06-20-2004, 06:30 AM
<b>The 'wisdom' of Indian voter</b>
Tavleen Singh | Thursday, June 17, 2004 11:15:24 IST
Do nothing for the people and like Laloo and the Marxists you will keep winning, try to do something and like Chandrababu you will end up losing
The rains have come to Mumbai. And, I write sitting in a friend's flat that looks out on a picture postcard monsoon landscape. Grey skies,cappuccino ocean, white breakers and a solitary fishing boat, redflag hoisted, staying carefully in safe waters. The ocean is so rough that morning walkers duck for cover as huge waves smash against the shore and splash them with salt water. Mumbai's morning newspapers exult in the arrival of the rains with recipes to heighten the joys of monsoon magic. Read as these dailies are by middle-class people with roofs over their head they recommend afternoons spent curled up in front of a television set with hot bhajjis (pakodas) and chai. They proffer advice on how women can take better care of their hair and skin and how mothers can better prevent children from coming down with monsoon diseases. They ignore that of half of the people of this city who live in slum dwellings made of tin sheets, plastic and scrap to whom the monsoon means leaky roofs, disease, squalor and lost workdays. This un-magical side of the monsoon was brought sharply to my notice by someone running a project for street children who tells me that every year at this time the children he has persuaded to go to school, the girls he has saved from prostitution, the teenagers he has helped learn a skill, all disappear because it is no longer possible to live in the street. So, on this magical monsoon morning I find myself obliged to write about politics because his words remind me of a frightening political conversation I recently had in Delhi.
Laloo Yadav
A friend from the Congress Party and I were discussing the effects on governance of having in the Cabinet someone like Laloo Yadav. This was before last week's train accident, but my Congress friend was already pessimistic and gloomy. "I don't know what he will do or not do for the Railways," he said "what I do know is that his presence and the fact that he won so many seats in Bihar is making Congress people rethink their political strategy. Do nothing for the people and like Laloo you will keep winning, try to do something and like Chandrababu you will end up losing."
Unfortunately, the matter does not end there which is why I found this conversation frightening. Laloo is not the only one who wins despite taking Bihar down the road to ruin. In neighbouring West Bengal we see the even more scary spectacle of the Marxist government managing to stay in power for nearly thirty years despite doing so little for the poor that starvation deaths were reported from some districts last week. Marxist ideologues, ever ready with their talk of the 'poorest of the poor', dismissed the deaths as a localized problem. Starvation deaths may be, but poverty is not. West Bengal used to be, in that long ago time before the Marxists came, our most industrialized state. Our biggest industrialists were based there before Marxist trade unions forced them to move to Maharashtra. Even this would be fine if the Marxists had succeeded in providing ordinary Bengalis with schools, hospitals, clean drinking water but not only did this not happen but West Bengal's ranking fell from being one of India's richest states to being among today among its poorest. But, as with Laloo in Bihar the Marxists appear never to be challenged by such things as anti-incumbency.
This is being interpreted by influential politicians and political pundits in Delhi as a sign that the less you do for the people the more likelihood there is of winning power. The fair-minded in the Congress Party admit that Atal Behari Vajpayee ran a good government and did much in terms of development. Just building eleven kilometers of road a day compared to eleven kilometers a year in earlier Congress times is indication of this. But, there was more. There was a
concerted attempt to loosen government controls on private enterprise, attempts to open India to foreign investment, to new technologies and the effects could be felt - despite what you hear to the contrary - all the way down to the villages. In a village in Bihar that had never seen electricity for a single day since Independence I found mobile phones and an ISD-STD booth from which I managed to call Mumbai. There was still no electricity but there was cable TV watched with the help of tractor batteries. Satellite dishes had arrived too and although only a handful of people had televisions in their homes, there was awareness of progress and the need for change such as could not have been imagined ten years ago. But, Vajpayee was swept from power and disturbing voices in the Congress Party now mutter about the importance of doing nothing.
Talk about the poor, they say, make meaningless promises like trying to get jobs reserved in private companies for those of low caste but do nothing except promote Rahul Gandhi as the shiny, new hope and all will be well. If this political philosophy is implemented you can be sure that the country will be moving backwards ten years before we move forwards again because governance is very important if we are to move forwards. It is because successive governments have failed to do their job that we continue to be a poor country. The people, you and I, have done our bit. We have worked hard and wherever you see 'India Shining' it is in areas where government has no role to play. We have excellent private schools, excellent private companies, excellent private hospitals, excellent private television channels and this is without mentioning the phenomenal success of our IT sector. Alas, these remain pockets of excellence and prosperity because the government has failed to deliver on its side of the deal.
It clings to ancient monopolies that make it the sole producer of vital infrastructure like electricity but fails to produce enough for our needs. It is its job to produce sufficient water for drinking and irrigation but it has failed to deliver even in states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra which sit on the ocean. Desalination plants should have been built years ago and there would have been more than enough water. But, that would require money, commitment and a desire to really do something for the people instead of merely mouthing slogans of the kind that comprise the vast bulk of the new coalition's Common Minimum Programme.
UPA Government
Sample? 'The UPA Government will give the highest investment, credit and technological priority to the continued growth of agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, floriculture, afforestation, dairying and agro-processing that will significantly add to the creation of new jobs. Oh yes? Where is the money coming from? And, how is all this going to happen without massive investments in irrigation? Which brings me back to the monsoon. It is an outrage that the vast majority of India's farmers continue to rely on the monsoon for survival. An outrage that so little has been done to ensure regular supplies of water whether the rains fail or not. But, why should governments do anything if it is Laloo Yadav of Bihar and the Marxists of Bengal who win, while Chandrababu loses Andhra. Next time someone tells you about the 'wisdom' of the Indian voter tell him to have his head examined.
