“The AAP Effect”

The election season in India is on. One of the novel feature of this election is the impact of newly formed Aam Admin Party (AAP) in the political landscape.

The most significant achievement of AAP is the speed in which this party has come to so much of attention and relevance in the political process. It is too early to conclude its ability to reach positions of power and to hold on to it on the basis of what it delivers. However it has made significant contributions to the democracy in India.

Firstly it managed to shake up the established parties and their leaders by raising a number of questions; especially relating to corruption. It reminded them that the electorate cannot be taken for granted. This shake up has to some extent brought upfront the importance of addressing corruption in public life. I don’t believe this will result in a complete clean up. But it may to bring some moderation and more seriousness about the way government manages its finances; monitoring the quality of outcomes and its benefits to the society.

Secondly it has reversed the trend of decreasing participation of the common man in the electoral process. A large cross section of the society had moved away from participation in elections and voting because they were disgusted at what they experienced and felt that there is no point in any kind of involvement.  But today we see reversal of this trend.  We see active interest among many of the former disbelievers. More importantly we see many more good and educated professionals joining the fray with a commitment to make a contribution to the society and not just for private gains.

Third contribution it has made is the passion it has ignited among the youngsters. Recently I attended a function which was primarily meant for the youth. One of the speakers asked two questions to the audience. To the question on how many have voted in any elections there were hardly any raised hands. But when they were asked how many would vote in the coming election, the majority raised their hands.  I am sure this larger participation can only mean good for the society.

Is this going to usher a new era? Are we going to see a complete clean-up of political system? While I am excited about the reversal of the trend I am not sure of the sustenance and scaling of the collection of good people to overthrow the bad. This is because the very nature of the good people has the inherent fault line that could lead to its implosion. Remember the Janata Dal which came to power soon after emergency. What a great collection of statesmen and professionals. It failed from within without completing its first term.  

I had written a blog on this problem of “Good being Bad” I have reproduced it below for convenience.

To be or not to be  –Of Good being Bad

In the first part of this article I discussed about how any system of governance will always have a mixture of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ use of the system. I have used the word “good use” and “bad use” in a figurative way. Good use is when the system is used for the larger good of the humanity and bad use naturally its opposite.

The relative proportion of good and bad in the society is determined primarily by the value system of the majority. The natural tendency of this mix is to gradually degenerate with the proportion of bad getting more and more; the bad drives out the good.

This is similar to the income distribution and its shift in a society. In a society however evenly distributed the wealth is to begin with, eventually the mix becomes skewed with smaller percentage of the society controlling larger part of wealth.

The question is not whether it will degenerate. But how long it will take! Some social shocks and scams may cause periodic correction of this degeneration and eventually the society/ civilization degenerates to its cyclical low. May be the cycle will start all over again.

One of the key contributors of this degeneration is the inaction by the good. As the proverb says; “the best thing that the bad can expect is the good to do nothing”

The greatest tragedy is that the people who want to use the system for their private agenda (let is refer to them loosely as the bad people) have some of the good traits that help them prosper and the people who want to use the system for the larger benefits of the society (let us refer to them as the good people) have some of the worst traits that weaken them. Let us take a deeper look at these qualities.

Co-operation

The bad people are generally too happy to co-operate with anybody so long as that co-operation brings them power or wealth or both.

The good people generally carry a chip of honesty on their shoulder that they seldom co-operate even with people with similar value system. They believe that their goodness is one step higher and they are ready to dump and run if the other guy doesn’t play along exactly as he feels is right. In fact they almost make such renunciation a virtue.

Courage

The bad normally has the courage and with impunity cooks the account books /investigation/ assessment or any administrative process for their gain.

The good is often scared to take bold decision and hides behind rules and technicality. The obstructive bureaucracy is often a result of such cowardliness and not just self serving actions of the bad.

Power of Interpretation

The bad will interpret laws and technicality so long it meets its end or favors an ally.

The good often tries to interpret with limited appreciation of what it stands for; by the time they finish splitting the hair it fails to be achieve any good.

Sacrifice

The bad is capable of sacrifice for what it stands for. Sacrifice its principals, society, environment and much more.

Good will hold onto technical correctness, its pride and prejudice even at the cost of its ultimate benefit to the society

Loyalty

The bad often demands and commits substantial loyalty to its partners so long as such loyalty is rewarding. They are willing invest in this loyalty for quite some time.

The good often has little commitment to his partners if it feels that their goodness is not of the same type. They are willing to abandon and run and not pull together.

Risk taking

The bad is willing to take its risk, because they see potential reward in taking risk.

The good is often too risk averse. The potential reward for sticking the neck out could be some brickbats. With no upside benefit for self and downside uncertain and costly, the good normally avoid getting involved.

Now we ask the question “How good is good”. There is a saving in our tongue which translates to “the good often bears the fruits of the bad”

I do agree there are many ‘good’ who are as good as the ‘bad’ and it is through them that we have gained anything.

What we need to do to avoid/delay of decay of our society is to develop a willingness to learn the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’, stick together and support each other for what we stand and not be a utopian island of fruitless good.

Willingness to co-operate, to take risks, to take a position, to believe in the intention of the fellow good, not to be cowed down by oppositions and mild differences in styles and not to run away to our comfort zones is what is needed today.

There is high probability that the future of AAP could end up be like this. The party is already showing signs of this internal fault line. If this happens it would be a loss to the democratic processes


"It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more" Woody Allen

“Whose loss is it anyway?”

“Vendor Lock-in” is a major concern for any buyer, especially if the product/ service procured is of high value and has long-term implication on future procurement. The concern is quite natural and justified because if the product/ technology has locked-in the buyer, it is quite possible that the seller could use this dependency to extract more than what is fair. There are quite a lot of discussions on this topic and there are quite a lot of strategies that try to address this. The mirror image of this is the “buyer- squeeze”. In this case the buyer who has significant market power can use the market power to squeeze the vendor to extent that he may really bleed to death.

One of the most classical buyers in this respect is government. This is because bureaucracies like many large organisations are designed with maintenance orientation than development orientation. One of the primary characteristics of such a design is to have policies, procedures, rules and conventions that are not adventurous, but which prevent misuse and misappropriations. Such excessively straight-jacketed systems limit opportunities for human innovation and initiative. Adding on to this is the status quo bias which is inherent in most human beings, and this encourages these organisations to resist change intensely.

