Only two
things the AAP government talks about relate
to gender, and both are somewhat myopic,
even a little misguided. Its important to see
how these initiatives measure up with the kind
of change the Verma committee recommendations or last years movements talked about.
One is AAPs idea that we need a citizens
commando force to be trained by ex-army
personnel. The idea of a commando force is
nothing new. The idea of a citizens commando force is new but the fact that we need an
armed body is precisely what the protestors
last year could visualise and were shouting
against: Dont you dare take away our freedom in the name of protecting us.
For instance, the Madhya Pradesh government has a Nirbhaya police patrol, and it has
taken the squad no time to essentially launch
into an aggressive kind of moral policing. We
need to make a distinction between consensual relationships irrespective of our moral
position and unconsensual sexual violence.
The situation doesnt relate only to street offences. In fact, in a large number of cases we
receive [at All India Progressive Women Association] pertains to domestic violence. It would
be a truly happy development for womens
movement if we could awaken a certain section of community to say that when a woman
faces dowry harassment or domestic violence

we would stand with her, amplify her voice,
go with her to the police.
The other is the idea that raids will be carried out at nights to see if auto-rickshaws
are refusing to ferry passengers. Instead, we
should first ensure public transport for all, so
that women of all classes, including the ones
who cant afford an auto-rickshaw, feel safe.
What we should ensure is to have an adequate number of DTC buses, run by staff who
are permanent, and therefore accountable.
Every woman should feel the government has
actually imagined her out on the street at midnight and provided her with a 24x7 fleet of DTC
buses. We could also have more public spending on properly run safe shelters, juvenile
homes and rape crises centres, among others.
The anti-corruption movement and the
events that followed have led to a complete
upheaval of the established political wisdom.
The heart of it is the idea that people want to
be part of the decision-making process; they
are beginning to push the boundary of participation. The idea of who exactly constitutes the
aam aadmi or aam aurat is also debated.
We are at a juncture when it is time to start
talking to people of Delhi about how an aam
Kashmiri feels about India. About the fact
that an aam Dilliwallah, an aam Indian on the
street has a right to anger if you agitate over
bijli and paani, they
may jail you, impose
a fine on you, but
Last year, we were asknever shoot you to
ing why we wait for a
death. But in Kashmir, even a protest
particular brutal rape
for bijli-paani or
or murder for the meany other innocuous
issue turns into a
dia and people to pick
security issue and is
dealt with as a war.
up and then react. One
Politically, 2014
year later, these things
holds the possibility of a dangerous
are playing out in difchange in the ascenferent ways. Sexual hasion of Narendra
Modi as the prime
rassment has become
minister. But we
part of a debate.
must not silence
ourselves, not play
according to the old
rules, but rather embrace new possibilities.
This is an exciting moment. Rules are waiting
to be broken, and we really should do this.
Thats the change I would like to see. n
As told to Abhishek Choudhary
C
HANGE
The new democratic age

of social media
Or how to change the world with barely 140 characters
Shekhar Kapur
Filmmaker
en Next is fundamentally different from previous

young generations. It
started with television, especially cable
television, after it
moved into small
towns. We are tribal
people with different tribes of cultures and mindsets. Earlier,
the tribe and peers were local and we were
governed by local ideas. Now, a small group
is connected on social media and they are
becoming very tribal. For example, if AAP and
Kejriwal are on a dharna, every tribe is either

for or against it, which means young people
are very, very able and willing to shift their
tribal loyalties. Earlier, these loyalties were
absolute because that was the only influence
on you. As influences increase, our young
people will be far more mobile in what
they are support.
Merely tweeting is also an active idea
because airing of information on what you
think, as an individual, is not to be ignored. If
you look at revolutions that took place in the
past, poets and writers also disseminated their
ideas and influenced people. Even Gandhi did
a Dandi March and caused the downfall of an
empire. So the influencing factor of a person
who merely sits and tweets does not necessarily become an action. If you are a strong influencer, you can create and cause action. For
social change, individual actions have to be
multiplied before they bring in change. Therefore, an influential media, dissemination of
ideas, and your ability to influence others, is
not something to be scoffed at.
Does it provoke action? Yes, because you
are disseminating ideas through social media
and that itself is very important. We have
seen that all over the world social media is
causing more and more people to come out
on the streets and protest very actively, often
at danger to their lives. It also contributes to
social work: I know that people came together
through social media for relief in Uttrakhand:
those with money gave money; others contributed in their own ways.
With urbanisation, the impact of being
physically thrown into far closer atmosphere
creates a desire to struggle and retain the
culture you are comfortable with. When
you meet Indians living in foreign countries,
you observe that the generation that went
[abroad] became more rooted, conservative
and traditional than the Indians here. The reason is, they are suddenly thrown into an alien
environment, and tend to cling to what they

think their roots are. The problem is you have
not explored them, but simply accepted them,
so you go back to that kind of acceptance.
In India, as against people who go and live
overseas, there are urban and semi-urban
areas that India is gravitating into and not
comfortable with. Most people who come to
Mumbai live in chawls, slums, and even middle class is thrown in physical spaces where
they confront each other almost window to
window. The moment that happens, interpersonal behaviour becomes different. Here you
either reject it because it leads to conflict, or
you embrace it, in which case it leads to dissemination of ideas of people that you would
have otherwise never come in contact with.
Both these things are happening to Indians.
The larger issue is that we are becoming a
more globalised country. India is only an idea.
You cannot say I am Indian, and therefore I
am different from the rest of the world. Everywhere in the country, people have grown
together, they start speaking each others
languages, intermarry and therefore become
part of more general tribe and that is a good
thing. Urbanisation is globalisation of India.
On the other hand, many forces are tearing India apart. There are
huge social problems of
My opinion is that we
urbanisation which are
largely infrastructural
have had, for a long
lack of amenities, police
time, a democratic
force, good roads, electricity, etc. As we get over
system that is feudal in
the problems, and with
nature. When you compeople suddenly getting
very aggressive in closed
pare yourself to China
quarters, will it mean
you only get one anthat we will lose a large
part of our infinite culswer: But China is not
ture that everybody coma democracy, and you
plains about? May be, but
we will have to actively
have no freedom. I arwork towards not losing
gue that if you have an
them. But urbanisation
is changing mindset.
empty stomach, what
Influences are reaching
freedom do you have?
small towns and everybody is getting influenced
by tribes that are larger,
and less influenced by peer, village and town
tribes. So these particular social problems are
bound to arise.
While television has a singular message and
can be influential, social media has a feedback
effect where you can rebel against the message: you get many conflicting messages at the
same time, and it does give you the ability to

make up your own mind. And try as hard as
people might, they have never been able to
control social media. Today, if you go to twitter, you see people fighting on social media;
people from different political parties trawling
each other. And it is not some media house
dominating how they want you to be. Social
media is much more democratic, and therefore, I think, there will be more discussion
and more young people will be involved with
it. Earlier, it was a parent-young person or
teacher-young person relationship, whereas
now there is chatter amongst people, and that
chatter ultimately evolves into awareness.
My opinion is that we have had, for a long
time, a democratic system that is feudal in
nature. When you compare yourself to China
you only get one answer: But China is not a
democracy, and you have no freedom. I argue that if you have an empty stomach, what
freedom do you have?
Our constitution was made for 350 million people which was our population at that
time, and the demography then was much
older than it is now. People at that time were
not (physically) mobile and entrepreneurial.
Nobody at that time could have imagined
that the population would explode like it did,
technology would change the world every day,
that our population would become youngest
in the world, and so aspirational.
Where we now have a system in place that
actually responds to aspirations of people,
it has created a wall of inertia to protect itself between the people and itself. To break
through this wall, people use corruption as a
weapon and our systems encourage corruption because it does not have responses. Every
time you ask entrepreneurs, they say India is
the most difficult place to start business because the bureaucracy and laws are very difficult. This is inertia. So they play with the system and succeed bribing their way through;
that is what has happened over 67 years.
We need a change of system, not government, because a different party or person at
the helm has much backlog of work to actually make a difference in the next five years.
In the next five years, 60 million young people
will be added into the burgeoning pool of
unemployed people. These young people who
we call Indias strength, if they have no jobs,
with all the information giving them hope and
unfulfilled aspirations, can have a disastrous
effect. n
As told to Geetanjali Minhas.
C
HANGE
Youth should
dream more
AAP, social
media,
youth
today are
offering a
ray of hope
even as we
become a
self-centred
society
Buddhadeb
Dasgupta
Filmmaker, poet
ooking at the current scenario, I feel

society has changed
for the worse. The
kind of torture and
physical violence
seen today was unthinkable 50 years
ago. Crimes against
women are rising by
the day, and all this is happening while our
politicians remain indifferent and the police
are encouraged to remain silent.

