Mumbai & I

I deliberately used this title to attract some readership, though I have never been there. Most people have been glued to their TV sets watching news channels doing post-mortem of what went wrong at the Taj massacre. I am angry. Very angry. Not at the terrorists or politicians, but at the citizens. I know it is a very bold statement to make. But I stand by it. Let me explain why. 

Everyone agrees that what happened in Mumbai was not just a intelligence failure but a collapse of the macro security system itselt. Some call it a failure of leadership, others call it administrative incompetence.  But I believe that the problem lies else where. And it is a much bigger problem than it appears to be. 

I have been having lots of discussions with a prof of political science who keeps complaining all the while about mis-governance, corruption, dysfunctional democracy etc. My sis has a very similar view. I gave a very patient hearing to all that my prof had to say. But finally, my reply to him was one of my favourite quotes "people get the government they deserve". This powerful one-liner conveys many things. We as citizens do not deserve a better government because we are not good enough. I am not being cynical here. I am only stating the reality, albeit a little bitter. 

The anger towards the politicians is understandable, but not justified. We want electricity but are not prepared to have a thermal powerplant at our backyard. The big urban shopping malls lavishly consume huge, huge Kilowatts of power everyday. We do not complain. Neither do we protest. We complain about corruption. But when it comes to getting our Driving Liscence done, we shamelessly offer bribe. I have not met anyone so far who has got his passport verification done without the paying the "mamul". We need not protest or revolt violently. We need to be patient to be honest. There are hundreds such faults in you and me. 

My practical question is  why should we expect a suo motto change in netajis' behaviour? Are we expecting Gods to appear in their dreams and reform them overnight? They have been corrupt for all these years. "Power corrupts". They will not change on their own. We need to make that happen! 

The difficult question is how. It is a very profound question and if I were to know the answer, I would be joining Paul Krugman in receiving the nobel prize!  But I am not clueless. The first thing, we need to get over the temptation of blindly voting someone from our caste/religion to power. This will spoil all the social calculations of all parties. I candidly admit that it is a very tough thing to do. But realising what is at stake, I feel it is worth it. 

Secondly and most importantly, there has to be a social change in the attitudes of the people at a micro level. I recently attended an inspiring talk by Dr. Balasubramaniam, a very successful social entrapenuer, on "role of youth in nation building". When asked by a youth on how he can contribute, he made the same point - first change yourself before thinking about trying to change the system. "Be the change that you want to see". 

Stringent draconian laws controlling the external human behavior are not feasable in a longer run. What we need is morality. "Where law ends, morality begins"  Morality regulates the internal human behavior. The main challenge confronting India is not the poverty, terrorism, or the lack of infrastructure. It is lack of values. Everything else is derived from it. And once this root cause is addressed, all other issues will get resolved on their own. For that to happen, we need to take a firm resolve that in every sphere of life, we are going to be honest. That we will not take up shortcuts. That we will have perseverience, and take up responsibility. 

I am confident that it is possible. That will be a befitting tribute that we can pay for these brave soldiers who gave up their life protecting you and me. 

If you have been, thanks for reading!