Here, in a Tweet thread, is my take on what's wrong with governance/ leadership in India. The Prime Minister, with little to boast about on the economic and social policy front put out this video clip of himself, all alone, cleaning up #Mamallapuram beach
What's wrong with that? I hear you ask. It was a charismatic popular leader setting an example to his filthy compatriots not to litter, defaecate, urinate, or otherwise foul up their public spaces. After all he had just received an award from Bill Gates for his #ODF success.
Just a day earlier all the Govt's PR machinery was making much of the PM's choice of attire for his meeting with #PresidentXi - a Tamil #VeshtiSwag, a style he had never before been seen in -so he could claim the hearts and minds and fealty of Tamil voters. 
To digress a bit, note that word I just used fealty. It's an apt choice, I think. Here's what it means. It is what drives this Government. The compact betweenb State and citizen is no longer one of trust based on accountability but of fealty of the people.
Anyway, back to cleaning up. What's wrong with Mr Modi collecting what looked suspiciously like sanitised pieces of rubbish in a clear plastic bag? Nothing, in so far as it goes. It's an unproductive use of the PM's time but if it transformed people's attitude to garbage then....
But here's the point, There's no evidence that we Indians are by nature or inclination a filthy lot. We behave differently abroad, for example. And I simply do NOT accept that ordinary citizens like living amidst their garbage and will not do their bit to keep their spaces clean
The trouble is not therefore the picking up of garbage. It is not having somewhere to deposit it, and then disposing of the collected garbage in a safe, clean, sustainable manner after it has been collected. The question we need to ask is what happened to that clear plastic bag?
In that entire video clip I did not see a single municipal garbage bin. It does not have to be an ugly black monstrosity. It can artistically blend into the pristine surroundings of sunny sand, white surf and blue sky. But there was NOT a garbage disposal facility, was there?
I have argued before: what we need is an ORGANISED SYSTEM of dealing with solid waste. Conveniently located bins where people gather, frequently emptied and a system for disposal that is sustainable. That system is patchy and unsatisfactory. Did that plastic bag end up here?
It all comes down to how much we value clean living spaces, The primary responsibility for garbage collection and disposal rests with municipal authorrities. And in India our civic bodies are the least efficient, most corrupt, worst funded tier of Government.
Pictures like these show what can happen when we go on hyper-cleaning drives to beautify selected parts of cities and tourist spots because rich people live there or on the occasion of a VIP visit. We simply move the stuff around.
It is good that at the highest level in India there is interest in cleaning up. But so far I see only intention and desire but not a strategy. The #Swacchbharat programme has provided photo-ops for VIP's to wield a broom in clean palces but it has not provided a strategy.
Back to the VVIP litter-pickup at #Mamallapuram. Let's face it. It was a photo-op, a staged set-piece exercise in image building of a popular PM as a crusading one-man army. But it was neither necessary nor, in and of itself, sufficient, to achieve the goal #SwachhBharatMission
We must not make the mistake of substituting activity for action, outputs for outcomes, nor spin for substance.
