By Patricia Mukhim
When we think government we think corruption. But there are several studies that inform us that ‘incompetence’ is the major cause of poor governance and of course that enables corruption. In a state with high levels of literacy and several PhD holders, it is appalling to note that we elect semi-literate or illiterate people to represent us in the legislature in the 21st century. I am not demeaning the half/literate or illiterate but considering that our fates are in their hands and the kind of laws they legislate, it is in my own enlightened self-interest that I should elect someone who can read a balance sheet; who will go through the CAG observations year after year and haul up civil servants who fail to perform and deliver.
What’s ironic is that while we have high expectations from our children and expect them to touch the stars and glide the futuristic world seamlessly, we have no such ambitions from our elected representatives. Why so? Is it because we are resigned to our fates and know that nothing good can come out of politics? Hence, we not only distance ourselves from this ‘art of the possible’ but also believe it to be beyond our ken because we don’t have money to burn in order to buy votes? So, we have the kind of MLAs/ministers we have today who literally struggle to understand the basic nuances of governance. Because of their own incompetence, many of our politicians tend to rely heavily on bureaucrats to guide them in decision-making. Most MLAs are simply unable to deep dive into any issue or to analyse dispassionately a file that comes before them. The few that are educated, (some of them abroad) and in no less a field of study than management, which, hopefully includes human resource management, seem to have lost that cutting edge after entering politics. Sadly, very few institutions train people in political management and governance. Politics is a different ballgame and that’s why the MIT World Peace University, Pune, has a course called “Studies on Governance.” Several politicians are enrolled in that course.
Politics is not corporate management. In the corporate world you have the luxury of choosing the best brains and paying them a tidy package. In politics you can’t choose people to work for you. You have to make do with who the people elect. And if money is the guiding factor in every election then naturally you will have MLAs that stumble when they have to read even what their officers have meticulously prepared. But politics in Meghalaya has tolerated incompetence, inefficiency, lack of accountability and worse, because we have all given up expecting anything better. Every government that comes in seems to perform worse than its predecessor. The irony is that every single MLA also runs a business. The question is – are they running their businesses the way they are handling the state? Would they allow their businesses to run at a loss year after year? But that seems alright for the State. The pathetic human development indices of Meghalaya especially in the area of women and child health and of the 41% of single women headed households where 42 % of the population live (NFHS 2021) speak volumes about the failure to address this single most disturbing aspect of development or its absence.
But this article is about the monumental shame that the Sports & Youth Affairs Department has single-handedly managed to put the state through. And sadly, no heads have rolled as yet! What’s to stop the Chief Minister from dropping the Sports Minister and call explanation from the Director of Sports and Youth Affairs and other officials for their utter incompetence and distance from the situation on the ground. This is a clear case of apathy towards their respective duties. A blame game is already on but the public should not allow this case to be forgotten. We need an accountability mechanism in place.
While corruption among public servants causes harm and is a killjoy for governance it is simplistic to believe that corruption alone is the principal cause for poor governance. More than corruption it is incompetence that haunts governments the most. We all know how difficult it is to run an organisation that comprises incompetent people. Service delivery is the first casualty. And I wonder if people have noticed this but incompetent people are also very insecure people, If they are in decision-making positions, they will take the wrong decisions to protect their backs and discard the right decision to improve service delivery. We have seen many such incompetent people heading departments and playing the blame game each time something goes wrong. Leaders don’t pass the buck. They take responsibility for the organisation/department when something goes wrong. They don’t blame the underlings down the ladder.
The cost of losses on account of incompetence has not been assessed in this country. Prime Minister Modi had adopted a scheme of compulsorily retiring non-performing officials. I am sure there would be many in Meghalaya. Such have become dead wood that are being paid for their incompetence. There is no punishment for incompetence but the damage to governance is far, far greater than the ‘leakages’ due to corruption.
Dr Rajesh Kasturirangan, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, who has done extensive research on governance says he is not convinced that corruption is responsible for poor governance. From published evidence, China seems as corrupt as India but the governance in the two countries differs by leaps and bounds. Kasturirangan says the that perhaps the difference is between enabling corruption and disabling corruption, which in other words means that the Chinese take bribes and get the job done while Indians take the money and run. In many countries, corruption is the price of doing business, but there is no reason why corrupt officials shouldn’t deliver the goods.
The 4th Meghalaya Games (by the way other sister states in the North East are into the 12th or 13th edition) has shown us the huge talent pool in sports and games. Watching the Karatekas perform at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) stadium on Thursday was pure joy. Kids as young as 5-6 years and the seniors are already playing the game with the intensity it demands. They are physically fit and if well trained they will give any competitor a run for their money. Speaking with the General Secretary of the All Karate-Do Association, Ksan Kupar Warjri one learnt that these bright and promising young athletes soon drop out of the game because their parents feel there is no future in pursuing sports in Meghalaya. Yet those who train in Karate, he told me, are also mentally strong and focussed because that’s what the game demands. As a result many of them take up professional courses like engineering and medicine and do well in these subjects because Karate is a game demanding speed, accuracy, quick reflexes, a sharp response mechanism but above all discipline.
When one looks at the teeming number of participants in the various games numbering over 2,600 athletes and the hopes and dreams in their eyes one wonders if they will ever be able to reach the pinnacle of success through intense coaching and the financing required for their trips to international events. Here I want to raise an important point. Where are the industries, especially the cement companies investing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) which is 2 % of their profits?. How transparent is this transaction? Which human development institutions have these corporate entities created? Paying money surreptitiously to sundry pressure groups is not CSR. These companies have to be held to account. They should be told to invest in the Meghalaya Olympics Association and that body must be made accountable for how it uses funds.
Interestingly, the Indian Olympic Association has set a cash prize of Rs 75 lakh for gold medalists, Rs 40 lakh for silver and Rs 25 lakh for bronze. But what pushes the athletes to aim for the stars are the steep cash prizes announced by the state governments to those athletes that have won medals at the recent Tokyo Olympics. The highest rewards are announced by Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Chattisgarh and Chandigarh at Rs 6 crore each for gold winners, Rs 4 crore for silver and Rs 2 crore and Rs 2.5 crore respectively for bronze. When will we in Meghalaya be able to produce an Olympian? Does the Government care enough to set aside a decent budget for sports? Government needs to remember that sports is known to build the physical and mental discipline of youth. It is perhaps the best way to wean youth away from all the other evils that threaten to destroy them. The role of the Government is to think along those lines.
This time when political parties come to ask for our votes we have to all question them (a) if they have a vision for Sports and Youth Affairs (b) what that vision is and (c) how will they translate that vision on the ground. Sports needs a big fillip and it’s time the Government does course correction. If music is given prominence then sports too deserves a bigger budget. Period.