What do I feel proud of about India?

What do I feel proud of about India?

Over last few months Whatsapp chats have made communication with friends easier and more convenient – much better than emails or the social media tools. So we have now school groups and college groups which allows us to be friends with old friends again and share jokes, thoughts and ideas.

In one of such chats, last night, one of my IIT friends, whom I have not met for years asked  me : Having seen America, what do I feel proud of about India?

That led me to think. Yes, I am proud of my country. But what is it specifically?

When I thought deep, I felt that even though most of us despise our politicians and polity a lot, it’s our democratic values and the Constitution that we adopted some 64 years ago, that has stood by us. We are not a simple nation. We are actually a commonwealth of nationalities – more akin to the European Union – than to the US. We have distinctions of castes, religion, regions, languages and cultures. Yet, we do survive as a nation with a strong Centre, like we have never done in history. Every region – Every State is represented in our polity and that gives us the strength to survive. Regional aspirations have led to growth of regional political parties and fall in strength and influence of national parties – but then, it’s fair. And come to think of it. The countries in our neighborhood - Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar - are all struggling. Given that, we have done pretty fine.

I am truly proud of our democracy and polity.

The other thing that comes to my mind is our family system and the focus on hard work and honesty. Even though, we don’t rank very high on corruption indices, there is a great deal of focus on honesty, integrity and hard work in our day to day lives. We have a strong family system which teaches children to respect elders and to speak the truth. Parents want their children to be hardworking and sincere. That has led to the growth of a very dominant and strong middle class in India which will help guide our future growth. It’s one of the key strengths that we have.

I am proud of our family values and focus on hard work and sincerity.

The other key feature of our nation is our youthful population. Last week a friend shared some insights into our census data. As per the census data almost 39% of our 1.21 billion population is below 18 years of age and that’s a huge 472 million people.  Another key feature is that almost 25% of our population lives in UP and Bihar. The proportion of population below 18 is around 45% in UP and 48% in Bihar. These two States have been slow to grow. However, the youthful population is expected to drive growth in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and that will help us grow faster in the years to come. Such a youthful population, full of energy and enterprise is unique to us and holds a great potential for us in future.

I am proud of our youthful population and its energy.

So I would list these three as the top three things that I am truly proud of India.

Towards City States

Towards City States

The other day my maid asked me if I could help one of her relatives, who lives in Bihar, get any job in Delhi – expectation was for any job that pays Rupees six to eight thousand  a month. I asked her if that would actually result in a better standard of living as costs here will be much more than that in Bihar. However, apparently for people without land, there are very few jobs available and they are more comfortable doing manual jobs in an urban environment than in their own village. It’s also because most people generally relate moving to a city as a sign of moving up the socio-economic ladder and can actually result in better education for their children.

Perception of Development seems to have a direct correlation with Urbanization. As families expand and land holdings get fragmented, more people in rural areas are moving to cities in the quest of better life. If you talk to people in the villages, the general perception is the cities have better schools, hospitals and employment avenues. This is also confirmed by migration data. Urban population has expanded from 17.3% in 1951 to 27.8% in 2001 to 31.2% in 2011. In the last 10 years, urban population grew by almost 91 million.

It is also anticipated that more than 100 million people will move from villages to cities in the next ten years. These numbers may exceed 300 million in the next 20 years. How do we plan for such a massive urbanization phenomena? Do we need to bring in structural changes in our Governance structures to adapt to a situation when more people will be living in cities than in villages?

As per Census 2011, we have around 46 cities with a million plus population, 91 with a population of 500,000 and more and 497 cities with a population of 100,000 or more. The bulk of the migration today takes place in the million plus cities and they are today bursting at their seams with no provision for additional housing, sanitation or capacity to absorb increasing traffic. They just don’t have the wherewithal for the additional 100 million people who will be moving to cities in the next 10 years. To meet this challenge, we need new cities or look at the smaller cities as potential big cities.

Projects like the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) which is a $90 billion infrastructure project and will create 24 new cities along the 1500 km long corridor seem to be the way forward. However, there are constraints on the number of such projects that can be undertaken on account of availability of resources and time required for execution of such projects. Thus, can we think of a mechanism by which the 500 odd 100,000 plus cities are made into hubs of growth that can provide city like opportunities and amenities to the people in the hinterland? These 500 cities can be equipped with infrastructure so that each can take in about 200,000 more people in the next 10 years, thus absorbing the additional 100 million people expected to move to urban centres. How do we make this happen?