Very often we hear about scams where some private vendors or service providers have connived with politicians and government servants to cut sweet deals or to circumvent due processes. What we don’t hear about or bother about are the instances when government as a buyer squeezing vendors and service providers to their extinction or resulting in poor service delivery. This behavior by the government servant could be on account of many reasons. It could be (i) to extract some private gratifications (ii) because he is too scared to take decisions (iii) to satisfy his ego trip (iv) on account of his feudal mindset (v) to prove his predecessor wrong (v) to get some brownie points from his boss and so on. Even if they don’t do such things they end up taking no decision or taking enormous time in taking any decision which is very frustrating for any result oriented person to work with.

What makes it worse is that in Government generally there is very limited dis-incentive for failure and there is limited incentive for success or even for timely completion of the project. So he has no compunction to make un-reasonable demands beyond the scope as per the contract in the name of executive exigency. He will also delay or deny payments on silly grounds. The killer weapon that he has is the threat of black-listing. In private sector if one company blacklists a vendor he needs to worry only about loss of business from that entity. But if one government department blacklists a vendor, the vendor can say good bye to all government business. This threat is often used by the bureaucracy to get their way. If not official blacklisting they may gang-up or use their influencing power to block any business of that vendor. Therefore, seldom the aggrieved parties protest or object. They pay-up or shut-up.

Most often they package their action under the garb of executive exigency. Indian law in this aspect has addressed this clearly. The judiciary has appreciated that if this is not addressed properly, some executives, with a short-term view could use this plea of executive necessity to drive his personal agenda.  The judgment by Justice P N Bhagvati who has served as the Chief Justice of India has addressed this matter lucidly in Motilal Sugar Mills case (AIR 1979 SC 621). The sheer beauty, brilliance and clarity of this judgment is amazing. "The law may therefore now be taken to be settled as a result of this decision that where the Government makes a promise knowing or intending that it would be acted on by the promises and, in fact, the promisee, acting in reliance on it, alters his position the Government would be held bound by the promise and the promise would be enforceable against the Government at the instance of the promisee, notwithstanding that there is no consideration for the promise and the promise is not recorded in the form of a formal contract as required by Article 299 of the Constitution”

He has further elaborated, “Why should the government not be held to a high "standard of rectangular rectitude while dealing with its citizens"? There was a time when the doctrine of executive necessity was regarded as sufficient justification for the government to repudiate even its contractual obligations, but let it be said to the eternal glory of this court, this doctrine was emphatically negatived in the, Indo-Afghan Agencies case and the supremacy of the rule of law was established. It was laid down by this Court that the government cannot claim to be immune from the applicability of the rule of promissory estoppel and repudiate a promise made by it on the ground that such promise may fetter its future executive action."

But unfortunately there is little compliance to this principle in real life.  Some argue that such hard bargain is for the benefit of the exchequer. But it often doesn’t. With such a tight squeeze and unfair dealing the quality of service suffer and many good people avoid/ limit doing business with the government.  Those who know how to “manage” flourish. Such an environment begets crony capitalism which is detrimental for a sustainable society. Lord Acton’s quote on power is quite relevant in this context. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Who else but government has absolute power?

Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. John Adams

Some People All the Time.. Humour

Major Desai retired from the army and returned to his hometown. Many people wondered with the kind of network he claimed to have and the heroism in the wars that he boasted about why he did not go further up at least to be a brigadier. As per him he had got bored of being in the army and hence he decided to quit and be back where he belonged. Of course there are few skeptics who raise their eyebrows on this claim. Maybe they are just jealous of his charm and popularity; especially with the Municipal commissioner and the local Sub Inspector who are his drinking buddies.

In the second month after he returned home, his neighbor came and asked him whether he had any way to find out the results of the soldier selection in Indian Army, Neighbor’s son had appeared for the selection. Major Desai remembered that one of his old buddies Havildar Sharma from the army may be able to find out about the results. Havildar Sharma helped him and gave him list of all the five young lads who qualified from Major Desai’s home town. Major promptly informed all the five families and they were all impressed by the ‘connects’ Major Desai had. Now for the whole town Desai became Major Saab.

In the next selection season many parents approached Major Saab in advance to seek help for their lads. He offered to help on two conditions. He will first evaluate these lads as he would not like to recommend nincompoops to the Army. He should be given Rs 1 lac in advance for each lad who passes his evaluation. The money was not for him; but to make some in the selection committee happy! But he promised that he would return the money of those who do not get selected.

He interviewed about 30 lads and agreed to recommend for 10. When the selection team came to town he was there at the ground where physical examination was being held. He walked up to Captain who was the team leader shook hands and introduced himself. They had few army jokes to share. Major Saab of course knew by name many a colonels and brigadier’s who were his ‘batch mates’. Capt was impressed. The lads from his town saw Major Saab pointing his hands in their direction and were convinced that he had put in a word to the captain. Actually, Major Saab was describing the story about the temple that was behind the ground in the same direction as the prospective soldiers were standing. After these pleasantries Major Saab returned home.

When the selection process was completed, Havildar Sharma informed Major Saab in advance, before the results were announced, about the outcome. Seven lads from his town were selected. Out of these, five were from the lot who paid him. He met the parents of the other two and told them that they would not be selected unless some action is taken immediately. He asked for Rs 2 lac for each with the promise that he would return the money if they were not selected. Of course they were selected Five out of the original 10 who had paid him were also selected. Major Saab was a gentleman. He returned 1 lac to all the five who did not get selected. He made sure that every other person in the town knew about what he did for the lads of the town. Municipal commissioner arranged a felicitation ceremony in his honor.

Major Saab is not an exception.We come across some in all walks of life. When the stakes are high very often Major Saabs appear to manage a lead. Most of us have a small Major Saab hiding in us too, though we feel ashamed to let him loose. But then it is for us to choose! 


Shame is like everything else; live with it for long enough and it becomes part of the furniture. SALMAN RUSHDIE,

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Paving the last mile

My post “Last mile to the bottom of the pyramid” discussed how targeted delivery of subsidies and benefits can reduce leakage, improve efficiency of delivery and stimulate demand in the economy. In this post I discuss three critical components for targeted delivery.

Unique Identification: The first and foremost requirement for targeted delivery is unique identification of recipients. “Aadhar”, the biometric based unique identity for residents, addresses this issue. Especially, an infrastructure for verification of identity by matching the biometric signature (say finger print) of the recipient against the master database of UID effortlessly and cheaply from any part of the country would be an extremely powerful tool. This may sound like science fiction or a costly option for our country. Experts do point out that the current state of technology makes this quite feasible and affordable as we can have a standardized process for identity verification for variety of applications. With the increase in volume of usage, the cost would only drop further.

