The system, as Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya states, is the problem; not individuals. The experience the Health Minister had at the Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital is, by now, well-known. Reaching the nation’s largest central government hospital incognito this past week, he was roughed up by security personnel and abused when he tried to sit on a bench there. It is rarely ever that ministers make such attempts to find out the ground scenario other than going to spots for inspections with all the official paraphernalia. In the days the royals ran princely states, several of them moved around their provinces now and then, unannounced and alone, to find out what was happening around. Today, netas have neither the inclination nor the interest to do so. Many of them make hay for themselves when they sit in positions of power. Their hands are in the honeypot.
The system’s progressive erosion of strengths is the big problem. The British had left for us the world’s best administrative system. Progressively over the years, people’s leaders have rubbished it. Bureaucrats took the cue and went overboard. Together, they made a mess of the systems not only in states, but starkly at the central edifice too. Corruption is widespread. Good leaders concentrate less on talk and more on action. Action requires a vision for the future. What helped first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to lay a firm foundation for Independent India was his exposure to the outside world as a student in London which, in the post Industrial Revolution era, was the epicentre of global growth. Nehru’s vision helped India build a strong base. The steel plants promoted industrialization; dams and irrigation canals fed the agricultural growth. The decades thereafter were wasted years.
On one side, democracy was itself rubbished with demand for more freedom to individuals and this was matched only by a sense of irresponsibility on everyone’s part. With politicians and bureaucrats embarking on outright loot, and public sector banks becoming sitting ducks for crafty rich men to grease the system with bribes and loot their funds, the system collapse in India is near-complete. Cosmetic surgeries will not help. The first wave of Covid19 was warning enough; yet, there was no preparation for the anticipated second wave. Deaths were one too many due to lack of oxygen and ICU support. With the systems’ strengths getting eroded progressively, lawlessness is the result. A rudderless scene is a prescription for disaster. The nations that progressed are those that maintained good systems. India is on a reverse drive.
