Looking forward and avoiding problems is a sign of health. Reacting to situations, especially the same situations over and over, is a sign of illness.
This can be generalized to the health of a society as well.
On that front, I find India to be extremely sick. I am afraid things are so bad that the basic institutions of police, courts, hospitals, public education have become worse than the problem they are trying to solve. The police and courts have become tools of oppression, hospitals have become dens of patronage, thievery and infection, public education has become a farce.
Does the police in India ever patrol a neighborhood in normal times?
Does a court in India ever even read a petition instead of just sending "notices"?
Can any educational institution in India claim that it is adding value to society rather than leeching on it?
Does any public hospital in India ever deliver the baby of a politician or of a civil servant?
There is urgent need of massive surgery, perhaps even a re-writing of the basic structure of the government, and all we are seeing is announcements.
It is perhaps to be expected that the beneficiaries of a system will not have any incentive to transform it. The educated and the able have either left the country, or have joined the beneficiaries to share in the loot.
After the British left, the only real change was how the central and state legislators were elected. There was absolutely no change in the structure of government and judiciary.
No change in legislature can bring about a change in India till the basic structure is revamped to:
1. Fix the justice delivery system so people are not helpless against injustice, especially by the state (there is no hope there because the lawyer-police-judge mafia will never allow this to happen)
2. Reorganize the police force to serve the people rather than the politicians (there is no hope here because the politician-executive-police mafia will beat people into submission rather than reform)
3. Rewrite the laws to serve the people rather than the state (there is no hope here because legislators will never allow any diminution in their own powers)
4. End discrimination in the form of reservations and subsidies (there is no hope there because the majority of electorate is now the beneficiaries of these doles). Instead of reservations, there must be massive investment in education and healthcare.
The situation is dire. The rich and the powerful have given up on improving the nation. Everybody is acting as a vulture to ensure that he/she gets a piece of the carcass.
I repeat: till the basic structure of India's institutions is reformed, there is no hope for this country. New leaders will change absolutely nothing but re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
This can be generalized to the health of a society as well.
On that front, I find India to be extremely sick. I am afraid things are so bad that the basic institutions of police, courts, hospitals, public education have become worse than the problem they are trying to solve. The police and courts have become tools of oppression, hospitals have become dens of patronage, thievery and infection, public education has become a farce.
Does the police in India ever patrol a neighborhood in normal times?
Does a court in India ever even read a petition instead of just sending "notices"?
Can any educational institution in India claim that it is adding value to society rather than leeching on it?
Does any public hospital in India ever deliver the baby of a politician or of a civil servant?
There is urgent need of massive surgery, perhaps even a re-writing of the basic structure of the government, and all we are seeing is announcements.
It is perhaps to be expected that the beneficiaries of a system will not have any incentive to transform it. The educated and the able have either left the country, or have joined the beneficiaries to share in the loot.
After the British left, the only real change was how the central and state legislators were elected. There was absolutely no change in the structure of government and judiciary.
No change in legislature can bring about a change in India till the basic structure is revamped to:
1. Fix the justice delivery system so people are not helpless against injustice, especially by the state (there is no hope there because the lawyer-police-judge mafia will never allow this to happen)
2. Reorganize the police force to serve the people rather than the politicians (there is no hope here because the politician-executive-police mafia will beat people into submission rather than reform)
3. Rewrite the laws to serve the people rather than the state (there is no hope here because legislators will never allow any diminution in their own powers)
4. End discrimination in the form of reservations and subsidies (there is no hope there because the majority of electorate is now the beneficiaries of these doles). Instead of reservations, there must be massive investment in education and healthcare.
The situation is dire. The rich and the powerful have given up on improving the nation. Everybody is acting as a vulture to ensure that he/she gets a piece of the carcass.
I repeat: till the basic structure of India's institutions is reformed, there is no hope for this country. New leaders will change absolutely nothing but re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
2 comments:
Depressing, but I fear you are absolutely correct in your diagnosis of India's problems. For me, the idea of India has failed, perhaps breaking it up into smaller nation states will help. Clearly the demand for such a separation is there, NE India, Punjab, TN all would have no problem being separate nations I would imagine.
Surely there is some hope somewhere. I am interested in hearing your thoughts on where there might be hope. Perhaps it is there when a large enough number of young people come together and are trained in the ways of protest and self-sacrifice, much as Gandhi did?
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