Why should we celebrate the republic day
when we fail to protect our women? This celebration each year is a farce. When will the
political class react and take corrective steps?
If they are not reacting now, they never will.
We need to think about the common man
not only in the big cities but also in rural
areas. As a filmmaker, I have travelled to
the remotest of places and I have seen how
people live there. Every moment of their
life is a struggle a struggle for food, for
education, and for healthcare. The common

man should start protesting vehemently for
his rights. Why did the Naxalbari (in north
Bengal) movement start? Why are Maoists
protesting now? I have been to Jangalmahal (Maoist-affected areas in West Bengal)
and seen the condition of people there. It is
shameful to know that these people were
forgotten and ignored while the rest of the
country progressed.
Hence, they were forced to rise up and rebel.
I do not condone some of their actions but instead of renouncing them we need to engage
them in the mainstream society.
Politicians nowadays are shameless liars but
people believe in their lies
and, therefore, suffer. The
The middle class
civil society movement
believes that no matter
has gained momentum
and it has to, because the
who comes to power,
political scenario is going
to the dogs.
they will remain
People, too, are becomunchallenged. But it is
ing selfish. We do not
want to protest on behalf
the people in the
of others. The middle
hinterland who suffer.
class believes that no
matter who comes to
I once saw a hospital in
power, they will remain
Purulia, and the condiunchallenged. But it is
the people in the hintertion there was unbelievland who suffer. In areas
able dogs and patients
like Purulia (district of
West Bengal, bordering
lay side by side. So until
Jharkhand) or Jangalmapeople come together
hal, even basic essentials
like medicines and docand protest, their
tors are absent. I once
misery would continue.
saw a hospital in Purulia
district, and the condition there was unbelievable
dogs and patients lay side by side. So until
the people come together and protest, their
misery would continue.
In this context, I believe the emergence of
Aam Aadmi Party is a good sign. It has been
formed largely by the middle-class intelligentsia. While the party has a lot to do and
get better at doing it, it has given us a ray of
hope. If it is successful in Delhi, the party will
spread to other parts in India. Let us wait and
watch.
Urbanisation is not limited to the cities
any more. India exists beyond the cities. But
where is the development, and why is it limited only to big cities?
A section of the youth today is definitely
concerned about society but I lament the fact

that they are no longer dreamers. We used
to dream about changing the society, and of
pursuing those dreams. Todays youth has to
dream more. I recently saw an advertisement
in which a man encourages his son to learn
so that he can grow up and buy a big car. It
depicts that our achievements have become
limited to material things. We have become a
self-centred consumer society. In our generation we used to think about helping other
people. But the societal orientation is more
towards greed now. The main purpose of our
lives now is to satiate our greed.
This is not to say we have never been careerists my father came to Kolkata from
Dhaka to pursue his career. We certainly need
to focus on our careers to progress in life, but
sadly that has given birth to greed.
We are not losing connect with our cultural
heritage because of globalisation. Instead,
now we can explore the culture of other countries through foreign films. For instance, I love
western classical music and earlier had to
wait for a programme on Sundays to listen to
western classical. But thanks to globalisation
it is now easily accessible.
But the real problems are sanskriti ke niye
je khabardari kora hoy (watchdogs of culture
who politicise it). The documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, for instance, had severely criticised
the then US president George W Bush. It was
never banned in America; it even did good
business. But in India, if you are making a
movie on a political leader like Jawaharlal
Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi you have to praise
them and talk about only the good things they
did. You cannot criticise them. We do not even
discuss the sexual experiments of Gandhi. The
system is extremely hypocritical.
Social media, however has emerged as a
powerful tool amid all this. When the supreme court gave its verdict on article 377
recently [criminalising homosexuality and unnatural sex], there was a huge outcry on Twitter and Facebook in fact, so much so that the
authorities sat up and took notice. It (social
media) is creating a much-needed awareness
among the masses. It has also emerged as a
platform to register protest.
At one time, dissent was limited to our
houses and neighbourhood tea-stalls. But now
we have avenues to spread the word. I am
hopeful something bigger will be born out of
social media. n
As told to Puja Bhattacharjee
C
HANGE
Such a long journey

on info highway
Though much has been achieved, lack of integrated planning,
execution and e-vision continues to haunt e-governance
Shubhendu Parth
hange is inevitable
and there is no denying that. However,
when we decided to
review the sevenand-a-half years of
the national e-governance plan (NeGP)
and the change that
technology had triggered in the government sector, we began by
asking the same questions that I had probed
in 2006 while working on the 10-point e-gov
agenda.
Can automated death certificate generation
ease the process and reduce the time required
for sanctioning family pension or compensation by doing away with physical movement
of files? Will automation of land records help
the government at the centre and the states in
proper allocation of funds and resource? Can
automation of police services at state levels
lead to better cooperation at the national level? Can the common services centers be used
as an extension of passport seva kendras?
The answer to all these questions then was
'No'. The answer to the same set of question in
January 2014 still remains a big No.
However, it would be wrong to say that
nothing has changed since June 2006, when
Prasanto K Roy (my editor at Dataquest) and
I made a presentation before the department

of IT (the earlier avatar of the department of
electronics and information technology, or
DeitY) on the 10 practical and achievable steps
that can speed up ICT-enabled governance in
the country.
While it would be foolhardy to claim that
this presentation paved the way to the changes, the fact that over 25 key officials from the
DIT led by R Chandrashekhar, president of
NASSCOM and the then additional secretary,
IT, attended three rounds of deliberation to arrive at the final version of the document says
a lot about the seriousness of the effort.
It was the time when the national e-governance action plan (NeGAP) had just been rechristened as the national e-governance plan
(NeGP). Besides, the government was negotiating with the World Bank for a $500 million
loan to roll out the e-governance initiative.
It would be worthwhile to mention that
the countrys first e-governance programme,
NeGAP, was actually initiated in 2003 with
the mandate to get the policy framework and
completion of certain projects by 2007.
It is also important to note that after 1984,
when India got its first personal computer,
the country took its first step towards egovernance. And though the focus was more
on computerisation, the period till the early
1990s saw India channelise its efforts towards
ashish asthana
networking of government departments and

developing in-house applications in defence,
economic monitoring, planning and for managing data-intensive
functions like that of
the election commisWhile a majority of
sion, census and tax
e-governance projects
administration.
The NDA government
continue to run in sideclared 2001 as the
los with no cross-funcyear of e-governance
and went full throttle
tional application of
ahead in creating the
government services,
right environment for
e-governance by enactthere is still the coning the IT Act 2000
cern about duplication
only the second country in Asia and the
of efforts and issues of
12th in the world to
one system not talking
do so. Beginning 1998,
and the early years of
to another.
the 21st century also
saw the government moving ahead with suggestions

of the first report of the national task force for making
computers more affordable
to people. Efforts were also
made to make bandwidth
more accessible.
The UPA government
further created conducive
environment by announcing the state wide area network (SWAN) and common
cervices centre (CSC) policy
and putting in place the
RTI Act.
By end of 2008 e-governance had caught the
fancy of the nation and the
11th report of the second
administrative reforms
commission (ARC) Promoting e-governance - The
Smart Way Forward suggested that expansion in
e-government was necessary in India, paving way
for government process
re-engineering.
The missing link to 'good
governance' in India then,
as well as today, however,
continues to be the lack
of integrated approach to
governance. While a majority of e-governance projects continue to run
in silos with no cross-functional application of
government services, there is still the concern
about duplication of efforts and issues of one
system not talking to another.
What we achieved
From a point where India exported more