Enrollment of eligible person: The second component is the ability to filter out the individuals who are not eligible for specific subsidy or benefit. Today each agency that is responsible for providing an entitlement goes through extensive processes for enrolling eligible persons. If we take a deeper look, we can see that there are many common eligibility parameters for most of the entitlements. For example one or more indicators like age, sex, income, educational qualification etc are common for most of the subsidies and benefits. I agree that there are some efforts like BPL and APL list, differentiated ration cards etc in certain states which are attempts in this direction. But, there are hardly any agencies that have implemented an infrastructure using the power of modern technology to build and maintain such databases which can be easily accessed and referred to by other systems using a published standard interface.

If we are able to establish one or more entities that would build and maintain databases of individuals against their Unique Id (Aadhaar), various parameters which go into determination of entitlements, there will be tremendous efficiency gains and cost reduction in the process of enrollment. These databases should also have mechanism for reverse flow of information from the administering agencies which will help in continuous update of these parameters. These would be essentially utilities that focus on the IT enabled data management which help the implementation agencies to focus on policy administration.

Some people may point out that such integration of data is an intrusion into privacy. However, conceptually it is just like the credit bureaus like CIBIL that maintains credit history of individuals using data sourced from banks and financial institutions.

Distribution Channel for subsidies: The third critical component in targeted delivery is the distribution channel. As the various subsidies are provided by means of reduced price of products or service, there is a need to manage the distribution of these discounted products along with market priced products. If this movement is not strictly controlled and monitored there could be significant leakage. This would require each of the agencies to make significant investment and effort for this process control which often forces state management of distribution that sometime compromise quality of service.

One of the most efficient ways to address this is standardization of manner for delivering subsidized products. The highest level of standardization is when the subsidy is in the form of a money transfer. In this case the goods will move in market price and the eligible person will get the subsidy credited to a bank account which is easily accessible. In this way the process of benefit distribution is not product based but beneficiary based which can be same for variety of products or services from kerosene to education. The agency responsible can then plug into a standardized payment mechanism at very low cost. Further tweaking the eligibility condition will also require very little or no tweaking of payment system.

In this model the agency distributing the subsidy can focus on product/ service distribution. Moreover, there may not be any need to restrict such distribution through government controlled agencies and can be handled by a number of private and public service providers helping competition and resulting improvement in service quality. Government can focus on administration of eligibility and administration of the subsidy. This monetization of benefit can also leave the choice of how to use this entitlement to the beneficiary.

Criticism for this model is that the beneficiary may misuse the entitlement irresponsibly and the state will not be able to influence the behavior of the target audience. Even this can be addressed by mechanisms like transferring the subsidy to the account of lady of the house (It is a well researched fact that women of the house are normally more responsible with money. Similarly the better status of the Nair woman of Kerala who historically had the economic power on account of a matrilineal society could also support this) or dependent on compliance to certain conditions.

This can also be addressed by a minor tweak of payment system. In this case each of the subsidies can be treated as an entitlement credited to the account which can be used only against purchase of the prescribed service. As far as the payment system is considered it is very much like handling multicurrency accounts which is a well established process.

Tail piece: This post attempts to highlight the possibility of establishing two critical infrastructure utilities which in conjunction with the Aadhar can significantly improve the subsidy and social security administration. This cannot be achieved overnight. But it makes sense to give focused attention to the above as we have established Unique Id Authority of India.

In the end, it all comes to choices to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones.Amber Frey

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Last mile to the bottom of the pyramid

Targeted drug delivery systems attempts to deliver drugs directly to the organs which are afflicted by disease or need repair. This improves drug delivery efficiency, reduces leakage and keeps the side effects to the minimum. The idea has been there for a long time; but, we had limitation of technology. Therefore we tried carpet bombing by injection to blood stream to take drug to affected area which caused enormous waste, failure to sufficiency penetrate to where it is needed the most and caused side effects to healthy parts of the body. Today advances in nano technology, advanced polymer chemistry and electronics engineering are coming together to revolutionize drug delivery system to make it more directed.

The same concept is applicable in social security systems too. Especially when we want to reach a helping hand to the needy in terms of subsidized food and fuel, health benefits, support for education and so on. In the absence of more effective means to address the last mile problem, we use carpet bombing here too. For example when we keep the price of kerosene low to help the poor, a large chunk of it is cornered by unscrupulous elements resulting in humongous loss to the exchequer and the needy is often denied what is promised to him. The same is the case of subsidies for many other products and services.

Today two silent developments are opening avenues to address this lacuna in a better fashion. The first one is the Aadhar project, which is attempting to identify each individual uniquely. This unique identity can help in reaching the benefits directly to the needy on a regular basis. The second critical component is the increased connectivity at affordable cost. Widely available connectivity specially using mobile technology has enormous potential for transforming the society in a variety of ways. When we marry the unique identification with reliable and affordable connectivity the impact can be truly astronomical.

Therefore our strategy for providing better data connectivity (whether as 2G, 3G or 4G) should be universal access that is practically free. I agree that we should avoid graft, corruption and nepotism in selection of service provider. Our approach for this selection and license charges to the service should not be to maximize short term revenue to the government but to reduce cost of access across the country. To avoid the service providers exploiting the low input cost, we can have mechanisms to regulate price or to share the revenue or other means which focuses on continuous cost reduction to the end consumer.

The benefit of mobile revolution in social transformation is obvious and there are many studies already undertaken to prove its impact in the poorer segment that today is learning to use this in a variety of applications. The fishermen of Kerala now use this to improve his yield and reduce wastage. Some village panchayats have found ways to use mobile phones to reduce domestic violence. (Whenever the drunken husband tries to beat up his wife she send an SOS to a specific number and then quickly and unobtrusively a group of women land up to the hut which acts as a deterrent to the drunken husband)

Our ability to reach such benefits to a large number of end consumers has another impact in the demand side of the economy. If we put more money to the hands of the rich (who are few in number) most of it goes to saving or spent abroad and so on. On the other hand when we put a little more money to a large number of poor people, most of it will go to consumption of food, cloth, shelter, consumer durables and non-durables, education and entertainment. This can have very significant impact to demand in the economy that will also protect us from over dependence of export which was one of the reasons for the eventual collapse of the East Asian miracle.

This increased purchasing power can be further leveraged if we can get the goods more cheaply with easier availability which is possible if we are able to bring in better efficiency in retail marketing and distribution infrastructure.

Although the policy makers are aware of each of the above areas, very often the vested interests with deep pockets are able to torpedo such initiatives often, with specious arguments and powerful lobbying. We see this in most of our policy making exercises including the annual budget. In this latest budget even though definite actions in these areas are limited, it is heartening to see that the Finance Minister is making an attempt. He has referred to strengthening the retail sector, ways to better farmer yield and reduce retail price by removing inefficiencies in distribution and also has established an inter-ministerial task force headed by Mr Nandan Nilekany to suggest means of directed subsidies to the intended intermediaries in the area of kerosene, LPG and fertilizers.

