Dear Rahul
Writing to you is like reviewing a film without ever having seen it.
I hardly know you. When you introduced yourself, all you told me was your name. The name is certainly powerful but says nothing about the inner you. I checked around with others but no one seems to know you any better.
I have heard that you are likely to be the ruling party’s proposed Prime Ministerial candidate. Good for you. See, I told you it’s a powerful name.
Conventional wisdom says that with barely a few months to go before the elections, so much anonymity is not a good idea. After all, elections are about the people at large, not Congressmen and women who may happily vote for just a name. And people at large like to know more about those they vote into power. I guess you will address this issue in due course. Sooner the better.
People have other complaints too. They say that you disappear for long stretches of time, then reappear and then disappear again. And you surround yourself with so many gatekeepers that it is impossible to ever reach you. Worse, they allege that your vision for the country is little more than bits and pieces of populist dreams.
All of this may or may not be true but it is a fact that your image has certainly taken a serious beating since the heady days of 2009 when you were credited for a resurgence of the Congress in UP.
But luckily for you, there is also another side.
Much like your father, by nature you are the perennial outsider. This is a trait that you share with other intensely private people. Sometimes this can be a problem as people mistake your natural diffidence for arrogance. But it has its upside too. It enables you see things from a perspective others cannot. Your father’s faith in computers and computing was dismissed as a silly dream of a stupid man who did not understand the essential India. The rest is history.
The charm of the outsider is the lack of pre-conditioning. And a childish belief that everything is possible. Being an outsider is your biggest asset. If you do make it to the top job, this is what you could leverage to bring about change.
Over the years, our ruling classes have built an impregnable castle for themselves. They lead lives of extraordinary privilege which would be unthinkable anywhere except India. But the very serious fault-lines of this world are now showing. It is a environment in which nothing works without a bribe, FIRs are not registered, roads never repaired, projects are paid for but never executed, schools never staffed, investment proposals never cleared, public money looted and power and patronage traded with contempt and impunity.
Happily for you, people are rapidly losing patience. They are tired of incremental gains from comfortable governments. They no longer want people who understand why change takes time. They no longer want improvement, they want transformation.
And that can come only from people outside the system. As an outsider, this is your biggest opportunity. Provided you see it as such.
But first, a note of caution.
2014 will be the most communally charged elections India has ever seen. You have to be careful. The BJP smells victory but knows the only way they can manage it by consolidating the Hindu vote. And that can happen only by fomenting communal emotions and riots.
Over the years, the Congress has nurtured a natural left-of-center position that would be the envy of any party in an essentially poor country. Going by the rest of the democratic world, the natural position for the main opposition party should be conservative and right of center. But a right-wing position would be far too niche to make any difference. Remember the Swatantra Party of the sixties?
As a result, in terms of economic policy, the BJP is pretty similar to the Congress. The only way it can differentiate itself is by aggressive conservatism. You could say they have no option but to adopt strident Hindutva. It is their only hope.
You have rightly focused yourself on the aam aadmi. You must not be drawn into communal violence under any circumstance. Irrespective of how tempting it may seem in the short-run, please remember no one loses more than you if the narrative turns communal.
Second, please do not rely on the Food Security Bill or the Land Acquisition Bill to actually win you the elections.
The notion that in a space of six-odd months, a system can be rolled out to reach 56 lac tonnes of food grains to reach 16 cr families every month is preposterous. Your people may hesitate in telling you that as no one wants to be the harbinger of bad news but that is no reason why you should allow yourself to be fooled.
In fact by advertising it and then failing to deliver you may end up with egg on the face very close to the polling date and that’s a bad idea.
The Land Acquisition Bill is definitely a more emotional issue and will certainly give you positive traction. However its impact will still be localized as not all areas are constantly threatened by acquisition and in any case land acquisition is a long and tedious process.
Having said that, your aam admi story remains intact and you should juice it as much as you can. You still have MNREGA and a whole suite of programs that benefit the aam family. Use the, promote them.
There is a saying in advertising that just when the client starts getting tired of his ads, the customer starts noticing them. So just because MNREGA is 5 years old does not mean that it ceases to be relevant. Promote it and reap rewards.
But I have a more basic question.
What is your level of commitment to the aam aadmi? Is it an interesting slogan? Am willing to accept it is definitely more than that. Is it a politician’s commitment? In which case you will take a right few steps and then let things roll.