technology than what it actually used to an
era where the country has nearly 197 services
85 central, 92 by states and 20 integrated
projects being delivered through the e way,
there is a lot to talk about. The country has
the critical backbone support infrastructure
ready, with majority of the states today boasting of the SWAN, SDC, CSC and the electronic
service delivery gateways.
To quote from the DeitYs website, the other
major core infrastructure components that
have been put in place include the middleware gateways or the national e-governance
service delivery gateway (NSDG), the state
C
HANGE
e-governance service delivery gateway (SSDG),
and mobile e-governance service delivery gateway (MSDG).
Keeping in sync with the technology changes,
the decision to set up a GI cloud, or MeghRaj,
is another step forward. The department is
also ready with the digital signature for mobile
phones that the government can use for authentication and non-repudiation of information and messages as part of the m-governance
and mobile service delivery.
On the application or project front, while
the NeGP as approved in 2006 included 27
mission mode projects (MMPs), four new projects health, education, PDS and posts were
introduced in 2011 to take the overall list to
31. This is particularly important since inclusion of health (and telemedicine) was one of the
10 recommendations that we had made then.
The decision also reflects the priority accorded to the need of health and education for all
and is in sync with the World Health Assembly
2005 resolution of adopting e-Health.
Though some of the states, particularly Tripura and West Bengal, have been effectively using
telemedicine to extend their healthcare facility
to the remotest corner, a lot needs to be done
on this front in other states though. Besides, India still does not have an effective nationwide
medical surveillance grid in place.
Standardisation of the health record format
is another agenda that is yet to be undertaken,
and it is important that it is integrated in the
final plan on e-Health. In fact, standardised record format and the UID can be key enabler to
the medical surveillance system.
While the standard documentation format
would enable data from various departments
to interact better, and thereby help in better
analysis of the big data, the smartcard-based
Aadhaar can also double as the citizen health
card that can be used to maintain an online
health record of the person throughout his/her
life, no matter wherever he/she goes.
The compiled database can then be corroborated at the district health office, where it can
be mapped with the help of the GIS of the area.
This healthcare-tracking mechanism can help
generate real-time data and mitigate diseaserelated risk at the early stages.
Consolidate, standardise, motivate
These are the key mantras that are as valid

today as they were seven years ago and DeitY
seems to have covered a lot of ground on this
front. While suitable monitoring and coordinating mechanism for implementation of NeGP
through third party auditors (TPAs), nodal

agencies, SeMTs and special purpose vehicles
have been put in place, we also have some success on the standards front.
DeitY has taken the right step by setting up
an institutional mechanism for evolving and
adopting standards for e-governance applications, and has been able to come out with documents for biometrics, metadata and data standards, localisation and, most importantly, the
interoperability framework for e-governance
and the most recent standards for the preservation of digital records in India. Process has also
been initiated for standards on security and
mobile governance.
Consolidation of e-gov applications and a
central repository of resources were other key
recommendations that have been taken forward. The idea was to reduce duplication and
increase replication of successful initiatives
both in terms of delivery mechanism as well as
process re-engineering. The pilot version of the
eGov app store was launched last May. The mobile apps store is another
step in the right direction
and in accordance with
On the application or
technology trend and mass
project front, while the
scale adoption of mobile
and small form factor endNeGP as approved in
user devices.
2006 included 27 misThe store will act as a
common repository for desion mode projects
veloped apps, components
(MMPs), four new projand web services that can
be used by various governects health, education,
ment agencies and departPDS and posts were inments at the state and
central levels. It will also
troduced in 2011 to take
feature all the popular core
the overall list to 31.
and common apps that can
be replicated across the
This is particularly imcentral and state levels.
portant since inclusion
However, despite a lot of
capacity building and Deof health (and telemediitY needs to be praised for
cine) was one of the 10
it not much has happened
on the motivation front,
recommendations that
particularly since a lot of
we had made then.
it is linked to the administrative and police reforms
that have been pending
for more than a decade now. Besides, untimely
transfer of key officials or e-gov champions has
often been cited as the reason for the midway
failure of projects or their inability to scale up.
While prime minister Manmohan Singh had
in 2005 indicated a fixed tenure for senior
officers, the report

on administrative
reforms seems to have
been lost somewhere
between the political and bureaucratic
corridors at the centre
and the unwillingness
of the state governments to address the
issue that may undermine the authority of
the political bosses.
The recent observation by the supreme
court that fixed tenure of bureaucrats will
promote professionalism, efficiency and
good governance is a
case in point. It is also
important to bring
about changes in the
service rule to enable
post-transfer availability of the officer for project consultation for a
minimum period of one year for hand-holding
of new projects in his previous department,
if required. This will ensure that the projects,
irrespective of whether it is ICT-driven or
otherwise, does not fall through due to lack of
understanding or the champion who has been
driving it.
The changing trends in

technology, the issue of
cyber snooping and the
digitisation of citizen
information with various government and
private sector organisations makes it imperative for India to adopt
a privacy policy. This
assumes further significance with the increase
in the number of G2C
and G2B transactions
being outsourced.
Getting the policy wrong
While DeitY has come out with policy on open

standards and framework for document authentication and guidelines for websites, use
of social media and digital certificates there
are still concerns about guidelines on e-procurement solution and information security.
Also, there is a need to provide legal sanction for all government-to-government,
government-to-citizen and government-tobusiness transactions either through adequate
changes in the information technology Act
2000 or a new Act that makes online transactions and digitally signed certificates a legal
document, admissible in the court of law.
Concerns about the infamous Section 66A of
the IT Act, 2000 continues to remain the bone
of contention with incidents like the Palghar
case in 2013, thereby failing to effectively address the legal, policy and regulatory issues
generated by the emergence of social media.
The year 2013 also witnessed the approval
for national cyber security policy (NCSP) 2013
that aims to create an assurance framework

for enabling action towards formulation and
implementation of security policies, best practices and techniques and harnessing competence of human resource. This will enable
the government to set up a national cyber
coordination centre (NCCC), a multi-agency
body with representatives from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research & Analysis Wing
(R&AW), National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and the armed forces.
However, the fact that NCCC would have
the authority to scan communication traffic
within the country, flowing at the point of entry and exit, including international gateway,
has raised the long-pending need for a policy
to deal with privacy issues.
The issue of citizen data privacy was also
triggered by concerns related to the process
followed by UIDAI for the safeguard of the
citizen data, including biometric information
that it captures for issuing the national identification number and the related Aadhar card.
Justice (retired) KS Puttaswamy, who went
to court against the linking of state benefits to
the UID scheme in an interview to The Hindu
rightly pointed out that the project infringes
upon our right to privacy, which flows from
Article 21 that deals with the fundamental
right to life.
Interestingly, while the recommendation
was aimed at doing away with multiple data
collection processes by creating one card
system and common data structure at every
level similar to the US social security card or
Singapore's resident card system UID actually ended up adding one more document in
the wallet.
In fact, the changing trends in technology,
the issue of cyber snooping and the digitisation of citizen information with various
government and private sector organisations
makes it imperative for India to adopt a privacy policy. This assumes further significance
with the increase in the number of G2C and
G2B transactions being outsourced.
While the RTI Act has empowered citizens to
seek information, and in turn compelling the
government to move to an e-office environment, the Electronic Delivery of Services Bill
that requires all public authorities to deliver
services electronically, when passed, will
certainly act as the after-burner and bring egovernance to the right trajectory. The sooner,
the better. n
shubhendu@governancenow.com
C
HANGE
Putting the E in the change