This a good start; and in comparison with the reduction in tax rate or permission given to the international investors in participate in Indian Mutual Funds or increase in FDI limit and so on which are more high profile policy changes, the impact of the abovementioned initiatives have unfathomable potential for strengthening our economy if we proceed forward from this baby steps keeping in mind that this is only a start.

“It has been said of the world's history hitherto that might makes right. It is for us and for our time to reverse the maxim, and to say that right makes might” Abraham Lincoln

Soul for Sale

Last week I had a chance to spend few hours with an elderly gentleman and his wife. He is more than 70, still tall and handsome with an extremely winsome smile and an unending repertoire of jokes that he could crack at opportune moments. His wife who is above 60 is full of charm that made it abundantly clear that age can never quite conquer her spirit.

I was able to nudge him into telling his story which turned out to be so captivating that I even forgot to refill my glass.

“I have been always a lucky man” he started off.

“Being the youngest in a big family I enjoyed lot of love and affection and I learned to cherish and value them at a young age though it broke the bread to smaller helpings”

“My father was not a rich man, but with his powerful personality he was able to imbibe in me a strong sense of right and wrong and compassion for fellow living beings”

“When I finished my graduation, I came over to this big city of Mumbai in search of a job. After I finished my interview and was walking along, I saw the board of this professional institution and I decided to walk-in and enquire”

“As luck would have it, the guy whom I started to talk was from my native state and he explained to me everything about how to apply for an admission.”

“I tried hard and got myself an admission; the only problem was how to fund my studies.”

“But I was lucky to get some part time job that I could do before I went to school and after I finished my school”

“Then I started my practice and I realised that one of the key essentials for making lots of money was the skill to fix deals with the various approving authorities”

“I had decided in my life that I will never pay a single penny as bribe even to a policeman on the street”

“For me success was not making lots of money; but making sufficient money and a having a sound sleep”

“I did not have too many needs and I had a wonderful wife who was totally undemanding and utterly dependable”

He looked at his wife and the smile they exchanged had the same intensity of affection that one would sometimes see in a newlywed couple.

“I got many assignments where I could perform without greasing palms”

“I was even an active member of Rotary and even it’s President. I might have been the only member who came for the meeting in a bus as I could not afford a car. I did not find it any demeaning and my many of my fellow members were willing to accept me for what I am worth as a human being”

“When I got two adorable children, my wife left the job she had, to give them a home though the budget did get tighter”

“I have always been quite lucky. Couple of weeks back, with no apparent reason I went for a medical check up and was diagnosed with cancer. It is one of the least harmful varieties and it appears that it is in quite an early stage”

I have narrated only excerpts of his story. I realised that he was not particularly lucky or unlucky. There was nothing unusual or extraordinary about his story. It is just that he was clear in his mind about his priorities, what he considered as success and the price he was willing to pay. He had the usual mix of sorrow and happiness, moments of stress and moments of exhilaration that all of us experience. What made the difference was the equanimity with which he took it all. Looking for the brighter side to be content and lighter side to laugh, looking for opportunities to extend a helping hand. I think this richness of spirit that ran through his life was what made it a spellbinding story; more exciting than the dizzying heights of prominence his son has achieved!

Take a look at the madness that goes around. The definitions of success, lies we are willing to perpetuate and the games we play; Aadarsh housing society, Common Wealth Games, financial skulduggery of our bankers, weapons of mass destruction, unending conflicts at Palestine, WorldCom, Enron, Anderson and Satyam, 9-11, 26-11 the list goes on. We have no qualms in selling our souls for 30 pieces of silver.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Bible

Games in Perspective

With 38 gold medals, India came up second, just behind Australia, in the Commonwealth Games that was held in October 2010. "Delhi has delivered. The competitions went well, and it was a comfortable, satisfactory experience," said Commonwealth Games Federation President Michael Fennell regarding India's performance as a host.. Both are commendable achievements for India. But, this high profile event also brings to the forefront some lessons worth pondering about.

Last minute heroism: “We have this great Indian culture of doing everything at the last minute. Whether it is marriage or anything else, but we do end up doing it well,” quipped Indian Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy. This is a culture we appear to be developing from our childhood. The school and college folklore is about those 'cats' who managed to 'crack' the exams without studying, attending classes or doing projects. Planned and systematic effort with commitment to milestones are often seen as weaknesses even in workplace. Last minute rush and 'touch-and-go" finish are perceived as mark of genius and heroism. What we often forget are the wasteful efforts, avoidable expenditure, possible risk and  unwarranted  tension for the participants and last minute compromises that result on account of such heroics.

There can be no doubt that one of the contributors of the astronomical cost overrun associated with CWG could also have been this last minute heroism. It was not just the cost; there was terrible loss in reputation for India in the world stage which almost led to boycott of the games by many nations.

Blatant Corruption: There are serious concerns of financial bungling and corruption; not just incompetence, but willful malpractices. I don’t think this financial mis-handling is an exception. The team that was put in place to manage the games cannot be in any way more in-efficient or more corrupt than the leaders of  many other large projects. The prime difference in this case is that it was a very high profile event (or that some were unlucky to get caught?). It again highlights the need to have more transparency and better accountability in public expenditure. A vision as a country we need to aspire for is a vision to improve our rating in corruption index and not just increase in medal tally.

It is heartening to note that some actions are being taken to identify the culprits. I hope this will not end up as temporary eyewash.

Sensational Journalism: The press played a remarkable role in bringing to public attention the bungling and corruption that took place. But often the press gets carried away and give gossips, exaggerations, innuendos and aspersions more importance than it deserves and fails to place facts in perspective. Looking through the press reports and TV coverage up till the opening ceremony, I got a feeling that we have messed up the games so badly that it would be a total failure and a national shame.

But what I saw in the TV, what I read in the press and the narration of those who witnessed and experienced the conduct of the games gave a comfort that the implementation had a certain quality that we can feel proud of. The medal tally could also be an expression of a resurgent India. First time in history we came second, ahead of England.and Canada

The news reports focused more on the warts and putrefying sores with practically no reference to anything positive till the games opened. I agree, it is important to play the role of a whistle blower but it is also important to recognize the efforts of many officers, laborers, volunteers and athletes who gave their wholehearted best with no malice in their hearts.

This again is nothing unique about CWG. What sells in media both in press and in TV is sensationalism and it has become the fashion. A sense of balance or willingness to place facts in perspective seems to be losing its glamour and a yellow hue appear to getting more popular.

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” Marcus Aurelius

In God’s Company (humour)

Recently I came across an interesting story a friend forwarded to me; a story about a tailor who fell in love with a princess. Let us call him Sawant. He was smitten so badly that he would not eat properly and he could not sleep well. He shared his desire and desperation with his friend who was a chariot maker.