One way to do this will be to put focus on the cities in our Governance structures. Each 100,000 plus city can be the hub of governance for the population around it. Presently they are governed by Municipal Bodies but lack the financial and administrative authority to be able to devise plans and implement them. Unfortunately in the predominantly Centre-State federal Governance structure that we have, the objectives of developing cities and urban agglomerations are lost. Political authority and power lies in elected MLAs and MPs who have constituencies that are primarily rural and hence the political discourse remains on rural development, agriculture and creating low skill – low pay jobs for people. The real political authority lies in Chief Ministers who are unable to focus beyond their own constituencies. Many States are so big and unwieldy that political executive is unable to focus on the needs like creation of cities and building infrastructure. 

Another problem is the structure of the administrative departments itself – most States and the Centre has too many departments and it does little more than just adding layers of bureaucracy which further makes any real change difficult. The same is true at Centre also and there are many Departments who try to do things at National level which should actually be done at the local level. Most such departments end up just becoming a fund disbursing and account keeping clearing house.

What we need is massive downsizing of Government at Centre and State level. There are almost 50 Ministries in Government of India with more than 52 Departments in addition to Cabinet Secretariat, Planning Commission, Prime Minister’s Office and President’s Secretariat. Compare this to 16 Ministries in Singapore and Australia and 24 in United Kingdom. The situation is similar in State Governments where the compulsions of managing coalitions and keeping MLAs happy had led to almost everyone becoming a Minister. There used to jokes about two Ministers looking after Sports – One Khel and the other Kood Minister!! This stopped when Supreme Court put a cap on the number of Ministers a State can have. However, this has been circumvented by the innovative practice of appointing Parliamentary Secretaries who function just like Ministers. This results in mammoth and irreparable damage to Governance.

Such huge departments and ministries start functioning for themselves and the Ministers for their acts are not accountable to the constituency that choses them. The majority of MLAs and MPs do not get a chance to playing an active role in Governance. Most of them are very often as frustrated with the way Government systems function or rather don’t function, as anyone of us. Everyone in the system has someone to blame for whatever is wrong and there seems to be a very depressing outlook. How can we ensure that elected representatives get an active role to play and at the same time be accountable to their constituency?

In order to address these challenges, we need to move to a City State kind of Governance system with directly elected Mayor as the head of political establishment for the City. The Mayor needs to be supported by a CEO who can be a civil servant with 15-20 years of experience. The CEO can have under him a crack team of 5-6 young civil servants looking after Education, Health, Sanitation, Power and Infrastructure. This team can be given targets and goals which are audited by independent third parties and their performance evaluated accordingly.  The Mayor can be elected every 4 years with provisions of right to recall. The City will also have ward counselors who would vote on the Mayor’s proposals. Thus accountability to the City’s people will be ensured. Funds from Centre and State should devolve to the Cities based on population and development index and there can be complete transparency on the funds flowing and works being undertaken.

State Government’s role would be limited and will have departments that only need to deal with inter-city matters and policy matters. All intra City matters will be the lookout of the Mayor and his team. In order to make this a reality, the Cities can be centered around the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. Each Constituency can have the largest urban conglomeration as the City centre. Developing the Cities in a holistic manner on the pattern of Gram Swaraj that Mahatma Gandhi talked of can help us to not only move up the development ladder but will also help create jobs locally that will eliminate the need for migration. Thus all cities will end up having quality schools, super speciality hospitals, recreation centres and more symbols of big cities. Each City can identify one or two areas as its core strength areas and we will be able to create City specific Special Economic Zones that will ensure people with specific skill sets are able to find employment and add value to the City.

An example can illustrate how this will work. Moradabad is a district in Uttar Pradesh with a population of around 4.77 million which is roughly equal to that of Singapore. Moradabad has two Lok Sabha constituencies and nine Assembly Constituencies. The district has two urban centres at Moradabad and Chandausi. However, the quality of urban amenities – roads, power, hygiene, sanitation, water – is dismal. The district has been known for its Brassware exports. However, as part of the State of Uttar Pradesh, the voice of its MPs and MLAs get lost as the priorities and focus of State Government are different.