A quick review of seelct e-governance projects that have impacted
rural development, health, education and service delivery system
Pratap Vikram Singh and Shivangi Narayan
or R Subrahmanyam, a joint secretary with the

ministry of rural development, overseeing the
implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi national
rural employment guarantee scheme (MNREGS),
is unimaginable without the help of information
technology. MNREGS promises a minimum employment of 100 days in rural areas. It has nine crore wage
earners from five crore families.
We need technology to monitor the implementation of
work at 2.6 lakh gram panchayats, where 20 lakh minor
projects are underway simultaneously, says Subrahmanyam. His ministry monitors MNREGS through NREGA-SOFT
which is present at all but 452 of the 7,000 blocks. According to him, the software helps the ministry in capturing the
demand, allocating the work, calculating unemployment allowance, tracking delay in payments and awarding compensation automatically.
Uploaded from the block level across the country, the data
related to all aspects of the rural schemeworks undertaken at the panchayat level, person-days employment provided and wage paymentruns in 20 terabytes. A small team of
researchers from the Harvard University is also helping the
ministry in analysing the terabytes of data. It is also creating
dashboards wherein decision makers and all stakeholders, including citizen can see the MNREGS score
cards till the state, block and panchayat level.
For example, (with the use of data analytics and visualisation) I can know in how many blocks demand
is getting or not getting captured. In how many cases
demand is not being met by work allocation. We can
know where payments are getting delayed, explains
Subrahmanyam.
The analytics tool will also make it easier to ascertain the level of participation of women, the SCs and
STs in the scheme and also the expenditure incurred
on material and wages. The ministry is likely to
launch the dashboards in March.
e-Governance: The change agent
The usage of ICT or say e-governance by the rural

development ministry is just a glimpse of how technology has penetrated and strengthened development sector, including the reporting and monitoring
mechanism related to the social sector programmes.
The country also has pan India networks and centralised software
for monitoring the
delivery of education,
Data analysis
health, employment,
and time-bound
of electronic
services. At a click
transactions and
of a button bureauhave access to
feedback generated crats
the score cards of the
from the online and ANM, sub, primary
and community
mobile platforms
health centres. They
can check whether a
throw a huge
pregnant woman has
opportunity to
undergone ANC or
a child has received
initiate corrective
immunization.
action, say several
Mobile phones
bureaucrats working have come handy for
several ministries
with the central
to reach to the last
person. In fact apministries
plications have been
developed to deliver
information, requested from residents, on their mobile phones. The Mobile seva programme is one such
initiative in this direction.
The data analysis of the electronic transactions and
the feedback generated from the online and mobile
platforms throw a huge opportunity to initiate corrective action, say several bureaucrats working with
the central ministries.
Governance Now did a quick review of some of the
projects to find out whether technology has impacted
rural development, health, education and service
delivery in general, and how. Read on:
Health
Scorecard for government health facilities
hile the public health system remains fragile at

the panchayat and block levels in several parts of
India, mobile phones have come handy to track
the health status of pregnant women and children, besides
giving a picture of services being delivered through public
health facilities.
Pan India, the public health services are provided at
1,50,000 sub-centres, 24,000 public health centres (PHC),
4,800 community health centres (CHC) and 12,760 medical colleges and hospitals. These are manned by nine lakh
ASHAs, two lakh ANMs and a battalion of doctors.
Manoj Jhalani, joint secretary, national rural health mission, ministry of health and family welfare, says, The
mother and child tracking system (MCTS) is a web-enabled
service through which we are trying to track each pregnant
women and child below five years of age to ensure that full
basket of services is
delivered to them.
We have mobile
numbers of mother,
ANMs, ASHAs and the
district and block level
managers. The mother
receives messages regularly at all stages of
pregnancyabout the
health precautions,
medicines, check-ups,
and preparedness towards delivery, says Jhalani.
Details of 10 crore women and children have been fed into
the system. This is roughly 70 percent of pregnant women
dependent on the health facilities, he adds. The remaining
30 percent are yet to be captured.
The ministry also has developed a mechanism to monitor
the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) wherein data
of 27 crore children will be screened every year till the age
of 18 years for disease at birth, development delays, disability. We will have this data in our system where in we will
track what happened to those children who had problems at
the time of birth, he says.
But mere deployment doesnt mean the system is being
used efficiently by service providers (health authorites) at
every level. There are certain gaps, delays in uploading
data of beneficiaries, delay in registration of pregnant women. Also, once you have all data, the states have to act upon
the analysis and feedback generated by the system.
With the help of hospital information management system
(HIMS), the ministry is able to monitor the services and performance of facilitiesthe institutional delivery, the IPD, the
OPD, surgery, among others.
This will help us in making score cards of district and
blocks. Now it is up to the state and district administration
for taking up the corrective action. There are some gaps in
the existing system in terms of using data for rectifying the
system. States are using data at different level, says Jhalani.
C
HANGE
Service delivery
Education
A bouquet from the Web
Unlimited access to learning
hether it is booking your railway

ticket, applying for a passport or regportal Sakshat was created under the
istering a company, the experience of
national mission for education through
obtaining a service from government has been
information communication technolharrowing for many. The experience was rather
ogy (NMEICT) as a one-stop repository for web
more painful for a rural resident who had to go
and online content for these courses. There are
all the way to the block and district headquarters
around 4,600 hours of recorded material on the
to get a caste or income certificate, transact with
portal and 92,000 printed pages would be made
the bank or apply for a government social benefit
available online very soon.
scheme. Travelling normally took one whole
In recent years, the use of technology in the
working day, which is an economic loss unaffordclassroom has spread greatly, and teachers
able for marginal farmers and wage earners.
use ICT aids to help deliver the course content
Thanks to the e-governance initiatives undermore effectively and efficiently. The idea behind
taken by several central ministries and state govNMEICT is to provide equitable access to content
ernments, that exto learners anywhere through
perience involving
ICT, so that they can benefit
shelling out money
from the best in the world,
to grease the palm
says Amit Kaushik, former
of sarkari babus, has
director, HRD ministry.
changed.
The national knowledge
Key initiatives
Impact
The online reservanetwork (NKN) is being deMCA 21
Simplified company registration
tion system of the
veloped for providing conPassport Seva
Timely issuance of passport
Indian railways, the
nectivity between universities
Income Tax
Simplified filing of return
passport seva projand institutions for content
ect of the ministry of
sharing purposes. NKN has
Banking
Anytime anywhere services
external affairs, the
provided 1 Gbps bandwidth to
Agriculture
Easy access to crop, soil and weather related information
income tax return
419 universities and 10 Mbps
Commercial Tax
Online payment, filing of returns and issuance of forms
filing of the ministo 18,000 universities and 2000
Land Records
Hassle free access to record of rights
try of finance, and
polytechnics. An inclusive low
company registracost tablet, Aakash has been
e-Procurement
Eliminated cartelization and brought transparency in
tendering
tion system of the
developed so that students,
e-Courts
Cause-list and pending cases online
ministry of corespecially those coming from
porate affairs are
families with lower incomes,
Municipality
Electronic issuance of certificates and licenses, and online
bill payment facility
exemplary projects,
could have easy access to onwhich removed
line content.
hassle and made the
The specifications for
process quicker and
Aakash, now in its fourth avatransparent.
tar, have been developed and the device is ready
Programmes like e-district, a project to autofor manufacturing. The department of supplies
mate the service delivery happening at district
and disposals (DGS&D) has floated the tender for
and the block level, will ensure timely delivery
the same. The policy is greatly for higher educaof services, with lesser visits to government oftion and the government has made no such effort
fices and supporting documents. The pilot project
in the primary education sector.
has been a success. Also, technologies such as
In the education sector, e-learning has come
biometrics, unique 12-digit Aadhaar number
in handy as a tool to provide education to more
and interoperability within banks have provided
people with the existing content and human
banking coverage to larger section of population,
resources. In 2003, the national programme
without substantial investment on the part of
for technology enhanced learning (NPTEL) was
banks. According to the RBI, since the appointdeveloped to provide enhanced education in
ment of business correspondents (BCs), 15 crore
sciences, engineering and management. This
bank accounts have been opened. An official
programme was merged with NMEICT which was
estimate put the number of savings account
announced in 2009 which increased the scope
opened through BCs at 8.12 crore, with a deposit
of e-learning to include basic sciences, social sciof `1,822 crore (till March 2013).
ences and journalism.
E-gov initiatives and impact
C
HANGE
Interview / J Satyanarayana, secretary, DietY
Government process
reforms is like Lokpal
at grassroots level
Satyanarayana, who
holds the position of
secretary, department
of electronics and information technology
(DeitY), is a 1977 batch
IAS officer of Andhra
Pradesh cadre. At DeitY, Satyanarayana is
initiating the second
phase of national egovernance plan (NeGP), which would leverage
social media, mobile, data analytics, cloud and
Aadhaar for serving citizens better. In an interaction with Pratap Vikram Singh, he talks
about the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on governance in general and on the working of bureaucrats. Edited
excerpts from the interview:
What is your mantra for increasing

