T.S.R. Subramanian retired as the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India. He has since become a forceful advocate of governance reform. The PIL, TSR Subramanian & Ors v. Union of India, has led to the 2013 Supreme Court decision, hailed for bringing about genuine civil service reform. Subramanian has a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University, and has previously published Journeys Through Babudom and Netaland: Governance in India.

Praise for the book ‘In the context of current public anger and debate in India about deficiencies in public governance even after more than six decades since independence, TSR’s book will provide ample food for thought to the policymakers as well as students of public administration.’ —T.S. Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner ‘In this incisive analysis…TSR has combined his rich and varied experience of the system with his immense analytical skills, to critically appraise the complex political, social and development challenges facing the nation today.’ —Vinod Rai, Former Comptroller & Auditor General ‘I cannot think of a more engaging work than this one by T.S.R. Subramanian for all those who are interested in figuring out what is wrong with India’s political and administrative machinery and how best to set them right.’ —Dipankar Gupta, Sociologist

First published by Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2014 7 / 16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110002 Sales Centres: Allahabad Bengaluru Chennai Hyderabad Jaipur Kathmandu Kolkata Mumbai Copyright © TSR Subramanian 2014 First published in RAINLIGHT/hardcover in 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-81-291-3556-8 Second impression 2022 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 The moral right of the author has been asserted. Typeset by RECTO Graphics, Delhi Printed at Repro India Limited, India This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

For THE POOR CITIZEN OF INDIA who continues to pay for the sins and poor governance by the ruling classes of this ‘democracy’; where everything is done in his name, but he is left holding the sack, continuing to remain in the most miserable condition, tolerating what elsewhere would have led to a bloody revolution decades back. Surely he deserves the opportunity to blossom.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements Preface

ix xi

1. Activity as Substitute for Action? 2. Should Growth Be the Only Criterion for Economic Policy? 3. Placebo Governance 4. Has the Media Become More Shrill, But More Effective? 5. What Is Modernity—Is It Rejection of Tradition? 6. Public Health—The Huge Cost of Neglect? 7. Education—Imperative Need for a Revamp? 8. The Neglect of Physical Infrastructure— The Heavy Price? 9. Strategic Issues—Are We a Soft State? 10. Does Parliament Represent the People Anymore?— Reforming Politics And Politicians 11. The CBI Needs Fixing (Also How It Tried to ‘Fix’ Me) 12. How Can Government Ensure Improved Delivery of Services? 13. Direction of Civil Service Reforms?

1 17 38 51 66 76 86 101 117 130 148 159 171

14. Who Wants Corruption Eliminated—Except the Citizen? 15. Can Coalition Governments Give Good Governance? 16. Do We Recognize the Glory of Our Classical Arts? 17. Cricket is Religion—Others Don’t Exist? 18. Those Carefree School and College Days

192 208 229 237 252

At the End

273

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Vinay Sitapati helped me from the beginning, commenting on the structure and contents, often with some brutal honesty (well justified); he has probably made a very poor draft passable! I am very grateful to him. Shankar and Amy Sitapati read through the draft, and made valuable suggestions. Ambassador R.L. Narayanan has done much high quality research work on the coalition governments of 1996-98, based on contemporary documentation and media reports. Much of Chapter 15 incorporates his conclusions, with some comments from me. I gratefully acknowledge his contribution. Chander Lekh spent a lot of his spare time helping me with the draft of this publication. My thanks to him. The poor ground conditions, accompanied by some carelessness from me, were responsible for an Achilles tendon tear in my leg, confining me to my residence for a couple of months, and providing me the time to write the book. My thanks to the grounds committee of the Noida Golf Club!

PREFACE

Sudiksha is a 13-year-old child studying at VidyaGyan School in a village not far from Delhi. VidyaGyan is a remarkable school. It admits bright 10/11-year olds from poor village schools, including the most backward districts, and gives them a free education of high quality. When Sudiksha came to VidyaGyan three years ago, she hardly knew any English, was shy and diffident. After just three years of exposure to trained teachers, resources, and nutritious food, she can outperform the most privileged children from Delhi’s elite private schools. It’s a simple lesson: Indians have the ability to compete with the best, if only we give them the opportunity. It is this opportunity that we have failed to provide our citizens. The reality in 2013 is far removed from the promise of our Constitution, given by us to ourselves in 1950. At that turning point in our history, we simply took the wrong turn. In every index of human development—education, health, even peace and harmony—India ranks near the bottom of the world. For example, practically every other country in the world provides electric power without break; we are unable to provide our citizens with this basic service. As a result business suffers, households are hurt, farmers are seriously handicapped, and millions of our poor children are unable to study at night. We cannot blame our past; most countries in Asia who started on their development path after we did, are now far ahead of us. We also cannot blame our people. It is not they who have failed us, it is our government which has failed its people. Poor governance is the one factor that has to take responsibility for this state of