Tavleen Singh | Thursday, June 17, 2004 11:15:24 IST
Do nothing for the people and like Laloo and the Marxists you will keep winning, try to do something and like Chandrababu you will end up losing
The rains have come to Mumbai. And, I write sitting in a friend's flat that looks out on a picture postcard monsoon landscape. Grey skies,cappuccino ocean, white breakers and a solitary fishing boat, redflag hoisted, staying carefully in safe waters. The ocean is so rough that morning walkers duck for cover as huge waves smash against the shore and splash them with salt water. Mumbai's morning newspapers exult in the arrival of the rains with recipes to heighten the joys of monsoon magic. Read as these dailies are by middle-class people with roofs over their head they recommend afternoons spent curled up in front of a television set with hot bhajjis (pakodas) and chai. They proffer advice on how women can take better care of their hair and skin and how mothers can better prevent children from coming down with monsoon diseases. They ignore that of half of the people of this city who live in slum dwellings made of tin sheets, plastic and scrap to whom the monsoon means leaky roofs, disease, squalor and lost workdays. This un-magical side of the monsoon was brought sharply to my notice by someone running a project for street children who tells me that every year at this time the children he has persuaded to go to school, the girls he has saved from prostitution, the teenagers he has helped learn a skill, all disappear because it is no longer possible to live in the street. So, on this magical monsoon morning I find myself obliged to write about politics because his words remind me of a frightening political conversation I recently had in Delhi.
Laloo Yadav
A friend from the Congress Party and I were discussing the effects on governance of having in the Cabinet someone like Laloo Yadav. This was before last week's train accident, but my Congress friend was already pessimistic and gloomy. "I don't know what he will do or not do for the Railways," he said "what I do know is that his presence and the fact that he won so many seats in Bihar is making Congress people rethink their political strategy. Do nothing for the people and like Laloo you will keep winning, try to do something and like Chandrababu you will end up losing."
Unfortunately, the matter does not end there which is why I found this conversation frightening. Laloo is not the only one who wins despite taking Bihar down the road to ruin. In neighbouring West Bengal we see the even more scary spectacle of the Marxist government managing to stay in power for nearly thirty years despite doing so little for the poor that starvation deaths were reported from some districts last week. Marxist ideologues, ever ready with their talk of the 'poorest of the poor', dismissed the deaths as a localized problem. Starvation deaths may be, but poverty is not. West Bengal used to be, in that long ago time before the Marxists came, our most industrialized state. Our biggest industrialists were based there before Marxist trade unions forced them to move to Maharashtra. Even this would be fine if the Marxists had succeeded in providing ordinary Bengalis with schools, hospitals, clean drinking water but not only did this not happen but West Bengal's ranking fell from being one of India's richest states to being among today among its poorest. But, as with Laloo in Bihar the Marxists appear never to be challenged by such things as anti-incumbency.
This is being interpreted by influential politicians and political pundits in Delhi as a sign that the less you do for the people the more likelihood there is of winning power. The fair-minded in the Congress Party admit that Atal Behari Vajpayee ran a good government and did much in terms of development. Just building eleven kilometers of road a day compared to eleven kilometers a year in earlier Congress times is indication of this. But, there was more. There was a
concerted attempt to loosen government controls on private enterprise, attempts to open India to foreign investment, to new technologies and the effects could be felt - despite what you hear to the contrary - all the way down to the villages. In a village in Bihar that had never seen electricity for a single day since Independence I found mobile phones and an ISD-STD booth from which I managed to call Mumbai. There was still no electricity but there was cable TV watched with the help of tractor batteries. Satellite dishes had arrived too and although only a handful of people had televisions in their homes, there was awareness of progress and the need for change such as could not have been imagined ten years ago. But, Vajpayee was swept from power and disturbing voices in the Congress Party now mutter about the importance of doing nothing.
Talk about the poor, they say, make meaningless promises like trying to get jobs reserved in private companies for those of low caste but do nothing except promote Rahul Gandhi as the shiny, new hope and all will be well. If this political philosophy is implemented you can be sure that the country will be moving backwards ten years before we move forwards again because governance is very important if we are to move forwards. It is because successive governments have failed to do their job that we continue to be a poor country. The people, you and I, have done our bit. We have worked hard and wherever you see 'India Shining' it is in areas where government has no role to play. We have excellent private schools, excellent private companies, excellent private hospitals, excellent private television channels and this is without mentioning the phenomenal success of our IT sector. Alas, these remain pockets of excellence and prosperity because the government has failed to deliver on its side of the deal.
It clings to ancient monopolies that make it the sole producer of vital infrastructure like electricity but fails to produce enough for our needs. It is its job to produce sufficient water for drinking and irrigation but it has failed to deliver even in states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra which sit on the ocean. Desalination plants should have been built years ago and there would have been more than enough water. But, that would require money, commitment and a desire to really do something for the people instead of merely mouthing slogans of the kind that comprise the vast bulk of the new coalition's Common Minimum Programme.
UPA Government
Sample? 'The UPA Government will give the highest investment, credit and technological priority to the continued growth of agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, floriculture, afforestation, dairying and agro-processing that will significantly add to the creation of new jobs. Oh yes? Where is the money coming from? And, how is all this going to happen without massive investments in irrigation? Which brings me back to the monsoon. It is an outrage that the vast majority of India's farmers continue to rely on the monsoon for survival. An outrage that so little has been done to ensure regular supplies of water whether the rains fail or not. But, why should governments do anything if it is Laloo Yadav of Bihar and the Marxists of Bengal who win, while Chandrababu loses Andhra. Next time someone tells you about the 'wisdom' of the Indian voter tell him to have his head examined.