He suggested a way out. The chariot maker built a chariot that looks like the chariot used by Vishnu the God. Then Sawant dressed up like Vishnu and landed up at the private garden of the princess. Innocent girl that she was, she fell for the story and believed that Vishnu was in love with her. There started a relationship which they continued for many days. Gradually, one of the maids came across some signs of this secret affair. They informed the king. The king accosted the princess. She told him the truth of her affair with Vishnu.

The king was sceptical and hopeful. Next time when Vishnu visited, the princess was not alone; the king was there too. He wanted proof. So he asked the Vishnu for to help him defeat the Chakravarty (the king of kings). Sawant was in a fix. He realised that he is dead either way. If he tells the truth the king will kill him and if he goes to fight the war, he will be killed. He decided to die in the war.

He took a small army from the king and proceeded to a war with the chakravarty dressed up like Vishnu on his chariot. The story of this Vishnu had also reached the heaven. The gods met up with Vishnu and discussed about the public relations disaster of the duplicate Vishnu losing the war. So they decided to support the tailor boy.

With the support from heaven, the Sawant won the war. The king was happy and the princess was happy. Then our hero shared his desire to take human form and live with the princess. He warned the king that as he had taken the human form he might not be able to perform such miracles anymore. The king agreed happily and our hero and the princess lived happily ever after. (May be the tailor needs more appreciation for the ‘ever after’ bit more than the war that he won!!)

The fairy tale has an interesting lesson. This lesson is almost universal and is applicable in politics, in corporate, in religion and in bureaucracy. The rule is that when we attempt some crazy or ambitious ideas make sure that the interest of some ‘powerful gods’ are aligned with ours! How well this alignment is and how powerful our god is will determine the extent and strength of the support we can garner. The corollary is that when you and I compete and both of us have our gods supporting us then what matters become which god is more powerful.

“Success is about actively shaping the game you play, not just playing the game you find.” Adam Brandenburger & Barry Nalebuff

"Candle in the wind"

There has been lots of debate in the media and in private conversations about the recent threefold increase in salary of the Members of Parliament. Most of the reactions were negative and supported by some variations of the following arguments. There are millions of poor people in India and therefore the leaders of these poor people need not be paid so much. Or the politicians are corrupt and make pot full of money; so why pay them more salary.

Even if we add the various perks that the MPs enjoy (excluding the value of housing) the cost to country of an MP compared to the cost to company of senior executives in private sector is still low. A trillion dollar economy growing at the rate of more than 8% per year, can afford to pay its senior management who takes decisions relating to billions of dollars so much. Same is true for the bureaucracy too. In fact, if we pay decent salaries we remove some of the disincentive for good, qualified and capable people to be willing to take up this challenge.

The other discouraging factor that acts as a disincentive is the cost of standing for an election. It is quite a large investment. If one is not personally rich or cannot raise black capital, it is practically impossible for him or her to stand for election. We should think about ways in which funding support can be made available for capable people to afford this cost. May be the state can reimburse the election expenditure up to certain limits for candidates who manage to get certain percentage of votes. May be we can allow companies or industry association to setup funds in a transparent manner to support such candidates.

Today a large majority of the MPs come from very rich background because only they can afford the cost. If we find ways to encourage more honest people to take up this line of profession by paying them decent salaries and helping them to afford the cost of election we may be able to get a larger percentage of such people in the mix. (I am not that naive to think that this magic solution will lead to a legislature full of angels. I am only hoping that we could find ways and means to get some more voices of reason and some more minds with commitment to the cause, to walk into the den of thieves, to build some checks and balances and to enable better decision making at the highest level)

We also need to establish processes and tools to bring about better transparency in expenditure, more directed welfare measures and citizen initiatives to expose incidences of corruption and fraud. The initiative by Janaagraha a Bangalore based NGO, along with Raghu who was a senior civil servant for about quarter of a century in setting up a portal aptly named “I Paid A Bribe” is an excellent example of citizen initiative that offers busy people to participate in a quick and easy way and to play a meaningful role. The vision of this initiative as explained by the team is as follows.

“IpaidABribe.com is Janaagraha’s unique initiative to tackle corruption by harnessing the collective energy of citizens. You can report on the nature, number, pattern, types, location, frequency and values of actual corrupt acts on this website. Your reports will, perhaps for the first time, provide a snapshot of bribes occurring across your city. We will use them to argue for improving governance systems and procedures, tightening law enforcement and regulation and thereby reduce the scope for corruption in obtaining services from the government.

We invite you to register any recent or old bribes you have paid. Please tell us if you resisted a demand for a bribe, or did not have to pay a bribe, because of a new procedure or an honest official who helped you. We do not ask for your name or phone details, so feel free to report on the formats provided”.

I believe that if each of us who make sanctimonious remarks about the level of corruption and fraud around us (especially after a glass of single malt) can spend few moments to support such initiatives we can experience some improvement in our society.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty. ~John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Regulation of Innovation and Innovative Regulation

“In 1898, delegates from across the globe gathered in New York City for the world’s first international urban planning conference. One topic dominated the discussion. It was not housing, land use, economic development, or infrastructure. The delegates were driven to desperation by horse manure. The situation seemed dire. In 1894, the Times of London estimated that by 1950 every street in the city would be buried nine feet deep in horse manure.” (From Horse Power to Horsepower -Eric Morris)

Domestication of horse has been one of the key contributors of human progress; as it provided logistics support for business, leisure, pleasure and even conquests. We are good at building on and exploiting anything that would maximise our private benefits that sooner than later the negative externalities start taking a toll to the society at large; what the economists call the tragedy of the commons.

This happened in case of Horse Power too. With exponential growth in horse drawn logistics, by the end of 19th century accidents, pollution, and health hazards associated with horse was scary and appeared un-controllable.

Then came internal combustion engines that were much less polluting (even the methane produced by horse manure is eight times more potent than CO2 from automobiles as a greenhouse gas) less accident prone, much faster and more powerful. But by the end of 20th century this saviour has grown to a monster that is ready to savour its creator as it has proliferated to almost unsustainable levels.

The same is true for most of the human innovations. In financial services the time taken for an innovation of graduate to a Frankenstein has been quite low.

For examples derivatives have been developed as a tool for hedging risk. It has grown to be an instrument not infrequently used to structure products with the sole intention of profiting from the unsuspecting investors. Credit Default Swaps and Securitisation of debt instruments contributed enormously to the maturing of debt markets and helped better resource allocation. But this was also taken to its ridiculous extent that in most cases there was nobody who really cared or owned up responsibility to assess the true cost and risks associated with the underlying assets. The recent indictment of Goldman Sachs is an example of such unfair practices.