Or is it the commitment of a warrior who will fight for the aam aadmi and against vested interests whether in the government or outside which have sucked this system dry?
As an aam aadmi myself I have a few suggestions that you may find useful.
Restructure the PMO
The last two terms of the UPA are proof if ever it was necessary that the existing structure of the PMO is grossly inadequate in an environment bedeviled by ‘alliance compulsions’ on the one hand and an aggressive media that wants to raise every issue to the level of the PM on the other hand.
In fact we have all seen it. The PM often cuts a sorry figure even within his own cabinet. It would be a mistake to assume that this happened only because Dr Singh lacked political strength. Despite winning as many as 400 seats Rajiv Gandhi had to face internal squabbling and ultimately lost out to VP Singh in 1989.
If you are elected, insist on appointing a trusted Deputy PM. Not only will it lessen your day-to-day load but also make you less lonely in meetings in which coalition partners and your own party seniors brow-beat you into taking decisions you do not wish to take. This is simple group dynamics; use it.
The office of the Deputy PM will by itself add more down-the-line staff and that will help you monitor your ministries better. Currently the only feedback system you have is the CAG/CVC etc. By the time the issue is raised by the CAG and CVC etc, it is already too late.
I do not wish to comment on the office of the Cabinet Secretary who is supposed to ‘coordinate’ over 75 ministers and junior ministers etc. My silly ‘outsider logic’ tells me that no human being can do justice to such a large undefined role. I do not know enough so will not comment more but I am sure that the role of the Cabinet Secretary needs to be redefined.
Reduce the number of ministries and departments
This will save the country some money and make governance easier. Let me explain.
There are some ministries which have outlived their expiry date not by years but by decades. Ever wondered what the Ministry of Textiles could be doing? And the Ministry of Culture. What does that do apart from distributing patronage which ICCR can do anyway?
After China disbanded their Ministry of Railways earlier this year, we are the only country in the world which has a Ministry of Railways. UK is among the world’s largest maritime powers but does not have a ministry dedicated to shipping. We do.
Shutting down a few ministries is only a beginning. There are hundreds of tax-payer funded organizations set up at a different time in our economic history, which have no role in today’s business environment but which the tax-payer continues to fund.
As PM, you will be made the Chairman of CSIR or the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It runs some 40-odd laboratories including the Road Research Institute. Yes the country that has the world’s worst roads actually has a Road Research Institute.
The present value of the real estate that CSIR occupies across the country will be over 100,000 crores. One would imagine that with 40 laboratories operating in a largely private sector environment on free real estate, the organization should earn enough for itself. But no, the government spends 3000 crores on it every year.
And it’s not just the large corporations. Remember The Films Division of India? They used to produce those 5 minute reels on current affairs that were run in cinemas at a time when video footage was a novelty.
Life moved on for everyone else but, believe it or not, the Films Division still exists. Sitting over real estate that must be worth hundreds of crores.
Reorient
Because we have broken up the ministries into smaller and smaller slices the role of the Ministers of State and Junior Ministers has become redundant. In fact there may well be a few who have not had a one-to-one meeting with the PM even once.
That is a shame because the Junior Ministers and Ministers of State should be your feedback and execution loop as the PM. In fact they should also be your second line of defense against ministers turning rogue.
As a result, your senior ministers have acquired both strategic and executive responsibilities. This is a fatal flaw.
Not only should you reduce the number of ministries but also split the strategic and executive roles of ministers.Cabinet ministers should concentrate only on strategy and allow junior ministers to actually run the day-to-day.
Revoke discretionary powers
Scam after scam has revealed that the so-called ‘discretionary’ powers enjoyed by governments are almost always misused.
Whether it is to issue ration cards or increase FSI or allot land, governments appear to have an incredible amount of ‘discretion’. This results in corruption of course but also makes the common citizen believe that there really are no rules for the rulers
Revive performance linked accountability
We have created the world’s largest bureaucracy and then shackled it to operate at less than a fraction of its ability.
There is the CAG to report any procedural irregularity, CVC to check on the slightest whiff of corruption, CBI’s Anti-corruption Bureau to investigate any major charges and, of course, the media to amplify even the slightest mistake. Soon there will be the Lokpal as well.
All this to focus on irregularities, omissions and commissions, but nothing at all to incentivize success. Should we then be surprised when there are complaints of official negligence? Or delays? Or apathy? Does the ruling class really care? Would you if you were in their place?