transparency and accountability in
governance?
There are two ways of doing it. Take more

grievances and redress them. You can do policing through anti-corruption methods. But the
one that lasts is the reforms-based approach.
It means that you change the process, which is
fundamentally the root cause of the evil. The
process reform, or say the business process reengineering (BPR), is the key.
It has six different mechanisms. First is elimination of paper, procedures or processes that
are redundant. Second is simplification of the
form, and make them as simple as possible.
Third is standardisation. Fourth is automation,
to eliminate the discretion. Fifth is publication,
publish and disclose as much as you can, so

that there is transparency. Sixth is to enable
self-service. If you take recourse to these instruments there will be a transformation. It is
kind of Lokpal at the grass root level.
But how do you achieve that?
We will propagate, educate, sensitise and create more awareness. Within our limited ambit, we will try to do that in the context of egovernance. Thats why we are coming up with
NeGP 2.0, which we have named e-kranti. The
tag line for ittransforming e-governance for
transforming governancesums up the intention. Its about a relook at your funds, the way
you use latest technologies, the way you design,
the way you think, the way you promote process
reforms and the way you use local languages.
As of now we are circulating a paper on NeGP
2.0 among all ministries for their feedback.
What is the impact of the internet and

information systems on the working of
bureaucrats?
There is a sea change in the last decade in the

way civil servants looked at tools offered by
technology and the way government functions.
For civil servants, email is extensively used today. It has become a quicker means of communication between ministries, between ministry
and states, or within states or from state and
districts. Video conferencing (VC) is the order
of the day. The district collector (DC) doesnt
hold a monthly durbar. He does it through VC.
Another important tool that has impacted
functioning is the e-office, and amongst that,
the electronic file management system. Instead
photo: Arun kumar
are doing something (in e-governance), to e-taal me kar ke dikhao (then show the number of
transactions on electronic transaction aggregation and analysis layer, e-taal, portal). We will
capture the number of visits, time for delivery
of services and number of supporting documents. This will impact the quality of service
and peoples experience.
Has there been a change in the attitude of

bureaucracy?
Thats a larger question. While technology

does help, puts more pressure and increases
accountability, there are several socio political
factors that also play a role.
Do you think IT is being leveraged by the

government in decision making?
of physical files, we now have e-files which
move faster than the traditional physical bulky
file system. We are the pilot ministries for eoffice and today 54 percent of the DeitY file
moves on e-office. Several crore of sanctions,
coming under inter finance division, are being
done electronically, with the help of digital signatures. Even if we cover 80 percent of our file
movement, we would have achieved our target.
You also have visibility on the portal: what is
the business happening on a certain day, in a
week or a month. You know exactly where the
file is, and for what reasons. This brings more
rationalisation in the way
Next stage of e-taal...
we work.
The internet revolution
will capture the numhas also impacted governber of visits, time for
ment as an enterprise. We
are now able to see the
delivery of services and
impact of e-governance
in terms of transactions.
number of supporting
Since January 2013 the
documents. This will
portal has recorded 237
crore transactions. Every
impact the quality of
month 10-12 crore transservice.
actions are being recorded. In some months the
number goes up to 20 crore. It provides healthy
competition between departments and states.
Someday you will find Maharashtra having
maximum transactions, sometimes it is Gujarat or Karnataka or Andhra Pradeshall large
states.
Going ahead, we are thinking of measuring
the quality parameter. Next stage of evolution
for e-taal initiative will be on quality. Through
this people will be able to see the impact. If you
There is an evolutionary path in the use of

technology. At base level it is about putting
information on the website. The next level is
transactions. You apply and get services online. The third level is the decision support system. The fourth and highest level of evolution
of technology usage is integrated governance.
It means for a service, I just have to go to a
single agency, even if processing of application
involves several agencies. E-biz is a perfect example. And this is the future.
Going ahead we will be using more of social
media, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC).
Our thinking is in this direction. I cant claim
that we are doing substantially well in this direction as of now.
Do you think we have got rid of the vendordriven IT projects in the government?
That change has also come. Now the projects are

outcome oriented, take for example, MCA 21,
passport project or e-Seva (Andhra Pradesh).
We are increasingly promoting that parts of
the payment should be either linked with performance or transaction so that the vendor has
a stake in successful implementation.
What are you doing to enhance the

technical capacity in the government?
We are embarking on a new human resource

(HR) policy to have people who know both
sides of the coin: technology and governance.
Such people will be inducted as per the new HR
policy which is in the approval process. We are
hoping that approval will come soon. We are
also planning to set up national e-governance
academy. n
pratap@governancenow.com
Gov NEXT
people politics policy performance
A Click Into
Digital Governance
Waiting for Warriors
Narendra Modi pitches for internet-based governance
the country requires specific innovations according to the countrys own

needs. Modi, a proponent
of e-governance (which
includes use of electronic
gadgets, technology and
internet), said it is viewed
as the best form of administration across the
globe.
hile addressing business

leaders ahead
of national polls in Delhi,
BJPs prime ministerial
candidate Narendra Modi
pitched for digital and
internet-based governance in India. Modi said
that the development of
science and technology in
Change LPG
distributor online
Trident first to use

Aadhaar payment bridge
Foreigners can now

get visa online
The ministry of petroleum has launched

the LPG distributor
portability across India
on January 20. According to this, people
can change their LPG
distributor without
affecting the cylinder
delivery service. The oil
marketing companies
have created 1,400 clusters in 490 districts out
of existing distributors
within which customers can move. The pilot
project for portability
was launched in October 2013 in 24 districts.
Trident Group has become the

first company to introduce the
Aadhaar payment bridge (APB)
for the distribution of salaries to its employees. Around
10,000 employees will be given
salary through APB. It helps
in directly transferring funds
to Aadhaar-enabled bank accounts. It was first used on
January 1, 2013 for direct benefits transfer scheme.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has created
the payment gateway platform.
National informatics centre (NIC) in Nashik is ready

to roll the immigration,
visa and foreigners registration & tracking (IVFRT)
software, which would
provide extension of visa
services online to foreign
nationals in India. The
software would also help
the police in tracking foreign nationals visiting the
city. Training of the officers is completed and their
digital signatures have
been prepared. The police
are now ready to conduct
workshops for the beneficiaries of the software.
India develops standards for digital preservation
igital preservation is now

a reality in India. The
ministry of communications
and information technology (MCIT) has
announced the
standards for the
preservation of
records. Developed by the R&D
team at Centre
for Development
of Advanced Computing (CDAC), an agency under MCIT,
they will be applicable to all egovernment initiatives at the
centre and state level.