Does it mean that we need to curtail innovations? The answer is no. It is these innovations that ensured that the Malthusian theory has turned out to be an imaginary fear and the standard of living of a significant majority of human beings across the globe is hundreds of times better than the best the select few enjoyed even a few decades ago.

But as the time goes, products of these innovations reach such gargantuan proportions with very high impact on the well being of the society especially in a ‘flat world’ as described by Thomas Friedman. With large segment of wealth under the control of few large entities who are ‘too big to fail’, the difficulty of reining their run-way exploitation of their innovations gets to be even more difficult.

Addressing these is one of the key challenges for any government. Towards this goal, firstly we need to support strong regulations and stronger regulators who do not fall prey to their megalomaniacal instincts and try to micro-manage or centrally control; but who have the intellectual capability to analyse issues to identify key levers for action, recognize practices that exploit the common investors and curtail them, have courage to take strong and often unpopular decisions, can make the institutions who screw-up to pay-up and has moral strength not to be influenced by money, power or influence and at the same time is capable to encourage and get out of the way of innovations that are game changers. The stand taken by SEBI recently with respect to Unit Linked Insurance Policies (ULIP) which is a mutual fund masquerading as insurance is an excellent case in point on the constructive role the regulator can play.

Secondly we need to enable, encourage and empower disruptive technologies, processes and products that solve problems that are critical to survival of humanity. Especially since the existing interest groups who have heavily invested in the old system will work overtime to prevent success of these innovations. For example the oil industry will be happy to ensure that till the last drop of oil is left, human beings are addicted to it and are willing to pay more and more for the less and less that is drilled or excavated out. We experienced similar resistance from custodians and registrars when we were setting up a depository for Indian Capital Market.

The governments have a major role to play here too. They have to support, encourage, fund and place enabling provisions so that innovations are allowed to take root and reach a critical mass. Only then these disruptive technologies, products and processes can manage to break the status-quo and establish better, cleaner, more efficient solutions to problems that appear to make human race a run way experiment that is ready to destroy the mother earth as we know today.

That is why the two principal challenges for the day are Regulation of Innovation and Innovative Regulation

"It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value." — Arthur C. Clarke

To be or Not to be – Part III - Tharoor’s Dilemma

After eleven months in the office, Shahi Tharoor has stepped down from the post of Minister of State for External Affairs. Everybody knows the reason. It was not his ability to perform that cost him the post. He, instead of being an asset in the parliament for the ruling party, became a liability on account of the way he has conducted himself on a few occasions.

I don’t believe that he was corrupt, I don’t know whether his ‘transgression’ compared to the standards of some of the politicians are anything extraordinary, I don’t know whether compared to the loot of public finance that many in the ruling class perpetrate, Tharoor benefitted in any financial sense; though the there are questions on the nature of sweat that paid for certain equity.

For a seasoned diplomat with decades of experience in international diplomacy his failure is that he forgot an age old dictum; “Caesar’s wife has to be above suspicion”. Natural question is whether all our “Caesars' wives are above suspicion”

There is one big difference here. Tharoor was trying to muscle into a club, banking on a different skill set and preaching a different value system. On the basis of these credentials he had managed to take an express elevator to the position of power and influence in Indian politics. It has caused jealousy pangs among many who had been waiting in the wings for years, it has caused concerns among some established veterans about the changes propounded by people like him, it has caused worries that the apple cart is tilting. It was natural that the empire would strike back.

When he embarked on such a challenge he should have been a bit more careful; especially when he was yet to establish a strong support base who would have stood up for him. He should have shown more discretion and tried to avoid anything that could be misconstrued as pushing private agendas.

Now he has two choices. Work on building the support base and fight on the position of strength. Or join the club on their terms. This is standard operating procedure for any new entrant at the top. Or he can decide to retire and take up less risky hobbies like sky diving...

“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting". George Orwell.

Politics could be more demanding than any serious sport.

It doesn’t make sense

The newspapers these days have almost a daily coverage on Sania Mirza’s marriage to Shoaib Mallik, the Pakistan cricketer. It is a celebrity wedding and there is controversy; so newspapers have a right to capitalise on this. It is a matter of circulation and profits for them.

Why should there be such controversy? Isn’t it their personal choice 'whom to marry'? The controversy is because she is marrying a Pakistani and anything related to Pakistan is paranoia these days. (The feelings are mutual)

I remember an incident that was narrated by one of my friends narrated. He is the country head of a multinational IT firm in India. He had a technical expert coming over for a project and he was by roots a Pakistani though he has never been to Pakistan as his father had migrated to US. It took an enormous effort to get the visa cleared. Then the local police insisted that he could not move out of the hotel room, except to attend office. They posted two police men outside his hotel room. This young lad had to be in this state of house (hotel) arrest for almost a month. Almost at the end of his project, he decided to go for a picnic with his friends for a drive out.

He sent an SMS to the local Police Superintend as he could not get him on phone. Within an hour the matter became a security emergency and quite a lot of harassment to his local sponsors and him. He had to be packed out of the country within a day!

It is true that both countries are not on good terms and forces of destabilisation are at work everywhere. We agree that we need to be careful that 26/11 is not repeated.

But does it mean that we have to have these extreme reaction in anything related with Pakistan and vice versa? There is no reason why Sania is not allowed a visa to visit the hometown of her would be fiancé and there was no sense it kicking up the controversy on the participation of Pakistani Cricketers in IPL.

Doesn’t it make sense to keep the tension low and encourage better interaction between both the countries without dilution of security controls? For example we have very strict verification process when we issue a passport. But, on the basis of the standing of the person (which is clearly defined and traceable) who issues a testimony there is of course a relaxation.

This is not an exception based on nepotism but an exceptional process of risk mitigation. If we find that such exceptional process can help more avenues for healthy interaction and such exceptions don't affect security concerns, we should try to encourage it. This can only help to strengthen both the countries.

Let us also ask ourselves some hard questions on the underlying causes of this mutual distrust. Don’t factors like religious intolerance, political expediency, attempt to distract public attention, machinations of a variety of interest groups and the self interest of the arms lobby contribute to this sustained tension?

Some of us need to rise above these biases, to build up a voice of reason, a voice of tolerance and a voice of compromise if we have to see a de-escalation of tension at the border and deep in our hearts. May be we need a few more marriages like that of Sania and Shoaib, some more train rides like the one Vajpayee initiated and a lot more cricket. The idea is to allow more opportunities for active engagement and more occasions to come together as human beings; sharing joy and sorrow. It is then that we can bring about disarmament of minds. But it is worth it.

“Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.” ~ Jimmy Carter

Salute to Middle Class Morality

“How do you make a line shorter without rubbing of a part of it?”

“Draw a bigger line next to it”

This is a riddle as well as it teaches you how to compete like a gentleman. It teaches you that you should try to win by doing better than your competition and not by belittling and demeaning your opponent by spreading canards or through unethical means.

However, when we see the way many of our senior political & business leaders and bureaucrats behave, one wonders whether these lessons on values that are often preached are nothing but a way to build the ranks of the ‘middleclass’, the ‘common man’ enmeshed in the “middle class morality” as Eliza Doolittle’s father observes in “My Fair Lady”. Quoting Paul Samuelson, out of context, “The less of them who become sophisticated, the better for us happy few” [1] so that there are splendid opportunities to skim ‘alpha’ not just from the capital market but in many more segments.

Once you are playing a game of high stakes, whether in politics or in finance, nothing else other than self aggrandisement at whatever cost seems to be the norm. Even governance (corporate or otherwise) is often about how ‘not to get caught’ or how to become ‘too big to fail’.

The fourth estate also joins the melee and surrenders valuable real estate in the news papers that could be well used for more useful purposes. In fact, they happily join those who are looking for ways & means to denigrate and suppress people or institutions who are trying to make a difference; sometimes by mis-representing facts or by publishing one-sided or biased reports. Some even let themselves to be used to fight private wars and push private agendas.

Shashi Tharoor makes an innocuous remark on ‘cattle class’ then we see a barrage of criticism and moral posturing much more than warranted. Sachin Tendulkar makes a statement that Mumbai belong to India and there is protest from some quarters. (There are many more examples, but I have limited to the less controversial) But then these have news value

The irresponsible coverage, of the 26/11 siege, by many channels demonstrates what is there for sale in the fight for better visibility. Some of the television coverage would have provided the terrorists better support than they could have managed with their friends and well wishers out in the front!

On the other hand, many utterly reprehensible behaviour even in the parliament hall and the shameless looting of public funds to the extent of thousands of crore get easily suppressed quite fast.

This is the reality that every thinking person has to confront. Being true to yourself like Roark or be willing to renounce your conviction for expediency like Wynand in Ayn Rand’s “Fountainhead”.

If we do not build a bureaucratic machinery and elect political leadership which largely serve the public, have a judiciary that protects those who try and a responsible press that provides dispassionate and honest reporting, there is no doubt where the majority is going to be.

1. Capital Ideas Evolving; Peter L Bernstein

It made Sense - 2

The front page news in Hindustan Time says “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has laid down the ground rules for his ministers.” The three page letter he sent to his cabinet colleagues addresses a variety of management issues like delivery on promises, good governance, coordination with fellow ministers, delegation of responsibilities to junior ministers etc etc.


The Deccan herald had similar news “The prime minister has asked the finance ministry to ensure that the next Union Budget adequately and appropriately reflects the priorities and programmes outlined in the President’s address to the joint session of Parliament.” This directive by PM was put in public domain too.


In a way it is surprising to see that when the CEO of the country asks his division heads to perform it is headline news! Isn’t it expected of them? But such result orientation was not priority for governance in our country most often. For quite some time the electoral math ensured that the PM could hardly demand performance. The only thing he could ask for often was co-operation and support so that the ministry didn’t fall.


It is after a long time that we have a PM who expects professional management from his ministers and who can almost ask for it.


Let us hope that this is just a beginning. Now that we got so much I am feeling greedier. Can we hope for our ministers to declare clearly their targets for the oncoming years, the benchmark performance that we can expect, the objectives that they are working for and announce a set of measures by which we can measure the performance?


Can we go one step forward? Can we have such measures for the officers who man the ministries too? To the extent of public is aware, it is very seldom that the bureaucrats are accountable for specific sets of outcome or results. The best we can often expect is performance on ‘good effort basis’ with no commitment. Sometime it is just pushing personal agenda and not what is good for the system. I don't meant that all bureaucrats behave in this fashion. We have many wonderful officers who give their heart, soul and everything to make a difference. Unfortunately they are becoming a vanishing tribe.


Once we have such measures in place, the people who elected them and the people who fund them by paying taxes will be able to judge whether their choice was right.


The government also should put in place a mechanism by which such performance can be monitored on a continuous real-time basis and made available easily without one resorting to RTI act.


Can we put in place a mechanism by which the citizen can over the net search and find out the status and the funding relating to the development project in his vicinity? If we put such a mechanism in place and the pressure come from the ground, then the demand of performance by PM will have more teeth.


I believe we have the technology and the institutional capability in our country for this. What we need is the will to enable them.


With the help of the young, tech savvy MPs and Ministers if PM enables such a public monitoring mechanism I am sure that we can expect and enforce better performance.

To be or not to be (Part 2) – Of Good being Bad

In the first part of this article I discussed about how any system of governance will always have a mixture of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ use of the system. I have used the word good use and bad use in a figurative way. Good use is when the system is used for the larger good of the humanity and bad use naturally its opposite.

The relative proportion of good and bad in the society is determined primarily by the value system of the majority. The natural tendency of this mix is to gradually degenerate with the proportion of bad getting more and more; the bad drives out the good.

This is similar to the income distribution and its shift in a society. In a society however evenly distributed the wealth is to begin with, eventually the mix becomes skewed with smaller percentage of the society controlling larger part of wealth.

The question is not whether it will degenerate. But how long it will take! Some social shocks and scams may cause periodic correction of this degeneration and eventually the society/ civilization degenerates to its cyclical low. May be the cycle will start all over again.

One of the key contributors of this degeneration is the inaction by the good. As the proverb says; “the best thing that the bad can expect is the good to do nothing”

The greatest tragedy is that the people who want to use the system for their private agenda (let is refer to them loosely as the bad people) have some of the good traits that help them prosper and the people who want to use the system for the larger benefits of the society (let us refer to them as the good people) have some of the worst traits that weaken them. Let us take a deeper look at these qualities.

Co-operation

The bad people are generally too happy to co-operate with anybody so long as that co-operation brings them power or wealth or both.

The good people generally carry a chip of honesty on their shoulder that they seldom co-operate even with people with similar value system. They believe that their goodness is one step higher and they are ready dump and run if the other guy doesn’t play along exactly as he feels is right. In fact they almost make such renunciation a virtue.

Courage

The bad normally has the courage and with impunity cooks the account books /investigation/ assessment or any administrative process for their gain.

The good is often scared to take bold decision and hides behind rules and technicality. The obstructive bureaucracy is often a result of such cowardliness and not just self serving actions of the bad.

Power of Interpretation

The bad will interpret laws and technicality so long it meets its end or favors an ally.