Instead if Moradabad and Chandausi had their own Mayors and teams off officials to govern the cities, they could address the key issues in a much more holistic manner. They could prioritize the key intervention areas and use the resources to develop the civic infrastructure as also take measure for increasing the brassware exports and creating jobs for its population. The State Government could recognize clusters of such cities as a special economic zone for brassware industry and take measures to promote the industry. The role of Central Government could be in ensuring an export friendly taxation system and access to airports and ports for facilitating exports. The idea is that the Mayor of Moradabad will be like the Prime Minister of Singapore who will make a plan for developing Moradabad as a City State and be responsible for it. The plan will have all critical inputs – education, health, infrastructure, jobs and he along with his team will ensure that the same is achieved in a time bound manner.

So are City States the future of our urban landscape??

Abhishek Singh

(Views are personal)

Elections 2013 – e Governance & Technology making things better!!

Elections 2013 – e Governance & Technology making things better!!

I finally voted today – after a gap of almost 24 years!! The first time, I had voted was in 1989, just after turning 18. I was in first year of IIT then and was too excited to be eligible to vote. I still remember that winter afternoon when I had gone from one polling station to another in search of my name in the electoral roll. After 5 hours and visits to 12 polling stations, I finally found the polling station with my name in the electoral roll but was disappointed to learn that my vote had already been cast!! Mad and Furious, I created a scene on how can my democratic rights be denied, till some sane person on duty, pacified me and told me if I wanted to vote, I could vote. I went, cast my vote and realized later that I probably voted in someone else’s name!

This disappointed me a great deal and I thought elections are a farce. Never bothered to vote again in 1991 or 1996. After joining Government, I have been part of the process leading to reform in elections. The way things have been simplified for enrolling voters, sharing details of polling stations and affidavits of candidates have made the process more transparent and fair. I have been keen to vote ever since but having lived in almost 12 different places and with 18 transfers in the last 18 years, have not really been able to keep pace with the process of filling Form 6 to get my name included and deleted from the previous electoral roll. Not to mention that in most elections, I have either been part of the machinery conducting it or observing it on behalf of election commission. As a result, I had failed in my civic duty of casting votes, till Delhi 2013.

It was in October that I saw an ad of CEO Delhi regarding online enrolment of voters. I filled in the form online, uploaded my picture and got the confirmation SMS and email of inclusion in the draft electoral roll. 2 weeks later, an official came home to check my ID proof, approved it and my name was included in the electoral roll without having to visit any office. Complete end to end e Government service. I felt happy.

Week before Election Day, I started getting reminder SMS regarding polling day and how to find my polling station location on SMS. I used the service and got the location details, down to the Part and Serial Number, which saved me the headache of queuing up for Photo ID slips and I went straight to the booth with my ID and was able to cast my vote. Simple, efficient and quick.

I am sure this use of technology has been one of the reasons for higher voter turnout. All credit to Delhi Election officials to make this happen. E Governance initiatives are happening and making things better.

What can be the next steps to make elections more participative and transparent. With the way electoral roll data is digitized, it is possible to make the electronic voting machines, smarter, by getting them to connect to a secure central server, so that votes are actually registered on the server and the EVMs are just a communication device. This would allow people to vote anywhere as all that you need to have is your Eletoral ID number and as the polling officer keys it in the EVM and you vote, your vote will automatically be registered for the constituency you are enrolled in. This would allow people to vote in any city and even in transit – at rail stations and airports and EVM booths placed at public places and in offices will let people vote anywhere and get their votes registered.

Another possibility to further increase voter turnout is to have a 36 or 48 hour voting window so that people can chose to vote anytime. In order to ensure that the polling personnel are not overstretched, polling at actual booths can be held for 10-12 hours on the designated day, as is the practice now. However, after the close of poll on the designated day, people who missed voting on that day could actually walk into designated locations like post offices, and public offices where designated officers will be responsible for verifying the identity of the voters and allowing them to vote. Similar systems can be set up in embassies, high commissions and consulates to let the NRI voters also vote. Once the system is perfected, one can even think of online voting, but I would feel that given our social milieu, it might lead to men deciding the votes of women in the family and casting them online. So for at least some time, physical, and EC supervised voting might be better.