Dr Dinesh Katre of CDAC
said that the creation of standards have started the tradition of digital
repositories in
the country. The
standards would
enable seamless
sharing of information and also
facilitate interoperability across data systems.
Open standards would address the issues of technology
lock-ins.
68 GovernanceNow | January 16-31, 2014
Mysore to issue sand

permits online
n an attempt to end
corruption in sand mining,
sand permits would now be
issued online in Mysore from
February 2014. The sand
permits thus issued would
be verified at check posts.
The traders without global
positioning system devices
in their trucks will be denied
sand permits. Surprise raids
on illegal trucks carrying
smuggled sand would be
held periodically in addition
to permits for curtailing sand
smuggling.
Varanasi crime monitoring goes online
Varanasi range police has

come up with an online
system to monitor heinous
crimes. The police offices
of all the districts have
now been connected with
the range office and zone
offices for sharing information about heinous
crimes.
SWAN in June for

D&NH
UT wide area network

will be implemented in
three phases in Dadra and
Nagar Haveli, according
to K S Chandrashekar,
joint secretary (IT),
Daman & Diu and Dadra
and Nagar Haveli. The
first phase would be
completed by March 2014,
second by May, and the
whole project would be
completed by June 2014.
Online database of
traffic offenders at
Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar police
would now make an
online database of repeat
traffic offenders. Once on
the list, the police would
send a request to the
regional transport office
to cancel their licenses.
DCP (traffic) S Shyni said
that after the installation
of CCTV cameras in the
city, offenders photos
along with a prosecution
report would be sent to
the court.
SMS alerts to check

teacher attendance
All the schools in Koraput

district of Odisha run by
the education department
will now monitor
teachers attendance and
mid-day meals with the
help of SMS alerts.
PSU Watch

State Capitalism in Action
Govt to sell 5% stake

in BHEL to other PSUs
he government plans to sell

5 percent stake in BHEL
through a block deal to stateowned financial institutions
and PSUs to raise approximately
`2,100 crore. The stake sale
may happen in the first half of
February, so that the process is
completed before the election
code of conduct comes into play.
The move follows a decision by
an empowered group of ministers clearing sale of 10 percent
stake in the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) through a block deal
to Oil India and ONGC, to earn
around `5,000 crore. These
block deals would strengthen
the practice of cross-holdings
amongst the largest PSUs. Coal
India is set to handout `20,000
crore to the government by
way of a special dividend and
dividend distribution tax. With
these the government intends
to reduce the shortfall in its
receipts and fulfil the promise
of reducing fiscal deficit to 4.8
percent of the GDP.
GAILs LNG plan

to give a boost to
shipyards
GAIL Indias intention to invite a
global tender from shipping lines
for arranging a host of liquefied
natural gas carriers is likely to
ensure domestic shipbuilding
firms participation in the same.
Having firmed up plans to import
5.8 million tonnes per annum of
LNG from the US over 20 years
starting 2017, GAIL will require
as many as 12 LNG vessels at its
disposal for this business, which
implies that tenders worth $2.4
billion would need to be floated
soon.
ONGC executive endorses IOC buy
NGC will be left

with `2500 crore
in its cash reserve if it
buys stake in IOC. The
decision to buy stakes
has been endorsed by
Aloke Kumar Banerjee, director, finance,
ONGC. The company
had a cash balance
of over `13,200 crore
at the beginning of the
year. Following a weak response to the
proposed divestment in IOC, and also
opposition from the oil ministry on
selling stake at depressed

valuations, the government had decided to ask
state-owned companies
ONGC and Oil India to
pick up stake in IOC. This
is being done to enable
the government to raise
cash to bridge the fiscal
deficit and meet the 4.8
percent target for the
year. The move has drawn
criticism from the stock market, as it
is seen hurting the capex plans of OIL
and ONGC.
Air India set to join Star Alliance
Air India is set to complete all the work required to become the first Indian
member of Star Alliance by this summer. About 8,000 of Air Indias ground
and cabin staff will be retrained in coming months. Apart from training, once
the airlines membership is confirmed, Air India will also need to repaint its
planes to have the Star Alliance logo displayed prominently. Air India has been
trying for a year to join the global airline alliance as it will allow it to improve
its brand image and give a wider reach by sharing flights with other airlines in
the group, at a time when the national carrier is trying to turn around its lossmaking operations.
Green clearances for five CIL

projects postponed
SAIL chairman announces

expansion plans
nvironmental clearances for five

coal projects of Coal India that
supply to NTPCs three major plants
in Vindyachal, Rihand and Singrauli
have been postponed. Eight million
tonnes of output from the Northern Coalfields, a subsidiary of CIL
in the Singrauli belt is at stake. The
planning commission has advised
the coal ministry not to rush to the
union cabinet for clearing the moratorium on mining from the projects.
AIL has embarked upon

an expansion
project worth
`72 crore. The
companys production capacity
is expected to go
up to 50 million
by 2025 from the
present capacity
of 17.5 million
tonnes (MT). C S
Verma, chairman, has said that Bokaro
Steel Plants current capacity of 5.77 MT
would go up to 16 MT by 2025, and the
investment for this would be `50,000
crore. He added that land was an important factor in the development of the
steel industry. Bokaro, capacity-wise, is
the best place in the country, he said.
Verma is confident that there would not
be any hurdle in the expansion.
Banking Updates

Money Matters
New panel to review governance of bank boards
companies are awaiting a banking licence.

The panel is likely to submit its report within three months from the day of its first meeting. Among various other things, the panel will
also review the fit and proper criteria for bank
directors, including their tenures, compensation, appropriate mix of capabilities and level of
independence.
n expert panel has been constituted by

the RBI to review banks on a range of
governance-related practices including
pattern of ownership, functioning of boards and
compensation of board members. This committee, headed by P J Nayak, former chairman and
CEO, Axis Bank, will have a crucial role to play
given that several corporate houses and finance
Pre-2005 currency notes to

be phased out from April 1:
RBI
n a bid to
tackle the
black money
issue and to
check the
circulation of
counterfeit
notes in the
economy,
the RBI has directed that all currency
notes issued prior to 2005 will be
completely phased out by the end
of this fiscal. These notes will be
replaced with new ones starting April
1, following which the public will
have to get the old ones exchanged for
the new notes at banks. From July 1
onwards, though, the replacement will
become stricter as non-customers of
a bank will have to produce identity
proof to exchange more than 10 pieces
of `500 and `1,000 notes.
9 years on, IDBI Bank to

finally issue credit cards
fter being in business for almost

nine years, state-run IDBI Bank
has decided to issue credit cards to
its customers. The bank, having 10
million customers, has decided to
give out five lakh EMV (Europay,
MasterCard and Visa) chip credit cards
in the next three years, beginning with
one lakh cards in the first year and
going on to two lakh cards each in the
next two years. IDBI Bank credit cards
will be available in three categories:
platinum, signature and corporate.
Panel on new bank licences to meet again on Feb 10
aving missed the January

deadline for issuing new bank
licences, the Bimal Jalan panel, an
external committee scrutinising
applications, will hold its
second meeting on February
10. Others in the panel
include former RBI deputy
governor Usha Thorat,
former SEBI chairman C B
Bhave, and Nachiket Mor,
presently on RBIs central
board of directors. The RBI had
issued guidelines for licensing of new
banks on February 22 last year and

was to give licences by January 2014.
In December last year, however, RBI
governor Raghuram Rajan indicated
that the process would take a
little more time. At present
India has 27 PSBs, 22 private
players and 56 regional rural
banks. There are 25 entities in
the fray for a new bank licence,
including state-run India Post
and IFCI, and private players
including the Aditya Birla group and
the Anil Ambani group among others.
RBI deputy governor Anand Sinha demits office
eserve Bank of India deputy

governor Anand Sinha,
who was looking after banking
operations, among other
departments, relinquished his
charge on January 20, and has been
asked to continue as an officer
on special duty till the new bank
licences are given out. Sinhas
portfolios have been re-distributed
among the remaining three deputy

governors K C Chakrabarty, H R
Khan and Urjit Patel till somebody
takes over. RBI executive directors
B Mahapatra, R Gandhi, P Vijaya
Bhaskar and Deepali Pant Joshi
are in the fray for the top-level job,
while the senior-most executive
director G Gopalakrishna has been
excluded from the list.
NPCI forms six-member panel to decide fair ATM fee
ith growing debate over ATM

fee hike, the National
Payment Corporation of
India (NPCI), an umbrella
institution of banks to
facilitate retail payment
systems, has constituted
a six-member committee
to deliberate on the issue
and recommend a fair
fee for intercharges. The
committee, which includes
representatives from governmentowned State Bank of India,

Bank of Baroda and Punjab
National Bank, and private
sector players like ICICI
Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC
Bank, will submit its report
by February. Intercharge is
the fee that the customers
bank (issuing bank) pays
to the ATM owning bank
(acquiring bank).