xii  INDIA

AT TURNING POINT

affairs. If we are able to fix our governance problems, then every village school can become like VidyaGyan, every child in India can become tomorrow’s leader. I have been in the Indian government for 37 years. I have seen public service at the village, district, divisional, departmental and state secretariat levels. I have also had the privilege of functioning, during an eventful period as the official head of the largest Indian state, Uttar Pradesh. I have worked in central ministries, and was privileged to be the official head of the central administration for two years. I can truly call myself an ‘insider’. But since retirement 15 years ago, I have become an outspoken ‘outsider’. I have not held any official post. Instead, I have been associated with public service outside of government. Through writing and television appearances, I am a consistent voice of governance reform—and don’t hesitate to take on the powers that be. I should also add that my post-retirement experience has led me to review and revisit a number of opinions I held strongly in service life; perhaps I didn’t know enough then to take a broader view. One of my books, Journeys through Babudom and Netaland: Governance in India, has been well received, and is quoted even now. I have been associated with the corporate sector, and have served on many boards. However, what makes me happiest is my close association with a number of charity programmes such as VidyaGyan. As an insider-outsider, I can see both sides of the link between governmental activities and public welfare. I can relate to the interface between the government and the ‘governed’. The essays in this book deal with this relationship between the governed and the government. Why are places in India, like those in which Sudiksha grew up, so lacking in basic facilities? What has gone wrong with our governance—and how do we fix it? While I have written this book more to please myself, I feel I am qualified to call myself an ‘outsider’ as well as an ‘insider’ in governance. I owe it to myself to share my thoughts, for whatever little it may be worth. This book is also a personal retrospective. I have weaved in my experiences, incidents from my life, mainly with a view to bring attention to public policy and implementation issues, rather than recount them for their own sake.

PREFACE  xiii

Except for one early chapter and the last one, which are in the nature of reminiscences, most other references to my experiences are intended to highlight structural weaknesses in the system, and lead to reforms. In the process, perhaps there has been repetition of a few incidents from my earlier books. I have not edited them out, as they flowed naturally. This book is not an autobiography, even though I have dealt with many incidents and events in my life. My closest thoughts and most important experiences, I have kept to myself—this book is not a vehicle for that. I expect these will depart with me, unrecorded. This book relates to my experience with public policy issues and implementation measures. Each chapter is conceived as a self-contained essay, on one theme each. I have also interspersed the discussion with personal experiences that could have relevance to the theme. I have tried to suggest reform measures in each chapter; these need to be developed into concrete actionable policies and programmes. The last three chapters are more or less personal reminiscences, perhaps not fully relatable to policy issues. The reader interested in public policy could skip those—or forgive an old man his indulgences. Six decades after Independence, we are at another turning point. We failed to make use of earlier opportunities—the Constitution guarantees dignity and self-respect to the citizen, but how many Indians live such lives? Our governance has not permitted our citizens to reach even these minimal goals. The general elections are due in 2014, and there is change in the air. India is now a young country, and one can distinctly discern restlessness for change and better governance. But will we lose our way once again? This book is a cry for reform; a prayer that the right leader will emerge and take us on the right path. If some of these ideas or reforms, based on commonsense, are listened to, we may end up taking the right turn this time around. Post-Script: The book was written in Summer 2013, well before the election campaign of late 2013, and the historic developments of early 2014, which brought a new government into place with a massive majority scripted by Narendra Modi, who became Prime Minister in May 2014. This is a new beginning. The nation’s hopes are pinned on him to lead it forward to meet the aspirations mentioned in the last para of the book.

1

ACTIVITY AS SUBSTITUTE FOR ACTION?

Things are not always what they seem—Plato If Plato were to write his book in India in the early 21st century, he would have rephrased his comment to ‘Things are always not what they seem’, with reference to governance standards these days. The classic injunction to an administrator has always been that he should not only do the right thing, but should always appear to be doing it—this has now transformed to include only the second part—only appearances matter, substance is of little relevance. Action is not really required; what is essential is the illusion that action is taking place—activity is of the essence. The attempt of course is to fool all the people all the time and there has been a large measure of success over the past 70 years; never mind if one is found out—brazen it out. Tell a lie a thousand times, the majority starts believing it. It is convenient to blur the interface between policy and implementation. It is important to acquire power without responsibility and accountability. These represent evolution in the art or science of governance, Indian style. There are three main pillars in our governance structure, as envisaged in the Constitution—the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, each having distinct areas of responsibility, with corresponding powers and obligations. The Executive, responsible

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