When Dr. Singh had initially taken over in UPA 1, he had laid down administrative reforms as his top priority. Unfortunately that was the last time we even heard that phrase.
But the country needs those reforms. It certainly does need a robust system of rewarding and recognizing the honest men and women of action among its bureaucracy. Just as it needs the Lokpal and other bodies to catch and punish those guilty of misdemeanors and irregularities.
Regain confidence of the opposition
The constant stand-off between the government and the opposition does a grave disservice to the country.
No matter how tenuous the hope, people expect that at least on a few non-controversial issues, the ruling party and the opposition must find common cause. And initiative to create a platform for this must come from the party/ formation in power.
I would suggest a group be formed comprising the Leaders of the government and the opposition of both the houses, The PM, the Deputy PM and the Cabinet Secretariat.
Reject symbols of alienation
The British used alienation as a force multiplier for themselves. It worked well for them as it enabled them control large pockets of indigenous population with a handful of officers.
But since the British left, the bungalows have only become bigger, to a large retinue of helpers and hangers-on has been added an obscene security apparatus often including scores of gunmen and dozens of cars. One person to carry a mobile phone, another to carry a newspaper and a third only to keep the lift doors open is the rule, not an exception.
Eliminate beacons, be seen to be travelling alone without several hangers-on, resist the huge paraphernalia that politicians revel in. Make it a rule to never be accompanied by more than 5 cars, irrespective of the security threat or any other specious logic. Move into a smaller bungalow or a flat.
Much of the romance of people like Anna Hazare and even Arvind Kejriwal derives from the fact that they walk alone, unburdened, unfettered and unyielding to temptation. Learn from them.
Set the trend, the rest will follow. If they don’t, go after them.
Rahul, if after waiting for over 6 decades the aam aadmi is still willing to give the political system a chance, it is only because he or she is essentially a person of peace. But as events in some parts of the country indicate, patience is fast running out.
In that sense 2014 will be a watershed.
Whoever wins will have to transform. Anything short of that will not be acceptable. And the toughest part of transformation is destruction. Dr Singh did not have it in him to do that.
Do you have it in you to first destroy?
Yours
Preet KS Bedi
I hardly know you. When you introduced yourself, all you told me was your name. The name is certainly powerful but says nothing about the inner you. I checked around with others but no one seems to know you any better.
I have heard that you are likely to be the ruling party’s proposed Prime Ministerial candidate. Good for you. See, I told you it’s a powerful name.
Conventional wisdom says that with barely a few months to go before the elections, so much anonymity is not a good idea. After all, elections are about the people at large, not Congressmen and women who may happily vote for just a name. And people at large like to know more about those they vote into power. I guess you will address this issue in due course. Sooner the better.
People have other complaints too. They say that you disappear for long stretches of time, then reappear and then disappear again. And you surround yourself with so many gatekeepers that it is impossible to ever reach you. Worse, they allege that your vision for the country is little more than bits and pieces of populist dreams.
All of this may or may not be true but it is a fact that your image has certainly taken a serious beating since the heady days of 2009 when you were credited for a resurgence of the Congress in UP.
But luckily for you, there is also another side.
Much like your father, by nature you are the perennial outsider. This is a trait that you share with other intensely private people. Sometimes this can be a problem as people mistake your natural diffidence for arrogance. But it has its upside too. It enables you see things from a perspective others cannot. Your father’s faith in computers and computing was dismissed as a silly dream of a stupid man who did not understand the essential India. The rest is history.
The charm of the outsider is the lack of pre-conditioning. And a childish belief that everything is possible. Being an outsider is your biggest asset. If you do make it to the top job, this is what you could leverage to bring about change.
Over the years, our ruling classes have built an impregnable castle for themselves. They lead lives of extraordinary privilege which would be unthinkable anywhere except India. But the very serious fault-lines of this world are now showing. It is a environment in which nothing works without a bribe, FIRs are not registered, roads never repaired, projects are paid for but never executed, schools never staffed, investment proposals never cleared, public money looted and power and patronage traded with contempt and impunity.
Happily for you, people are rapidly losing patience. They are tired of incremental gains from comfortable governments. They no longer want people who understand why change takes time. They no longer want improvement, they want transformation.
And that can come only from people outside the system. As an outsider, this is your biggest opportunity. Provided you see it as such.