Right Prescription
Pankaj Kumar
n January 17, Sunanda

Pushkar, wife of union minister Shashi Tharoor, was
found dead in a hotel suite
in Delhi. Autopsy findings indicated an overdose of a schedule H drug,
Alprax, which may have resulted in
a multi-organ failure, causing her
death.
While details of her death remain
unclear, the possibility of yet another death due to an overdose of a prescription drug raises a simple question: why is drug regulation such a
hassle in India?
The manufacture and sale of all
drugs in the country is covered under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and
Rules. The most recent schedule H
came out in 2006: it lists 536 drugs,
with names ranging from Abacavir
to Zuclopenthixol. These drugs cannot be purchased over the counter
without the prescription of a qualified
medical practitioner.
Alprazolam, an ingredient of Alprax,
belongs to a group of medicines called
Benzodiazepines which is used to treat
anxiety and panic attacks. In general,
Benzodiazepines such as Alprax are to be consumed only
for short periods (for example two-four weeks). A long-term
use, unless advised by the doctor, can prove fatal.
The government also has introduced schedule H1 in order to curb the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, anti-tuberculosis and some other drugs in the country. There are 46
drugs under this restricted category which have a mandatory warning printed on them in a box with a red border
on the label, and are sold only through prescription. The
chemist retains a copy of the prescription and maintains a
separate register for these 46 drugs where the name of the
patient, doctors name and other details are noted. This register is to be kept for three years after which they may be
discarded.
The responsibility to enforce these orders rests with the
central drugs standard control organisation (CDSCO). Violation of this provision by chemists can result in prosecution.
While all the laws are in place, the real problem is the lack
of their implementation. One drug inspector is required
for every 200 chemist shops but the availability is one drug
inspector per 2000 shops, said Dr Jagdish Prasad, director
general health services. In the absence of optimum number of drug inspectors, it is difficult to ensure a proper drug
regulatory mechanism.
Health is a state subject, and the role of the centre is confined to giving permission for the manufacturing of drugs.
Whether the rules are followed or not is

to be looked after by the drug inspectors
appointed by the states. Unfortunately,
even the states which otherwise perform better on public health indicators,
falter here.
In Delhi, for example, out of the 31
sanctioned posts for drug inspectors,
seven are currently lying vacant. According to sources, even though the
rules for the recruitment of inspectors
are being finalised as it has to be sent
to the UPSC, the drugs control department in the capital is so severely understaffed that proper regulation is virtually impossible.
Delhi has 17,000 retail and wholesale
outlets, and as per the standard procedure, a minimum of 61 drug inspectors
are required. We have only 24 drug inspectors right now, a senior officer of
Delhis drugs control department said
on condition of anonymity. So how do
you expect drug regulation to be effectively implemented?
In addition, Dr D R Rai, senior vicepresident, Indian medical association
(IMA) said, Government policy of putting drugs under schedule H or H1 is
good, but there is total chaos at the implementation level. There are approximately 6 lakh chemist shops in the country but their regulation is not proper.
Along with regulatory hurdles, the other problem is that
consumers dont follow rules while buying medicines: as
high as 90 percent of the consumers purchase medicines
without bills; some even buy medicines through home delivery. The prescription rule is not properly implemented
often because of a lack of regulation, but also because of illiteracy, and therefore lack of awareness, of a large number
of patients.
Also, a majority of poor people, who cant afford to buy
medicines for the full course of the prescribed usage, buy
them on a daily basis. A person advised to consume a drug
that comes under schedule H1 will be allowed to buy it only
after producing a prescription. The inability to complete the
full course makes many patients suffering from illnesses
like tuberculosis, etc., drug resistant.
On the other hand, if the prescription rule is strictly enforced, poor people wouldnt be able to afford H1 drugs at all.
The IMA, said Dr Rai, has proposed the right to health to the
government so that health can be made a fundamental right.
A unified policy on drug regulation is urgently required
and this can only be done when we can get out of the vicious circle of poverty and failure to implement regulations,
said Dr Rai. n
Time to
rethink drug
regulation
pankaj@governancenow.com

Nee PPP Model
Sunanda
Pushkar
Tharoors
death brings
up questions
about the
private lives
of Indian
politicians
Private, public,
political
Tara Kaushal
he masala Twitter war

between Sunanda Pushkar
Tharoor and the Pakistani
journalist she accused of
having an affair with her
husband erupted around the same
time French president Francois Hollandes affair with actress Julie Gayet
was revealed by Closer magazine. It

got me thinking about certain civilisations preoccupations with the sexuality and sex lives of their politicians
and Indias lack of it.
Think about it: in the late 90s, the
Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair
was making global news, enticing
passionate headlines and arguments,
and almost had him impeached. The
Indian prime minister around the
time was an old single man with an
adopted daughter whose parentage
was a matter of speculationbut the
media didnt particularly care, neither
did the people.
Let alone sex life, implying activity,

we dont even like to acknowledge that
our politicians, like us, are sexual beings. Perhaps it is because, at the media explosion in the dotcom age, Rajiv
Gandhi was long gone and most of our
political leaders since have been octogenarian men, and that aspect of their
lives is best left unimaginedno dishy
Kennedys or Obama for us. Sure, there
is the odd paternity suit and sting operation CD, but surprisingly, even now,
references to Rahul Gandhis (alleged)
Colombian girlfriend are few and
far between. What proportion of this
silence from the media is fear of or
complicity with our politicians?

Or is it because we tend to deify
the people we look up to, and would
rather revere unidimensional gods
than multidimensional men? A friend
tells me that evidence of Jinnahs nonMuslim wife, and his smoking and
drinking have been removed in the
official telling of Pakistans history;
like the Father of Our Nation, he was
retrospectively idealised. (This also
explains why, in the South, the transition from movie star to politician appears effortless, a seemingly illogical
transference of heroic attributes and
popularity.) Note the way our female
politicians drape their sarees, with not
a sliver of sexy stomach on showthis
when quite a few are former actresses. What the so deified politicians and
their audiences dont acknowledge is
that these constructs breed hypocrisy,
because they are peoplepeople with
flaws, sex lives et al.
Leaders of liberal democracies sans
dynastic politicsAmerica, Australia,
Britain, Franceare not valued in
isolation, but alongside their partners
and families, and for conduct in their
personal lives. Despite our family-centric society, whereas Michelle, together
with her husband and as an individual, is in the public eye, Mrs Manmohan
Singh shuffles quietly behind, nary
a Femina article about her. Its also
noteworthy that, despite their farright politics, many of our politicians
have unconventional (if not downright
sleazy though perhaps not Gaddafiextreme) love-sex lives, much like men
and women in power the world over,
and details long suppressed about
Gandhis strange sexual practices are
now being outed in books.
Whatever its cause, into this a-gendered pseudo-genteel environment
entered Sunanda Pushkar, as the third
wife of one of our most suave newbreed politicians, who was also her
third husband. With her looks and
flashy dressing; public persona, PDA
and personality; and businesses and
dodgy mysterious past, she straddled
many worlds. In Delhi circles, I am
told, but I speak as a media consumerthey loved her, hated her, you
couldnt ignore her. Together, Sunanda and Shashi made an It couple,

a veritable first in this generations
political class.
And then came reports of her failing
marriage, and the Twitter war with
Mehr Tarar: Juvenile? Dirty linen in
public? Unnecessary? Her death soon
after, fodder for a generation of conspiracy theorists. Natural-Unnatural?
Murder? Suicide? Mistake! What
about those bruises? Is this the birth of
our very own Marilyn Monroe death
conspiracy?
Despite Sunandas turbulent stardom
and sad end, I think there was more
about her and Shashi to admire than
we give them credit for. Culturally,
we need strong spunky female role
models, women who will forge their
Its also noteworthy

that, despite their farright politics, many of
our politicians have
unconventional (if not
downright sleazy though
perhaps not Gaddafiextreme) love-sex lives,
much like men and
women in power the
world over, and details
long suppressed about
Gandhis strange sexual
practices are now being
outed in books.
own in environments where they have

