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VIEWPOINT
Of
The VIP, For The VIP
The government
must start working for the people not for itself
By
Tavleen Singh
Last week I witnessed a minor municipal miracle
in Mumbai. I saw Marine Drive transformed with dazzling speed from its
usual squalid state to a fine promenade worthy of the old sobriquet, Queen's
Necklace, by which it was known in better days. Overnight, street vendors
selling tender coconut water and roasted corn and the homeless with their
pathetic bedding of plastic sheets and waste cardboard were swept away
(God only knows where) as an army of municipal workers moved in to lay
a carpet of asphalt over broken tarmac, paint the trunks of trees in terracotta
and white and build a parapet along the sea in breathtaking time. If this
transformation was achieved for the benefit of ordinary citizens, Mumbai's
municipal commissioner would qualify for a national award. Sadly, it was
not for us citizens that he worked so hard but for the prime minister
who was coming to review a naval parade. So yet again, we are accidental
beneficiaries of another VIP visit, victims once more of governance for
the sake of itself instead of governance for the people.
 It
happens all the time all over India. In villages, bereft of the most basic
services, let a VVIP show signs of arrival and roads suddenly appear where
there were dirt tracks, pucca buildings materialise out of thin air and
even reliable power supply mysteriously becomes available. Once the VVIP
disappears after making his inspection or laying his foundation stone
or shedding his crocodile tears, everything goes back to normal squalor
once again. Why should it? If the government can work so hard for officials
and politicians who are supposed to be the servants of the people then
why can't it do the same for us, the people?
Perhaps,
because we have allowed our servants to develop an inflated sense of their
own importance by allowing them to think in VIP terms. Perhaps because
we are so used to living in Third World, third-rate conditions, we expect
no better. Or more probably because we have allowed government to abdicate
its real responsibilities: its responsibilities to us.
Even as
Marine Drive was being beautified for the benefit of the prime minister
our Minister for Rural Development Venkaiah Naidu made the astounding
announcement that he wanted private participation in rural development.
He conceded that things were bad: out of India's six lakh villages 2.30
lakh do not have telephones and 80,000 do not even have electricity. But,
instead of pledging that as the minister responsible for rural development
he planned to ensure that this appalling state of affairs changed dramatically,
he asked businessmen to help by investing in the villages. Why should
they? It is the business of businessmen to do business and the business
of government to invest in development. It is not the business of government
to do business and although we still see only the faintest signs of government
divesting itself of needless activities-like running factories and hotels-we
increasingly hear talk of private sector involvement in education, health
care and rural development. This is so absurd that we may just as well
start privatising the Prime Minister's Office or the ministries of home,
defence and finance.
Naidu is
a novice in government or he would have realised that instead of coming
up with silly gimmicks, he should find out where the thousands of crores
of rupees we have already spent on rural development have gone. He may
discover that the reason why so much of rural India lives in primitive
conditions is because the money meant for roads, electricity and telephone
lines has disappeared into the pockets of a vast network of petty and
not so petty officials. Private money will undoubtedly go the same way.
If he is
sincere, he could set an example for other ministers in the Vajpayee Government
who have, alas, done little more than slip into the offices and homes
vacated by their predecessors and becoming proud new VIPs. They live in
VIP areas, in VIP houses and drive VIP cars down roads that are cleared
for VIP traffic and through their darkened VIP windows they see nothing.
This was acceptable in socialist times because our own peculiar version
of socialism allowed the servants of the people to behave like little
ugly rajas. But the Vajpayee Government prides itself on its moves towards
economic liberalisation, so why does it to cling to the worst habits of
the past?
You often
hear politicians whine about the lack of popular support for liberalisation.
It will come when ordinary Indians see a visible improvement in their
physical environment. If our cities looked like proper cities instead
of slums and if our villages could be provided with the basic amenities
there would be instant support. So let us see the municipal commissioner
clean up some of Mumbai's other streets and this time for the people,
not just for the prime minister.
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