But first, a note of caution.
2014 will be the most communally charged elections India has ever seen. You have to be careful. The BJP smells victory but knows the only way they can manage it by consolidating the Hindu vote. And that can happen only by fomenting communal emotions and riots.
Over the years, the Congress has nurtured a natural left-of-center position that would be the envy of any party in an essentially poor country. Going by the rest of the democratic world, the natural position for the main opposition party should be conservative and right of center. But a right-wing position would be far too niche to make any difference. Remember the Swatantra Party of the sixties?
As a result, in terms of economic policy, the BJP is pretty similar to the Congress. The only way it can differentiate itself is by aggressive conservatism. You could say they have no option but to adopt strident Hindutva. It is their only hope.
You have rightly focused yourself on the aam aadmi. You must not be drawn into communal violence under any circumstance. Irrespective of how tempting it may seem in the short-run, please remember no one loses more than you if the narrative turns communal.
Second, please do not rely on the Food Security Bill or the Land Acquisition Bill to actually win you the elections.
The notion that in a space of six-odd months, a system can be rolled out to reach 56 lac tonnes of food grains to reach 16 cr families every month is preposterous. Your people may hesitate in telling you that as no one wants to be the harbinger of bad news but that is no reason why you should allow yourself to be fooled.
In fact by advertising it and then failing to deliver you may end up with egg on the face very close to the polling date and that’s a bad idea.
The Land Acquisition Bill is definitely a more emotional issue and will certainly give you positive traction. However its impact will still be localized as not all areas are constantly threatened by acquisition and in any case land acquisition is a long and tedious process.
Having said that, your aam admi story remains intact and you should juice it as much as you can. You still have MNREGA and a whole suite of programs that benefit the aam family. Use the, promote them.
There is a saying in advertising that just when the client starts getting tired of his ads, the customer starts noticing them. So just because MNREGA is 5 years old does not mean that it ceases to be relevant. Promote it and reap rewards.
But I have a more basic question.
What is your level of commitment to the aam aadmi? Is it an interesting slogan? Am willing to accept it is definitely more than that. Is it a politician’s commitment? In which case you will take a right few steps and then let things roll.
Or is it the commitment of a warrior who will fight for the aam aadmi and against vested interests whether in the government or outside which have sucked this system dry?
As an aam aadmi myself I have a few suggestions that you may find useful.
Restructure the PMO
The last two terms of the UPA are proof if ever it was necessary that the existing structure of the PMO is grossly inadequate in an environment bedeviled by ‘alliance compulsions’ on the one hand and an aggressive media that wants to raise every issue to the level of the PM on the other hand.
In fact we have all seen it. The PM often cuts a sorry figure even within his own cabinet. It would be a mistake to assume that this happened only because Dr Singh lacked political strength. Despite winning as many as 400 seats Rajiv Gandhi had to face internal squabbling and ultimately lost out to VP Singh in 1989.
If you are elected, insist on appointing a trusted Deputy PM. Not only will it lessen your day-to-day load but also make you less lonely in meetings in which coalition partners and your own party seniors brow-beat you into taking decisions you do not wish to take. This is simple group dynamics; use it.
The office of the Deputy PM will by itself add more down-the-line staff and that will help you monitor your ministries better. Currently the only feedback system you have is the CAG/CVC etc. By the time the issue is raised by the CAG and CVC etc, it is already too late.
I do not wish to comment on the office of the Cabinet Secretary who is supposed to ‘coordinate’ over 75 ministers and junior ministers etc. My silly ‘outsider logic’ tells me that no human being can do justice to such a large undefined role. I do not know enough so will not comment more but I am sure that the role of the Cabinet Secretary needs to be redefined.
Reduce the number of ministries and departments
This will save the country some money and make governance easier. Let me explain.
There are some ministries which have outlived their expiry date not by years but by decades. Ever wondered what the Ministry of Textiles could be doing? And the Ministry of Culture. What does that do apart from distributing patronage which ICCR can do anyway?
After China disbanded their Ministry of Railways earlier this year, we are the only country in the world which has a Ministry of Railways. UK is among the world’s largest maritime powers but does not have a ministry dedicated to shipping. We do.
Shutting down a few ministries is only a beginning. There are hundreds of tax-payer funded organizations set up at a different time in our economic history, which have no role in today’s business environment but which the tax-payer continues to fund.
