Thread by @svickram

A thread on State of India / quality of life/ Centrism vs localism and curse of Elitocracy

#BandAidNation #RepublicDay2020

India, the curse of its elites & need for administrative reforms - from book - The band aid nation

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Innocent indians
Indians think of central govt for 90%
9.9 % - of State Govt
0.01% about local govt

and then wonder as why roads in their area are broken
then they click pic of broken roads and tag PMO

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But what if they start thinking about local governance?

There are some really smart people who think that if we start focussing on ward / municipalities election, issues related to road, traffic, hospitals etc can be solved. So every time ward / municipal elections happen, 3/n

lot of hue and cry appear on social media urging people to participate in their local election.

What if they are equally innocent and naive in believing in power of municipalities?

India is the comedy of elites, which ultimately has became trauma for commons.

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Indian Elites live in capital cities, in large govt given bungalows, near their office without any commute time, with a retinue of servants!

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They consume majority of state resources on their living, security, transportation, education, medical, travel and hence have neither any understanding as how remaining 90% India lives and most importantly nor real willingness to learn also.

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Majority of elites are educated or aspire for posting in US/UK. and hence in all innocence, want India to be like US/UK

Probably that is why that majority of Indian policies are being made by ppl who live in US, earn their living in US but make policies for rest of the India

So what is the collateral damage for the country.

Well everything-

Towns which shall be in charge of local infrastructure & eco system - roads, power, schools, hospitals but they neither have the power/money or more importantly any ownership / accountability.

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Eveerything about a town is decided by elites sitting in a capital which is 300 km away and has no engagement or skin in the game of any sort or in true sense no ownership.

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Look at any city - hospitals, education, roads, traffic, housing are in mess. Look at any small town- mess is same. Scenario in Davangere (town in Karnataka) or Haldwani ( Town in Uttarakhand) is same. Chaos on road with traffic jams. Broken healthcare and broken public services!

Highways going through middle of a town with small communities separated by mile high road dividers, patients queuing up at AIIMS from far away places, and millions passing out of educational institutes without any skill or knowledge. whose ownership?

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Let us look at transport sector. There is almost unanimity among economists, policy experts, bureaucrats and political class for building transportation infrastructure and result is that roads are being built at a super fast pace.

Whole coutry is dug up with roads coming up fast along with fancy toll plazas. Newsreaders track roads being built per day in every political regime. Roads are seen as a good benchmark to track economic progress and there is a reason for that. Roads did wonder for US economy.

However the roads could do wonder on account of cheaper cars which ran on even cheaper gasoline. And USA did not convert every local road into express way with a fancy toll plaza. In America both exists - local roads ass well as express ways.

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In Contrast, Indian establishment didn't create new roads, it is converting existing local roads with expressway along with toll plaza & in a way reducing mobility.

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As Indian roads are far more expensive (more toll roads compared to US) but on top cars are even more expensive with highest GST along with costliest petrol in the world. So will roads really solve India’s transport need or create more divide.

Are these roads really solving transportation needs of small towns/villages or just focussing on elites. With road permit system in mess, buses remains costly & erratic while trains with perpetual waiting lists & super packed general class, remain more of a trauma than anything

So while roads might build the backbone, masses will not feel the impact till all niggles related to transportation ie road permit system, messy state entry permits, and average costs per user are not tackled.

none of these are even being attempted despite focus on transportation for so many years. why? simple reason is that elites never face any of these challenges and hence dont even think about it.

India with high growth does not look like a fancy, rosy picture of a prosperous civilisation. It's ugly picture of poorly designed houses, equally messy roads and chaotic hospitals and broken educational system.

If you ignore those fancy cars, big airports and look at overall quality of life, if that is still a phrase, we are at par or probably worse with many sub-saharan countries.

And no it is not crisis of governance or issue of this political party or of that political party. It is a crisis perpetuated by elitism where some high brow elites be it judiciary or bureaucracy siting in Delhi or any other state capital, decide things for the natives.

It's high time that rather than chasing and discussing growth figures, India shall start looking at gross happiness and design for the lowest denominator of the society and create a happy nation and not a chaotic nation.

and path of this will not come from centre but from local government which has power, budget, ownership and most important -accountability - the missing item in Indian administrative structure or rather colonial administrative structure.

Hence more than anything else, India is in urgent need of administrative mega reforms and build an administrative structure which is designed for governance and not for continuation of colonial rule system.

Till it is done, every reform will be more of a band-aid and India will remain a country of elites for elites by elites while life for rest of India will remain a journey in suffering.

The end - from the book - The band aid nation

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