The good often tries to interpret with limited appreciation of what it stands for; by the time they finish splitting the hair it fails to be achieve any good.

Sacrifice

The bad is capable of sacrifice for what it stands for. Sacrifice its principals, society, environment and much more.

Good will hold onto technical correctness, its pride and prejudice even at the cost of its ultimate benefit to the society

Loyalty

The bad often demands and commits substantial loyalty to its partners so long as such loyalty is rewarding. They are willing invest in this loyalty for quite some time.

The good often has little commitment to his partners if it feels that their goodness is not of the same type. They are willing to abandon and run and not pull together.

Risk taking

The bad is willing to take its risk, because they see potential reward in taking risk.

The good is often too risk averse. The potential reward for sticking the neck out could be some brickbats. With no upside benefit for self and downside uncertain and costly, the good normally avoid getting involved.


Now we ask the question “How good is good”. There is a saving in our tongue which translates to “the good often bears the fruits of the bad”

I do agree there are many ‘good’ who are as good as the ‘bad’ and it is through them that we have gained anything.

What we need to do to avoid/delay of decay of our society is to develop a willingness to learn the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’, stick together and support each other for what we stand and not be a utopian island of fruitless good.

Willingness to co-operate, to take risks, to take a position, to believe in the intention of the fellow good, not to be cowed down by oppositions and mild differences in styles and not to run away to our comfort zones is what is needed today.

Call of Duty – Different Tunes

I wrote an article in my blog titled ‘Call of duty. It discussed the need and relevance of political participation of more mature, educated and young people with values. After reading this post, I got a variety of responses. I felt that couple of these comments and my thoughts on these are worth sharing. And hence this.

“I have no time in my busy schedule”

Availability of time depends on what priority you ascribe to an activity in relation to all the other demands on you time.

If you think it is your responsibility to make a difference to your country, try to assign a small amount of time. One hour in a day? In a week? In a month??

You can write a meaningful article, a blog, tell a friend, forward a few emails and most importantly cast your vote. All these can make a difference

Can we be a bit less selfish when we give our time? Today we give our time only where we have to highest ROI to self/ family. But not willing to make our contribution which individually make little difference but can collectively make all the difference.

“I am not talented, capable or skilled to stand for an election and win.”

Participating in politics does not essentially mean standing for election.

Just like you participate in clubs like rotary/ lions or participate in religious activity you can participate in political process too.

You can act as a research supporter for your elected representatives or help in a variety of ways in the campaign of a person you support. At the minimum forward a few SMS endorsing your support.

You can act as a whistle blower and help publish the wrongdoing of the government or an officer.
You don’t have to be a part of a political party. But you can be a part of the political process.
May be you can put together a group that influences the local party decision of whom they are fielding.

May be you can put your money and power individually or collectively to get a good candidate elected. With the way the votes are split these days, the number needed to win may not be so big.

At the least by ensuring that each of your friends cast his/ her vote.

To be or not to be (Part 1) - The Art of Cooking

“Son, you have two options when you come to the witness stand as your name is called. One is to confirm what you just read in the CB- CID report when I ask you leading questions. Then you go back home and forget about the whole case”. The public prosecutor assured. He continued nonchalantly.

“Other is to tell the judge that the whole thing, the report of CB-CID circle inspector, the investigation report and prosecution case, are pack of lies. Then you continue fighting and forget about your studies in IIM as you will have to here most of the time for the matters of the case” He was just stating a fact.

This happened some time after I had competed my engineering and was getting ready to join for my post graduation in IIM. My neighbor was my professor and also my uncle. Few years ago while his family was away there was a burglary at his house and quite a lot of gold ornaments and other valuables were lost. The police were called and they asked me to give my name as a witness. I was eager and willing as my role was only to conform that such a burglary had taken place.

Years went by and I forgot about the incident. One fine day I got a summons from the court asking me to appear as a witness for prosecution. I was asked to meet the public prosecutor. He asked me to sit down read the case file.

Suddenly I saw a statement that was purported to have been made by me in front of a circle inspector of police. As per this statement, after the police caught the thief, I was called in and asked to identify the man and I remembered that this was the same man who was standing in front of my uncle’s house in a suspicious manner and whom I had asked what he was doing.

I was horrified. I had never met a fellow standing in front of my uncle’s house. I was never called to the police station to identify the thief and I had never made any statement to any police officer.

The prosecutor understood my dilemma and what I narrated in the beginning of this article was my conversation with him. He also showed me lots of other proofs which included recovered gold and his confession.

Though I felt less guilty and felt that I was contributing to the punishment of the guilty (like we see in the movies where the hero takes extra legal methods to punish the guilty) there was, and still is, a vague sense of uneasiness. Especially when the prosecutor explained to me that this cooking of documents is almost a standard operating procedure in law enforcement. He further added how the same culinary skills help to let the guilty scot free too.

Over the years I had a number of occasions to experience this cookery magic in a variety of circumstances. I realized that in the business of governance, it is an essential skill to succeed. “Yes Minister” is one of the most humorous depictions of this art form that I have seen. Private sector is no exception. But here it is used more in company structuring and financial engineering.

Although transparency and clarity in laws of governance can address this to a great extent, it can never control the human ingenuity in the way it uses the system; whether it is used for good or bad of the humanity at large.

The good and bad use of the system will always be there in any society. What determines the proportion or the level of good and bad is the value system of its populace.

I was reading the history book of my daughter and I was fascinated by Fa- Hian’s account of the administration and general life of people during the Golden Age of Indian History- the Gupta period. I quote below some exerts that I believe will touch a chord in our heart.

“The people do not have to register their households or attend to any magistrates. If they desire to go they go or if they like to stop they stop. Taxes were low, roads were safe, and one could travel to any place without fear. The people being good and disciplined, only very mild laws were needed. Capital punishment was not given. There was no dishonesty whatsoever. Bribery was not heard of. …”
This is not fairytale. This is our history; the history of our forefathers. Somewhere along the line we seem to have lost our link with these values. In fact, the heartland of the Gupta dynasty Magadh and Pataliputra today have become citadels of dishonesty, graft, muscle and money power.

When growth becomes synonymous with material goods and respectability is measured in cash, we start tolerating and then encouraging the leaders who were willing to sacrifice anything for power and money. A vicious cycle, feeding on each other. ‘Yadha Raja, Tadha Praja” The society gets the king it deserves and the society get molded by its kings. This is what happens today.

Foot Note: At this time of national election will we remember to vote with our values or with/for our purse. I hope the Mallika Sarabha, Meera Sanyal, Shashi Tharoor and Capt. Gopinadh will keep this in their mind when they are trying to make a difference in the political landscape.