As PM, you will be made the Chairman of CSIR or the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It runs some 40-odd laboratories including the Road Research Institute. Yes the country that has the world’s worst roads actually has a Road Research Institute.
The present value of the real estate that CSIR occupies across the country will be over 100,000 crores. One would imagine that with 40 laboratories operating in a largely private sector environment on free real estate, the organization should earn enough for itself. But no, the government spends 3000 crores on it every year.
And it’s not just the large corporations. Remember The Films Division of India? They used to produce those 5 minute reels on current affairs that were run in cinemas at a time when video footage was a novelty.
Life moved on for everyone else but, believe it or not, the Films Division still exists. Sitting over real estate that must be worth hundreds of crores.
Reorient
Because we have broken up the ministries into smaller and smaller slices the role of the Ministers of State and Junior Ministers has become redundant. In fact there may well be a few who have not had a one-to-one meeting with the PM even once.
That is a shame because the Junior Ministers and Ministers of State should be your feedback and execution loop as the PM. In fact they should also be your second line of defense against ministers turning rogue.
As a result, your senior ministers have acquired both strategic and executive responsibilities. This is a fatal flaw.
Not only should you reduce the number of ministries but also split the strategic and executive roles of ministers.Cabinet ministers should concentrate only on strategy and allow junior ministers to actually run the day-to-day.
Revoke discretionary powers
Scam after scam has revealed that the so-called ‘discretionary’ powers enjoyed by governments are almost always misused.
Whether it is to issue ration cards or increase FSI or allot land, governments appear to have an incredible amount of ‘discretion’. This results in corruption of course but also makes the common citizen believe that there really are no rules for the rulers
Revive performance linked accountability
We have created the world’s largest bureaucracy and then shackled it to operate at less than a fraction of its ability.
There is the CAG to report any procedural irregularity, CVC to check on the slightest whiff of corruption, CBI’s Anti-corruption Bureau to investigate any major charges and, of course, the media to amplify even the slightest mistake. Soon there will be the Lokpal as well.
All this to focus on irregularities, omissions and commissions, but nothing at all to incentivize success. Should we then be surprised when there are complaints of official negligence? Or delays? Or apathy? Does the ruling class really care? Would you if you were in their place?
When Dr. Singh had initially taken over in UPA 1, he had laid down administrative reforms as his top priority. Unfortunately that was the last time we even heard that phrase.
But the country needs those reforms. It certainly does need a robust system of rewarding and recognizing the honest men and women of action among its bureaucracy. Just as it needs the Lokpal and other bodies to catch and punish those guilty of misdemeanors and irregularities.
Regain confidence of the opposition
The constant stand-off between the government and the opposition does a grave disservice to the country.
No matter how tenuous the hope, people expect that at least on a few non-controversial issues, the ruling party and the opposition must find common cause. And initiative to create a platform for this must come from the party/ formation in power.
I would suggest a group be formed comprising the Leaders of the government and the opposition of both the houses, The PM, the Deputy PM and the Cabinet Secretariat.
Reject symbols of alienation
The British used alienation as a force multiplier for themselves. It worked well for them as it enabled them control large pockets of indigenous population with a handful of officers.
But since the British left, the bungalows have only become bigger, to a large retinue of helpers and hangers-on has been added an obscene security apparatus often including scores of gunmen and dozens of cars. One person to carry a mobile phone, another to carry a newspaper and a third only to keep the lift doors open is the rule, not an exception.
Eliminate beacons, be seen to be travelling alone without several hangers-on, resist the huge paraphernalia that politicians revel in. Make it a rule to never be accompanied by more than 5 cars, irrespective of the security threat or any other specious logic. Move into a smaller bungalow or a flat.
Much of the romance of people like Anna Hazare and even Arvind Kejriwal derives from the fact that they walk alone, unburdened, unfettered and unyielding to temptation. Learn from them.
Set the trend, the rest will follow. If they don’t, go after them.
Rahul, if after waiting for over 6 decades the aam aadmi is still willing to give the political system a chance, it is only because he or she is essentially a person of peace. But as events in some parts of the country indicate, patience is fast running out.
In that sense 2014 will be a watershed.
Whoever wins will have to transform. Anything short of that will not be acceptable. And the toughest part of transformation is destruction. Dr Singh did not have it in him to do that.
Do you have it in you to first destroy?
Yours
Preet KS Bedi
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