These measures will go a long way in boosting voting percentages as also making our democracy more participative and richer.

The Politics of Corruption

The Politics of Corruption

A lot has been said and written about Durga and how politicians have conspired to illegally suspend her and continue to make statements which not only undermines her as an officer but also the entire IAS and the bureaucracy. Why has there been such a response from our politicians? Most people say that if Durga was being a roadblock in illegal mining, why couldn’t they just transfer her? What was the need to suspend a young officer?

The answer that comes to one’s mind is that the stakes have become big. So big that the mafia can think of attacking and killing IPS and IAS officers. Only last year IPS officer Narendra Kumar was killed in Madhya Pradesh when he tried to stop illegal mining. A few days back Yunus Khan, an IAS officer and Durga’s batch mate was attacked. The clout and might of the mining mafia is no less than those indulging in organized crime. The role played by the mining mafia in states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is well known.

Illegal mining is an easy source of funds that politicians need. There is a huge demand of sand for the booming construction sector. The laws and rules regarding auction of natural resources like sand are not very transparent. There are no correct estimates of the quantity and value of the sand available. The administration and police lack the men and equipment required to effectively control it and then there is nexus between mafia, politicians, police and administrative functionaries that allows the trade to thrive. Whenever a young officer gets to know of what’s going on, attempts are made to first buy him and then silence him normally through transfers and lately through suspensions and attacks.

So why are the politicians hand in glove with the criminals and the mafia? Obviously money plays a big role. And why do politicians need money. Greed is a major reason. But can they manage without money? From whatever I have seen and learnt about the business of being in politics, I would say it’s virtually impossible to survive with no money to splurge. A few days back a political leader in Maharashtra was quoted about the crores one needs to spend in Assembly and Parliament elections. There was a furor, but what was not said that the politician concerned was just being honest – about an open secret. Almost 80-90% constituencies in the country will have someone spending that kind of money. In many, there are 4-5 candidates who each spend almost 10 times what is allowed as per Election Commission guidelines. Even for Gram Panchayat elections, people spend a fortune.

And who are these people who spend so much. They are not in politics for the love of the country. Today, either you inherit politics and constituencies or you are there for want of any better option. Most professionals shun politics. We are not like the politicians of pre independence era – Gandhi, Nehru and Bose – who quit the best of their jobs and careers and joined politics for the love of freedom and the nation. So those who join today – join it as a vocation, as a profession, as a business. And it’s a business that requires heavy investments and time. Most politicians have 24X7 working hours. They have to be accessible and available all the time. And very often, they need to spend money for their supporters, who visit them in State and National capitals, stay with them, eat at their homes and even take money for their travel. One Minister had mentioned once that almost 50 people eat at his place regularly and his daily expenses runs into lakhs of rupees.

Then there are a lot of risks associated with the investments politicians make for elections. We don’t have primaries or real inner party democracy. So even to get tickets to contest election, one has to spend a lot of money – from lobbying for tickets to actually buying tickets by contributing to the party fund kitty. Even if one is able to get a ticket, and spend the crores required for the campaign, the chances of winning the elections is never more than 30-40% even for candidates of recognized parties. If you are lucky enough to win elections, it’s not necessary that the party you belong to forms the Government. Even if you are lucky to be a ruling party MLA or MP, the chances that you will get a berth in the Ministry are not guaranteed. If you are lucky to be a Minister, the only opportunity to recover the investments you make will be if you have a lucrative portfolio and you have a bureaucrat who is willing to play ball.

Thus the way risks are in built in a political investment, the minimum returns that one will try to seek, if given an opportunity will be around 10 times the investment to enable one to be in a position to contest next elections. Given this one is not surprised on the high rate of returns witnessed in the assets of most politicians as per the affidavits filed with Election Commission. Thus the kind of democracy we have has the element of corruption in built in it. It’s very difficult for politicians in power to avoid the temptations of making money. And to help them and guide them there are always businessmen, bureaucrats, lawyers and other middlemen readily available.