been silent before. She behaved more
like a flashy Bollywood trophy wife
than an ambitious politicians well-behaved, soberly-dressed spouse, writes
Shobha De. In many ways, by refusing
to be, or let his wife be, typecast by her
past, Sunanda was an interesting multidimensional female protagonist, and
Shashi an inspiring, liberal man.
Notwithstanding the end, the couple
showed an equal partnership, freely
displayed their love and stood by each
other in tough times. They were also
handling a low point in their marriage
with relative dignity (until the Twitter
war)I think this is important too,
given that we suffer from unrealistic
ideas of marriage, with our Cinderella
complexes and other unreal influences on mass culture, ranging from
mythology, Bollywood and daytime
TV. Marriages, even the happiest ones,
have tough times and, sink or swim,
its important to know how to deal
with them.
When liberal lifestyles are on display
by famous people, it is inspiring and
culturally game-changing; this is how
I feel about the Suzanne-Hrithik divorce as well. And when these famous
people are policy-makers, who can be
held accountable on a practice-whatyou-preach front, this bodes well for
cultural governance in the long term.
The public spat and Sunandas subsequent death, and reactions to both,
could, hopefully, serve as a cautionary
tale, if we choose to see it that way.
Where does one draw the publicprivate divide? What about balancing
impulsiveness and consequences?
And what, if anything, is worth taking
ones own life for? Suicideif indeed
hers was oneleaves nothing but
pain, heartache and questions, as
the media coverage has shown, and
everyone should live to face another
day no matter how bleak it may seem.
For themselves, and the people left
behind.
My condolences to Shashi, and Sunandas son, Shiv. And to Mehr, who
wont live this one down. n
Tara is a Mumbai-based writer.
Last Word
Bikram Vohra
Please Arvind, stop

being so infantile
an a chief minister go on strike?

Can he drive up to the federal
government in an official car and
publicly protest?
What is happening in Delhi? Is this
what Kejriwal meant by sweeping
clean? Is the man really going on strike
because the police did not frisk four Ugandan women on the high handed orders of
his law minister Somnath Bharti.
Frisk, frisk, cavity search, female dignity, scream India scream, remember
that word from the outrage we all raised
with Washington DC over Devyani Khobragade. And now we are angry because
the police sensibly refused to harass four
foreign women in the capital for suspected
prostitution in a city where there are half a million of them.

Racist to the core. Just because they are African. Same
difference.
We are looking stupid globally. We are showing our true
colours through these half-baked twits who now command
power. Kejriwal wants to court arrest because he believes
the aam aadmi (common man) will love him more. No, he
wont, hell just be pissed off that nothing is working.
Come on, stop fooling ourselves, it comes off disgusting
because bigotry is gross. Would Somnath have done that to
four white womenI seriously doubt it. For a nation fighting for the rights of women what about the rights of
these four visitors?
And are these the Aam Aadmis priorities? Should
a law minister even be concerned personally about
four women getting into a car? Why this unholy
need to get the police under you and, if
indeed, you have to, then do it by legislation not by disrupting the city. This is
ridiculous. Your team is falling apart,
Arvind. Wake up and smell the coffee.
You say you are an anarchist and if you
even know what that means you should
have declared your intent in your manifesto. We want law and order, not anarchy.
Your people have caused a hassle over
Kashmir, one plans to go on strike against
you next week, the other assaults women,
you, the chief minister call yourself an anarchist and all your plans seem to fracture
before fruition. Great going, buddy.
Vohra is a senior journalist.
a s th a
a s h is h
Oh please, stop the piety!

Devyani Khobragade using a Dalit card or Kejriwal hiding behind
gods and goddesses is so deliberate an effort to pander to a certain
lot that it offends ones sensibilities.
I am all for the underdog but the pious get my goat. Like I was leaning
on the side of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade vs. the nasty
government of the US until I saw her pictures in the paper paying
tribute to Dr. Ambedkar, the leader and advocate of the Dalits or what
was once the throng at the bottom of the Indian social rung.
I had found it mildly amusing when they made a noise about
it weeks ago when Devyani was arrested in Washington DC and
Mayawati had indicted both governments for treating her badly
because she was a Dalit. That was such a lot of crock. No American
cop would know a Dalit from a dragon.
Now, using this gambit is insulting to any intelligence.
If she had done this little exercise in respect of her own and gone
about things in silence, good for her. But to ensure the media was
there makes it uh oh in my book. There she is at the Chaitya Bhoomi
memorial for Dr. Ambedkar, hands folded, wearing a raggedy sari
grandstanding to the masses, playing the caste card for all it is
worth.
The tribute that you pay is private, lady, keep it private. How many
na
times have you made this pilgrimage, girl? Did you go there before
taking up your posting? Bet you were busy shopping that time.
All we need now is the maid Sandra in church with a photo of the
crucifixion in the background and we will all be suitably served.
This has to stop because it is unfair and exploitative. Even her
rather insufferably aggrieved father is now playacting and that
family is losing my sympathy pretty fast.
Arvind Kejriwal, the little David of Delhi who slew all the Goliaths
started off by having the picture of the entire Hindu sacred pantheon
in the background. Whenever he came on TV, one of our gods or
goddesses was strategically placed in the background. I imagine
he has reduced the dependence on that backdrop and will keep his
promises without divine intervention.
The moment these guys get either famous or controversial they
seek the shelter of religion. And they fling that association visually
at the public. It is so deliberate as to offend ones sensibilities. By all
means be religious but keep a curtain on it, your piety, like charity, is
indecent when it shows.
I know there are people out there who see no harm in it but I
suspect that if you are smart enough to PR package yourself through
this prism then you are smart enough to not be as simple and
straightforward as you project. I rest my case but piety and politics
dont mixor do they?

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4th anniversary special edition

February 1-15, 2014 | Vol. 05 Issue 01 | ` 30

TN Chaturvedi 8Walter Andersen 8 Srinath Raghavan 8Prakash N Shah

50 Kavita Krishnan: Rules

40 Shyam Benegal: AAP

Cover photo: Arun Kumar

The curious case

narchy is order, whereas government is civil

domain by mobilising people for demonstration against

hange is the new buzzword. Change, of course, is also

here are two uses of the word change. The

GovernanceNow | February 1-15, 2014

now in retreat. And as the Reserve Bank of India, bless

I believe in those two logical mis-attributions lies the

As Governments in a Republic, our ruling class has to

f coins are copper, notes are paper.

Subsidiaries : CEIL, Mumbai | EILAP, Malaysia

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PAYM ENT O PTIO NS

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a Sri Adhikari Brothe rs e n te r p r i se

A master-class in history of governance with Prof Irfan Habib

14 GovernanceNow | February 1-15, 2014

photos: Arun kumar

done much better

t is seldom the case

Do we find a concern for governance

Lets first decide what governance means in

With surplus, do you mean agricultural

So the legislative business was left to the

That came much later with the Dharma Sutras

16 GovernanceNow | February 1-15, 2014

type of tribal republics where monarchies are

So, does Kautilyas Arthashastra offer us a

Before I come to Kautilya, I would like to take up

the other theory that Brahmanas created the

What about edicts that banned animal

Yes, in that sense, it was interference in the

Do you mean it offers a statist view, that

No, rather in the interest of the ruler. The idea

18 GovernanceNow | February 1-15, 2014

as Trautmann and others have shown, both of

One aspect of the Arthashastra is its detailed

the system of governance.

Did we have a civil society, as understood

The notion of civil society is

go and fight the Mahmud of Ghazni. Or, when

What about rulers like Akbar or Shershah

Akbar is perhaps the first sovereign who begins

What about the British? They introduced new

When we come to the colonial times, it is obvious

20 GovernanceNow | February 1-15, 2014

that we are dealing with two things the legacy

Was this state of affairs responsible for the

Yes, thats right. This is the

against the concept of a modern state because

they were continuing with the earlier regimes

What is the record of free India in the field of

(Laughs) Certainly much better as compared to

he rise of civil society is

us to this sorry state.

22 GovernanceNow | February 1-15, 2014

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