DailyPost 2946
WHO IS NOT FIT TO RULE?
For all the misnomer of the euphemistic title called the public servant; permanent and political executive alike, what it does is to rule. And rule ruthlessly with very little accountability, until and unless someone is caught on the wrong side of the law, to an extent that he cannot be saved. There are no qualifications for the elected representatives, and the presumption is that they would be worldly wise, be concerned of people’s welfare, be obsessed with the good of the nation, attitudinally selfless et al, who with the assistance and facilitation of professional bureaucrats would be duty bound to transform the nation.
Attitude and expertise can add up to something worthwhile. There are any number of IT jobs where the educational qualification is not a must but expertise is which is tested. The political executive have no performance appraisals, no benchmarks, no thresholds to cross or or not cross, no clarity on supporting experts, timelines, quality, conduct, protocol and what not. It is free for all. It is a law of the jungle with democratic camouflage. A hypothetical question today, who is fit to rule, tomorrow it is likely to become a war cry of civil society, given the pace of downward descent.
Who can mean individuals, political parties or parts thereof, governments, departments, institutions and what not. Currently, we are not getting into the legality of it. The political executives who don’t have the time to attend to their office and official work, are they fit to rule? Political executive’s work is a full time job and they are paid for it. People who have allowed timelessness to creep in both in project execution and legislation, are they fit to rule? Time and cost overruns, and broken legal regime is costing us dear. People who ran helter skelter or hid themselves in the second wave of Covid, when Oxygen Langar was life saving, are they fit to rule? They were nearly the same people who are responsible for the abysmal health infrastructure of rural India mainly.
People who have allowed or facilitated and then created a smokescreen on the RG Kar case, are they fit to rule? If you are not fit to handle a law and order situation, say for example the Manipur, for years together, with the wherewithal, and authority under your command, then the competence to rule is a big question mark. When jails, whichever ones and there would be quite a few, are neither punitive or correctional, and provide amenities and opportunities for activities that are antithetical to their existence, are they fit to rule? People who have made our state level mass public education devoid of any quality, are they fit to rule? People who have brought our engineering education to such a pass, that we have a huge tech manpower, who are termed as educated unemployables, are they fit to rule? And what about people who have nipped research, innovation and product culture in the bud, are the fit to rule. The story can go on endlessly.
THE MOOT QUESTION IS, ARE WE BEING RULED BY PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT FIT TO RULE.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.