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LOOSE CHANGE These days, we are being told a bare faced lie in the garb of community development and well-being: it's called the Bhagidari system. It has to be one of the most perverse pieces spin-doctoring in present-day India. Bhagidari means shareholding, participation, a cut, stake, co-operation-any impetus that makes up a return on investment in future. So it is with some disgust - and awe - that I viewed an advertisement a couple of days ago issued by the Delhi Vidyut Board, the same organisation to which I pay inflated electricity bills despite an average of four to five hours of blackouts every day through summer. It lists a "6-point programme" for various residential areas in New Delhi:
I'm not sure what you think, but to me, it seems like we're being made to pay some more for the failure of the state or in this case, a state-run agency. If my "residents welfare association" has to do so much, and wait a month or more for redress, then what are we paying Delhi's utility for? This ingenious ploy is being used by Delhi's Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit to cover every aspect of what the administration handles very poorly: sanitation, power and water supply, law and order, everything. Certainly not because of lack of money, but lack of guts, ethics and efficiency. It's a superb ploy. We are disgusted citizens. So, empower us with the illusion to take matters into our own hands while some politicians and corrupt, inefficient government employees lay back, earn pay for working even less, and corner the glory. Our effort, their bonus. Some 'bhagidari'. The thing is, Sheila Dixit isn't the only one doing this and the con hardly began yesterday. Some of you who know Calcutta will have heard about how residents of some residential areas clean up filthy neighbourhoods by handling garbage collection themselves. Stretch the point, and you will bring in thousands of small, medium and big industries all across India who have invested tens of billions of rupees in diesel generating sets to fill the gap of power demand and inefficient supply. It's sweet: they invest; and the administration of the day gets the credit for this perverse industrial growth which reflects wealth wasted, not created. The instances are numerous. Villagers in the hills getting so tired of the state government's callousness about not building a much-needed bridge (the lack washes away cattle, children and grown people in the summer and monsoons), that they build it themselves. It happened in Himachal Pradesh. Because the government doesn't realise it, plan and execute your own rainwater-harvesting programme. This is happening all over north and western India. This is true bhagidari, the hard-edged, no-gloss equivalent of the ESOP, when everyone pitches in for return on investment. When people take of their own because they have been betrayed and taken for a ride by the state. So you will agree with me that in present day India, the state has no business expecting-demanding, even-bhagidari for prosperity it does little to facilitate. Bhagidari with government can come only when the state becomes efficient. And that, in India, can only happen if the state ceases to exist as it does today. Governance must change; privatisation must take place rapidly. That day, we can all think about the CSOP: the Citizen's Stock Option Plan. And Mrs. Dixit, along with your fellow political mesmerists, you'll be welcome to participate in the deal of a lifetime. (Sudeep Chakravarti is Senior Editor, INDIA TODAY & Editor, India Today On The Net. Write to Sudeep Chakravarti). |
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