Another dimension of this which leads to favoritism and nepotism is the huge number of supporters a politician needs to manage his elections. Whether it’s for election campaigns or just being polling agents, politicians in any constituency have hundreds of supporters who have families to support and are always seeking jobs, contracts, gun licenses and favors for their friends and family. No politician worth his salt can say no to them. I remember an anecdote with a State minister who had told me that people only come to them for work that is beyond rules. And they can’t say no to them as they are seeking votes from the very same people.

Does this mean that there is no solution and we as a country are doomed forever and will continue to be plagued with corruption, nepotism and favoritism? The argument put forward by politicians as mentioned above is only partly true. Very often those in politics are happy to live with the present system as it ensures politics to be an old boys club – difficult for new entrants to break in. How then we make this happen? Most people will think of simplistic solutions like getting rid of politicians. But that is only wishful thinking. Politicians and Political parties do have a role to play in a democracy. We do need them. How do we cleanse them? How do we ensure that people with principles, ethics and morals join politics? How do we make it rewarding without having to adopt underhand techniques.

The solution for this will not come from heaven. It exists in our systems and laws. First and foremost we need to eliminate money power from elections as till the time, we spend crores for elections, it will be impossible to get out of the vicious circle of looting money and spending in elections. A lot has been done to monitor the expenses of candidates during elections by the Election Commission. However its general knowledge that most candidates violate the norms and get away with it. In order to make it effective, what can be done is to eliminate the possibilities of use of money by candidates and have state funding of elections. All candidates can be given the option of having 10 public meetings at locations of their choice. They can also deploy 10 campaign teams which will be provided with vehicles that could do a maximum of 200 kms a day. The expenses on these public meeting and campaigns will be borne by the Government and the candidates will themselves not be required to spend any amount.

In order to limit the number of candidates, each candidate can be required to have a security deposit of say Rs 10 lakhs which will be refunded if he gets 5% of the votes polled. This will discourage non serious candidates and keep the expenses in control. Also those candidates who poll less than 5% of votes polled will not be eligible to contest in the following two elections. Any candidate who incurs any expenses beyond this will be debarred from contesting in future and there could be penal provisions also. This would allow professionals and those who can be good politicians but do not have resources to join the fray. The numbers above are just indicative and once the principle is accepted, can be suitably modified depending on the size of the constituencies concerned.

Representation of People’s Act allows Political Parties to accept donations and only those donations which are more than Rs 20,000 need to be disclosed. This can be amended by requiring all parties to disclose contributions of all amounts so that every penny is accounted for, both in the books of the donors as well as the political parties. Details of assets and liabilities of all contesting candidates – both at the party level as well for the general elections needs to be made public. The expenses some of the political parties incur on their top leaders is phenomenal and there is no reason that citizens should not know of the same. The recent move to block the Chief Information Commissioner’s orders of applicability of Right to Information Act on political parties is a very regressive step.

Apart from money, the other factor that affects elections is the policy of inheriting constituencies that makes it virtually impossible for new candidates to break in. Representation of People’s Act 1951 needs to incorporate features that will make inner party democracy a must. At least two years before each general election, Election Commission needs to conduct inner party elections for political parties, like the primaries in the US that allows members of recognized parties to elect their candidates for the general elections. These should be done in the most transparent manner with limits on expenses and campaigns strictly monitored by the Commission. Thus the real elections will have serious candidates who actually represent the party rather than being imposed by one Supreme Leader or organization as is the norm in most of our political parties.

The other issue to tackle is criminals. Criminals of any kind, once convicted, should be barred from the electoral process of the parties as well as general elections. Any criminal case against elected legislators need to be finalized within a maximum period of 2 years and if the person is convicted he should lose his seat immediately. Again the move to thwart the recent Supreme Court orders on convicted politicians is evidence of the lack of political will to eliminate criminals from politics.

Another change that we need to have to encourage more people who aspire to join politics is to limit the number of terms to be a Chief Minister or Prime Minister to two. So any person can occupy these positions for a maximum of 10 years only.

The above if implemented can mean a lot for improving our electoral systems. There is a need to take these steps as that will enable us to have the best of people joining politics and will be like the Second Freedom movement that will truly help us aspire the dream enshrined in our Constitution of being a true republic.

Abhishek Singh

(Views are Personal)